Branded gaming peripherals and accessories are nothing new. Typically, these items have branding that includes things like esports teams, games and popular TV shows.
These products are aimed at fans of the franchises that are branded, and that's exactly what we have with the AndaSeat Transformers Edition chair.
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Often times though, branded products come at a premium price and sometimes aren't even as good as the original. Is that the case with the AndaSeat Transformers Edition chair? Well, read on and find out!
Packing and shipping
The first thing we'll talk about is how you can expect to get one of these chairs should you choose to purchase one. The box was fairly large, as to be expected. Though the box felt like a pretty average cardboard box, everything was in mint condition when it arrived. Everything was packed in plastic, with foam separating layers of parts. I would have liked to have seen a little more packing foam in the box, but that's a small thing.
Construction
Once I unpacked everything, I was met with a nice booklet with instructions on how to put the chair together. It was a pretty straightforward process and pretty effortless for the most part. I will say, putting the wheels in the base of this chair was incredibly easy. However they tooled the base of the chair, it was so nice. The only thing that was a touch difficult was screwing in the screws to attach the backrest to the rest of the seat. The screws were thick, and you had to fight with the leather to get the screw to catch. Otherwise a smooth construction.
Fit and finish
The fit and finish of this chair are pretty nice. The material of the chair is a PVC Leather material which feels nice to the touch. The armrests are a thin dense foam that feels fairly comfortable. The chair is relatively wide, which made for a solid fit right out of the box.
The chair that I received was the Megatron chair. Looking at the detail work, it seems that the Megatron seems to be printed onto the backrest of the chair. It doesn't have any texture, so you don't actually feel a lot while sitting in the chair. It does also seem that the print will hold up from being rubbed off over time.
The Megatron stitching on the front of the seat, and the Transformers stitching on the back of the seat are both tight and feel smooth. One small note of detail is that on the back of the backrest is a printed and stitched outlined Autobots logo. Given that I had the Megatron chair, the Decepticons logo would have been a bit more appropriate, but that's a minor nitpick.
The chair comes with a lumbar pillow and a head pillow. The lumbar pillow is a memory foam pillow with a nice cloth covering and a stitched-in patch. The head pillow is also memory foam and has a similar covering, but one thing that surprised me is that it's magnetic! It sticks right to the seat which I thought was a very cool touch.
Overall, after breaking in the chair for a couple of weeks, it felt alright. I am someone who has a very bad back, and generally sits in my chair for 12-14 hours every day. In all reality, this isn't a chair for someone like me. While the chair didn't hurt me any, it didn't help me either, despite having a nice Lumbar support pillow.
This is a chair that is great for someone who may be a bit younger or someone who is in a bit better physical shape than I am. But even in that case, the chair from a function standpoint, it's solid, but not mind-blowing. In its looks, it's lovely.
The price
Now one area where this chair is quite interesting is its price. This chair is a themed, branded version of AndaSeat's Phantom 3 chair. The Transformers chair retails for $400, whereas the base Phantom 3 retails for $450. It's quite interesting that the branded chair is actually cheaper than the base. But is $400 a worthwhile price for a chair like this? I think personally that it's probably $50 - $100 too expensive for what it is in a vacuum. But compared against the rest of the market, and possibly for the major Transformers enthusiast, I'd say that $400 is a fair price for the quality of chair that you get with the AndaSeat Transformers chair.
Overall, the AndaSeat Transformers Edition chair is a pretty solid chair. Nearly everything that it is and everything that it does is solid. Where the chair shines is in its build quality and clean looks. This chair is a great gift option for a lot of people, especially the Transformers lovers in your life, and at a decently premium price, you won't regret your purchase.
