Hey! It’s one of my very, very few Transformer toys that doesn’t have bi/trilingual packaging. That’s because this one was a lovely xmas gift from my wife’s relatives in the US. It’s interesting that you guys get the character bio on the card, rather than on the instruction sheet down there (I really wish it was on the instruction sheet for all of them, because it’s easier to hang on to that than on to the card or box). But hey, enough about the packaging, it’s time to talk about the TickSentinel Prime! (Feel free to hum the Tick’s theme song while you read this. I’m humming it while I type.)
Scale is not Sentinel’s friend here. He’s about the same size as all the wheeled deluxes, which means he’s either really small or everyone else is really big. Still, it’s a nice vehicle design, and at this time of year, a suitable one around here (I have yet to find a way to convince him to clear the road in front of my apartment - Hasbro, this would make a great gimmick for a future toy!). It captures the Animated design quite well, feels fairly solid, and has nearly no robot kibble showing. It’s a fun altmode, with a good roll to it, a plow that can be angled like a real snowplow would, and a mounting point so that you can store his weapons on the roof (which, admittedly, doesn’t really look very good). You can even sort-of kind-of get a V shaped plow by splitting the plow, if that’s your kind of thing. Read the rest…
Go big or go home! Wait, no, nevermind. This week’s desktop guardian is Movie Scout Armorhide (I will refrain from calling him Armourhide, no matter how much I want to).
Like all of the Movie Scouts, Armorhide is a redeco, in this case of Cybertron Armorhide (who dreamed that one up?). His altmode is a teensy weensy flatnosed semi truck with a tow truck attachment on the back. he’s got a nice black and yellow colour scheme that I think is going to look nice alongside Stealth Bumblebee when I get around to opening him up. He seems nicely proportioned, and is well detailed in vehicle mode, but I do have a bit of a beef with how flexible his back end is. The arm joints aren’t loose, necessarily, but there’s nothing but the friction in the ball joints keeping him from bending. It’s particularly troublesome when putting the gun/tow truck attachment in. Inserting his key into the back of the cab (this requires removing the tow truck attachment) will open the front of the truck up, and eight non-firing missiles stick out. Read the rest…
Oh my goodness. How did I let it slip for so long? Oh, right. “I’m busy today. I’ll do a review tomorrow, so it’s okay if I play SimCity or watch an old Animated episode.” Anyways, this week’s toy on my desk is Voyager Megatron from Animated.
This first Megatron toy in the Animated line turns into Megatron’s original altmode, the Cybertronic jet seen in that one scene in the pilot, to stand with Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime. He’s mostly black, with a fair dose of grey and translucent red. His fusion cannon is mounted so that it fires aft, presumably to deal with that backstabbing Starscream. It is, naturally, quite aggressive, and being a spacecraft completely free of anything remotely resembling aerodynamics. It also appears to have VTOL fans, for no other reason than they need to parallel similar constructions on his earth mode. I can’t shake a feeling that it should be flying backwards, probably because of that fusion cannon and the flow of the lines of the craft, but apparently that’s just wrong. Overall, I’d say that he’s got a nicer looking Cybertronic jet mode than his 2007 film counterpart. Read the rest…
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. Read the rest…
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. Read the rest…
Well, it’s another month, so I’ll do one I’ve been dying to do for a while now. It’s time for Voyager Bulkhead from Transformers Animated.
Bulkhead, like every Animated toy I’ve got so far, is pure joy in vehicle mode. He’s chunky, although he seems a bit smallish for a voyager. Maybe that’s just because I’m anxious to see the leader size figure later. He’s mostly a military green, with white stars that remind me of Hound for some reason. It’s mostly show-accurate, except for the dip in the roof between the arms and a couple of missing paint applications (golden yellow for the lowest pair of lights on the front, and black for the viewports in the doors. All things considered, it’s a really nice vehicle mode. Read the rest…
Wait! It’s not the one you’re probably thinking of. I decided to dig in the box o’ old Transformers, and pull out one of my eBay purchases from a while back, Bonecrusher from Beast Wars.
I’m not sure what to say about altmodes for a Beast Wars figure. Bonecrusher is a reasonable approximation of a buffalo, although I’m not sure that they come in a silver and black variety. I do know that they taste good, though. I’m pretty sure gold horns and red eyes are right out there. There’s not much posability in this figure’s beast mode, which is pretty common for smaller figures from the line. I guess the legs wiggle a bit. His real play feature in this mode is that pulling on the tail just right (it helps to tilt it down to get a bit more lift at the front) will cause the robot mode head to pop up and shoot a missile. Read the rest…
OK, because I grabbed him while fumbling around in the dark for a toy to review, today’s review is going to be about Dropkick.
Dropkick, despite being connected with the video game adaptation of the movie, is actually a pretty nice figure. His altmode is a very nice blue and silver Chevy Silverado (actually, it’s not licensed - I’m tempted to call it a Chavy Silverada or something like that, but that seems annoying to try to keep up). In the deco of the truck mode, he’s got what is possibly the biggest faction symbol in the history of the brand - it’s about half the length of the truck. Clever. The truck is lowered to an insane degree, and if I hadn’t seen people actually doing crazy things like that, I wouldn’t believe it to be accurate to reality (Autobot tip: to evade this Decepticon, find some speed bumps!). Unlike Ironhide, this vehicle features something I’ve never seen on another Transformer - the bed cover actually has a pickup bed underneath, and is removable. Very nice. The bed cover doubles as a “capture claw” type device, which is deployable through a spring-loaded cover in the tailgate. Read the rest…
OK, I can’t sleep, so I’ll hammer out a review. Because I love him, this time it’s Animated Prowl’s turn to take centre stage.
Prowl, like his G1 counterpart, is wearing police colours. Unlike his G1 counterpart, he’s also a motorcycle and a ninja. Sadly, the deluxe Optimus Prime is too large to ride him without looking silly. He’s got a nice looking gold and black deco, with very little robot showing through. At first glance, it’s hard to actually see where they might have stuck the robot in there. He rolls, he’s got a kickstand, he’s a good looking bike. The lightbar is a nice touch as well. But what else can I say about his vehicle mode? Read the rest…
Well, it’s another Bring Your Transformer to Work day, and this week I let my wonderful lady pick one out. I opened the bag this morning, and to my surprise (because I’d forgotten I’d bought it) it’s Jolt, one of the Walmart exclusive deluxes from the Movie line.
Jolt is a redeco of Cybertron Crosswise, according to the Wiki, and transforms into a Bugatti EB 15.4 Veyron. Supposedly. I’m not going to claim to be an expert on either Cybertron or Volkswagens, so I’ll take them at their word. It’s a nice looking car, at least, and the purple/silver/black colour scheme really seems to work on this mold. I’m reminded of Swindle, but I may be biased because that’s the colour I painted my spare. Nothing stands out from the vehicle mode as “missing”, except maybe “missiles”, but those can be added by inserting the key into the rear of the car. Voila, missiles (of the non-firing variety). If you want to shoot, he can fire a single spring loaded missile from his spoiler, but he’ll only hit targets behind him. If you want him shooting that missile at something in front of him, he’ll have to transform… Read the rest…
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