TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

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

Brave Maximus' Review - Roadblock

Faction: Decepticon
Function: Ground and Air Assault
Generation: One
Sub-Group: Ultra Pretender
"To show fear is to admit defeat"

"The malevolent master of mayhem. Crushes everything in his path with his studded, iron-steel wheels. The front runner for the Decepticon army and a locomotive of destruction. Armed with corrosive rust bombs that eat away enemy armor. Also equipped with high-intensity heat generators in exterior that provide thermal force field. Infra-red tracking and navigation and large scale fuel capacity ideal for remote controlled reconnaissance missions. Also armed with two proton shatter-cannons and hydralic battle ram equipped with acetylene cutters. Outer shell transforms to subsonic windcruiser armed with two plasma blasters"

Outer Shell
Vehicle Mode:
Roadblocks main outer shell is a green six wheeled road machine. The main colour for this toy is a light green. There is a lot of detail all over this vehicle, moulded in all over. There are eight silver stickers over it that give it some added detail, but as with all G1 stickers, mine are starting to peel. The cockpit area is a dark purple colour. Roadblock rolls along on 6 black and gold wheels, four are right at the back and the other 2 are just past mid-centre. These are of course plastic (as hasbro had switched to plastic long ago to cut costs), but it rolls along quite well on a flat surface. Now this isn't your normal Autobot car, Roadblock is a Decepticon street monster (I say street, cause with his ground clearance, there's no way he's going off roading). Roadblock looks like a runaway from Mad Max. He has a light purple\grey bulldozer scoop at the front to run through what ever gets in his way. It can rotate up and down to smash what ever you want. To soften up those weak Autobots, Roadblock has 6 cannons on his outer shell. His main weapons are two huge (for him) grey\purple cannons, mounted on top. Right below those are 2 small dark grey lasers, and off to the sides are 2 larger black cannons. Over all, Roadblock has a ton of firepower with his shell, more than enough to take care of what ever Autobots you put in front of him.

Robot Mode:
Well sorta, Roadblocks outer shell has one tough transformation, ready? Here we go - Take the main cannon on the back and pull it up. Now you're done. Yeap that's it, nothing more. In this mode, the inner robot can stand behind it and ride the shell like a modern chariot. It can also hold your Action Masters, the pegs are small enough. Moving on.....

Inner Shell
"Robot" mode:
The Decepticon pretenders have always ben monstrous creatures and Roadblock is no exception. He appears to be some sort of fishy monster thing, reminiscent of the creature from the black lagoon in body armour. His face is black with grey eyes and a clear blue visor. There is a fin on the back of his head, which looks better if you move it so it's standing strait back, further adding to the fish like appearance. He wears purple and black body armour, with gold and grey detailing. The sculpt is quite nice, with some good tube\piping effects around the chest and legs. He has a lot of pose-ability for a pretender shell (mostly thanks to his transformation scheme). Each arm has 3 points of articulation (shoulder, upper and lower elbow), and his toes can point down, so you can have a very ugly decepticon ballerina. The only complaint I have about this mode is the fact that his face is very flat and has no neck, making it look very inhuman and slightly weird, but considering that it's supposed to be a monster, you might not find it a bad thing. As for armaments, those 2 black guns on the outer shell can be placed in his hands.

Alternate mode:
Slightly more complicated than last time: flip the shell over, open up the wings, and flip up the rear fin. Next, rotate the arms 180and double the forearms on top of them. Take his toes and point them and move his lower legs sideways, so they move flush with his upper legs. Take the black cannons and place them in his upside down fists to give him some firepower. Now you're done. In this mode Roadblock is supposed to be some sort of flying vehicle, but looks more like a speed boat to me. It's quite small and squat. There's a big open area in the centre to place the inner robot, that even has a clear blue wind screen. It's colours are still black and dark purple, but you lose all the gold and grey in it. The main drawback to this mode is the fact that it's a pretender shell flipped over. Fly him around and all his "kibble" shows underneath. Still, it is kinda fun.

Inner Robot
Robot mode:
Wow, finally we get to the actual "Robot in Disguise". Just crack the shell open and pull out ..... This tiny little robot. No wonder Roadblock has 2 pretender shells, he's making up for a lack of size. Roadblock himself is about the size of a mini-spy (about the size of beachcomber actually), and about as articulate. His Primary colours are Gold (his upper body, head, arms and feet) and Grey (legs). His face is a baby blue and he has 2 stickers on his lower legs (which are suffering badly on mine). He's actually a nice little robot, once you get past the initial shock of his size. The sculpt is well done, with nice shoulder spikes and a tough looking body. The head is interesting, it looks like a helmet for a driver, but the face inside looks almost organic, with almost a little tiny mouth visible. As for armaments, take the small grey lasers from the outer shell (yes the ones with wings and thrusters, trust me, it will become clear soon) and place it in his hand. This gun looks large and odd in his hand. The big drawback is that the sculptors didn't add any detail to the underside, so it looks a little bland.

Alternate mode:
Ok here we go, another tough one. Raise his arms above his head, fold him in half and point his toes. Now take that odd little laser gun and place it in the hole just above the cockpit. Why not the hole in his head? Because it doesn't fit. Why? I don't know, it would have looked better, but ah well. Ok, well, this is an odd little vehicle, he's got two large gold wheels at the front and tank treads at the back (in grey). He's got a streamlined main body with a baby blue cockpit, and arms at the side. From the front the spikes look menacing and cool, from any other angle he looks like a robot folded in half. The grey laser thing at the top kinda looks odd the wings and thrusters look more suited to a flying machine as opposed to a road demolisher, but at least he's got some firepower, how many minibots can say that?

Poseability:
Well not a lot there for any of them. Typical for Generation 1. But in 1988 you would have thought that they'd progressed past it.

Transformation: 4 - most minicons are harder than this
Durability: 9 - other than the stickers peeling, he's survived quite well
Fun: 9 - 2 pretender shells, 2 transformers and lots of guns, oh yeah
Price: 6 - I haven't seen one on ebay for a while, but even then it was going for $50 US in worse shape than mine.
Overall: 7 - Not a bad toy in anyway, just kind of odd in places. The outer shell is worthy of the name Roadblock, looking like he could take even Optimus in a head on collision. The inner robot on the other hand looks as if he should be named Roadbump, being only intimidating to minibots and micromasters. Still a good piece from the end of the G1 line.