Takara eHobby Kup with iGear Kup Head Review

Turbo roddin' young punk! I'll straighten you out yet.

One of the oldest Transformers, Kup fought in many battles for the Autobots and loves to tell the stories to any one willing to listen. After the fall of Optimus Prime, he was the right hand man to Rodimus Prime.

In 2011, Hasbro and Takara released Kup to the Generations and United line of toys. As with all toys in the classics asthetics, Kup had been modernized with a contemporary truck alt mode and a better, more articulated bot mode that better represents the cartoon character than the G1 toy. Unfortunately, as part of the modernization, Hasbro/Takara gave Kup a skinny zombie looking head sculpt.


Undead Kup - there's a reason he's lived through so many battles


Thank goodness for third party manufacturers. We have iGear to the rescue with their all new head mold.

The box:

iGear's custom Kup heads are packed inside a plastic box that fits into the truck bed of Kup when he's in alt mode.

Inside the box:

iGear had a poll for fans to choose which head they wanted but iGear ended up including both in the package. iGear also included a tiny screw driver to help remove the old head and install the iGear head - what a great idea!

Behind Kup's head:

There's a screw behind Kup's head that you'll need to remove

Off goes Kup's head:

Try not to lose Kup's head in case you need to sell him

Comparison of igear Kup head to the Hasbro/Takara head:

The iGear custom head is based on the IDW comic. The iGear's paint better matchs the eHobby Kup's body. The eyes are painted and not light piped as in the Hasbro/Takara head. The iGear cy-gar in Kup's mouth is removable but you'll need glue to put it back in and keep it there. The cygar is also more narrow in the mouth so when screwing the iGear head on, don't put pressure on the cygar - it'll break if you do.

Comparison of the Hasbro/Takara stock eHobby Kup to the iGear eHobby Kup:

The price and effort are definitely worth it

Front:


Left:


Right:


Back:

With the new iGear custom head, Kup can still transform to and from his truck mode without any transformation differences.

Takara eHobby Kup's colors are closer to the G1 toy than the Takara United and Hasbro Generations versions who better match the cartoon colors. The new Kup is a fantastic toy except his head scupt is hideous. Regardless of which version you get, iGear has a Kup head for both colors. The iGear custom Kup head is definitely worth the extra money to pick up and recommended to anyone who has the new Kup.

Eric Toy Score: 5.0 out of 5

Publisher: iGear
Year: 2011
MSRP: $15.99 (iGear eHobby version), $12.99 (iGear Generations, United version)