Going to be another pretty quick one.
I happened to come across a loose MP 35 Grapple on Facebook Marketplace. In general, my thoughts on the Fuso based figures are that it is a very well designed figure, and is generally well balanced in all aspects. I liked it enough to get Inferno, followed by Artfire a few months. ago. For $100 CAD, I decided to finish off the Trifecta, making this the first reused body I've ever gotten a complete set of, which I never would have thought would happen, especially at typical MP prices.
There's no box, so no picture of that. Accessory wise, Grapple is more in line with Inferno, featuring several attachments for the vehicle mode boom, two front faces of the truck to emulated both toy and cartoon, his Solar Tower, Blueprints for the Solar Tower, laser scalpel, chrome nozzle, blaster, and toy/cartoon faces as well as helmets.
The Solar Tower I recall being the main subject of the Grapple focused episode, eventually having to destroy the full sized creation while retaining the smaller model as a momento.
Vehicle mode is a licensed Fuso T971, albeit one one rigged up for construction work rather than fire fighting. The interchangeable boom tools are neat, and I do recall them all being used on the show. Just be sure to handle with care, as you don't want to break the attachment, or damage the functional piston the boom arm is attached to.
Considering this is very much a toon inspired deco, you're probably better off using the toon truck front, unless you have a thing for chrome.
Transformation into robot mode is basically the same as with Inferno and Artfire, with some slight differences to account for the different boom arm. The robot mode functions exactly the same, sharing the strengths and weaknesses.
The head crest of choice is really preferential. I mean, if you want to be absolutely true to G1 you're gonna swap out the grey for the orange, but at the same time, it doesn't seem like the grey wouldn't fit in cartoon aesthetic wise. The choice of expression, on the other hand, is interesting, mostly due to the fact that they go from grumpy in the middle, with extreme anger and psychotic smile on the ends. I don't really remember Grapple being this unbalanced.
Articulation continues to remain strong. Ultimately there's some restrictions due to the sheer bulk of the body, but the Fuso mould is quite limber overall. As I've also mentioned before, one of the things I love about this mould is just how clean the robot mode is, thanks to some clever design with regards to the hiding of the boom arm.
Paint and Build Quality remain as expected for a Masterpiece level figure, which is not surprising. I can say, however, that paint wear is an eventuality with this mould, mostly due to how tight and close the tolerances are on the elbow area.
Do I think this is a good toy? Well yes, otherwise I wouldn't have purchased all three of them. The question is, though, if you can only pick one, which one would it be? Well I've given it some thought and I think ultimately the Inferno release is probably the best of them all, and that is the direct result of having more accessories to mess around with, with Grapple being second. Artfire is truly for the connoisseur of Japanese G1 characters.
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