iGear Toys Kup01 head set review

There's a lot of controversy surrounding 3rd party manufacturers now that they're creating complete versions licensed characters. But what they also make is add-on kits that require you to go out an buy a figure from Hasbro first. This is viewed as acceptable by most standards and being reviewed tonight is iGear's Kup01 head set.

The heads, two of them, come in a cool little plastic box with a foam insert and tiny screwdriver. The box lid has iGear's logo on it and the plastic is the exact shade of the Hasbro Generation's Commander Kup's darker chest/waist plastic. It's quality ABS too, not flimsy like most knock-off toys are made of.

Both heads have a great detailed sculpt to them and one sports a 'Cy-gar', Cybertron's version of cigars that Kup sports in the comics. The second has a slightly different mouth shape and no Cygar. The screwdriver isn't anything special but looks nice, like one of the ones that comes with those Tech-Deck finger skateboards. The paint work is crisp and clean as well, quality stuff.

It should be noted that the front of the head doesn't actually hold the head on the neck post. Only the back attaches so you really do need to take the head completely apart when attaching it. The head snaps together pretty securely without the screw as well. Since this is the case I wonder if they could have saved money by just including a second removable front half.

For $12, the price of the hasbro figure itself you get two heads, a box that can sit in the back of Kup's vehicle mode, and a little screwdriver. If you really hated the zombie looking head that came with Kup then this you'll probably want this and I can recommend it. You can pick it up from iGear's site for $12 free shipping but it's coming from Singapore so it will take a few weeks. For $2 you can snag one off of Ebay (all eBay links are eBayPartnerNetwork affiliate links that help me out!) from a US seller and get it faster.