M&C Toy Centre "World Peacekeepers" Armed Mobile Mastiff Review:
M&C To Centre's "World Peacekeepers" military line is well known around the world, but their science fiction line is almost unknown here in North America. The storyline for the sci-fi line appears to follow the exploits of robotic policemen (I assume they are police due to their predominantly blue color scheme) called "Ammobots" as they battle black armored criminals in the near future. These toys are available direct from the manufacturer via their webstore (
https://www.mctoy.com.hk/index.php).
Today we will be taking a look at what I consider to be the most interesting item in the line, the "Armed Mobile Mastiff", a robot dog reminiscent of the U.S.Army's still in development "M.U.L.E." robotic cargo carrier.
The Armed Mobile Mastiff comes on a huge blister card that spreads out all of the included optional armor and weapons so you can see everything you are getting.
The Mastiff in its basic, unarmored form is cast in a mix of dark grey plastic and vinyl that feels sturdy and all of the joints move freely. Speaking of joints, the basic Mastiff has 8 points of articulation- ball jointed head (somewhat shallow range of motion due to the small gap between the wide armored torso and the wide back of the head), 4 ball hinge hips (allow for some lateral movement to spread the feet apart in addition to full rotational movement) and 4 hinged knees. While ball hinged ankles would have been nice for more dynamic posing, I can understand why these joints were not added as the ankle areas are fairly thin and breakage would be an issue. There are a few very neat and precise paint apps located on the head- multicolored eyes/lenses and some brown on the bottom armor of the head that matches the brown armored pieces we will be discussing shortly. There are small rocket pods sculpted into the tops of the front legs and a small belt fed machine gun mounted on the Mastiff's head so that even unarmored, the Mastiff is capable of offense/defense.
The Mastiff has several options for display/play and has a great assortment of armor and weapons that can be added in a few different configurations.
The first option is a simple "up armored" version that adds separate pieces of brown plastic armor to the lower legs and the front of the chest. These armored bits give the Mastiff a bulkier appearance without compromising mobility or balance.
The second option is a heavier "up armored" version in which several larger pieces of light blue/grey are added on top of the already in place brown armor. These additional pieces further bulk up the robot and add additional weapons in the form of rocket pods sculpted into the front of the upper shoulder armor. These pieces do not securely attach to the Mastiff and can easily be knocked off even with gentle handling (the shoulder armor popped off several times during my moving the figure around for photography).
The final option is in the form of heavy weapons that are attached to the light blue/grey armor. A very impressive looking gatling gun attaches to the rear hips and an additional weapons combo (guns, rocket pods with hinged lids) attaches to the robot's back (to attach this, a small square of the shoulder armor must be popped off exposing a "key" that fits into a "lock" on the underside of the black guns). Additionally, there are a pair of gold blades that can be attached to the Mastiff's back in 2 different configurations (angled backwards or out to the sides like "wings"). These gold blades can also be used by 3.75" action figures as swords, but the handles are quite large and may stretch out most figures' hands. The heavy weapons also share the flaw of the blue/grey armor in the fact that they can be easily knocked off of the figure.
This figure, easily knocked off armor aside, is really nice and worth the $13 and change it cost me to order from overseas. I have not decided exactly what configuration I will be displaying it in as of yet, but I am leaning towards the basic "up armored" form as I will most likely be using it as a service droid in my diorama. Whatever unused pieces I have left over will be used for future custom projects.
