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| Maketoys Striker Manus |
His official designation is the Maketoys Cros Dimention Striker Manus MTCD-01.
Maketoys was kind enough to provide a backstory for him.
Basically Manus begins as just plain Manus - who looks just like a regular G1 Optimus Prime and was recently awarded the Rubicon (Autobot Matrix of Ledership).
In a battle on the planet Sybernomica (Cybertron) with Despotron (Megatron), leader of an un-named group of "shifters" (Transformers) who are out to overthrow the council, Despotron is able to distract Manus enough to punch through his back and grab the Rubicon (Quite a disconcerting image). Despite having a gaping hole in his chest, Manus continues to battle Despotron, it explodes. The energy washes over Manus, everything fades to white and he wakes up alone, rebuilt in a new form (Striker Manus) in an unfamiliar environment.
MORE AFTER THE JUMP
We'd say more but the blister pack is written in what we assume is Mandarin and we can't read Mandarin.To the uninitiated, Striker Manus is touted as being one of THE most pose-able 3rd Party Optimus Primes in the market, whose ability too pose is comparable to Hasbro's Ori Toys Hero of Steel Optimus Prime.
Except Striker Manus can transform.
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| Maketoys Striker Manus |
FIRST: We described the Hasbro's Ori Toys Hero of Steel Optimus Prime as a gun platform. Well here's his axe-wielding little brother.
He's not built like the body builder that his legal and bigger counter-part is, he's lankier and comes with a pair of really long legs. Personally we think that this makes him less of an imposing figure- were it not for the huge shoulder pauldrons we'd say he was too thin to be a Prime. As it is, he still comes across as a "younger" Prime to us.
SECOND: We love how Maketoys integrated his smokestacks into axes. It's... practical... and well integrated into his design. Removing the axes does not affect how good he looks:
THIRD: Striker Manus can move!!! He's not quite the muscle builder that Hasbro's Ori Toys Hero of Steel Optimus Prime is, but he can definitely match the Hero of Steel move-for-move. With one exception: Striker Manus' back is ram-rod straight. He comes with a wonderful stomach crunch, but he doesn't have much leeway in leaning back. His upper torso can lean back a bit, but it involves pretty much opening his torso.
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| Makeoys Striker Manus |
The biggest difference between him and the Hasbro's Ori Toys Hero of Steel Optimus Prime is that most of the upper body moves that he can mimic from the Hero of Steel is thanks to his ability to dislocate and hyper-extend his shoulders, rather than the Hero of Steel's ability to compress the front and back of his chest.
Now give Striker Manus his axes because he looks great with them. He's definitely not someone who you would want to fight close up:
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| Maketoys Striker Manus |
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| Maketoys Striker Manus |
The axes can be combined into a balisard, but it looks a bit wierd:
Striker Manus can kneel:
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| Maketoys Striker Manus |
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| Maketoys Striker Manus |
Special note. We had a lot of stuff on our plate, so we actually left Striker Manus standing like this for two days. It's a great testament to how well balanced he is and how strong the joints are that he did not fall despite the fact that the room vibrates every-time we slam the door.
Here he is with his rifle. We're not really fans of the rifle because we find it far too bulky for his lithe frame. But, that's a personal thing. He can definitely wield it. Oh we should note at this point that both the axes and the rifle have a special "clip" on lock in each of his hands.
FOURTH: Striker Manus' truck mode is quite solid. Personally we think that with the spoiler attached he's too big for his tires. Without the spoiler, her looks a bit....meh. But we thoroughly enjoyed how hard it was to transform him and how solid he is once you get him into truck mode, so plus points there:
Without the spoiler and the smokestacks:
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| Maketoys Striker Manus |
FIRST: Aside from not liking the gun; the stiffness of the back, and; the tires being waay too small for Striker Manus when he's in truck mode, the biggest problem we have with him is that it can be difficult to determine when and where a joint can move. There's a lot of figuring out and fidgeting with the figure before we got it into the right poses.
More than once we tore the arms out of their sockets.
SECOND: Striker Manus' chest is huge and a lot of actions that the Hasbro's Ori Toys Hero of Steel Optimus Prime can do, he can't because his chest is so broad.
And while we're on the topic of chests, Striker Manus does not come with a Rubicon (Autobot Matrix of Ledership).
This particular Maketoys Striker Manus - Optimus Prime is from the private collection of a friend of the Dungeon and is available on Amazon for US$ 125.00 (roughly PhP 6,000plus shipping).
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| Maketoys Striker Manus |
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