Over-sized KO Transformers Reviewed

The knock-off G1 Transformers that I ordered finally arrived from China and my reaction is ‘pretty good.’ I ended up getting two combiners – an ‘oversize’ scaled up version of Devastator that ran $25 and a $14 lesser-known combiner named ‘Bruticus’ that I have a sentimental connection to. Beyond that, I picked up a $12 ‘oversize’ Soundwave.

1) The Devastator was, similar to the original, six vehicles that combined together into one giant robot and it was the best of the three purchases. At $4 per construction vehicle Tranformer, there was certainly a value to the package. The ‘oversized’ nature of it was pretty cool in that the originals were typically sold as the ‘small’ sized transformers but scaled up in this version they are a little more substantial. The green/purple color scheme was always pretty striking and looked good in knock-off form.

There were a LOT of accessory parts in a bag… these were mostly guns for each of the 6 figure plus the special pieces used to form Devastator. A lot of decals also still need to be applied.

2) Bruticus was five vehicles with the quality and detail varying between the vehicles. I had seen on some reviews that that stated that this was probably the least impressive of the three items that I had purchased but for $2.75 per vehicle, I can’t really complain. The large semi truck and trailer in the set was solid and well done. Some aircraft, like a small space shuttle, were less impressive.

3) Soundwave came with two transformering cassettes (Ravage & Laserbeak) and he was interesting but struck me as the most likely to get broken by a little kid who was trying too hard to transform it (i.e. stressing joints, etc). It was a pretty large solo figure, especially in the over-size form. The boom box ‘in disguise’ version would look amusing on a shelf at home or at work.

The seller threw in a few random other little Transformers toys as a little bonus, a nice touch. Everything was well packaged and it had arrived in a timely manner, considering the slow shipping from China.

None of the toys featured the trademark Transformers ‘rub’ stickers that show the iconic symbols, so that was a little bit disappointing but not a surprise.

Reaction to the quality amongst collectors will vary. For a benchmark scale, if we say that the original Transformers were an ‘A’ for durability (a dubious statement to make, but work with me here…), I’d say that the materials used for the knock-offs were maybe a ‘B-‘… the one thing that I don’t like is that they’ve replaced parts that were metal on the originals wwith plastic. The quality of the plastic used is probably similar. It’s kind of durable but rough play and stress would lead to things breaking (just like with the originals). Again though, they display well, as you won’t notice anything being seriously ‘off’ until you held them and they just feel lighter than normal.

Was it all worth the money? For my purposes and curiosity, it was just fine. The combiners cost per Transformer was really low, so it was hard to complain about them and even Soundwave came with what amounted to three figures. I’ll say it once again that they look pretty good simply as ‘shelf toys,’ a point that other reviewers had also made. So, if you want a cool thing on your shelf to get a reaction, they’d fit the bill and be light on the wallet.