Knight Morpher Commander KM-01 Review

Posted in custom, knight morpher commander, optimus prime, review, steampunk, toy, Toy Reviews, Transformers on April 9th, 2010 by VitaminZinc
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When I first saw pictures of “Knight Morpher Commander,” I couldn’t help but think how cool this looked. It’s based off “Hearts of Steel”–which is a comic about Transformers from IDW Publishing. It’s an elseworld of the Transformers universe if it happened in the industrial age instead of the modern day. I’ve never actually read it, so I don’t have a lot to compare this to. However, Optimus Prime never actually appeared in this comic (so says the internet… Gotta be true, right?), so it gave the creators of this toy a lot of room for creativity.

This figure is very steampunk in nature. So, if you’re into Transformers, and if you’re into steampunk, then this was made just for you. It’s a steam train, and it’s Optimus Prime. In his robot mode, he’s got a kind of medieval vibe–hence the “Knight” part of his name. A part from the cannon inside of the trailer pulls out and forms his lance. And one of the walls from the front of the trailer can fold out and make his shield. The transformation is fairly simple, but it works. I didn’t feel cheated by the simplicity of it at all. I didn’t even need to refer to the instructions either. By the way, included in the same baggie as the instructions is a visor piece for him. It makes Prime extra “Knighty.”

I like the fact that the trailer section is a decent homage to the G1 series and that it has a gun inside. It’s sort of like Roller–minus the car thing. I think they could have upped the ante a bit by putting a Roller-like vehicle inside that was a hand-cart. Just for lawls. It does come with a Matrix of Leadership, which is removable. I thought that was a nice touch. The part that comes out to form the lance from the cannon is oh-my-god-fragile feeling. The plastic that this whole toy is made of feels like the same grade of plastic as a Gundam model. So, it’s very thin, light, fragile plastic. The tip of the lance is cool and all, but I didn’t want to have this out longer than it needed to be. I was especially wary of putting the cannon back together with the lance inside. I’m actually afraid of breaking this toy. …and that was a sensation that stuck with me throughout my entire experience with it. I almost feel like displaying it in any way, aside from safely in the box, would expose it to the dangers of breaking.

The paint apps are decent, but nothing I couldn’t have done myself. There’s a few mishaps here and there, which makes sense since it’s a custom mass-produced piece. The thing I don’t like is there’s obvious signs of when they molded this toy and broke it away from the frame or whatever. Well, that’s what it looks like to me, anyway. It’s got the whole “I got this gundam kit and I really wanna put it together quickly” feel. Like, which small stabs on pieces, or slight indents where too much was taken off. Basically, the same thing that happens when you pull any plastic piece of a model away from the frame. It seems tacky.

There are a lot of very small things wrong with this figure that kind of ruin the overall experience for me. I still like the toy, but I don’t think it was worth what I was charged for it. This could be me being spoiled by Fansproject, though, so don’t mind me. I really am not a fan of the color of the cowcatcher. I understand that some trains in that time period were very bright. I wish this one wasn’t. I think it looks dumb this way. In fact, I kind of wish they’d have made it silver. The red just doesn’t make sense to me.

Pros:

  • Original Steampunk Design
  • Easy to Transform

Cons:

  • Price ($85)
  • Quality of plastic seems a bit fragile.
  • Paint application is a bit hit-or-miss.

Final Verdict:
There’s nothing about this that screams “GOTTA HAVE”. It comes down to “Do I like this character? Do I like this design?” For this toy, it has to be both, otherwise you’re probably not going to feel justified in the least with spending nearly $100 on this thing. As far as the quality of materials goes, it doesn’t feel like $100 toy. For a casual fan, I’d certainly say for you to pass this.