Transformers Reviews

Stockade

June 2, 2008 3:01 pm Ryan Deluxe, Movie Toys, Toy Reviews

It’s a tired day on Take Your Toy To Work day this week, and in my non-rush this morning I dragged Stockade in to harass my co-workers for the next week.

Out of the box, Stockade is similar to but technically distinct from the Sector 7 Escalades used in the movie. He’s mostly black, with heavily tinted windows and lights, silver detailing, an S7 emblem on his doors and a Decepticon logo on the grille. Pretty slick. I kind of figured an SUV would be taller (and scaled more closely to Ironhide), but I guess he wouldn’t fly as a voyager. Still, the silver details really make this a nice looking altmode, and the only real headscratcher for me is one of those pesky fuel doors on each side.

Transformation from SUV to Robot

Pull the hood section down. Separate the two halves.
Rotate the hood kibble to the back of each leg, and unfold the feet and heel spurs.
Fold the doors back to cover the rear wheels.
Rotate the two halves of the roof/window assembly out to the sides. Flip down the rear window sections and flip up the windshield sections. Bend the elbows, if you can.
Lift the license plate holder bit back, pushing the head out.

Now you’ve got your stocky Stockade ready to roll. He’s got a bit more visual interest in his deco in this mode, and the brown, grey and black work well. To keep it from being too appealing, they’ve given him a healthy dose of Allspark Blue because that seemed like a good idea for a line-wide gimmick. Pulling back on the grey sliders on his forearms extends his fists in what is billed as an “auto-punch”, but isn’t really fast enough to be called a punch. Still, points for having something other than “shoots missiles” as the play feature. He’s got an interesting sculpt, with an odd sort of light piping for the eyes that wraps around the head and doesn’t actually include the large area on the back of the head to pick up light. He’s got a lot of nice little tech details, but that doesn’t do much to distract from the fact that his torso is a huge square of solid plastic, and his limbs just don’t work. He’s got plenty of articulation, but all of the joints are impeded to the point that they just don’t work like they should.

Articulation Breakdown

Head - Ball joint with very limited up/down movement
Arms - Ball joint on ratcheted swivel shoulders, very limited double swivel elbows, slider wrists (auto-punch), swivel fingers (two groups on each hand)
Legs - Swivel waist, ball joint hips, swivel knees, extremely loose swivel ankles

Score

Deco: Rating: . I like the colouration (except that obnoxious Allspark Blue), but I thought that there was just a bit much grey on the lower legs. I think it’d work better as a small highlight on it, with more brown and/or black on the leg. That Decepticon logo on the left leg is a nice touch.
Posability: Rating: . I’m just not happy with the articulation on this figure. The weak ankles leave him barely able to stand, the shoulders are stiff and unresponsive, and the elbows are all but useless. It’s little wonder they didn’t include a picture of his robot mode on the box.
Transformation: Rating: . I actually rather like the transformation, except for the bit with the elbows. It’s simple, and has a lot of broad moves and interesting kibble placement.
Badassery: Rating: . He’s kind of tough looking, and the colour scheme (again, ignoring that slagging blue) gives him that “man in black” feel, but he ruins it with his inability to pose menacingly and “punches” that could be dodged by a narcoleptic snail.
Vehicle Mode: Rating: . It’s a nice, detailed “black ops” SUV, but it could really use being bigger, or at least taller. The proportions give it an awkward station wagon feel.
Robot Mode: Rating: . He’s got a nice head sculpt, and the really a nice sculpt overall detail wise. He’s really hurting in the torso department, as he has a lot of bulk on his back dragging him down. Maybe if some of that kibble had been used to bulk up the legs to better match the arms, I’d like it better.

Overall, Overall Rating: . He’s got a lot of potential, and I’d love to figure out a way to fix those feet and elbows. Doing that would push him over the edge into cool toy territory.

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