Metalhawk is a Botcon 2012 Invasion Box Set Exclusive.

Botcon Universe: Classicverse

Mold Used: Transformers 2010 Generations Deluxe Thunderwing (With a New Head)

Name Origin: Metalhawk was a Generation One Japanese Exclusive Pretender

(Original G1 Metalhawk for Comparison)

I previously reviewed this toy based on the pictures released on the Botcon web site.  You can read that blog here.

Pretender Metalhawk is one of the first Japanese exclusive toys I bought, and has always been a favorite of mine.  I was very excited when I heard about this toy.  As you can see, since he is a pretender he has the humanoid face.  They did an excellent job painting him, using all the right colors in the right places.  My only complaint is the lack of red on his head.  Obviously they could not put the vertical wing on his head, as it wouldn’t have fit in the toy, but they should have at least painted the ridge on the top of his head red.  I did see a mention of this (though I don’t recall from who, or where) when the original preview went up.  Apparently, it was supposed to be red.  It sounds like a factory screw up.  Something like that, Fun Publications can’t really do anything about, though considering what we pay for these, they should find a way to make sure they are correctly manufactured.

However, some issues are Fun Publications fault.  My Metalhawk had one of his shoulder guns on backwards.  Now, it wasn’t a major problem, but I did have to pry it off with a lot of force and apply a lot of force to get it back on.  Luckily it was not damaged.  This is a part that is not meant to be removed.  On one level, this isn’t a big deal.  Hasbro makes toys.  Things like that happen occasionally with mass-produced products.  But Fun Publications is selling ridiculously over priced collectibles, and while the manufacture is the same, they need to have a higher standard than retail.  We’ve seen numerous times that they don’t take enough care when packing weapons (and then try to weasel out of having to fix it).  This is another example of that.  Each item should be inspected with a checklist to make sure everything is in order.  Clearly that isn’t happening.

Having said all that, this is without a doubt my favorite Botcon 2012 toy.  I had originally thought Tracks would be my favorite, but now that I have this is hand, it’s definitely #1.  It doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would that he isn’t really a pretender anymore.  I still think one of the third party companies should make a pretender shell for it.  That would be awesome.

Grade: A+

Thanks for reading!