Toyworld Muddy

Review by Laserwave13:

Prelude: Seeing as Roar pushed himself to the front of the queue for a review, we are now looking at Muddy, second in the line, and will compare him to Columpio to see who is the better G1 Sludge. Now Roar did show that he is great G1 Classics Snarl, but came with a few issues. Muddy, on the other hand did not, His quality and looks are extremely good and no flaws whatsoever. Hope it stays that way with future releases from Toyworld.

Packaging: Same as with Roar, same shoe box design, same looks, equally oversized. Besides the figure, his gun, and his sword there is nothing but air filling the Styrofoam. No combiner parts, either. As nice as this looks, it still remains oversized, eating up a ridiculous amount of the collectors’ valuable shelf and storage space. Instructions and collectors card are included as with Roar.

Dino Mode: Behold the new G1 Sludge. Putting the two Sauropods next to each other they look pretty much alike. Except one being considerably bigger and shinier, of course. This time chromed in silver. Very nice proportions and decently poseable, just a nice big chunk of dinosaur. Granted, FansProject Columpio is a little more poseable, especially the long, multi-jointed neck is really nice on him. But Muddy, on the other hand, does not need those camel humps on his back and that is what I like more about him. About looking G1, well, I guess Columpio did not really intended that in the first place, but be that as it may, easy win for Muddy, throwing FansProject out of the running here. So far he’s easily the best G1 Sludge in Dino Mode for me. Next to Planet X, which did a really good FOC rendition of him. Bottom line, nice details, decently poseable, big and chrome-covered, good enough for sure to shine on your Classics G3 shelf as a G1-like Sludge.

Robot Mode: Surprisingly simple, but not only satisfying, but also involved with a few neat tricks in his engineering. As with Roar before him, his legs are clean, no dino tail or legs. Take a hint, FansProject, this is how it is done. But that is not all. Instead of using the shorter front legs for his arms, he uses the back ones, changing sides, and the smaller ones end up in his back wing like pieces. Now that is just genius. All this gives Muddy not only a very G1-like look, but also an even better, cleaner silhouette than ever before. Great job and well done.

Again no wrist swivel but again, I can live with that. Compared to Columpio, he can at least hold his weapons and is otherwise more than poseable enough and with good balance. His upper body may not be as massive as Roar’s, but looking at his arms even Schwarzenegger would be jealous. That is Dinobot power. So he does not really depend on his weapons, which are the weakest points here. Gun looks a bit small but okay, but that letter opener pretending to be a sword, forget it. Oh, and nice sculpt on the head there. A detailed, big, and powerful yet also poseable robot mode that looks exactly like Sludge. What more could you ask for? Again, well done Toyworld.

Conclusion: The long and short of it: G1 Sludge. Not that FansProject totally messed up with Columpio, he is also nice in his own way, but for Classics G3, Muddy takes home an easy win. And as a second version Planet X Neptune might have been better. The fact that Muddy will be next to Roar as the second leg of the combiner seems to be secondary here. It does not take anything from the other modes in any way and unless you know it, you would not even notice it that he will be part of a combiner. Guessing that the one from GCreations will be bigger, as pictures say so far, they probably did put everything into the combiner aspect, leaving a lot to be desired to the other modes. Their robot mode suffers from extreme kibble. But matter of preference and taste, of course, one has to decide what is most important.

Muddy again is no Masterpiece and does not intend to be one. And he is most likely also not the best Dinobot out there, but maybe the best Sludge you can get. At least for a G1 to G3 version as I wanted it. Really great figure of great quality. My enthusiasm for Toyworld and all those classic Transformers with this original aesthetics and great engineering, like the Throttlebots they’re doing, grows from day to day. For G1, Classics G3 and Dinobot fans this figure is fully recommended.

Rating: A-