TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

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

Batmanners' review of: Cybertron Runamuck

Name: Runamuck
Series: Cybertron
Allegiance: Decepticons
Function: Spy/Courier
Sub-Group: Earth Planet

"For most of his life, RUNAMUCK served as a spy and courier for MEGATRON, carrying messages to DECEPTICON warriors behind enemy lines. Since his leader's dissappearance, though, RUNAMUCK has been pretty bored. Too many AUTOBOTS around meant he couldn't get away with much. But now, with the AUTOBOTS forced into hiding on Earth, he's having the time of his life tormenting them by striking at vulnerable targets in front of a lot of human witnesses, where the AUTOBOTS can't counterattack."

I don't remember the first time I played with this figure, but when I went to my parent's a few months ago, my little brother brought Armada Sideswipe to me. I saw it and immediately, I remembered how to transform it, as if I had already played with it, but I don't remember ever seeing it. I also knew about the secret compartiment for his mini-con Nightbeat. Immediately, I offered him 10$ for it, to which he replied "No." So I gave up and stole "Liftor", Armada Smokescreen's mini-con. Back to Sideswipe... I transformed him and wasn't sure if I was done transforming him when I was, as this was the ugliest robot form I had seen in a long time. But nonetheless, I wanted him for the alt. mode which was cool. So I waited and seen that Cybertron was gonna come out with a remake of the Sideswipe mold under the name Runamuck, which is a name that was used in the G1 line...

Alternate Mode:
This entire toy is based on this mode. So it is obviously good looking. It's somewhat of an 80's style Ford Mustang, with a zing of Chevy Cavalier. The paint job is beautiful at first glance. Dark Grey, almost black, but not quite, with orange flames burning their way all across the bottom of the sides of the car. It has a sweet Supercharger protruding from the hood. It appears to have what street racers call a body kit on it, the front and sides have it, the back looks pretty stock. The rims are 6 spoke and are painted gold. the windows are tainted orange to help compliment the flames. One thing is for sure, the color scheme for this mode is excellent. The rear window has the Decepticon logo on it. That's about it as far as the visual description goes. Next comes the main problem with this mode. It looks like a loose puzzle put together to make a car. There's gaps going straight down the hood, two going down the back and they slipt both sides in the middle. The reason for the dual-split down the back is one of two special features. Hidden on the back of the car is a button, which flips a panel to reveal a roof scoop to add to the Racing modifications on this vehicle. The other special feature for this mode is the (ugh....) Attack mode. (UGH!) Insert a Cyberkey through the front of the supercharger and the hood springs forward, creating a useless mode! I have no idea how this is useful in battle... It ruins the car's appearance. Otherwise, this mode is an excellent display of what most car based Transformers should be.

Robot Mode:
Once transformed, Runamuck looks like an amazon.com picture of a midtransformation TF, but alas, you're done Transforming. He has big bulky legs with big wings on the sides. He has tiny thighs. His arms suffer the same problems as the legs do, with the thin biceps to go with it. It's very hard to pose, since no matter the pose, he looks ugly. Either hide him behind a good looking Transformer or keep him in vehicle mode. He's got the big supercharger on his chest, which makes it bust out. The head, is, well a head. No real effort made in this mold, no coloring. It's too plain for my taste. I've seen better heads in the G1 line of toys. A plus side to this is the fact that you can take the roof scoop off the rear panel and use it as his gun. Aside from that the arms have a click joint to rotate the arm up and down, which is ruined by the fact you can only tilt the arm about 30 degrees before the shoulder prevents you from moving it any more. The elbows have a ball joint, which, springs back into a straight arm no matter what you do to it. One thing that isn't said in the transformation book is the arms. They can still spring forward in robot mode. If they had installed a mechanism that makes it easier to activate, you could have a spring loaded punch which could have been used to say "He has awesome Melee combat skills" but I guess he doesn't, although, the arms will randomly spring forward as you toy around with him. Overall, if you have a good imagination, you can play with him. He doesn't have any special features, or any projectile weapons I love so much.

Conclusions:
As this review may make Runamuck seem, this toy sucks. But in all honesty, I like him. Leave out the robot mode for me of course. The fact that a vehicle mode can look so clean makes him worth buying. And the very cool weapon storage is more than just a gimmick, it's also a visual enhancement. The cyberkey function is a waste, that's really when you can tell this was a remold of a previous line. In robot mode also, I noticed that there was a mini-con switch on his back. I don't know what this switch triggered as it seems the mechanism has been locked from withing Runamuck. But I intend to find out on my little brother's Sideswipe.

Transformation: 3 - Some things can be hard to unclick, and you're not sure if you're done when you are.
Durability: 9 - Don't think it will break short term, and the fact that my little brothers still have theirs in one piece tells me something about him.
Fun: 6 - You could always have fun playing with him I guess...
Price: 7 - The Vehicle Mode is just that great...Being a Deluxe, I don't mind buying them.
Overall: 6 - Good toy, great for a present, not too sure about replay value haha.