DE 
EN 
Series: MakeToys
Year: 2013
Allegiance: Other Villain
Prelude: He might have Fallen, but he will get up, because he is on fire, and he fought Grimlock, and did all sorts of cool things that made little sense before he became one of the Thirteen Primes. Sometimes known as Megatronus Prime, he is The Fallen, the Judas of the Transformers myth. And since we have a new official The Fallen figure coming up in the Age of the Primes toy line next year, it’s a good time to look at MakeToys’ unofficial The Fallen figure, the Mobine Series Paladin / Chaos, created during a time when Power Core Combiners were still a thing. Let’s say go!
Many thanks to my buddy Scourge, who loaned me Paladin / Chaos for this review.
Robot Mode: Let us start with the basic setup of this set. What we have here is a smaller robot (Paladin, I assume) who transforms into a tank, and a separate vehicle, a missile launcher, which can become a set of limbs for the robot, transforming him into a larger robot (Chaos, I’d say) via the same combination plugs used by the Power Core Combiners.
Let us begin with the smaller robot. Paladin is roughly the same height as your basic PCC Commander figure, just a bit broader, roughly the mass of a present-day Deluxe figure. You can easily tell that he transforms into a tank by the tank tracks he has on both arms and legs, as well as the big turret he carries as a backpack. Said backpack makes him rather prone to toppling over backwards, sadly, which means you have to have him lean slightly forward at all times. Also his thighs, which slide into the lower legs during the transformation, tend to not stay extended at times.
Paladin’s articulation is pretty good, though somewhat hampered by his bulkiness. He is armed with two large swords, which can be stored in the barrels of the tank guns on his back. The swords don’t fit one hundred percent into their slots, however, they always pop out either at the front or back.
I could write more about the smaller robot, but to be honest it’s simply not that exciting and not really the main point of this set. Suffice to say there is a smaller robot, but I doubt anyone who owns this set actually displays him in this mode.
Alternate Mode: There are actually two vehicle modes to discuss here. Paladin transforms into a futuristic looking tank with two big barrels. The tank looks cool, but is almost entirely a brick. The turret cannot turn, and the guns can only be raised by a few measly degrees. It looks cool, but that’s all there is not it.
And then you have the second vehicle, which is a mobile missile launcher. While this vehicle is also (mostly) a brick, it at least gives you the option of adjusting the box launchers on top by moving them up and down. Fair warning, though, the hinges here are extremely tight and hard to move. Also, they are attached to the rest of the vehicle via the aforementioned PCC combiner plugs and getting those in and out here is a real test of strength.
Side note: MakeToys also released this second vehicle by itself in different colors and without the Paladin robot, so it could be used as combiner limbs for any given PCC combiner.
So bottom line for the two vehicle modes: not bad, but really just for looking at and also not really the point of this set.
Combined Mode: Now we finally come to the main point of this entire set, the combined robot, probably named Chaos. Because here we have the Fallen as we’ve seen him in the Dreamwave War Within mini-series. Mostly black with some purple, he features a large number of orange highlights that make him look like a furnace with a fire raging inside of it. No outward flames here, but you can easily imagine them being there. And even without them he looks cool as hell (get it? Flames? Hell? Ha Ha Ha!)
The assembly is not that difficult (apart from some very stiff joints and two PCC connector slots that really don’t want you to push a peg inside of them). The smaller robot transforms into a torso and the mobile missile launcher vehicles falls apart into two arms and two legs, which attach to the torso via the same connector pegs the Power Core Combiners use (thankfully in orange instead of blue).
The resulting robot holds together very well for being a combiner and is very well articulated to boot. He now has the missile launcher boxes as shoulders and still a few tank tracks adorning his body but is a far sleeker and better proportioned robot than Paladin. The only slight downside to the robot is that the chest plate isn’t tabbed in as solidly as it could be, but you barely notice that. For weapons he carries a large sword, combined form the two smaller ones Paladin uses, and the tank turret from his tank mode. He can either wear it as a double-barreled cannon on one arm or split it into two single cannons, one for each arm. The cannon can also attach to his shoulder for storage. The figure also comes with two mini guns he can attach to his wrists instead of his fists.
Chaos has additional Power Core Combiner pins on his shoulders and lower legs, so it’s possible to attach additional PCC limbs to his body (see 36th picture in the gallery) or possibly a second set of MakeToys limbs, too. Chaos can also swap his limps with those of any other PCC combiner (Smolder looks particularly cool in my opinion) and he can also use the TFC Iron Army drones as limbs as well. So if you are a fan of Scramble City style combiner limb switching, you will have lots of fun here.
Bottom line for the combined mode: brilliant. As lackluster as the other modes of this figure/set are, the Chaos robot makes you forget all that with his malicious brilliance and dark beauty.
Remarks: It was the year 2003 when the second Dreamwave War Within mini-series, titled “The Dark Age”, introduced a new villain to the Transformers mythos, the Fallen. One of the original 13 Primes, though that wasn’t established until years later. Simon Furman created the character, while Pat Lee designed the look, and Andrew Wildman added the whole constantly-on-fire thing because it looked cool. The Fallen, rechristened Megatronus Prime many years later, has remained a staple among the original Thirteen and is scheduled to return in 2025’s Age of the Primes toy line. For a time he was supposed to be the same guy as the main villain of Revenge of the Fallen, but that never really worked and has since been abandoned (maybe).
Now at the time this figure here came out, there was only one other toy depicting The Fallen as he appeared in the Dreamwave comics, namely Titanium The Fallen from 2007. Between those two, there is little contest as MakeToys Paladin/Chaos is the better figure by far. That said, the figure is a mass of weird choices, really. The smaller robot makes little sense and making the whole thing compatible with the Power Core Combiners, whose line had ended two years earlier and never been that successful to begin with, was a strange decision. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to swap the limbs with some of the other PCC figures, but still weird.
So bottom line: the combined robot is a great figure and depicts a rather obscure character in a great way. You can easily ignore the smaller robot and the vehicle modes, too, and just stick with a great-looking larger figure if you want. The PCC gimmick is a bonus and can be ignored, too, if you don’t care for it. The only true downsides are the price point and the fact that the upcoming Age of the Primes figure will probably make this one obsolete. Still, if you are a fan of the Fallen and vintage third party figures, this thing is worth a look.
Rating: B
Picture Gallery:
