Maketoys Pandinus Color Testshot Photos Plus Quick Review

Its been awhile since our last review and what better way to come back with a bang than to start with our evil overlord Pandinus (not-Scorponok).

We find it particularly enjoyable trying to figure out the wordplay with Maketoys products and especially so with Pandinus, as described in Wikipedia ..." a genus of large scorpions belonging to the family Scorpionidae. It contains one of the most popular pet scorpions, the emperor scorpion (P. imperator)." Scorpion, large, popular, emperor... genius wordplay we say.

First impressions:
Heavy and solid. This is 1 bulky bot which carries itself well. As can be seen from the first picture, Pandinus is not far off in height when compared to Fortress Maximus and he does scale perfectly with Utopia (not-Metroplex). The hefty weight lends itself well to Pandinus' build and everything stays in place even with all the necessary kibble to bring out his character. We did find the tail section to be slightly loose but this is more because we were reviewing a testshot; we expect this to be fixed by the time the retail version rolls out.

Articulation:
Thanks to Maketoy's oversized ratcheting mechanism, Pandinus can and does pull off incredible poses. All poses shown in this review were done without the need for any external support. Of particular highlight are the kungfu kick, iron man and stretch-back poses; all are poses we did not expect to be possible with a bot of these dimensions. There is also a mid chest hinge which enables Pandinus to pull off very dynamic poses just as seen in Japanese anime.

Transformation:
This will be included in a later review if we have the chance as we had to ship off the testshot for the next exhibition.

Gimmicks:
Beside being able to transform to become the head component of Pandinus, the headmaster also has a third transformation mode; a scorpion. The headmaster also fits into a special section in Pandinus' chest (complete with a targetting screen) to become the driver.