TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:
Alternate Mode:
Box Art:
Technical Specifications:
STR
INT
SPD
END
RNK
CRG
FPR
SKL

Cliffjumper's review of: Tankor

Name: Tankor
Allegiance: Vehicon
Function: Vehicon General
Sub-Group: NA
"Among the winners, there is no room for the weak."

A giant power-tank Vehicon. Tankor exists only to crush everything under his treads that he doesn't blow up first. Simple-minded, Tankor is unquestionably loyal to Megatron - or so he wants everyone to think. In reality, Tankor hids his intelligence, playing the Vehicons and Megatron off of each other so that he might someday take sole control of Cybertron. He wields a flamethrower in tank mode, while head mounted energy lasers top off an assortment of heavy weaponry in robot mode. One of Megatron's three generals, Tankor is in charge of the powerful tank drones.

Tankor is a Beast Machines Vehicon of the Mega variety, released in around 1999. His namesake had a large, slightly controversial role in the Beast Machines CGI animated series, but for all those incensed by that, there's the solution that he looks absolutely bugger all like Mainframe's model. Tankor has a special place in my heart as he was the first figure I purchased since returning to Transformers. Well, not that special as he's soon to be dispatched to Germnay, but life's a bitch like that...

Vehicle Mode:
Tankor turns into a tankish thing. It's actually quite funky, and black, red and grey work well together. The shape's interesting, with an unusual skull-style turret. This has a whacking great big missile launcher on it that can be fired at unsuspecting partners from literally inches away, and the projectile has a nice moulded fireball tip which isn't at all tacky. The turret can also turn by spinning Tankor's head at the back of the tank. The alt mode also has a second variation, commonly known as the "Rahrr!" mode, whereby the front of the tank opens up to reveal two disappointingly small chromed blades.

As crazy futuristic tanks with skulls for turrets go, it's quite cool, truth be told.

Robot Mode:
This is generally pretty good... there's lots and lots of articulation [neck, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees], the legs are well proportioned, the chest superb, the head [complete with moveable jaw - beat that, Binaltech!] is awesome, especially with a light behind it to "illuminate" the visor, the turret works well as a back-pack, with the gun looking great either stowed down the figure's back or deployed on the shoulder... And then there's whacking great big monkey-arms. They just look rather silly, and undo much of the good of the robot mode. Also irriating is the way that he has no hands, just claws. It's a shame that the figure's so good most of the way, then is completely botched in one bad area.

Transformation: - 8. Not too complicated, but hardly Throttlebot-esque. You can learn it after a few times, but it's still good.
Durability: - 9. Good soldi plastic, with the usual ball-joint construction. Very sturdy, you'd have to really try to break him.
Fun: - 8. For one he's got a missile launcher, which never hurts. He's also poseable and can grip small Autobot scum heads in his silly claws.
Price: - 8. BM hasn't really held value, especially for the better known figures, so you could probably pick up a Tankor for considerably less than his original RRP.
Summary: - 8. There's a lot going for this figure, especially if you like the BM Vehicon looks, not all of which is blown by his silly arms.