MMC Fraudo (Transformers Swindle) Review

MMC are a great little company, having created arguably the best Transformers Arcee toy with Azalea, fantastic renditions of Springer, Cliffjumper and Mirage, their Ocular Max range is one of the finest transforming toy lines in the market.

Their current mainline project is Assaultus, a transformer based on the military combiner Bruticus. What makes this line stand out from the rest is the total commitment to making the combination self-contained - no extra bits need to be plugged in, like feet and hands, everything is contained within the individual limb-bot. It's never been attempted with these designs before, and when Fraudo (aka Swindle) was announced, I decided to pick him up and see how they've gone about it.

This is the second release in the series, their Vortex having already received favourable reviews. The reason I waited for Swindle was the strength of the character. Most Transformers are pretty two-dimension in traditional media, but Swindle had more about him than most. A consummate con-artist, he'd sell his own granny-bot for a quartz of Energon. In the cartoon he was voiced with a deliciously duplicitous flare by Steve Blum, and in the UK comics he had several appearances that furthered his persona. As such he can stand alone in the cabinet should I choose to forego the rest of the squad.

As a jeep, Swindle looks fine - all the signature colours are in place, the alloys have fantastic metal paint and although the tyres are plastic, they have a nice tread to them. The underside is seamless, no robot parts on display at all, so as a vehicle he passes muster just fine. He even scales pretty well with the Masterpiece line.

Transforming Fraudo into leg mode reveals a host of ingenious little touches – the sliding mechanism , which includes two flipping panels working as locks to release the foot and provide articulation, is beautifully conceived. Everything makes sense and the end result looks good. As the first “all inclusive” combiner, it works an absolute treat.

Jumping into robot mode, the only real issue I had was transforming the feet, the heels of which require some fiddling to get into place. Once finished, the figure is fairly well done, though I do have some gripes about the cosmetics, even if, in many cases, they are necessary compromises to the lofty ambitions the set has for itself.

There's a lot of detail on the legs, which suits the Hasui era of Masterpiece Transformers (Hasui was the designer of many of the earlier official figures), but looks almost quaint next to the new, more animation style bots that are now the mainstream.

My main gripe is fit and finish. There's a lot of plastic here, and very little paint. Probably necessary due to the amount of potential chipping, but it does undermine the impact of the finished product. Certainly standing him next to a Fanstoys limb-bot like Spoiler (Breakdown) shows the difference materials and a bit of subtlety bring to the table. Weight-wise, there's a notable lack of heft with MMC's effort, and lastly the clear windscreen over the top of the chest with all the hinges and steering wheel elements clearly visible makes it look a bit unfinished. Oh, and the cuts into the plastic either side of the windscreen also break up the silhouette in a displeasing way. Boo.

I feel as though I'm being overly critical, and it's not that Swindle is a bad toy by any means. If you don't mind the glut of detail on the legs or the slightly fussy chest, he's a solid representation of the character with a recognisable silhouette, and certainly the best of what's currently available. He comes with a smirking head to replace the stoic one, which is a must if you're going for character, and his pose-ability is well above average, even featuring individually articulated fingers (though only at the top - again Fanstoys have done this better).

So on the one hand we have genuinely genius level engineering. It's the most fun I've had with a transforming robot in some time, with touches that are utterly delightful in their cleverness and application. It does everything without cheating and results in a faithful, characterful rendition of a fan-favourite 'bot. As a toy, it beats the hell out of cheating the way Fanstoys seems to be planning it, with a full robot skeleton you just plug the smaller figures into.

For someone like me, who displays figures to evoke the characters, Fraudo is a stand-in. I just know that if Fanstoys tackle the character, the robot mode will just look better. But this is a bot to fiddle with, one to transform, combine, play with and enjoy. He's not a "shelf queen", though he does that job in a pinch.

I don't think any other company will have the sheer skill and audacity to pull off a combiner of this complexity during my collecting lifetime. It's a phenomenal piece of engineering, and for that it deserves respect and admiration. Perfect? No, but damn close.

Gallery