I had a birthday recently, and I found a great gift to add to my collection.
It’s the
MF-34 Huge Dragon from MechFans Toys, who is basically a third party version of the Transformer Omega Supreme.
G1 Omega was the first big “base” character added to the series, and one of the handful of molds who came from other toylines that Hasbro was able to license for. He converts from a robot into a defense base.
I came across this after watching
emgo316’s nice review (the box fell over
), and I ordered mine from ShowZ Store. The price is good (around $60, similar to the price range for many bigger Transformers), and the shipping is free with good service. If you’re interested in buying, I’d recommend them.
In robot mode, it looks like a lot of details were pulled from the G1 animation model. There’s a lot of very good sculpted details, and some metallic gold and silver paint in areas (along with metallic red on the missile bays). Omega’s cartoon version was a bit more humanoid and less bulky overall than his toy counterpart, and I think that’s a good aspect of the figure. His head has a sculpted face, with a rather dour expression (somewhat amusingly).
All the joints are pretty solid and HD/Omega has a pretty nice range of posability. The legs have some metallic gold panels which seem to be based on the small yellow clips that fit on the G1 toy legs, though thankfully these are much harder to lose.
The front legs also have these details under the yellow ramps. One G1 detail that was omitted (likely for transformation reasons) is the
rocket boosters that are on G1 Omega’s back, as that portion formed the base of his rocket gantry. Since on this figure his back and shoulders fold down for several base forms, it makes sense to not include them.
The head can rotate a full 360 degrees, so it’s easy to use his “gun face” as he did occasionally in the series. I like the addition of the missile bays on the shoulders, personally, and he had a pair of shoulder cannons that he briefly fired in one ep. These seem to be the lower molded details in the bays.
Scale wise, HD/Omega is about the same size as the Leader scale that Hasbro uses, which is mainly larger figures like Optimus Prime. He’s roughly the same size, and slightly shorter than the Combiner Wars versions of the team figures. For comparison, here he is with Leader scaled TR Sixshot and the Legacy Tigerzord, and Abominus in the second picture.
While this naturally is a somewhat small version relative to how big the character is normally, I think it’s a good choice for scale. It lets HD/Omega be big enough to have a lot of fun details and work with other figures, while being small enough that he isn’t hard to display and isn’t super expensive.
In terms of transformation, the engineering is pretty good. It’s faithful in many ways to the G1 design, while having the advantage of being easier and quicker with fewer small pieces to worry about. His arms and head form the rocket and tank modules, respectively.
The rocket even has a tiny opening door, though one could argue the placement is a bit odd.
The tank does not have wheels or roll, but it will fit on the track and can be moved manually. As mentioned the head/turret has full rotation and the cannon can elevate. The robot face is naturally obvious, but that was an aspect of the original as well.
The legs fold out to form connectors for the track, with the inverted feet forming ramps on this version (a nice touch). While they won’t directly connect to the inner base, the dimensions make them close enough to work pretty well with imagination. One thing I have noted is that it’s important to peg the track tabs in solidly, because they don’t always stay stable otherwise. They peg into the holes that connect the legs to the thighs. They have a similar issue in robot mode, in that they don’t stay closed all that well and will flop open if you hold him at an angle. But it's not an issue if he's upright.
HD/Omega’s body forms an inner base that the rocket can connect to, with the arms being able to serve a couple of different functions (see below). One of the alternate configurations is a smaller base mode, with the gantry a bit more like the G1 version and the rocket resting on one of the foot connectors.
There are also some interesting “extras” included with the figure. Some accessories from other Diaclone toys, including a couple of big guns, spare parts, and two expansion pods.
The pods hold suit elements that are intended for a series of smaller robotic Diaclone figures, which are included in some of the packaging photos but not with the figure. You can modify them in a lot of ways with the extra parts, so long as you don’t lose any of them. This might seem odd, but what’s included easily (IMO) works as a couple of robotic drones that can assist Omega. This was somewhat common with later bases like Metroplex, but naturally wasn’t included as a feature of the original mold that became Omega Supreme.
There is mainly a tank style drone and an aerial type drone. The pods can be used in several of the alternate configurations as extra components, and you can also mount the big guns and smaller guns as a “heavier” base design. I’d say the big guns are arguably the weakest accessories, in that they can fit into the inner “frame” of the torso but don’t really fit it very securely. If you don’t know how to properly fit them in the right spot, they will fall out very easily and sometimes even if you rotate them. Keeping up with all the small Diaclone parts would be an issue too if one had smaller children.
There are a couple of other designs that the figure can assume, and since I haven’t fully explored all of them yet, I decided not to try and do pics.
emgo mentions several in the review, and I do have the box pics. The two “war walker” designs are kind of interesting, and it’s nice that one can use HD as both a G1 Omega and an “improved” version that the Autobots upgraded.
Overall, I’m really pleased with him. Omega is one of my favorites, and for a 3P figure, this is a pretty well made version. I’d highly recommend him to anyone who wants to add an Omega to their collection, with some extra options and a good price. The issues with the figure are pretty minor overall (some of the tabs on the tracks not being ideally tight, while the back/shoulder section is quite tight on my figure, and also pegs in, making it a bit tricky to transform), and the good points far balance them IMO.
