Unique Toys Maniaking

Prelude: Maniaking is not a figure released by Hasbro or Takara-Tomy, and thus not officially a Transformer. He is from third party company Unique Toys and meant to be Galvatron, but for legal reasons he can’t be called by that name. This is actually the second version of Unique Toys Maniaking, the first having somewhat darker colors.

Robot Mode: Let me start by saying that this figure here is Galvatron. No doubt about it, the Maniaking is Galvatron. This figure looks pretty much exactly like the upgraded form of Megatron did in the third season of the G1 cartoon. Scale-wise he is a Voyager-sized robot, so he fits perfectly with figures like Classics Optimus Prime, Hegemon, and Fansproject Protector. He could be a tad taller or broader, maybe, but otherwise he fits in perfectly, so I have finally found a fitting leader for my season 3 Decepticons.

In terms of articulation and detailing there is nothing bad to be said here, Maniaking looks awesome and can pose with the best of them. He lacks twisting wrists, but otherwise he has the full range of motion you expect from a current day Transformers (or third party) figure. His hands can open up, perfect for gripping a Matrix of Leadership. The big orange cannon sits nicely on his arm (either arm, you can pick) and contains his laser light feature. Nothing more than the muzzle lighting up with a red light, mind you, but good enough for me.

So bottom line for the robot mode: no complaints at all. This is Galvatron in all his insane glory and more than ready to lead the Decepticons in the far-flung future of the year 2005.

Alternate Mode: The original Galvatron toy was a triple changer of sorts, transforming from robot to artillery cannon to something loosely resembling a futuristic handgun. Galvatron never once used his gun mode in the cartoon and all of one time in the entire Marvel comics run. So I have little problem with the fact that Unique Toys decided to leave out the gun mode and concentrate on giving Maniaking a good cannon mode.

Despite transforming into a completely different way than G1 Galvatron (his lower body becomes the cannon barrel this time) Maniaking’s cannon mode is a very close match to the original, though more to the animated version shown on screen than the toy version. It’s a big cannon sitting on a tripod, the two front pegs of which have tank treads on them. The rear portion of the cannon looks a bit puzzled-together and from certain angles you can see Maniaking’s head underneath the gun, but otherwise I can’t say anything bad here. A very nice cannon mode for blowing up small asteroids.

Remarks: The fact that this figure is a very good likeness of Galvatron is almost overshadowed by the truly hilarious profile text on his package, which seems to have been written by someone who saw the 1986 Transformers movie in a badly dubbed version and wrote down a short summary of Galvatron’s origin with but a very limited knowledge of the English language.

Thankfully the actual figure is a whole lot better than the language skills of whoever wrote the box’ profile text. Unique Toys Maniaking is the best G1 Galvatron I have seen so far. The fact that he foregoes the original toy’s gun mode might bother some people, but not me. Like with most third party toys the only strike against him is the price tag, but seeing as I got him as a Christmas gift, I can hardly complain about that. So bottom line: you want a great Galvatron for your Classics figure collection? Look no further than here.

Rating: A-