Oh Tak/Tom, why do you not want me to pay off my house? Why do you keep releasing these overly-priced MP exclusives that I just have to have? Shame on you! If I was a stronger man I would resist, but since I’m not and have caved yet again, I may as well share with the public my thoughts on your latest attempt to empty my wallet – Masterpiece Thrust.
Robot Mode
Thrust looks quite nice here, the expression is a tad blank but the face is a nice white colour and the eyes are yellow just like in the cartoon. The body has cartoon accurate colours too, though one could ask is this a good thing? In the cartoon Thrust’s colours were more muted and pale then the toy, the toy being a more rich maroon verging on brown with black highlights and in the cartoon he was a reddy-brown with grey. The idea of the Masterpiece line is to make these toys show accurate rather than toy accurate, which means that sometimes we miss out on the great features of the toy (for instance Tracks flying car mode was cooler in the toy than the cartoon but the MP we got looks like the cartoon). Thrusts knee pads are a bit too big and obscure his thighs, making him look more stubby than he really is but he does have his tail wings coming out of his calves and the main wings angle all make the legs and torso work. Despite some quibbles that are all relatively minor this is a pretty damn fine looking Thrust!
Vehicle Mode
The theoretical F15-VTOL mode Thrust was based on has been faithfully represented here. Once again one must wonder if the colour scheme would have looked better if they had gone with the toy than the cartoon but it’s really hard not to love the MP Seeker mold – in my opinion the best looking jets of the entire Transformers line ever! A very nice little touch they have put in is that his wing turbines actually rotate, though one has to do it via finger rather than being able to blow on it like some other TF toys. Thrust here has all the features the other MP Seekers have such as the nosecone and cockpit that open. A couple of extras are the guns that sit under the wings and for once they seem to have gotten the pilot right – it being a translucent hologram character rather than a half-sucked Simpsons-jelly baby like came with Sunstorm.
Transformation
Most people that have been collecting the MP Seekers know how to do this and it’s certainly not the most onerous MP transformation ever. I tend to use the instructions the first time round though just to give myself a refresher – given how much these latest Seekers have cost one does NOT want an accidental breakage! A change they have made here from some of the other Seeker toys such as Ramjet is the configuration for the guns when converting to jet mode. The guns instead of swinging out on two big struts under the wings now fold down and sideways on double jointed smaller struts to sit flush with the side of the jet whilst two removable guns are placed under the wings.
So is Thrust worth getting?
For the exorbitant price tag I’d say unless you are a mad TF collector then no. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great robot and a brilliant jet, but because of the toys exclusive status they have ramped up the price to a level that is verging on the rip-off side. But if you ARE a mad TF collector like me then he is a must have. Can’t wait to get Thundercracker and Dirge so my MP Seeker collection can be complete!
