Name: Menasor
Series: 6" Titaniums
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Futuristic Motorhome
MOTORHOME MODE
Height: 5.5cm Length: 13.5cm Width: 6cm
A black motorhome with a futuristic sports car style front, Menasor is a repaint of Rodimus Prime - and the heritage of the mould is pretty easy to see - the motorhome vehicle is pretty distinctive. The yellow and orange of Rodimus have been replaced by silver, along with most of the black on top, save for the robot feet which are grey. The fin is also grey, and remains folded up above the cabin. The silver flames on the sides and the hood look pretty good, and there's a purple Decepticon symbol nestled in the hood flames. There are three silver exhausts running up the sides, just behind the cabin while the windshield is purple blue. The headlights are painted purple - and it's a decent match for plastic of his window. There are six black wheels with silver hubcaps and a black patch on the roof, rounding out a fairly attractive colour scheme. The colours are more Motormaster than Menasor, although they look very good in their own right here. The blurb on his box justifies that the character has been reconfigured into a single body, and in that context, these colours are as good as any.
He's not as long, proportionally, as the original Rodimus Prime, but then how many futuristic motorhomes are there to use for comparison? The divergence doesn't matter here anywhere near as much as it did on Rodimus, anyway. And it's not like the original Menasor had an alternate mode. My Menasor holds together better than Rodimus Prime does - the back unclips fairly easily on the Autobots' chosen one but Menasor stays together nicely. There's quite a lot of metal here, including the hood, upper two-thirds of the exhaust towers and the top half of the rear section. Even for a Titanium, Menasor is quite heavy.
The detailing here is pretty good, although you tend not to notice too much of the sculpt since the flames and exhausts overshadow the sculpt - and black becomes a shadowy backdrop to the silver. It doesn't matter since the silver features are nice and the colours are striking. There's a slight gap between the exhaust towers and the back section, which doesn't look too good but is perfectly believable on a motorhome. There's not much play value here, the wheels roll and that's it. Of course, the Titanium line is more about display value anyway.
A good vehicle mode and a really striking colour scheme, perfect for an exclusive repaint such as this. The only real downside is that there's still a distinct Rodimus Prime element coming through since the vehicle is so distinct. I don't really mind the Rodimus thing, because the colours make it clear that he's _not_ Rodimus Prime. It would have been nice if Hasbro had the rights to Motormaster, since the colours are clearly taken from that character, but I still enjoy this vehicle as it is.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Unclip the back half, slide it backwards, split the halves and pull out the stowed - but now free - handgun from underneath. Fold down the rear sections to form his boots, flip up the feet and fold the wheels back, forming calves. Rotate the waist, swing the exhaust towers out to the sides, to form arms, fold down the hood to form his chest, clipping into the waist. Rotate the head, rotate the windshield down to form a backplate, then rotate the fin down and unfold. Swing the arms down, extend and rotate his forearms, slide out the fists and give him the handgun.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 14.5cm Width: 10cm
A black robot with grey feet, wings, hands and thighs, Menasor has a silver face with red eyes. There's a distinctive purple collar - a trademark of the previous character, as are the triple cannons formed from exhausts on the outside of his forearms. The chest is the hood, complete with the silver flames and that Decepticon logo. The features are distinctly Rodimus Prime again, and the paint mask is actually same, so there's more than hint of evil doppelgänger here. While Menasor isn't Rodimus Prime's evil twin, this is a great colour scheme. I don't mind the repaint as a limited figure, but I could understand if some fans dislike the application of Menasor to this mould.
It's an attractive robot mode for the most part, thanks to the good placement of the trademark characteristics. From the side there's a distinct gap between his chest and the wings on the back, which looks quite awkward. It's not a huge problem, but you really need to display Rodimus Prime front on. Other than this, the proportions and body shape are good.
The poseability is quite good. His neck turns while the waist is essentially fixed, with only a little bit of wiggle. The shoulders swing and lift out to the sides while the elbows and knees are hinged with rotators. The wrists are fixed while the feet can swing down, allowing for something resembling ankle movement. The end result is a fairly wide range of poses, since all of the joints are tight - not a given in this line, sadly. The boots, chest and forearms are all die cast, with the weight in his boots making for a very effective anchor. The gun is a black affair with a silver barrel, and it's very similar in design to that on the original Rodimus Prime (other than the silver - also on Rodimus Prime's gun). It's very well designed gun, since it's shaped to be able to clear the high wrist.
A visually spectacular robot mode, with great colours and some nice design elements. Those design elements are Rodimus Prime trademarks, so you have to be able to get past that to enjoy this figure. The poseability is food, making this a great display piece. Other than the pitfall of disliking the use of mould, this is a great robot mode.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of. Menasor was sold exclusively at the San Diego Comicon 2007 (and subsequently at the Hasbro online store) and most likely was produced in a single production run.
OVERALL
Menasor has stolen Motormasters colours and Rodimus Prime's mould, both are good choices and the end result is a spectacular exclusive figure. He's what you want from this type of figure - a good mould with a striking colour scheme. This is one of the more satisfying 6" Titaniums for me, both modes are attractive and the poseability is good. The robot mode is his stronger mode, with good proportions and poseability. The vehicle mode fin and gap on the side of robot mode are flaws, but they're not enough to sabotage the mould. If the mould reuse bothers you, then Menasor might not grab you, but this is a wonderful limited repaint - 9/10
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