[Magic Square] Video Team (Reflector)

Not too long ago, I reviewed Magic Square’s Voice Ripple & Roarer, which turned out to be some pretty amazing figures. Today, we’ll take a look at their comrades, the Video Team, Magic Square’s answer to Reflector.

BUILD QUALITY, PLASTIC QUALITY & PAINT APPLICATIONS

RATING:          3 / 5

Magic Square released two versions of the Video Team, one in animation colors and another in toy colors, which is the set that’s being looked at for this review. Aside from the obvious color differences, the toy accurate set does also have some minor remolding, namely the head sculpt of the figure representative of Viewfinder. This is nod to the vintage G1 figure. Magic Square could have pushed this a little further by doing the same for Spectro & Spyglass, or at least changed the color of their heads (and possibly their arms too) to match their G1 figure counterparts. Not a deal-breaker though.

As mentioned in my earlier reviews, Magic Square consistently uses the same kind of plastics for their figures. Pliable yet pretty resistant to breakages. Paint applications are neat although they aren’t many of them on the figures.

AESTHETICS & PROPORTIONS

RATING:          4.5 / 5

Magic Square scored with the proportions of these little guys and they scale well with the rest of the legends class figures (well, at least the ones from Magic Square). On top of some of the points that I had mentioned earlier, the figure representing Spyglass could also have gone with a slightly darker shade of blue in my opinion.

The figures combine together to pull off a rather realistic looking camera mode.

DESIGN, ENGINEERING & ACCESSORIES

RATING:          4  / 5

In order to form the camera mode, some parts-forming are required. In bot mode, the lens and flash unit come apart to form weaponry for the figures.

The figures also come with a set of knives if you prefer some wetwork action.

All the accessories and weapons come together to form parts of the camera, including a mini tripod.

While there is a considerable amount of parts forming (which has been the case for all known Reflector figures, official or otherwise), the designers did spend some thought to minimise that. The backpacks of Spectro & Spyglass are examples of some interesting design where they unfold and rotate to form the viewfinder portion in camera mode. All three figures connect together snugly in camera mode.

JOINTS, ARTICULATION & BALANCE

RATING:          3.5 / 5

The figures are generously articulated, although there are some looseness to some joints, which I believe is a result of the type of plastics used. This is fairly common in Magic Square figures. Nonetheless, they are still able to hold poses well.

Just like Voice Ripple (Magic Square’s Soundwave), this set comes at a time when NewAge has released their own version of Reflector and it’s natural for some collectors to be a little undecided. I went with Magic Square for the toy accurate version and NewAge for the animation accurate one. Man, it’s good to have options.