One good Pipes review deserves another. So for today, I proudly give you… Piper! 2 Pipes reviews in less than 2 months. Do I have a thing for Pipes? I may be the only TransFan that does.

Piper is BadCube’s MP style interpretation of Pipes. I love all these 3P naming shenanigans. Maybe another 3P will do Pipe? Or Pips? The names are almost as fun as the figs themselves.

I have over 1000 TFs and Piper is my first BadCube purchase. It was only $44.99 from showZ. I had to buy it at this price. Did BadCube do good? Let’s find out.

Piper box.

Back of the box. A very obvious design homage to G1. I like it.

In addition to the figure itself, these are the other items in the package:

• The instruction manual
• Not 1, but 2 bio cards!
• 2 extra faces, in addition to the one that comes on Piper, for a total of 3 faces
• The Transforming Cog (we saw Pipes install this in Metroplex at some point in Season 3)

Altogether this is not a crazy amount of accessories, but I think what’s there is sufficient. I’m not an accessories guy by any means. Some fans may find this lacking.

Piper is packed in alt mode, so let’s look at that first.

Not a bad looking truck. It has a classic old school look and feel. Maybe this is what they meant by “Old Timer Series”.

Looking at the alt mode directly from the front. I like the details on the grill, headlights, and side mirrors. From this view it looks like he has two seats in the cab. He actually does not. Those are just holes to accommodate where the arms go in alt mode.

Side view of the truck. At first I felt like the rear wheel section is a bit long. But then I compared Piper to my other semi truck TFs and most of them are about this long. Maybe it feels long because other semis have 2 rear wheels on each side and Piper only has 1.

Back view of the truck. Notice the fifth wheel has 2 slots on it. Scroll down below to see what it’s for.

Bottom view.

Piper and WFC Kingdom Pipes.

Piper and Fans Toys Rig, their interpretation of Huffer. In the above 2 pics, notice that WFC Kingdom Pipes and Rig have the windshield at a slightly slanted angle, while Piper has the windshield completely vertical. WFC Pipes and Rig wins the G1 accuracy here. Also notice that Rig has a much shorter rear section.

Piper and Studio Series 38 Optimus Prime from Bumblebee. These 2 are almost the exact same size in alt mode!

Piper hauling the MP-10 Trailer. It works! The trailer pegs perfectly into the 2 slots on the fifth wheel. I don’t have the MP-44 so it’s unclear to me if this will work.

All in all, Piper’s alt mode is not too shabby. The colors are distinctively Pipes. When transformed correctly, the figure stays cohesive in truck mode without pieces dangling off. He rolls well on a flat surface. Piper does feel a bit light when compared to other 3P MP offerings of this size (FT Rig feels much heavier). BadCube did take some liberties with the design in this mode, but overall it’s not a distraction.

Transformation to robot mode is not too complex. BadCube has a reputation for making some of their figs way too complicated, at least that’s what I’ve been told. I don’t think that applies to Piper. For MP standards I actually think it’s on the easier side. The figure pretty much transforms like you would expect. The only thing worth noting is that the arms are tucked inside the cab in alt mode. This is a deviation from G1 and WFC Pipes in that the pipes are the arms. I have no issue with this change my BadCube. It makes for better looking smokestacks on the alt mode and better looking arms in bot mode.

Piper classic A-stance. Looks good. Pretty toon accurate, but not overly toon accurate. Strikes the perfect balance between show accuracy and modern figure aesthetics.

Piper side view in robot mode. I’m not going to mince words here. That giant kibble of a backpack is very much a negative on this figure. Some say this looks better in person, but I disagree. It’s as bad as it looks. G1 purists might defend this by saying that G1 Pipes had this too. That is kinda true, but I don’t remember it being this big in relation to the figure. That backpack is a fail no matter how you slice it.

Piper robot view from the back. Again, the backpack pretty much trumps over everything else.

Now for some action poses:

Piper has a decent amount of posability. The construction of the figure is good too, so he can hold those poses. Again, the only thing getting in the way of good poses is probably the huge backpack.

Piper comes with 3 faces.

Default G1 animation face. A little bit of paint smear on the face mold, but overall not too bad.

Just like the first face but with red eyes. Not sure if we ever saw this in the G1 cartoons.

G1 toy accurate face. I kinda like this face.

And to get him looking very G1 toy like, see below.

I wish I have my G1 Pipes figure with me, so I could’ve taken pics of Piper and G1 Pipes side by side. Look here for pics of G1 Pipes.

With WFC Kingdom Pipes in bot mode. Notice where the Autobot insignia goes on WFC Pipes, on his left upper corner. G1 Pipes has the Autobot insignia in the same location. It’s a problem if I try to put a customized Autobot logo in the same location for Piper. There’s a piece on the side that actually rotates out in alt mode, as a peg for attaching the smokestacks. I could put a small logo between that and the center rectangular design that seems to serve no purpose, but I don’t think that would look right. I’m going to count this as another minor negative in bot mode.

Piper and MP-53 Skids. Why did I use Skids for the MP size comparison? Because I had him handy. No other reason.

Despite quite a few negatives I listed for Piper (the most obvious being that giant kibble of a backpack), I still give the figure a good solid recommendation. The truck looks good, and the robot mode does too from the front. He’s well constructed. Transformation is fun without being overly complex. Scales well with other MPs. Fun miscellaneous features, such as being able to tow the MP-10 trailer and having the G1 face option. Look and appearance is distinctively Pipes. All in a package that’s reasonably priced. There are way more positives here than negatives.

Go Pipes! Transform and Roll Out!