Transformers Reviews

Lockdown

June 1, 2008 5:17 pm Ryan Animated, Deluxe, Toy Reviews

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Decepticon, and the tag cloud in the sidebar is telling me I should do another one. Grabbing the closest one at hand, I’ve got the bounty hunter Lockdown to review.

Lockdown’s vehicle mode is suitably intimidating, portraying death on wheels rather nicely. He’s got spikes on his roof, spikes on his bumper, spikes on his hubcaps, and plenty of other sharp surfaces to discourage the use of Detroit’s crosswalks. I’m not quite sure how a driver could be intended to see past that enormous engine that pokes out of the hood, but that could perhaps be part of the point. He’s slick, he’s low slung, and he’s just plain cool looking.

Transformation from Rolling Death to Robot

Remove the engine/EMP generator
Separate the rear end of the car into thirds. It’s a bit tricky. Swing the outer sides of the car down and pull the hood section off and set it aside.
Slide the legs out along the rails just behind the front wheels. Bend the knees, and then swing the front bumper sections around the wheel into the gap in the thigh. Swing the rear bumper around the rear wheel to form the front of the feet and do a 180 degree rotation at the waist.
Separate the halves of the remaining third of the rear section and swing them down on either side of the window sections. Unfold the arms, rotate them around at the elbows, and unfold the hands and shoulder pads. Yes, they don’t stick straight out from the forearm, and if you try, you’ll break his wrist like I (and several others) did. If you insist on breaking a wrist, make it the right one so he’s show accurate.
Pull the chest down, and swing the head out. Close the chest back up.
Unfold the hook from the hood section you set aside, and snap it onto the peg on the forearm. Arr!
Rotate the top of the engine/EMP generator 180 degrees, and push that very tiny button on the 8-sided peg to pop the prongs out. Snap it back onto the hook arm.

Holy crow that guy’s tall. He towers over voyager Bulkhead, and is probably going to be nearly as tall as a leader class. He’s just as intimidating in robot mode, with a few spikes still visible. He’s impressive looking, but not very show accurate. There just isn’t any easy way to get his mismatched limbs on the toy without making the vehicle look patchwork too. They settled for making the arms and legs different, but not in the same way as the show. The right leg has more grey around the exhaust pipes (rather than an all grey calf), and they’re higher on the leg. Also, there is a hexagonal kneecap with a dark red highlight, while the left knee is more diamond shaped and has a bright green highlight. The upper arms are different, with a mostly green colouration on the left and a mostly silver colouration on the right. On his body, he’s kept his nice mix of silvers and black with the bright green sections, and mixed in a nice military looking green. I find there’s a few complaints I have with the figure, chiefly the hands (I’ve got to file down that bit that keeps his hands from going out straight; I just don’t know what it’s for), and the knees. His legs, owing to the manner in which he gains his impressive height, don’t allow for proper bending at the knee. It leaves a lot to be desired in the posability department. His only real play feature is that the EMP generator he comes with is designed to be fit onto Ratchet, but it would be nice if he could “borrow” weapons from other figures more readily. Oh well.

Articulation Breakdown

Head - swivel neck (limited to about 90 degrees)
Arms - ball joint shoulders (with a couple of swivels left over from transformation that you could probably use), swivel and ball joint elbows (he can touch his shoulders!), swivel wrists/hook (very limited, and breakable if you try to go beyond their limits)
Legs - ball joint and swivel hips, swivel knees (limited to about 45 degrees)

Score

Deco: Rating: . He’s colourful, but suffers from missing paint applications that would really add some interest and show accuracy to him. I wonder how hard that black plastic will be to paint. I do really like the colours they used on him (dark red doesn’t get enough love), and overall he’s very visually engaging. I’d give him a 4.5 if he’d had a rubsign on his chest.
Posability: Rating: . His upper body is pure joy posability-wise. However, it pretty much goes to crap below the hips, and most poses are left rather bland because he can’t stand in very many interesting ways. Leg articulation is the foundation of dynamic posing, in my opinion. I’m going to punish him for that weak wrist in this category too.
Transformation: Rating: . Maybe my toy is rather odd, but some of the pegs can stick, and I worry that the paint on his front bumper is going to start scraping off when I put him into robot mode (also, the yellow paint on his hook arm). I could just be a worry-wart, but it’s troublesome.
Badassery: Rating: . He’s plenty intimidating, and pulls off the look of the evil bastard quite well. He’s got a contemptuous look sculpted into his face, a huge hook for a hand, and badass spikes all over.
Vehicle Mode: Rating: . It’s an impressive looking vehicle, and the EMP generator works just as well in this mode, which makes it rather fun.
Robot Mode: Rating: . He’s a got charm, he’s got intimidation, and he’s got lots of nice details that make him a pleasant figure. It’s really too bad about the fragile joints and lack of posability in the legs. Still, a rather nice figure.

Overall, Overall Rating: . Worth the buy if you like the look, the character, or just want to be a completionist. But for me, he’s just not fun enough to make him a “must have”.

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