Review – KFC Mugan Scope2 (Teal)
KFC’s Mugan Scope2* takes last year’s unofficial Transformers Perceptor toy and updates it with new colors, making the toy more like the original 1985 Perceptor toy (review here). The colors are great, but this toy has a problem.
Don’t lose your head!
When Mugan Vox (review here) arrived earlier this year he was missing his head. While transforming Ghetto Blast (review here) earlier this week his head broke off. That had me being very careful with Mugan Scope2* and before even transforming the toy I looked closely at the head . . . and found the ball-jointed neck already suffering from stress wear.
In the above photo you can see where the plastic at the neck is turning whitish in color, a sign that the plastic could snap. I can now state from experience that what causes this piece to break is when the head is snapped into place. There’s not enough clearance to get a handle on things — and the plastic is weak — so the simple act of trading the head for another one (there were four in this box) or even transforming the toy will break this part.
So I will not transform this toy. Why risk twisting and pulling that head into the chest when I know the process will result in Mugan Scope2* losing his head? The best I can do is show you the three loose heads that were packaged with the toy. You see them, above, yes? Okay. Moving on.
We’ve seen this toy so many times before . . .
Here at battlegrip.com this marks the fourth time I’ve reviewed this basic mold, and if I were to pull out and post pics of other uses it would get us to a total of seven versions of this tooling. Check the Mugan Amputare review from earlier this week for even more on the basic tooling; I can’t decide if I’m impressed by the level of tooling reuse or disgusted at myself for owning all seven versions of what I know is a flawed design.
Closing Thoughts
KFC’s Mugan Scope2* is definitely Perceptor and in looking at the robot mode I’m quite happy. The ball-jointed limbs are a tad loose in spots, but generally robot mode is excellent and works well. That said, the tank and microscope modes (see the earlier reviews of this mold) are so poor that there really is room for another third party Transformers manufacturer to step in and offer us an alternate Perceptor design.
The above pic shows this newer Mugan Scope2* next to last year’s Mugan Scope and everything about the colors on the newer version is more Generation One accurate. If you go to buy one of these I suggest the new one, but be careful with the head and when transforming the toy because it could break.
Good to see the honesty in the review here. It’s a bummer that there’s so many problems with an expensive toy though.