Welcome to Kimia Room 113 Toyhax Nova Prime upgrade set

I'm doing something a little different this week, I'm not reviewing a toy, instead I'm reviewing a set of labels you stick to a toy. 

​Last week I reviewed Battle Core Prime and I wrote that he was like a blank canvas, Reprolabels took this blank canvas and did no less than three upgrade sets. 
They did a Ultra Magnus set, a Thunderclash set and finally a Nova Prime set.

Someone at Reprolabels must have been reading my mind, from the first time B.C Prime was revealed I always had the idea of him being a stand in for Nova Prime, the labels took it to the next level so I had to get them. 
Just like a normal review I'll be talking about each mode individually just this time I'll be talking more about the labels than the figure. 
If you want to hear about the toy itself go HERE for the main toy review.
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​One of the problems I had with B.C Primes truck mode was the un-paintable plastic sections and the lack of paint on some of the windows. They where numerous and in the case of the un-paintable plastic, badly placed. 

The labels cover over 99% of these sections. There are some parts still showing but it'd be hard to make a label that would cover the curved sections without making the label a real pain to apply. ​

The white labels are made from a type of viynl that you can heat up so it sits better. A great little touch that really works well, one thing I'll warn you about is the roof parts over the cab windows. You need to take your time applying these labels making sure you get as much air out of the areas around the "bolts" before sticking them down fully. Once you've heated them a little make sure all of the air is out and you're good to go. 
One thing I really like about the set is that Reprolabels give you a full set of spare white labels in case you make a mistake, I certainly did.
I love the fact that they've done this, the white bits are the hardest to get right and having the spares takes a lot of pressure off. 
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​In truck mode the labels do a lot of "repair" work,  robot mode didn't need anywhere near that level of cover ups. All of the robot mode labels are there to perfect that Nova Prime look, they did a lot of good work to get as close as possible without adding wings to him. 
Let's start from the top and work down. 

​The head gains a energon mark and labels to turn his face plate dark blue. 
As you may have noticed from my pictures I have removed the gold paint from the crest. 
I looked at the figure and compared it to some IDW artwork of Nova and the gold crest was something that had to go. 
After a little work with some rubbing alcohol it came right off. It made a whole heap of difference for me and I think you should consider doing the same if you're going to get this label set.
The chest labels have a venting pattern printed on them that nicely hints at the IDW design while also covering over the blue of the original chest wiondows. You also get two small white labels that break up the window chest squares and help create a different visual between Optimus and Nova.

​The waist has some simple shapes in dark blue, while these don't exactly scream Nova Prime they do break up the white around the gold abs. 
Moving onto the shoulders we have two ancient Autobot symbols (Thank you TFwiki), it fit's with Nova's IDW history even though (from what I could see from my searches) he never bore that symbol. It's a clever way of covering the Autobot symbols and it doesn't really tie him to any faction. 
The arms get a pair of simple blue and silver labels that, just like the ab section, break up the white.
The legs are a bit hit and miss , the little energon parts look great as do the previously mentioned rear lights on the feet. The "miss" parts are the blue parts on the leg. Nova prime usual has white or dark blue legs, Reprolabels did the sensible thing of not trying to cover the entirety of the legs in blue labels, they cover most of the front but there is grey plastic left on view from the front, quite a bit actually. It's understandable that they tried and didn't make it a crazy mess of a job to try and cover all of it. It's not awful but it's also probably the weakest point of the set. 

So we finally move onto the torso.
This is my combiner, there are many like it but this one is mine and his name is 

NOVA MAXIMUS
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The head gets the same treatment as the robot mode, energon on the top dark blue on the face plates, it looks good but it isn't the K.O punch for this mode. there is also a couple of dark blue panels on the legs, nothing major but like so much of this set it's a nice touch to break up the colours that are there.

​If you read the B.C Prime review you'll know that the chest WAS a blank expanse, Reprolabels knocked it out of the park here.
If you prefer your chest closed then you have the updated window stickers but if you prefer your chest opened you get small energon patches on the center chest, large energon patches in the "open" chest panels and a couple of gold labels on the un-paintable grey center piece. It's good but it did one more thing to finish it off and oh sweet Primus they delivered.

Nova Prime never had a "spark of combination" but he has had access to something else.....

​The center piece is now a swirling representation of the Dead Universe, The larger area has a more clear depiction of dark blue spots over the silver and the very center of it is a smaller label of black with dark blue spots. My photos won't pick the detail out but it works, it really does. My only complaint about it it is that it should have been bigger, looking at it now I almost wish there had been another label to go around the outside of the center piece.
It looks great but I want more Dead universe on there, more! MORE!

So I just want to add a little piece here before I wrap up about the label set. Now that I have a few more Deluxes I have a better choice of who I can combine Nova with.
I usually have him combined with Ironhide and Mirage for the legs. Prowl and Smokescreen for the arms. 
It does mean I have 3 silver hand/feet and one black but I barely notice.
I really like how the pairing of Prowl/Smokescreen looks as arms. Having the two car hoods poking out as giant shoulder pads really add's some bulk to the figure. I even put Prowl and Smokescreen's guns into Nova's hands to give him the look of big smoke stacks.
 At some point I'll be adding a set of the black Perfect Effect hands and feet, partly to make it so all of his hands and feet are the same colour, partly because I'd like to have the extra posability that the upgrade set gives you. 
It feels like he needs a melee weapon of some sort, a sword or an axe, but you would not believe how hard it has been trying to track one down. 
As of the time of writing this I've got an idea in mind but I don't want to pay 30 bucks for it (hooray for Ebay prices). I'll keep looking and hopefully I'll get something down the line. 
I tend not to give Nova Maximus his gun in combined mode. It doesn't feel right and I think even with a melee weapon it still wont feel right. It's usually split into it's parts and pegged into Prowl and Smokescreen so they're out of the way. 


So should you buy this label set? If you have a Battle Core Prime you should buy one of the three sets available, my vote goes with Nova that much should be obvious by now but Nova Prime might not be you thing, I emplore you, if you have a Battle Core Prime go to reprolabels/Toyhax and look at the 3 sets and buy one, don't leave your canvas blank. 
The guys at Reprolabels/Toyhax do some awesome work and they've saved many a figure for me in the past and this was certainly the case here. 

So that was my first label review, if you're interested click here and check out Reprolabels/Toyhax.

I honestly have no idea what I'll be writing about for next week see you then for whatever I decide to do.  


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Stu "Darkageis" Murray is a founding member of The Old Oilhouse, a lifelong transformers nut and collector of Sentai and Kamen rider in most of it's forms.

He sometimes takes epic trips and tells tales of these sagas often. 
When not watching people in spandex fight each other he paints miniatures, go HERE to take a look

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