Dave's Odd Lots Knockoff Rant: Prime-Resembling Robot (Draias Knockoff) This is one that the store I checked on Friday didn't have, but I picked up on Saturday. It has the same Gundam-filled card back and name as the Chrome Monstrosities, is $5, but is actually worth getting. The toy consists of three beast robots which combine into a 9.5 inch (24cm) tall robot, and the pieces can be rearranged to turn this robot into a jet. There are no instructions, so there's a lot of guesswork involved, but I think I have it figured out. The head is kinda like an Optimus Prime head, but isn't actually a ripoff of any real Prime. The stickers are crappy and fall off easily. The combination works as follows: the lion and dragon mesh side-by-side for form the body and limbs, and the bird comes apart into kibble to attach all over the robot. Rather than do a regular review of this, I'm going to provide a best-guess set of instructions for transforming this toy for those who buy it and get frustrated. }-> 1. Setting up the robot form. The toy comes in a robot form, but with several loose pieces. The following pieces are unattached initially: sword, jet nosecone, dragonwings. Additionally, the hands are coverd with blasters. A) Fold up the nosecone and fit it into the slots on the back of the robot to form a jetpack/backpack. B) Swing the wings back to bracket it. C) Remove the fist-lasers and place them on the shoulderpads. Those weird notches on the shoulders match up with the ridges on the sides of the blasters. The guns should point forward, although up and out works too. D) Put the sword in his right hand. E) Put the dragonwings on his left forearm as a shield. This is why the one peg-hole on the wings is raised up. 2. Transformation into jet Caveat: I'm guessing a LOT here, with my guesses being based on the idea that "if it can do this, it should." Start from the completed robot as done above. A) Remove the guns, sword, shield, head, backpack, chestplate and wings on back. B) This is the tricky part. Shorten the arms (the forearms slide back up the upper arms) and swing them up to meet the animal heads. Rotate the heads in until they stop and the fists are up against the tops of the shoulders. Pull the shoulder pieces down and pull the fists out. When you're done, the fists shoudl be pointing up, the heads upside down and their nuzzles pointed inward to the torso. If you don't get this part, it's not so big a deal, it's just how the guns need to be. NOTE: The real Draias transforms differently here, but unless you take a knife to the dragon's snout, it won't fit through. The proper transformation has the animal heads ending up pointing forwards on the jet, not inwards. C) Replace the chestplate upside down. It'll be really wobbly. The side fins can be bent up as tailfins. D) Replace the backplate upside down, inserting the bird's head through the legs and up so it nestles against the slot in the chestplate which is rests on in robot mode. This stabilizes the chestplate. E) Snap the legs together. NOTE: This is a preference of mine, and it leads to a more stable toy. The actual transformation has the legs bent apart into a sort of "squatting" position as separate engine nacelles. F) Take the jet nosecone piece. The black chest pieces have slight raised lines on the insides, and there's a groove on the top and bottom of the back of the nosecone piece which fits in here. G) Place the laser hand things on the hands. The top of the jet is the front of the robot. As far as I can tell, there's no place to put the sword or dragonwings, and while the head can be fit into an indentation on the bottom of the jet, it serves no purpose there, so I suspect it's to be left off in jet mode. It's a rather impressive jet, clocking in at slightly over a foot (31cm) long and with a wingspan of about 11 inches (28cm). NOTE: In the real Draias toy, there's a peg inside the underside of the nosecone where the head fits. This is not present on the Big Lots knockoff. 3. Transformation into individual beasts Okay, take apart everything that will come apart. The main body splits down the middle into the lion and dragon bodies, and they fold in a fairly easy to figure out way. Be sure to shorten the arms first. The chestplate, backplate, head and shins/toes of the robot assemble into the bird creature, again pretty intuitively. There's an intentation on its back where the head of the robot fits, using the hole in the middle of its forehead to slot onto a peg. The lion creature gets both of the fistguns, inserted onto pegs over its front shoulders. Be careful, it's a tight fit and the tolerances on a knockoff are low. The dragon creature gets the shield/wings snapped onto its back, plus the nosecone of the jet becomes its tail. You can also put one of the fistguns between the wings if you want. The only leftover piece is the sword. There's a few places it can fit, but nowhere that it doesn't look utterly doofy. Overall, while a toy I might balk at paying $10 for, it's easily worth the $5 that Odd Lots (and Big Lots) want for it. Dave Van Domelen, notes you can put the robot head onto the dragonwings and stick the sword handle in the back of the head to keep the parts together when you have the toy in jet mode.... --------- Here's some later notes from Doug Dlin that I didn't include into the edited piece above: The robot in question is a knockoff of Space Emperor Draias ("dry-us") from the Solar Hero Firebird line (1991). First time I knew anyone besides me in the U.S. had seen this is when I saw it appear in a TF fanfic ("Maelstrom", perhaps?) under the name "Dragonmage". [Robot mode] All guesses here are correct. The "official" position for the wings in robot mode is flat against the back or angled back from it slightly, tips bent down and out to the sides, but you're hardly restricted to that. >3. Transformation into individual beasts > Their names, BTW, are Death Eagle, Death Dragon and Death Tiger.