A good sized review of the lasercat/machinecat toys aerialbots
I have previous experience with this company's chibi Predaking, which makes for an odd pairing as I love 'king but I honestly have no special place in my heart for Superion. I do, however, love chunky cute vehicles(refer to every time I mention Magic Square's Ratchet for proof) and thought that these looked good enough to finally get a set of Aerialbots. Here's a review for anyone interested
**AESTHETICS**
Easily the best thing about the sets I own, they look fantastic. Great colors, metallic paint highlights, clean lines. The style is subjective of course but they pull it off well. It feels bubbly, not bloated. There are very clear sections in alt modes that let you know it's a transformer, and obviously a bit of kibble in bot form, but I think the positives of the look nullify those aspects for me.
**ARTICULATION**
This is a middle ground. Plenty to move around, too small and thick to use it to its fullest potential. They do have ankle tilt , their arms can swivel. It's not like you can't pose them at all.The backpack on the leader limits what you can do without tipping over. For the rest, I guess if thick thighs save lives then thick calves cut your options into halves.
Combined they have waist swivel, slight toe tilt, ankle tilt, independent fingers.tge elbow bends and swivels. The knees can't move too much(those thick calves are at it again) so it's enough to have fun but nothing excessive.
**ACCESORIES**
Everybody has a gun, that forms a big gun. The base for the planes can be split up individually and the arm/stem that holds the plane can be stored underneath. All the planes rockets and guns get stored inside the arm cannon. The cannon has a magnet you use to light up the eyes, which I like a lot. All the cockpits open, and you can place tiny cat pilots inside(quarter for scale in the picture). They give you a set of cards for every figure and the combined form, and they're prismatic(oo shiny). And lastly the additional parts can combine to form an itty bitty Superion. I personally don't care for it but I am not opposed to it.
Basically everybody gets accessories and they all store nicely. 10/10
**TOLERANCE**
The downfall of this, and the previous set, is that absolutely everything is too tight. They have chests that fold down that have destroyed my plastic spudger, but I don't want to use a metal one and possibly damage the part or paint. The connections in combined mode feel like they'll never be undone. And I swear whoever engineered the shoulder connection for combined mode to fold into the base HATES thumbs. Yours, mine, every bodies. There must have been a tragedy in their past with thumbs and they are taking it out on us.
Honestly had they been a larger scale it wouldn't be an issue. Being that small, and that tight(shut up) destroys your fingers(again, shut up) to the point that I just don't want to mess with it too much. Besides that, even the plastic clamshell they come in has all the extra parts set in as tight as possible. It's a bit much.
**THE MOST RANDOM THING TO EVER MAKE ME ANGRY**
Why, please tell me why, they named all the robots and then proceeded to block their names wherever they are printed. On the side of the box, on the cards, blocked. On the instructions they are referred to as models like MCT-C01D. I AM UNREASONABLY MAD AT THIS. That's just...it's stupid.
**FINAL SCORE**
8/10, a point taken away for my fingers pain and another for the fact the design gets in its own way sometimes.
Excellent engineering, nice to look at, and accessories for days, they packed this set with everything they could. All the planes have landing gear, they didn't have to. All the planes have cat pilots,they absolutely didn't have to. You can take the faceplate off for a human like face, they did not have to. But they did.
I hope you enjoyed my wall of text and I apologize for not taking a picture of the individual robots. I really did buy them for chunky cute jets, not robots.