HEXANOID UNUS

MEGABOX (52TOYS)

“Unus, the first group of creators to awaken! After traveling to earth and studying the various lifeforms, the observers known as the Unus returned to their home planet and began to create beasts based on the biological information collected on earth!”

“What the hell is a Jarknoid Hexanoid?”

 –Tim Marron (Paraphrased)

I keep things around here largely within my wheelhouse.  I know a lot about a lot of toys, so that’s not terribly hard.  But, every so often, I step out.  It’s usually the fault of some bad influence in my life.  Looking at you, Tim.  Well, today is one of those days.  Let’s talk about 52toys!  Launched in 2015, they, like any toy company, have a few different areas they cover, but the one they cover a lot is transforming toys.  Specifically, toys that transform into tiny, cute, little boxes, which you can put into other little boxes and then stack on additional boxes.  Boxes!  There’s a whole line of specifically creature-based boxes called Beastbox, but they’ve also expanded into Megabox, which covers not only licensed properties, but also more advanced in-house properties.  Like, for instance, Unus.  Who is, by no means, to be confused with “The Untouchable.”

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hexanoid Unus is figure MB-15 in 52Toys’ Megabox line. He’s notable in being just a pretty straightforward guy in his non-box form, which you don’t see super often. I mean, he’s not even super deformed or anything. In his “just a guy” form, Unus stands just shy of 7 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation. The articulation is hampered just a little bit by the nature of what the figure is; he can’t move at all mid-torso, his neck isn’t much more than a cut joint, and the hips and shoulders are a bit limited, and a tad awkward to properly use at times. The knees and elbows work really well, though, so that’s cool. Unus’s sculpt is a bit stiff and robotic. He’s designed to turn into a box, so he’s gonna have to square off somewhere. They certainly lean into those elements from a design perspective, though, so it feels more like that’s how he’s supposed to look, rather than it being just a byproduct of his toy design. There are still some areas, most notably the chest, where he feels flatter than he should, though.  His legs are also a little tubular and not so much leg shaped.  But, I do really like the overall design.  It’s got a fun sci-fi look about it.  As the name of the line might imply, this guy is designed to be transformed into a box; specifically a cube.  It’s a somewhat involved process to get him there, but after the first go-through, it’s pretty intuitive.  And, hey, then he’s a cube!  Fun.  The color scheme on this guy is an interesting one; I especially like the translucent green portions on the faceplate and arms.  Unus is packed with two different sizes of weapon, which can be folded and unfolded into different configurations, as well as a box that you can place him in while he’s in his box form.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Remember how I said it was Tim’s fault?  Well, it’s Tim’s fault.  It’s not even the first time he’s been at fault for a Megabox thing, as he actually got me a couple of the Aliens ones in the past year.  But this one’s the sort of one that’s extra dangerous, because it branches out to all sorts of new things.  He’s admittedly a pretty gimmicky figure, and if you’re not into the cube bit, he’s not gonna be anything to write home about.  But, the cube thing is pretty cool, so I’m…writing home about it?  I mean, I’m writing about it *at* home, so there’s that.  Eh, I’m exploring the idiom too much.  Can I just go back to wondering what a “Hexanoid” is?