HasLab 2025: Liokaiser
- Thread starter Powered Convoy
- Start date
Hellbat's 'H' is hiding in the darkness, perhaps?
No movement on my end on Lemon Kaiser, but that Strange Things van I preordered at the beginning of the year is starting to be processed.
I think I may have a delay on LK since I had to reorder it after it got cancelled for unknown reasons.
Or because of my intention is to just yeet it into storage rather posting about it on socials to feed hasbro's engagement-driven egos.
I think I may have a delay on LK since I had to reorder it after it got cancelled for unknown reasons.
Or because of my intention is to just yeet it into storage rather posting about it on socials to feed hasbro's engagement-driven egos.
I've seen some say it showed up with no warning at all. We do know he can turn invisible, so he's surprisingly sneaky for a giant combiner. May explain the irregular shipping notifications...
I finally had time to unbox my copy and do some shakedown transformations, and this set is damn good. Individual transformations are fun, easy and intuitive, and the combined mode is sturdy and impressive-looking. On my copy, Hellbat and Gaihawk have some pretty tight combiner port joints, and flipping them out the first time was a little scary. Beyond that, though, QC is very good, and nothing feels cheap, hollow, or second rate. This is/was an outstanding HasLab, IMO.
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I got that notification too. Totally forgot about the van.
I mean, cool, but where's my Lio?
I got to open mine up late last night and go through all his transformations once. Initial impressions, starting with my biggest nits to pick:
I'm really disappointed in Leozak's jet mode. We're used to the standard jet transformation at this point: bot collapses into the undercarriage junk while the jet mode unfolds on its back. Leozak is similar, except he really doesn't collapse. His arms just sit there, which isn't too unusual. But instead of collapsing his legs, he just has a couple flaps swing up from his calves to hide his thighs from above. Worse, the combiner shoulder connectors that sit next to his feet swing out to stick out the back end, and don't even really do anything to make them look like jet engines. The result is a really stretched out and awkward jet. That's disappointing since I've always loved the F-14 and was really looking forward to adding another one to my collection.
Deathcobra feels like a bit of an afterthought, which isn't too surprising for a stretch goal. He's reasonably good, just not as good as the rest. His propeller is awkward in every mode other than helicopter. Cannon mode is underwhelming, and sticking all the guns on him isn't something I'm too impressed by. The lack of a seventh spear is also disappointing. I'm still very happy to have him, just wish he were even better.
I'm mildly surprised they didn't decide to make him compatible with the frame combiners. The limbs all attach via the same basic methodolgy, so it certainly seems like they could have done so easily enough. Honestly, I want to go try the arms when I get a moment. The legs are obviously not compatible, but I realized later that it's only an assumption on my part that the arms aren't also.
Joint tightness varies joint to joint, but nothing outside normal tolerances. The leg guys' toes are a little tighter on mine, but nothing abnormally so. Really, just has that new-toy joint effect of needing to break it loose on first movement. No QC issues.
I'll second ZacWilliam about being surprised by the size of these guys. In bot mode, they're right around the same height as other modern combiner limbs. However, that doesn't account for their bulk, which really comes across in alt mode. The jets are substantially larger than the Aerialbots in jet mode. The legs feel massive in alt mode. Unboxing them in alt mode, they feel more on par with the SS86 Constructicons than the other current combiners.
I absolutely love all the partner figures. They're simple, but they do exactly what they need to. I wish there were a leopard to complete the big cat set. The breastplates are better integrated into the ground vehicles, while they just peg in and hang out in front of the aerial guys. On the flip side, the flyers still look complete when they're removed, while the ground guys look like they have a giant hole in their chests.
Beyond that, they're all really good. Bot modes are all great. Alt modes are nothing spectacular, but mostly good. Liokaiser himself is really solid and looks great. Other than Deathcobra's participation not being on par with the rest, my only quibble is that Jaruga's arms don't securely peg into Leozak. I might use some nail polish to tighten that up.
Basically, I'm really happy with him. Not perfect, but really good.
I'm really disappointed in Leozak's jet mode. We're used to the standard jet transformation at this point: bot collapses into the undercarriage junk while the jet mode unfolds on its back. Leozak is similar, except he really doesn't collapse. His arms just sit there, which isn't too unusual. But instead of collapsing his legs, he just has a couple flaps swing up from his calves to hide his thighs from above. Worse, the combiner shoulder connectors that sit next to his feet swing out to stick out the back end, and don't even really do anything to make them look like jet engines. The result is a really stretched out and awkward jet. That's disappointing since I've always loved the F-14 and was really looking forward to adding another one to my collection.
Deathcobra feels like a bit of an afterthought, which isn't too surprising for a stretch goal. He's reasonably good, just not as good as the rest. His propeller is awkward in every mode other than helicopter. Cannon mode is underwhelming, and sticking all the guns on him isn't something I'm too impressed by. The lack of a seventh spear is also disappointing. I'm still very happy to have him, just wish he were even better.
I'm mildly surprised they didn't decide to make him compatible with the frame combiners. The limbs all attach via the same basic methodolgy, so it certainly seems like they could have done so easily enough. Honestly, I want to go try the arms when I get a moment. The legs are obviously not compatible, but I realized later that it's only an assumption on my part that the arms aren't also.
Joint tightness varies joint to joint, but nothing outside normal tolerances. The leg guys' toes are a little tighter on mine, but nothing abnormally so. Really, just has that new-toy joint effect of needing to break it loose on first movement. No QC issues.
I'll second ZacWilliam about being surprised by the size of these guys. In bot mode, they're right around the same height as other modern combiner limbs. However, that doesn't account for their bulk, which really comes across in alt mode. The jets are substantially larger than the Aerialbots in jet mode. The legs feel massive in alt mode. Unboxing them in alt mode, they feel more on par with the SS86 Constructicons than the other current combiners.
I absolutely love all the partner figures. They're simple, but they do exactly what they need to. I wish there were a leopard to complete the big cat set. The breastplates are better integrated into the ground vehicles, while they just peg in and hang out in front of the aerial guys. On the flip side, the flyers still look complete when they're removed, while the ground guys look like they have a giant hole in their chests.
Beyond that, they're all really good. Bot modes are all great. Alt modes are nothing spectacular, but mostly good. Liokaiser himself is really solid and looks great. Other than Deathcobra's participation not being on par with the rest, my only quibble is that Jaruga's arms don't securely peg into Leozak. I might use some nail polish to tighten that up.
Basically, I'm really happy with him. Not perfect, but really good.
My guess is that making Leozak's boots collapse in the now-traditional style (like Gaihawk's do) was incompatible with the combiner mode transformation, or that making it work required too many parts for the budget (all things considered, each individual figure is likely working from pretty close to a standard Voyager budget). That, or it became too fiddly and unstable as the Liokaiser core when they tried it.
---Dave
---Dave
My FedEx account said I had a package coming from Hasbro on 20 May. It was in FedEx's possession and on its way by 21 May. HasbroPulse still had my Liokaiser as processing until this morning, 25 May, when I finally got the "your Liokaiser has shipped" message.
So... five day lag. Great site, John Hasbro. Great site.
So... five day lag. Great site, John Hasbro. Great site.
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Maybe changed the battery?
It is pretty clear that the combined mode was their top priority, followed by individual robot modes and finally individual alt-modes. I can't argue with that system, as a good looking combined mode was my top priority, too.