Toy Review Archives

[Blackjack]

But I claimed this!

Still, nice review anyway. A little deciation from the standard format is usually overlooked, although the pros-and-cons section might have to be integrated with the 'overall' section.

[Blackjack]

Name: Gears
Allegiance: Autobot
Repaint Of: Movie Stockade

Gears seems to be the one that no one remembers when designing a toy, which is rather surprising. As part of the original cast of eighteen Autobots in the series' first year, Gears had a rather high profile compared to guys like Cliffjumper or Windcharger or Sideswipe. He had an episode all dedicated to himself, something few Season One Autobots could attest to. He also got the third issue of the original four-issue miniseries all to himself, double-teaming with Spider-Man to boot. He even appeared in the movie (blink and you'll miss it!) sitting beside Ironhide before he heads off to the shuttle. Gears was scripted to be blown apart brutally alongside Windcharger by Cyclonus during the second battle of Autobot City, but the scene was dropped.

What went wrong for poor Gears? As of the end of 2010, every season one character has a Classics toy or at least, in Trailbreaker, Wincharger and Wheeljack's cases, one planned to be released sometime down the road. Even Windcharger, who is a glorified wallpaper flower with Magneto powers, got an Alternators toy in 2006-ish and will have a brand-new toy in 2011.

His name is also rather generic and hard to trademark, which would explain that ROTF's Gears is only the second toy to bear the name Gears, the first of course being the original toy.

Although I'll admit, Gears isn't exactly a memorable character despite his exploits. His alternate mode is an unconvincing red-and-blue pickup truck, his robot mode doesn't have much in lieu of coolness, not like Sideswipe or Sunstreaker. His head in particular is basically the bottom of his pickup truck. He doesn't have superpowers that'll make him memorable like Hound or Mirage. He doesn't have an interesting, memorable voice actor like Cliffjumper or Ironhide. He doesn't have an interesting role among the Autobots like Ratchet or Prowl. To make it worse, his character is basically a pessimistic, complaining jerk. Which kinds of overlaps with Huffer, only Gears does so to try and cheer others up (where's the logic in that?) while Huffer is just so desperately homesick.

He kind of pisses me off, actually.

But since Hasbro has discovered the power of homages—fans will more readily buy anything homaging G1—they slapped a hasty paintjob on a mold they haven't repainted before and sold it as Gears.

The mold in particular is Stockade from the first Movie line, who is a Decepticon based on the Sector Seven Cadillac SUVs. You know, the one that Optimus Prime tore the roof off? I wrote the review for Stockade back when I was a wee newbie. Eesh, that one could use a total revamp... but to make a long story short, I loved Stockade. Stockade doesn't homage anybody, he doesn't have any characterization other than basically being an dumb, brutish enforcer and IDW never bothered with any. Titan comics made Stockade cool by basically turning him into a leader of Decepticon renegades, but what actually made me fell in love with Stockade was fanfiction. Pun-3X's photocomic, to be precise. Stockade was so awesome there for that excellently executed fight scene that it's hard not to fall in love with him.

So when I saw Gears at half-price, I figured why the hell not? I loved the Stockade mold, and might as well complete my 'original Autobots' set. Which, by collecting figures from multiple lines to substitute for Classics toys, is nearing completion.

ALTERNATE MODE
Gears takes the form of a Cadillac SUV based on the SUVs that appeared in the first Movie, driven by Sector Seven agents. However, instead of being painted in that military black colour, Gears is painted almost entirely in silver. The front grill, and wheels are in black, and the windows, lights and sunroof is done in a sickly shade of translucent purple. Gray bits dot the kibble above the roof, while bronze trims the hubcaps. Red and orange for the back lights, and rather jarringly the third window is painted light blue, which stand out like a sore thumb. Gear decoes colour his side in green, and an Autobot insignia embalzoned in a gear motif decorates Gears' hood.

This deco is both good and bad. It does reveal some details that isn't visible at first glance with Stockade, for example the fact that the mold has a sunroof (something I didn't realize with Stockade until a couple of months later). However, unlike the sleek disguise for Stockade, Gears' deco does give a little too much hints that he is not a normal van. Also, the gear deco on the hood and the sides look kind of unprofessional. His name is Gears, I get it, yeah.

And the join lines. With Stockade's dark deco they are unnoticeable, but in Gears' silver skin they stand out so badly. That rear windows bug me too. In Stockade they are painted black to blend in with the shifty mood... and because it's not inconceivable for a shifty organization like Sector Seven to have blackened windows. But Gears' blue windows stick out like a sore thumb. Why not paint it silver, or purple like the rest of his windows?

Speaking of purple, I really dislike the choice made for the windows to be purple. For Stockade it is a more realistic and subdued blue, which works well with the black and hides the fists in the windshield. Here, Gears' fists are very visible on his windshield. Not exactly the best disguise out there.

Detailing is, as with all other Movieverse molds, superb. Although Gears doesn't really look real like Stockade or Bumblebee do, mainly because of the join lines that break him up so badly.

That gear deco aside, though, there's absolutely nothing to identify that this is the same Gears from G1. The original Gears turned into a garish, super-deformed red and blue pickup truck. While this is a silver SUV. But I suppose you don't see many red and blue pickup trucks on the road, and I for one am glad to be rid of that part of G1. Since the Stockade mold is sort of a shellformer, it hides the bright primary colours for the robot mode. No doubt the G1 purists would whine about it, but I for one welcome the subtlety. It's not as great as Stockade, of course, but it's still a serviceable deco.

Even though I hate silver cars.

ROBOT MODE
Gears' transformation is relatively simple for a movieverse Deluxe class toy. However, he still blends in pretty well in a group shot of Movieverse Autobots. However, despite the paintscheme, I can't bring myself to think that this is Gears. More of 'a colourful Stockade'. For starters, while the colours are there — bright blue, a thankfully subdued shade of red, and silver, they are all in the wrong places. For instance, the chest is totally silver with golden detailings around a blue background, which in turn is set on a silver-black background. Gears' chest should be red with slight silver and yellow detailings. His head is blue with a yellow faceplate, when it should've been silver surrounded by red. And the arms and legs likewise swapped around colour palettes and added golden into it. I don't mind the gold, but it distracts too much from the fact that this guy is supposed to be Gears. No. It doesn't work, and ROTF Gears look like a paint accident gone wrong.

He still looks a bit like an enforcer. However, unlike the threatening vibe you get out of Stockade Gears looks like a friendly and goofy one, kind of like Bulkhead. He has long, gorilla like arms (which could extend if you pull on the tabs) and big chunky legs. And that face instantly screams 'dumb drone'.

Articulation wise, Gears is average. He has shoulder, elbow, knee, ankle, thigh and waist articulation, which are normal trope for the Deluxe class toys. However, he is benefited by having a low center of gravity, allowing him to assume a wide range of poses with his huge hands. His hands can open to hold things, although the thumb's positioning gets in the way of putting a proper gun into his grasp.

He basically looks like a powerful gorilla, albeit a badly-coloured one. His fists are clearly made to punch people, which fits Stockade's enforcer persona. Doesn't work so well for Gears, though I suppose Gears should have a way to defend himself, right? He can't do anything, the poor sod. The other first-wave Minibots are all noticeable. Brawn and Huffer are miniature powerhouses. Bumblebee has his popularity. Cliffjumper has glass gas. Windcharger is Magneto. Gears just... complains about his stubby arms that could barely reach beyond his face. This Gears, at least, has long fists to clobber people with.

Once I got over the horrendous paintjob, though, I began to feel sympathetic for Gears. Maybe it's because I hated him, maybe because it's because I love the Stockade mold, maybe it's because he looked so sorry and pathetic with that ugly paintjob. Gears is starting to grow on me, though not in the way Stockade did. No, he is not exactly a Classics substitute for the G1 character, but he comes close to being one. And considering that his original toy was the worst among the six original Minibots, it's best that Hasbro didn't bother with reinventing him.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Durability: 8/10 The mold itself can survive lots of punishment, if Stockade is any indication. Since this is just the first redeco it hasn't suffered from mold degradation yet. The silver paint does seem to be able to scratch off easily, though.

Aesthetics: 6/10 As a homage or as a stand-alone toy, Gears doesn't fare well in the aesthetic department, especially when compared with the smooth black paintjob of Stockade. Trying to mix primary colours and silver makes him look like a broken puzzle. Gears doesn't have Stockade's fugly baby blue AllSpark power details, though, which is a good thing.

Fun: 6/10 I enjoyed the Stockade mold. It's simple, its gimmick is cute... extending gorilla arms. Call me immature but I love them. He's a great generic Autobot to add to your army. Now if only I didn't quite dislike Gears so much....

Transformation Design: 9/10 One of the prime examples how transformations could be easy yet functional at the same time.

Value/Price: 9/10 Clearance? Oh definitely. At full price I won't recommend this other than those rabid Gears fans (do they even exist?) but at a lower cost in eBay and you want to complete your Classics collection, this is a great substitute for the original.

Articulation: 8/10Very useful, although the head can't actually turn properly. He can strike a lot of poses, especially punching people. And he has a great center of balance.

Overall: 7/10 This mold is one of those charmingly nice ones. Not horrible, but not spectacular either. A perfect troop builder. Gears does give a decent Movie/Classics-style update to the original mold (which, even though I love Minibots, has a horrid characrter model). There are some faults, though. I'm one of those guys who like a version of every character I care about, and while I don't like Gears, it's nice to have one of him around when my Megatron needs someone to brainwash or something. Not worth picking if you already have Stockade, though.

[Warcry]

Name: Insecticon

Insecticon has teamed up with Ravage to hunt and destroy Autobots before, but never with as much satisfaction as he feels this time. Bumblebee has been an annoyance to them both. It will be a pleasure to sink his pincers into the soft internal wiring of the Autobot warrior.

Loosely based on the tiny insectoid Decepticon that spied on Sam and Mikaela in the Revenge of the Fallen movie, Insecticon is probably the only character in the history of Transformers whose toy is bigger than the character it represents. As depicted on-screen he would be the size of a small Minicon toy at best, but he's been promoted to Scout class in the toy line. His bio even implies that he's large enough to be a threat to Bumblebee, so presumably in the tech spec bio universe he either mass-shifts into a much bigger robot or turns into a huge, unsubtle insect.

In spite of the name, he really doesn't bear much resemblance to any of the original Insecticons, or to the Beast Wars and Energon characters who've used the name.

Robot Mode:

Insecticon is packed in robot mode, and if we're being brutally honest he doesn't make much of an impression. Aside from his wings, which are translucent blue, his entire body is bland grey. His shoulders, insect-mode mandibles and codpiece are a light, neutral grey and the rest is a darker grey with a hint of green in the mix. He has silver paint on his face and his eyes are red, and that's the end of his colour palate. Screen-accurate or not, I'm not sure how Hasbro thought this colour scheme would sell many toys.

Insecticon's proportions don't do him any favours either. He's extremely hunchbacked, almost comically so, with a huge hump on his back and shoulders that are on the same level as his chin. He doesn't have normal humanoid arms either, eschewing them in exchange for two wicked-looking clawed appendages on each shoulder. His arms and legs are skinny, and his wings stick out like a sore thumb no matter what you do with them because they're the only part of Insecticon with any colour. I prefer to have them hanging down like a cape, but they can be posed up in 'flight position' too. But no matter what you do with them Insecticon is going to look pudgy, comical and nonthreatening.

The only positive in robot mode is that Insecticon is very, very posable. His wings can be repositioned and each of his four arms have three points of articulation. His legs have four, including ankles, knees and double-jointed hips. His head is on a ball-joint as well, but its movement is restricted by his huge hump. The arms are the best part here, and make him some fun to play with. It's very easy to imagine Insecticon throwing himself at a larger foe, furiously stabbing and tearing away at them with his claws until there's nothing left. And because his arms are so well-jointed, you can actually act it out. Unfortunately, his shoulders don't lock into place at all which can make posing the arms a bit of a chore. Cool, but not enough to save the robot mode.

Alternate Mode:

Insecticon transforms into a six-legged robotic insect of some nondescript variety. His colour scheme is basically the same as it was in robot mode, with the addition of two tiny Decepticon symbols at the base of his wings which were much less noticeable in robot mode. The colours work a lot better here though. Insecticon looks like some sort of industrial abomination more than a Transformer, and strongly resembles the spiderbots from Deus Ex. I keep expecting him to start skittering around and shooting lightning at a man in a leather coat, but it never happens. Boo!

Unfortunately he's not nearly as posable in beast mode as he is in robot mode. All of the joints are still there, but just by dint of being an insect, there's very little you can actually do with the legs before he stops looking like one. His wings can swing forward and back and his head can tilt up and down, but that's the extent of his alternate-mode articulation. Insecticon's beast most isn't bad, but it's not especially impressive either.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation Design: Surprisingly simple for a Movie toy. Unfortunately, the end result in robot mode leaves a lot to be desired. He could have done with some more complexity, like locking shoulders and the option of giving him normal arms. 4/10

Durability: Insecticon is basically nothing but joints. Parts will pop off but it would be hard to break him unless you're trying. 9/10

Fun: His claw-arms are neat. Not much else going for him, though. 5/10

Aesthetics: Blech. 1/10

Articulation: He shines here, it's hard to deny that. You'll have a hard time finding a Scout with as many joints, if only because you'll have a hard time finding one with as many limbs. 8/10

Price: He's a Scout, so he's not expensive. There are undeniably better toys that could be had for the price, though. 6/10

Overall: M'eh. Insecticon isn't terrible, but I honestly can't see any reason to recommend him. He's stunningly bland and mediocre, and completely forgettable. If you absolutely have to have the mold, wait for the redeco. The colour scheme literally has to be better than this one. 4/10

[Transformer Kamen]

Nice review.

Dirge is one of the few figures from the current batch that I'm interested in. Good to see that he's not going to be a waste.

*Woooo. I even remembered how to upload this stuff!*

[Blackjack]

Welcome back, Kamen!

Lighter workload, wheeeeeeee!

[Blackjack]

Uploaded. Nice review.

Got him this morning. Shame, really, that he's not really a good in toy terms. I really would love a great Insecticon toy.... ah, well. Those arms are creepy enough...

[Warcry]

That's what happens when you don't pay attention to reviews.

I'd kill for a new Octopunch or Tentakil with arms like that, though.

[Blackjack]

Yeah, shame on me.

Movie Frenzy with hands like that would rock, too. But yeah, an Octopunch with that kind of arms would be kickass.

[Blackjack]

Name: Dirge
Allegiance: Decepticon
Sub-Group: Seekers; Generations Deluxe Class
Function: Warrior
Repaint of: Henkei Dirge, which is a remold of Classics Ramjet, which is a remold of Classics Starscream
Accessories: Missile Launchers (2x), Missile (2x)

"Fear is the element that unites all losers."

Ah, Dirge. Poor, poor Dirge.

See, Dirge was part of the second set of Seeker jets. This trio had all new wings and guns, and they are drawn and portrayed with their coneheads pointing upwards to differentiate them from Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker. However, the Coneheads were mostly background characters. The only one with any sort of major appearance was Ramjet in his IDW spotlight issue. Otherwise, Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge are either background crowd, or cannon fodder. Dirge, in particular, had a habit of being killed, moreso than Ramjet or Thrust. Appropriate, since Dirge's name basically means 'funeral song'.

While Ramjet rams into jets (duh) and Thrust basically has a crappier version of Thundercracker's power, Dirge actually has a cool super-power that would've been awesome if used. Dirge could emit a hum or frequency that caused fear in others around him. That, combined with Dirge's awesome name, had made Dirge stand out among the rather uninspired Coneheads. The RPG further solidifies Dirge as my favourite Conehead. Now if only Dirge got to use his powers more than once in his appearances...

Dirge's career was very undignified, even for a background character. In the cartoon, he was your standard background Decepticon goon who never got anything cool to do. In the 1986 Movie, Unicron totally ate him and his Conehead buddies... but Dirge showed up fine in Season three, only to be killed by Ultra Magnus alongside Ramjet. Both Coneheads would reappear later in Season Three, though, despite a marker being made for Dirge in the Decepticon Crypt. In the comic, none of the Coneheads actually did anything significant. Dirge did use his fear power. Once. In the US continuity Dirge got blown up by Serpentor in the GI Joe crossover. Rather stupidly too, I might add. The UK continuity ignores the crossover, so Dirge kept cropping up as a background character, although the guy never did anything much. In Devil Due's GI Joe/Transformers series, Dirge was killed by a solar satellite. Someone forgot he died, then he reappeared again... to die. The BotCon exclusive Classics comic had Dirge be brainwashed and later killed, even though he was one of the exclusive toys that year. In the Dreamwave comics reboot of G1, Dirge appeared as a background character constantly, and surprisingly he did not die. In the G1 title, that is. In the Armada series G1 Dirge cameoed as one of Unicron's heralds. He was blown up. IDW took the license, but Dirge was killed in his first appearance... without even getting a line. In a flashback, to boot.

Dirge's namesakes didn't fare better. The name Dirge was reused in Japan's Beast Wars II for a Predacon jet. I haven't watched the series but apparently Dirge was basically cannon fodder. Not even an upgrade into a mutated half-zombified wasp and a rename into Dirgegun could save him. In the G1/BW Timelines 'Descent to Evil' fanclub exclusive set, an Insecticon named Dirge was included. He was a generic, and as such in the accompanying fiction he wastes no time in getting pasted. Dirge's Shattered Glass version did not fare better. A cheerful soul, SG Dirge apparently worked for Alpha Trion's cultists, and got himself killed by a bunch of guys who were supposed to be part of the Thirteen or something. In Animated, Dirge was a toy-only character, a clone representing Starscream's greed. ROTF gave us a new mold homaging Dirge in the Movie aesthetic, but in his appearances Dirge always gets the shaft, so to speak.

Poor Dirge. Still, despite never doing anything, the Coneheads benefit from the fact that the Seekers have a cult following. And since all Hasbro needed to do was to retool/redeco the Starscream of the line, they are always happy to oblige. Thus, this trend has been carried over to the Classics line. Ramjet was released in the first Classics line, and both Thrust and Dirge were released as BotCon exclusives, as well as store exclusives in Japan. For Dirge, the BotCon exclusive (horrendously expensive in eBay) was nothing more than a simple repaint of Ramjet, while Henkei casted new wings to better homage G1. The Henkei version wasn't cheap either.

Hasbro seems to want to piss on the fanclub exclusive things, though, since they released Thrust as part of the first wave of Generations. Dirge followed soon afterwards, and that's where I got him. I have a weakness for Seekers, even though I've got several copies of this mold.

Now Dirge is part of my growing Classics/G1 collection, ready to be bifurcated by the Autobots whenever I muck around with my toys.

ALTERNATE MODE
Dirge transforms into a modified F15 Eagle Fighter jet. The proper shape of a F15 would be like Starscream and his repaints, but Dirge had gotten himself new wings. two large triangular wings jut out from along his engines, and the tips end up pointing perpendicularly. Two smaller wings that honestly doesn't seem to be able to do much good are placed further forwards. I remembered reading somewhere that the Coneheads' alternate modes were based on real prototypes for modified F15 jets which were unproduced. No idea if this is true, but Dirge is cool-looking nevertheless.

Dirge's main colour is a shade of blue that is comfortably deep enough without being too close to black. His wings are yellow with a slight golden tinge. Black colours his nosecone, the inside of his cockpit, the sides of the cockpit, the afterburners and several other bits are coloured black. The sides of his air intake thingies are done in a darker shade of blue, but it's not noticeable. Unlike his G1 self, Dirge has been decorated a little, with a red-and-white motif through his two wings. No idea what that's supposed to represent other than being just cool. Two Decepticon insignia are placed on the larger wings.

My Dirge has a erroneous Decepticon insignia — the white triangle in the middle of the crest is missing. This was fixed in later samples of Dirge, but it pisses me off anyway.

Like Thrust, Dirge came with the two missile launchers that originally came with Starscream. They're attached under his wings, naturally. This is a little bit of a shame, since Dirge would've looked more like his original toy if they had included Ramjet's big honking missiles instead. But you can't have everything, can you?

Seen from the bottom, well... Dirge doesn't really try to hide stuff. His face is as plain as day under his cockpit, while his robot mode torso and hips are very evident. But then, he looks excellent from the top, which is what really counts, right? The vehicle mode is made out of pure win. Dirge looks like his original design, only better because his wings are now actually attached to his body instead of hanging out by a bit.

ROBOT MODE
In robot mode, Dirge doesn't quite look as messy as Thrust, mainly because the dark blue, black and golden yellow all complement each other well. More black appear in this mode, since most of his chest, his lower arms, his crotch and his shins are all black. Part of his shoulders are golden yellow as well. Red and silver appear in subdued tones, too. Blood-red for Dirge's optics, obviously, and on his feet and a bit on his waist. Silver colours the detailing on his lower legs, the interior those things beside his head and the chinks of armour under the turbine. A tiny Decepticon symbol (also an erroneous one like before) is tampographed on the center of his chest.

Unlike the original Dirge toy, the long wings aren't a single piece, which allows posability. The larger wings stay stuck on Dirge's feet like Ramjet (which look rather silly if you want to be brutally honest) while the smaller ones can fold up a bit and stay attached to Dirge's back. This, so far, makes him my favourite among the Seekers in terms of appearance... even if he does look like he's wearing flares.

Dirge's face is cast in a gray that's almost stone-like, and he looks like a morose stone statue if you look at him too long. The cannons can attach to the sides of his shoulders, but the one on the left is so loose (like Acid Storm's) that it would fall off without warning. The cannons could be held on his hands like guns, but that isn't GEEWUN enough.

Dirge has about the same amount of articulation as the other Classic Seeker molds. Head can swivel, he has shoulder, elbow, wrist, thigh, knee and limited ankle joints. Respectable but a bit weak compared to the better Deluxe class figures nowadays. Still, this does allow Dirge to form a lot of poses. As a bonus, unlike the other Seekers there are no wings behind his back, so he can have a better range of movement.

That's about it, really, that I could say without repeating what I have done for Thrust or Acid Storm.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Durability 7/10 Unlike Thrust, Dirge feels slightly flimsier. The joints feel weak and the peg hole on his left shoulder is very, very loose like Acid Storm's. Can we say 'mold degradation'? Although considering how many times the mold had been used, I'm surprised it had managed to stay this long.

Transformation Design 8/10 The Classics Seeker mold is well-done. What else is there to say?

Aesthetics 9/10 Excellent representation of Dirge. There's absolutely nothing wrong with him... bar the Decepticon insignias. Gah.

Articulation 8/10 Okay-ish, I guess. He's got the same points of articulation with Starscream and Thrust, but compared to more recent Deluxe class offerings I can't help but feel kind of shafted.

Fun 7/10 Dirge a fun addition as a background goon. He is a fantastic addition to your Classics Decepticon forces.

Price/Value 9/10 I got him cheap at a Christmas sale, so he's worth it. The fact that I have three issues of the Classics Seeker mold doesn't matter.

Overall 8/10 The Seeker mold is great, and Dirge is a great representation of his character. Sure, not everyone would want to buy Seeker molds, but Dirge is worth getting if you have the cash. For fans of Dirge, or completists in general, this Generations toy is a must-have. And it's much cheaper than importing the Henkei or BotCon one from eBay to boot.

[Blackjack]

Name: Tracks
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Warrior
Sub-Group: 2010 Transformers Deluxe Class
Accessories: Heat Seeking Missiles (2x), Missile Launcher Black Beam Gun

"Looking good is what life is all about."

Tracks is one of the Autobot cars released in the second year, alongside Grapple, Skids, Hoist, Smokescreen, Inferno and Red Alert. His personality is basically similar with Sunstreaker, an egomaniac that loves his bodywork too much... only Tracks isn't a cold-blooded psycho.

While in the comics he's basically your average Autobot — a couple of nice moments of characterization, but no showpiece moments like, say, Nightbeat or Blaster. Tracks evidently was popular enough to make a comeback in the Earthforce stories, though.

Tracks is a semi-major player in the season two. He appeared out of nowhere in the background, but he later on got an episode to himself, where he got carjacked by a street punk named Raoul, but the duo managed to foil the Decepticons' plot-of-the-day. I think it's the one where the Constructicons tried to create a drone army from junked cars. Tracks' ability to form a flying car proved immensely useful, and as such he was often utilized. Also, he's got this funky 'black beam gun' that shoots darkness. No, really. However, Tracks' voice actor caused some fans to say that Tracks is gay, a meme that's stuck in the fandom. No idea how the hell that's supposed to happen. Tracks isn't gay, people! I never got the joke. He never showed any romantic interest in any male characters. When I saw all the gay jokes on Tracks, I was like, 'Guuuh?' Tracks isn't gay, people—his voice actor was just trying to mimic Thurston J. Howell III from Gilligan's Island, and it's supposed to sound snooty.

What was interesting (other than his narcissism) was his flying car mode. The cartoon advertised this at every possible opportunity. A Corvette with wings doesn't exactly look practical compared to, say, Jetfire or Powerglide or Cosmos or Swoop. But it looked funky enough that it made me laugh out loud when I first saw it. He's called 'Turbo Tracks', by the way. Because Tracks cannot be trademarked, so it needed a prefix. Though with the whole 'Reveal the Shield' thing, instead of plain old Autobot Tracks or Autobot Kup, we get more flowery names like Turbo Tracks and Sergeant Kup.

Tracks was evidently quite popular. He was one of the few 1984/5 characters revived in the UK Earthforce comics, and he got an UK-exclusive Action Master toy, and is one of the Autobots who got an Alternators toy, and finally this classics toy. A separate character named Tracks was introduced in the TF: Animated series, heavily based on the G1 character.

Now I was never much a fan of Tracks. I know he exists, and that Corvette alternate mode is pretty sleek, but Sunstreaker always looked better to me, probably because of Sunny's appearance the IDW comics. But I can't resist buying such a well-designed toy, if the pictures in the net are anything to go by. Plus, Tracks is blue, a colour I love.

In short, Tracks' narcissism is justified with this toy. Well, almost...

ALTERNATE MODE
The original Tracks transforms into a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. It's a sleek, beautiful car, something that still looks good twenty-something years later. I mean, if the Stingray—well, an updated version of it—is good enough to be used for a Transformer in the large screen, namely Sideswipe. It's a role that should've rightfully been Tracks'! Anyway, due to legal reasons Hasbro obviously isn't allowed to use the Stingray design for toys outside the Alternators and Movieverse molds.

So Classics Tracks transforms into a generic-ized sports car.despite not bveing a Corvette Stingray per se, to an untrained eye (like mine), he looks close enough to his original toy, even better, that it doesn't really matter. It's like Tracks had updated himself. His sports car alternate mode is really sleek, and sets him apart from the others. Tracks' narcissism is well-justified... he is a brilliant car. How many other Autobots turn into a vehicle mode with that sexy shade of blue? The one who leaps into my mind is ROTF Jolt, and he's kind of plain next to Tracks.

Tracks is mainly that deep shade of blue, with black windows. His front air vents are painted a shade of metallic gray, his headlights and hubcaps silver, the back lights are painted red and there's a silver dot on the back of his vehicle mode where the Corvette symbol should be. Instead of a single flamey-flower Hot Rod-esque decalon the hood, Tracks' decoration have been updated. It's a bunch of waves, still done in his trademark yellow and red, but they are no longer flames. They are still distinctive enough to scream 'Tracks', though.

On top of Tracks' roof is a black rubsign, since the insignia on his hood decoration from G1 is gone. Well, you and I know that Tracks is an Autobot, but the wee li'l kiddies don't know that, right? So they rub the sign and 'Reveal the Shield'. I'm serious... rubsigns is the line gimmick. Well, it's better than stupid AllSpark power random baby blue decals everywhere.

He rolls on the floor nicely, and you can clip the two admittedly tiny missiles onto the sides of his car mode. This interferes with rolling, and admittedly looks kind of dumb. But it's a place to store your weapons, right?

One problem I have with Tracks is that the back part of the car often comes up. If you're uninitiated with his transformation (like I was when first opening), it is a chore to figure out how the arms are supposed to fit in, which might lead to breaking your toy when you try to force it in. Once you have transformed Tracks once or twice, it's easy, though.

WINGED CAR MODE
The original Tracks toy, as I've said, had a winged car alternate mode. Basically it involved attaching his weapons, and flipping out his arms and wings from his underside. Now since the new toy doesn't have the arms and wings in the same position, it had to get... inventive.

You pull out the doors and put them sideways, and flick out the tiny white-and-red wings inside. It looks pathetic, really. Why couldn't they paint the insides of the doors white and red so that Tracks actually looks as if he has wings? It really doesn't look like he could fly... but the fact that they included it in without much cost to the robot and alternate modes give it a kind of a bonus.

In this mode the missiles clip into notches that slide out from the back of the car, evoking the G1 design. They are not such a tight fit, mind. While not documented in the instructions, the missile launcher (well, black beam gun since this is Tracks, but it's really Wheeljack's missile launcher) can be plugged onto the underside of the vehicle mode for dogfighting action.

Nope, the flying car mode fails, but the effort is commendable. I guess that's why it's not advertised in the packaging and only the instructions... it's only for old school fans. Nice, in the fact that it's not a total mess.

ROBOT MODE
Tracks' robot mode, in person, looks so much like G1 that it hurts. Okay, so maybe the wings are too short, the missiles are too small and the large car mode roof looks like Tracks has tucked out his shirt... but Tracks is, so far, in my opinion the Classics toy that is closest to his original toy compared to the others. I mean, look at him, and then look at the original design. Gigantic roof aside, he's perfectly a more articulated replica of the G1 robot. The placement of the wheels, the head, the missile launchers mounted on a gray square... everything is almost slavish to the G1 appearance that it makes me wonder how Hasbro could churn out rubbish like Classicsverse Cheetor and Galvatron and Tankane if they could create something as great as this.

In this mode, Tracks has gained a little more white, red and black. His entire lower legs are dominantly a metallic shade of gray, with blue mixed in and a little bit of red for details. It's a good thing they didn't copy the stickery design from the original toy, which is stupid. A rather pale shade of metallic yellow colour the side of his shoulders and his groin. His upper arms are white, his lower arms are black with red stripes. Tracks' face looks like a knight of sorts, with a red face, blue eyes and a white helmet. Regretably the area around the eyes aren't painted red and are left white, so it looks as if Tracks is wearing a domino mask. There is light-piping, but I don't think it works well.

Overall his paintscheme screams G1, but Hasbro has enough sense (or maybe cost-cutting) not to include those ugly stickery details from G1, modernizing Tracks and making him look much better.

If you don't transform his wings properly, they will pop off when you attach his backpack kibble, or else hinder Tracks' hands articulation. So watch that. Tracks has quite a range of articulation. His head rotates, his missiles (on those funky clip-on things also found on Straxus) can aim up and down. Tracks has a ball joint on his shoulder, his elbows are double-jointed and his wrist can rotate. His hips can rotate—the car roof can angle forwards to allow articulation. Ingenious. His thighs and knees are naturally articulated, as is his ankles.

Tracks will be retooled with a new head and weapons into Wheeljack, something I didn't see coming. But they fitted it in well... Rotate Tracks' hips so that the hood is pointing outwards, and you can just see Wheeljack. And the upper wheels positioned sideways, I guess. It's just like Sunstreaker/Sideswipe, only it's the lower body that is rotated here, not the upper.

Size-wise, Tracks stands around the same height (a little shorter) compared to the other Classics Deluxe Autobot cars like Prowl, Mirage, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Ironhide etc. And he feels right at home with them. It's just like G1 again.

Tracks can strike a number of poses, and due to his hand molded in a semi-open position they look normal, unlike Prowl or Sideswipe's fist-with-a-hole thing. While the missiles must clip on the posts behind Tracks' head, the black beam gun, or Wheeljack's missile launcher (whose tip is chromed) can be held in either hand through a grip that's basically your normal hand-peg hole. It can also be clipped onto the posts, so Wheeljack can have his missile launcher in the proper position. Thus Tracks can hold other people's weapons. Like Grimlock's bayonet, or Starscream's missile launchers, or Drift's swords. But why do that?

Bottom line, Classics Tracks is a great toy and a near-perfect representation of his G1 character. It's just like how Tracks would want it. The character has suddenly made a larger impact to me than before due to this toy. Definitely one of the better highlights of the 2010 Classics line. Highly recommended.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Durability: 7/10 Tracks' door-wings pop off with relative ease, and this worries me. With repeated transformations the joints would get loose. Also, they often clash with the backpack in robot mode. While there's no danger in scratching his bodywork (much to Tracks' joy), the flame decals might be torn off with rougher play.

Aesthetics: 10/10 Tracks would sue anyone who says otherwise. Domino mask or no domino mask.

Transformation Design: 10/10 Ingenuous. Slavish to G1, fun to do, gives a great robot and alternate mode, and is able to represent Wheeljack to boot.

Articulation: 8/10 Standard fare for Classics figures, really. Above-average, sure. But not exactly a figure that screams in articulation.

Price/Value: 9/10 I don't feel cheated, yes. He's everything what a Deluxe class toy should be.

Fun: 9/10 Accessories, articulation, excellent robot and alternate modes, narcissistic character, plus he's a flying car. He's perfect.

Overall: 9.5/10 Well? He's a great addition to your Classics Autobot forces. A must-have, and a better substitute to those Binaltech/Alternators toys. Plus, he's bright blue, breaking up the monotonous white and red in your Autobot ranks. If you want more GEEWUN and don't mind paying extra, the Japanese version has no rubsigns, chrome and the flame deco are lifted from the G1. But I'll stick with this. Tracks is a work of art. And he'll kill anyone who says otherwise.

[Blackjack]

[optimusskids]

Nice

I can see Reprolabels issuing something to rectify the Door/wing issue fingers crossed.

[Blackjack]

Yeh.

Haven't seen the Japanese Henkei United version, but apparently it would be the same. With the price of having that garish original GEEWUN solid flame decal, though.

For some reason I like this kind of modernized decal better.

[Blackjack]

Name: Mindset
Allegiance: Cybertronian Empire Decepticon Autobot
Repaint of: 2010 Hailstorm
Accessories: Missiles (8x)

"How can they believe these puddles of organic matter are life at all? To consider them capable of even the most basic creative thought... is quite laughable!"

So, with Hasbro realizing that even wacky obscure fan-favourite Transformers like Straxus would be a big hit, they decided to make a Mindset toy. Now if Straxus was obscure to you, Mindset will leave you wondering 'Who the hell is this guy?' Mindset is a generic in the Generation 2 comics. Now G2 introduced a new faction called the Cybertronian Empire, or otherwise known as the second-generation Decepticons, a vast legion of generic Decepticons who could reproduce asexually that have conquered a huge chunk of the universe whilst our friendly neighborhood Autobots and Decepticons were duking it out on Earth and Cybertron.

Since the Cybertronian Empire didn't get toys at that time, they were mostly nameless cannon fodders. The main Imperial guy was Jhiaxus, who is simply amazing. And we have Rook, Jhiaxus' yes-man. And Liege Maximo, the big bad behind Jhiaxus that would've been the main villain had G2 continued. But we also have Mindset.

See, another villain was introduced in G2. When the Imperials do their unholy method of budding, they create some leftover stuff that mutate and became the Swarm, an all-devouring... well, swarm. Mindset was a luckless high-ranking, brilliant, xenophobic Imperial commander in the midst of ordering his troops to kill off the humanoid organics in the planet Karn. The purpose of killing the organics? To draw Optimus Prime out. Nothing else. Cold. Then the Swarm attacked. Mindset literally threw everything his troops could muster at the Swarm, but the Swarm devoured all of Mindset's troops. Mindset transformed and tried to fire at the Swarm, but it was hopeless. As he was consumed, somewhere across the galaxy Onslaught doubled over in pain. It's probably a hint that Onslaught is Mindset's father or something, but never explored upon.

That's the sad story of Mindset. The token named redshirt (well, green-and-silver shirt if you want to get technical), given a few lines before dying. He's a rather pragmatic soldier who hates organics, illustrating exactly the Cybertronian Empire's views. A nice enough role which makes Mindset more memorable than other comic-exclusive guys like Fang or Macabre, but he still can't hold a candle to the legendary comic exclusive guys like Impactor and Xaaron and Straxus.

But Hasbro made a toy out of him anyway. They released an all-new mold done in the Movie aesthetics of a guy called 'Hailstorm', who is supposedly done to represent Mindset. A couple waves later, Hailstorm was redecoed in light blue and black as Mindset. While Hailstorm's green colour is closer (but not an exact match) to his comic appearance I couldn't grab ahold of him, so I had to settle for this new Mindset to appease my curiosity.

However, this Mindset is in the wrong colours. He is light blue and black, while the original Mindset was white and metallic green. There's a little blue-green, too, but unless the deco guys are colour blind, well, I think this is a foiled homage.

Hell, I would've never guessed that Mindset would have a toy made out of him, even if it doesn't really look like the comic design other than the alternate mode. I mean, sure, he is more toy friendly, but the fact that he got an all-new mold before Jhiaxus? (Yeah, I know Jhi's got a repaint of BM Jetstorm way back in 2003-ish, but that doesn't count) I mean, Jhiaxus literally carried the arc for the Generation 2 series, whilst Mindset was a redshirt who appeared to die. I'll admit that Jhiaxus isn't exactly toy-friendly. I've heard someone describe Jhiaxus' robot mode as 'a Seeker on steroids without kibble' and his alternate mode as 'the secret love child of Starscream and Scourge'. But Jhiaxus is iconic and- ah, forget it. Let's talk Mindset.

The Mindset toy is released as part of the 'Reveal the Shield' subline that has rubsigns as its main gimmick. Yes, the same things from twenty five years ago. Which is why we have names like 'Demolitions Rumble' and 'Solar Storm Grapple' and 'Special Ops Jazz' instead of putting Decepticon and Autobot in front of their names. I mean, it's obvious to you and me that Tracks is an Autobot and Scourge is a Decepticon, but kiddies will be surprised.

Mindset sure as hell will surprise you.

Rub the sign... and instead of a Decepticon insignia, he has an Autobot one! DUN DUN DUNN!

At first I thought Hasbro screwed up. Then I looked at the biography and packaging carefully. Mindset was clearly meant to be an Autobot. His packaging even went so far as to state that Mindset's mind is so set that he hates the Decepticons for trying to change Cybertron. So I guess it's a separate character. Or it's just Hasbro's way of messing with our mind. Whatever. Regardless of allegiance (I say he's a double agent!) the geek in me forces me to compare this Mindset to the original Mindset.

ALTERNATE MODE
Mindset transforms into a multiple missile launcher tank similar to G1 Flak or Cybertron Scattorshot. However, unlike most Movie aesthetic molds designed to homage G1 characters like Brawn or Bludgeon or Seaspray, Mindset's alternate mode doesn't particularly look realistic. Wacky colour scheme notwithstanding, Mindset doesn't look as realistic as the other multiple missile launcher tanks. For one thing, he's got this upraised cab thing you'd expect from a construction vehicle (like ROTF Demolishor) or a missile carrier truck (like G1 Onslaught). And it's a rather huge chunk, too, in front of the tank, and the windows would mean that he's a positively huge-ass tank. Now I may not be the expert in military hardware—heck, I can barely tell a Ferrari from Lamborghini apart unless they've been used in Transformers fiction, much less fricking tanks—I don't think that huge black block disguised as a grille in the middle of the tank's front would exist in a real life tank. It's a shame because this glaring piece of kibble could've been easily avoided by making his feet shaped differently. As it is, well, he just looks weird with that block between his cab.

Also, do these tanks come with cabs? I mean, I know Onslaught-esque carriers that bring around multiple missile launchers, but do tanks have cabs like a construction vehicle? Wouldn't the drivers be better protected inside the tank body itself? Furthermore, the missile launcher can't come down fully to point horizontally forwards, something that these vehicles should damn well be able to do. Why? Because the silly cab is in the way. It doesn't look right, that's all. While I appreciate Hasbro trying to set this apart from the Cybertron Scattorshot mold (which have been repainted several times recently), well, frankly adding a huge chunk of a cab doesn't really do the job. It's one thing if it was done properly, but the block in his front looks messy from the front, and is a pain to get into position when transforming him from robot mode.

This is made worse because Mindset's original alternate mode design in G2 doesn't have a cab.

That aside, Mindset is a pretty nice tank, even if he's light blue. The whole missile launcher piece is block-coloured black, as is the center of the blocky front section, tank treads, and some bits of the robot mode that show. The little light on top of the cab is red. The interior (wheels) of his tank is coloured brownish silver, as is some bits of his robot mode that show and a piece of joint at the sides of the missile launcher. Not a pretty good colour scheme; Hailstorm was better looking and more realistic than this. Hell, Cybertron Scattorshot was coloured bright blue and he looked better than this. Instead Mindset just looks dull and uninspired, as if Hasbro wants to try every other colour in their palette. Which is a shame, since if coloured properly (i.e. a realistic military colour or a proper homage to the original Mindset) it would certainly look better.

The original Mindset's alien missile launcher mode had four arranged in a horizontal manner. Now understandably Mindset tries to be more realistic, and his missile launcher thing has eight—four on each half of the ensemble, arranged into two layers. Now while the missile launcher's main body is piss-poor with that webwork that showed that it isn't a solid piece, I have to commend the designers for making the Mindset/Hailstorm mold the first multiple missile launcher that can actually fire its missiles. All eight missiles could be fired by pushing on the end of the long missiles that jut out of the launcher ensemble's back. It doesn't go far because it's one of those pressure activated things instead of spring-loaded, but kudos to the designers for making it work. Now, if the missile tips were silver like on Hailstorm's instead of solid black in Mindset's...

The missile launcher ensemble can rotate 360 degrees around its axis, although the blocky section at the front with a cab restricts it from pointing backwards. It can swivel up until it stands perpendicular to the tank. Nice feature, but the general chunky mess of the tank's body doesn't particularly make this enjoyable.

ROBOT MODE
Mindset's transformation is pretty unique, and I'm pretty sure it's to make himself distinct from the scores of tankformers we have been getting lately. However, the original Mindset was a fairly generic robot with no tank treads visible on his body and his missile launcher ensemble on his back like a backpack. Oh, and the original Mindset had a visor and a mouth, and his head was rather generic-looking. That was the original Mindset. What about this one?

Even when you ignore the colours, it doesn't look a thing like Mindset. The gigantic, hulking arms that seem to sprout a few inches lower than where shoulders should be, legs that have to be displayed in a Dreamwave crouch, a face that look like a puffed-up version of ROTF Sideswipe's head, a horrendously fake-kibbled chest (i.e. they stuck the thing from the ugly cab/front block onto his chest despite it not being formed by the cab)... this Mindset's missile launchers end up above his shoulders as well, although you could have them arranged into the backpack (he literally has a pouch-like backpack kind of like Animated Wreck-Gar as the result of the transformation) like in vehicle mode, to make him look more like the G2 model. And to prevent the idiot looking like he's been speared through the shoulders with the long tail-end of the missiles jutting out from the square parts of the missile launcher that end up above the shoulders.

Mindset can still fire his missiles, whether the launchers are arranged in backpack mode or the silly looking above-the-shoulders thing that the instructions recommend you to do. Oh, sure, it looks neat. But when you put in the missiles... I do quite like the backpack in this mode, though. Store all the missiles in it and it looks as if he has a quiver. Now if only it weren't so holey...

Generally, Mindset's design is quite a mess. His tank treads fold up into his upper hands, and his lower hands (painted silver with a touch of gold), which barely fit onto the underside of his tank, hang low. His chest gives him two red lamps and some golden paint applications, and a bit of shoulder kibble is coloured gold while Mindset's face has silver paint applications. The fake movie-verse kibble thing fails miserably. While proper movie designs, or toys designed to look like them, seem fluid, Mindset is just a mess with all the pieces. And the blue is just so dull.

Mindset's articulation is decent. His head is on a ball joint and his neck can crane up, something of a rarity, but ultimately useless considering that Mindset's heavy bulk around his head kind of renders this unnoticeable. His missile launchers can rotate if in 'backpack' mode, his shoulders are on a relatively unobstructed ball joint, and his elbows are double jointed. His thighs are on ball joints, and his knees are on a weird double joint.

Ah, his knees. Probably another method to try and make Mindset unique. Displayed straight, it makes Mindset look disproportionate and rather stiff-legged. But unfurl the knees, and you will find out that to balance him, you have to display Mindset in something akin to a Dreamwave crouch. Although with his short legs and gangly, thick arms Mindset does look kind of like a gorilla.

Mindset's face looks like ROTF Sideswipe's face, puffed up and slapped around a bit. Definitely nowhere near the generic face that the original Mindset had. Hailstorm (who had a different face) at least had a face that looked quite badass, unlike this Mindset, whose face looks like some village idiot. Bottom line—Mindset looks nothing like Mindset. And he's not exactly a good toy to boot, either.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Durability: 8/10 For such an ugly toy, he's an articulated brick. The missiles might break or get lost, though.

Transformation Design: 2/10 They tried to make a new transformation design, but it fails. Transforming to vehicle mode is frustrating, since the arms and the cab thing and the groin section compete for a space that can only be fitted oh so very precisely. And don't get me started on balance issues.

Aesthetics: 2/10 Blah. Vehicle mode is marred by having a too-chunky main body, and a blocky cab-thing in front that is not necessary at all. Robot mode is worse, with messy, unattractive fake kibble and an ugly head.

Articulation: 5/10 Only so average. Kudos for featuring double knee and elbow joints and a craning neck, but rather useless since it's rather redundant. His knees can't be used without making him do a Dreamwave crouch, for example.

Price/Value: 3/10 Seeing what they could do with Deluxe Class toys from his wavemates Jazz and Tracks, and even older toys, I feel robbed.

Fun: 4/10 The missile launcher is fun, and he is a nice generic with his hulking, Igor-like stance, but there's no hiding the fact that he's a rather piss-poor designed toy. He doesn't even look like the original Mindset; I can't stress this often enough.

Overall: 1.5/10 No. Vehicle mode and robot modes are both messes. It might be forgiven if he actually does look like Mindset, but neither the design or the colour scheme are remotely close other than the position of the missile launcher. Hailstorm isn't a great substitute either, since his face is also far off. I suppose I was hoping too hard, which is a shame considering the success Hasbro did with Straxus. But I guess you can't have everything. I mean, they didn't even bother to get his allegiance right, much less his paint scheme...

[Blackjack]

Egad, that's a looong rant. And to think the reviews on toys I actually liked (Dirge and Tracks) were shorter than something I hated like this...

[Blackjack]

Name: Battle Blades Optimus Prime
Allegiance: Autobot
Series: 2010 Transformers Voyager Class
Accessories: Ion Rifles/Fuel Tanks (2x), Matrix of Leadership

"At the end of the day, one shall stand, one shall fall."

The Optimus Prime from the Movieverse continuity was the very first Optimus Prime I saw, considering that I was introduced to Transformers during the live action Movie brouhaha. Thus when you say 'Optimus Prime', the first image that came into my mind is the supercomplex, long-nosed cab, fire-decorated, retractable-faceplate Optimus Prime from the movieverse. Sure, the iconic, original Optimus Prime from G1 is great and all, but movie Optimus Prime always has a special place in my heart. Why shouldn't he? He's everything G1 Optimus is and more. He has all that heroic stuff — noble, leader-like, ready to sacrifice himself, unwilling to give up etc, etc. Plus, he is voiced by Peter Cullen. Plus, he is a literal force of nature if the Forest Fight and the Mission City battle are anything to go with. Slice hack slice slice shoot shoot stab punch stab slice... when he's not tearing faces apart, he's also a deadpan snarker, and totally badass. I love him.

Plus, he has these twin swords that are simply made of pure win. That, added with the sheer awesomeness of heroic speeches mixed with trash talking and stuff like "calm down calm down" delivere d by Cullen's impressive speech... and his amazing design, mouth included. I am part of the minority that loved Optimus' mouth. It looks wrong in G1 Prime, but on this super complicated design it looks just right at home.

However, despite that I never had a proper movie Optimus Prime toy. I missed out on the Leader and Voyager class toys for the original Optimus, and Legends class hardly counts. I got the 'First Strike Optimus Prime' repaint, but that was a G1 homage. No flame decals, and the guns are lame. And the gazillion of uninspired repaints that followed suit aren't much better either. None of them have a sword, damn it!

So First Strike Optimus had to substitute for the local Autobot leader for my collection. Well, I got Alternity Convoy, but he wasn't a truck.

Come the second movie. None of the Voyager class toys (repaints from the first movie mold) impressed me, while the Leader class toy, while reputably a masterpiece, was simply too expensive in this part of the world. So I passed them on. Then came the Transformers line in late 2010, where Classics, Movieverse and other random molds get thrown into the mix. One of them is an all-new 'Battle Blades Optimus Prime' toy. Sure, he doesn't have a gun, but he has two blades. And he looks miles better than the crappy Voyager class Optimus Prime from the first movie. After buying the new molds they gave for movieverse Bumblebee and Ironhide, I was suitably impressed, and decided to give Battle Blades Optimus Prime a shot. After all, judging from the pictures on the internet, he is one awesome toy. Plus a Voyager class toy is totally in my budget. To make a long story short, at a Christmas shopping spree I got him.

Now Optimus can go on a rampage to beat the crap out of Megatron and Bonecrusher and Starscream and Grindor (well, Blackout) and Demolishor and Fallen and whomever I feel like being hacked apart by Optimus. At last, my collection is complete!

In short, if you don't have the leader class toy (which is a gem) get this Optimus Prime. I'll tell you why.

ROBOT MODE
"Give me your face."
Optimus Prime is packaged in robot mode, to fit with the new Voyager class box. No longer are they unwieldy, long boxes that show off the vehicle modes, now they display transformers in all their robot mode glory. And truly, Optimus Prime deserves that. His robot mode is simply spectacular, translating the super-complex CGI model perfectly into plastic, something only the Leader Class toy have managed to done so far. And he does this while still being extremely faithful to his original design. I mean, compare the movieverse versions of Ratchet, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Starscream, Megatron and Sideswipe to their G1 selves, which whom they shared a common archetype. In fact, I daresay only Optimus Prime, Jazz, Brawl and maybe Long Haul are anywhere close to looking like their past counterparts, Optimus being the closest to his G1 counterpart.

I will try to describe Optimus as best as I can. Let's start from the top. Optimus' helmet is blue, his eyes are blue, and his nose and faceplate, as well as the grille on either side of his faceplate, are painted silver. This is exactly like G1, only more stylized and more complex at the same time. To be faithful to G1, the two front windows of the truck end up as Optimus Prime's chest, where the chest muscles should be in a human. The smokestacks are also conveniently placed near the shoulder, to evoke a sense of G1-ness. From then on, though, the animators and designers work their magic. No longer is Optimus' chest a solid block, but rather there are pieces that move around. The side windows angle forwards, those windbreaker things angle downwards... all of them are reflected onto the toy. And that's just the chest section.

The stomach and waist/groin are basically faithful replicas of the kibble seen in the movie. Extremely bristling with details, yet it does not look too busy as to detract from Optimus Prime's full design. His arms are faithful replicas as well, with those triangular things sticking out beside his smokestacks, and his shoulder being on a ball joint. Those silver things from the fuel tanks end up show-accurately beside the triangular things. His biceps are relatively thin, while his lower arms are thicker. This is a great move, so Optimus doesn't look all blocky, and the ball joint shoulder and thin biceps makes it clear where his hands are in action scenes.

Down to his feet. His feet are as detailed as the rest of his body, which is a far departure compared to previous Optimus Primes, where feet are basically where the long part of the semi truck cab go to. It's detailed, with equal parts armour (like the things sticking up on his knees), non-distracting kibble (the steps, the wheels). The lower legs are so beautifully sculpted that I am simply astounded. It's a pity that his feet are slightly off model, but it's probably about the last thing I'd care about. You get 85% of the robot mode as a near perfect duplica of the CG model, surely a little mis-matched feet is not going to kill you?

Instead of following the ever-classic red upper torso, gray waist, blue head and feet formula from the original G1 Optimus Prime, movieverse Optimus Prime doesn't do that. Sure, he still retains the basic colours and general body design, but the colours are spread around a bit more. After all, solid red and blue really isn't something anyone would take seriously in a live-action movie. So you improvise. Where it is iconic, the colours are left alone. Like, for instance, Optimus' helmet is still blue. But otherwise the red and blue are evenly spread out, and there's a heck lot more grays too. Ideally this would've been better if every gray part were painted silver like in the film, but Hasbro has a thing called a budget. Optimus' chest... well, the front part of his stomach and the area around the windshield are red, but the sides of Optimus' head (the cab's roof and sides) are blue. The rest of the things are done in gray. Smokestacks, the sides of the stomach, sternum, ball-joint shoulder, smokestacks... some parts, like the biceps and triangular shoulder pieces, are cast in dark gray, while some are painted silver, namely the fuel pipe thing on his shoulders. Optimus' lower arms are red as well, while his fists are gray. His crotch is mainly black, with darker gray superimposed on it. His thighs are light gray with blue decals, while two tires hand off each side of the tire. The lower legs are mainly blue, with the stairs painted silver, and inner parts of the legs coloured gold and light gray. The ankle had a red-and-blue kibble around the wheel hanging there, while the feet are light gray.

There's quite a bit more gold in this toy, most noticeably on the lower legs and the bits that holds the rear tires to his thighs. And a bit on his stomach. In the CG model gold was only used for the joints. Probably to break the colour palette up, something that is done pretty nicely. Overall, Optimus Prime looks as grand as he was in the big screen, and oh so accurate. Let me illustrate.

The pieces of kibble with the large fuel tanks end up on Optimus' back. The toy doesn't have to do this, but they slanted the pieces anyway to form a 'V' shape because the movie did this. Same thing for the rear wheel ensemble being able to angle backwards, or the wheels in his ankle able to be rotated a bit to more closely resemble the CG model. Little bits like that. Also, he has a very tiny molded insignia that's suspiciously similar to the Autobrand just below his sternum.

Oh, and the weapons. You don't talk for a half-dozen paragraphs about how Optimus Prime looks without mentioning his weaponry and articulation. The main selling point of the toy would be the two battle blades. Optimus' battle blades, or energon swords, have gained somewhat of a cult following his brutal usage of them. It first got a use in the first movie when Optimus' hand retracted and the sword came out for all of five seconds in order to stab Bonecrusher's head off. This was based on Optimus' energon axe from the G1 cartoon, but obviously a retractable sword is much more practical... and awesome. So much that it was used multiple times in the tie-in comics and the games. ROTF had Optimus Prime going all liberal with his sword, and then cranked it up to eleven. Forest battle: Optimus had just gotten his face bashed in by Megatron, who then proceeds to taunt Optimus by threatening to kill Sam. As the excellent Steve Jablonsky score speeds up to his crescendo, Peter Cullen's oh-so-perfect voice spoke out the immortal line: 'You'll never stop at one.' Saying this, Optimus Prime unsheathed a second sword. Then 'I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON!' Cue Optimus Prime going beserk like a force of nature, attacking without abandon as he sliced around, tearing his way through Megatron, Starscream and Grindor, chopping off arms, stabbing, tearing out chunks, ripping Grindor's face apart until he was finally stabbed in the back and killed by Megatron. He was revived, and when he engaged in battle against the Fallen, guess what he did? Yup, he used his sword to slice the Fallen's face. And then he impaled the Fallen with the Decepticon's own staff and told him to GIVE ME YOUR FACE.

Psychopath Prime, maybe. But those swords were simply awesome. And Hasbro immediately cashed in by letting the Leader class toy have those swords (and on a later retool the hooks he used to tear Grindor's face) in addition to his classic arsenal of guns. Regrettably, Optimus Prime's sword dowsn't store well when folded upwards. It causes Optimus' elbow to be unable to bend since the sword gets in the way with the blue piece of kibble hanging off his biceps, but it's okay. Why store the swords when you can deploy them full-time? As a bonus, the fists can be retracted, so Optimus doesn't have both fists and swords out at the same time. The swords aren't nearly orange enough for my liking, but the two-bladed, almost axe-like shape is awesome. And the fact that Optimus has enough articulation to strike badass poses with them...

What's that? Not a sword person? You like explosions and big guns instead of slicing and dicing? M'kay. Optimus Prime never fails to please. Like in the movie, a huge chunk of his fuel tank is stored on his back. He can reach out to take it, and it transforms into his ion barrage launcher. The barrel flips up, and Optimus Prime can hold two guns at once (like the sword, in the first movie Optimus only had one gun but he now has two as of ROTF). Optimus can hold one gun in each hand, obviously, and the tab isn't the standard 5mm circular thing, either. It's much thinner and is rectangular. Guess Optimus doesn't like others sharing his guns. It's a shame that the gun don't exactly look like the gigantic rifle that the CG model has, but it's a nice enough extra that's evidently added late in production (it's not advertised). So you get all of Optimus Prime's weapons! The guns store on Optimus' back, but the pegs are so loose that they fall off with a little jiggling. A pity, this, although another piece of kibble hanging off Optimus' butt does help to support the stored rifles with a little arrangements.

Articulation. Now Optimus Prime doesn't pull the punches. His head can rotate 360 degrees, and his neck can crane up due to his sternum being detachable (more on that later. His shoulder is triple jointed — the triangular bits are hinged, the ball shoulder are obviously ball jointed, and the biceps are on swivel joints. His elbows are hinges, and his swords slide out. Sadly, his waist is stationary, but it's hardly noticeable with the articulation we get on his legs. His thighs are double jointed with ball and swivel joints, and the wheel ensemble can detach partially to allow free movement. Ace. His knees and ankles are both double jointed, on hinge joints sideways and front-and-back. This allows more durability than a ball joint, and more sturdiness as well. Indeed, Optimus can strike almost any pose with those badass swords and guns. Crouching, leaping, kicking, even simply standing still... His balance is just that good. Truly, he is an impressive work of art.

He's got great looks, kickass articulation, badass weaponry, great balance, show-accurate... what else could we want?

Oh, yes. THE MATRIX. While the movieverse Matrix of Leadership was basically a plot device to bring Sam and Optimus back to life, it gets included here. Move some layers around a bit, lift the aforementioned sternum up, and pull the stomach piece down. A pedestal vaguely similar to G1 Prime's Matrix moves up, and on it is the movieverse Matrix Dagger, cast in gray. No, it's not black. It is removable and does nothing other than getting itself lost and letting you spend hours looking for it on the floor, but it is a neat little accessory.

ALTERNATE MODE
"Autobots, I'm in pursuit."
Optimus transforms into a long-nosed Peterbilt truck. It's about the largest semi truck cab out there, and the only one with enough mass to form a forty feet tall robot. The main body of the truck is blue, with red flame decals. The 'nose' and the things protecting the wheels are red (and slightly orange) decorated with blue flames. Everything else is either black, gray or silver. A tiny Autobot insignia is molded onto the front of the grill.

Optimus is a near perfect replica, as you would expect from a Movieverse mold. Everything is in its right place, and he looks just as he was on the screen. However, the gun parts form the fuel tanks, and they simply refuse to stick to Optimus' main body, since the tabs are a wee bit too big. Nothing a little force and maybe shaving wouldn't cure, though. It's also a bit jarring to see the smokestacks being coloured both silver and gray at different parts.

Those complaints aside, though, if you transformed Optimus properly (swords are a little pain to get into place) he is amazing. He rolls very well on his six wheels, and looks as if he could barrel through anyone if needed be. Sadly, unlike the robot mode there isn't particularly any showcase moment that I could associat with the truck mode.

That's about it for truck mode. What else can I say? I could write an essay on how a long nosed cab with flame decals looks vastly superior to the flat nosed G1 alternate mode aesthetically, but I don't want to ire the GEEWUN fans. So...

Marks out of ten for the following:

Durability 8/10 Optimus Prime feels quite durable. The Matrix will go missing due to its small size, and I'm worried that the swords might bend (or worse, break). The side windows also seem fragile, but otherwise he's durable. Granted, I haven't dropped him yet...

Transformation Design 9/10 Beautiful transformation, although there are some quibbles — like the odd choice of tabs for the guns, and there are some bits where transformation might be improved for better handling, but it's perfect anyway for something his size. And most importantly, it's fun to do. Not a chore like Leader class Optimus Prime. Shame that the guns don't stick so well...

Aesthetics 9/10Again, nearly perfect. Minor quibbles like gray being used instead of silver, the swords not orange enough and the fuel tanks and smokestacks being different colours, but both robot and vehicle modes look like they walked out of the screen.

Articulation 8/10 Above average for a Voyager class toy. The awesome knees, in particular, and his great balance, allows a great range of free-standing poses.

Price/Value 8/10 I don't feel cheated by buying this toy, so yeah.

Fun 10/10 I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON! Come on, he has swords, he has guns... all you need is a Fallen, a Megatron, a Starscream, a Blackout Grindor and a Bonecrusher for an organ-ripping orgy.

Overall 9.5/10 What is there to say? Awesome robot and vehicle modes, great posability, great weaponry, additional Matrix included, and... what the hey, he's Optimus Prime! He rips faces off. He shoots people. If you don't have leader class versions, this one is supremely better than anything the Voyager class can chunk out.

[Paul053]

Nice

I can see Reprolabels issuing something to rectify the Door/wing issue fingers crossed.

Reprolabels already have it. It's fairly nice but not on the door/wing issue. That also makes me wonder, how come they can have Tracks' stickers so fast but not yet have Jazz's.

To Blackjack, Tracks' link on the toys main page is in blank. Nice review. Thanks.

[Blackjack]

Oh dear, bit of wrong renaming.

I'll fix it as soon as my computer gets out of the repair shop, thanks for the heads-up!

[Blackjack]

Name: Repugnus
Allegiance: Autobot
Repaint of: Cybertron Undermine
Accessories: Power Mace/Tail, Jungle Planet Cyber Key

So, as with the tail end of any Transformers toyline, as the Cybertron series began to fade out, the line was padded with repaints of earlier wave toys alongside new moulds. Some of them were original. Like, say, Brushguard or Hightail. Or, failing that, upgraded versions of show characters. But many are homages to transformers from past series. Swindle, Cryo Scourge, Smokescreen, Runamuck... and Repugnus.

Repugnus was a repaint of one of Scourge's two minions in Jungle Planet, namely Undermine. Apparently, Repugnus is Undermine's brother. But because Undermine is one of Scourge's two main flunkies, Repugnus drove Undermine away from their swampy home territory, just because he hates Scourge so much. He values freedom and all, you know? Pity that Repugnus never made it into the show... this alone would've made him a much more interesting character than, say, someone completely banal like Clocker or Snarl.

Despite supposedly being a homage, however, this Repugnus doesn't bear much resemblance apart from some colours to the original Repugnus (who holds a special place in my heart due to his kickass name) who transforms into this hunchbacked, sickle-armed, bug-eyed, reptile-headed cockcroach-lizard-thing. The second Repugnus toy (who may or may not be the original) is a Fuzor of a praying mantis and a lizard, a repaint of Beast Wars' Buzzclaw. Definitely a decent substitute for the original Repugnus, something that I can't say for this toy. Fortunately, this guy has his own charm.

I got Repugnus in 2009, way after Cybertron ended. The reason being Hasbro repackaged the surplus toys of Repugnus, Ransack GTS and Scattorshot in a three-pack and released them as a Walmart exclusive for the Universe Classics line. Compared to more modern toys, he obviously doesn't stand up that much, but he's cute enough. Plus, the name 'Repugnus' is irresistible.

BEAST MODE
Repugnus transforms into a robotic spinosaurus, the lead dinosaur villain in Jurassic Park III. Well, a very, very rough approximation of it, anyway. The real spinosaurus has the fin on its back like a crescent-ish shape, kind of like a fan. Repugnus, meanwhile, has the fin shaped like a shark's fin, in a triangular manner. The dinosaur geek in me frowns at this.

However, fin shape aside Repugnus is a pretty decent representation of the spinosaurus. His head, in particular, and the general build of his body puts newer toys like Classics Dinobot to shame. It's exactly what you would expect a dinosaur to look like, giant mechanical shark fin aside. Also, it is kind of refreshing to see a different dinosaur.

Oh, and at the tip of his tail Repugnus has a spiked club. I definitely don't need to tell you that real life spinosaurus don't have that, do I?

Repugnus' main body (his head, torso, abdomen and tail) is black, and his neck has red stripes. His eyes are baby blue, while the inner part of his mouth, as well as his thighs, are painted with a rather dull metallic bronze colour. The mace on his tail, the sides of his chest and some parts of his legs are red, while his arms and feet are orange. His big fin is mainly orange, with the rims being silver and the decal (some kind of sword-ish pattern) is red. Well, maroon, actually. An Autobot insignia is tampographed on his left thigh. Reportedly Repugnus was supposed to be branded as a Decepticon until someone at Hasbro realized that the original G1 Repugnus was an Autobot, so a hasty faction swap was done.

Repugnus has a decent range of articulation. Two hinge joints on his neck, and his mouth can open and close. His arms are hinged on the shoulder, his tail is articulated at three points so it can flex up and down, and he has four joints each on his legs. A respectable amount for a beast mode, nearly the same with Classics Grimlock and putting Classics Dinobot to shame. (both of whom are Deluxe Class toys) That, combined with his highly realistic beast head sculpt—none of those goofy heads like the toys for the G1 Dinobots or some of the BW toys—Repugnus looks positively menacing.

Of course, the gimmick of the Cybertron line is the Cyber Key. It looks horribly stupid. At least with Minicons we get a new bonus little Transformer. The Cyber Keys look ugly, unwieldy, and there's just a whole bunch of them. At least Repugnus could store his key. Plugging the green Jungle Planet Key into the rear of his shark fin would cause a blade to pop out of the front of the fin. It doesn't do much in beast mode, since it can't reach forwards to stab the enemy with the head in the way, but the gimmick is, at least, not obstructive. With Undermine's deco, when the Key is left in, it would look like part of the sail/fin, but not so for Repugnus. Boo.

ROBOT MODE
Repugnus transforms into a rather unusual robot mode. The 'good' kind of unusual, thankfully. His beast mode head and neck splits apart to become hands, and a little rearrangement of the parts on his bottom would give you his robot mode. It is kind of jarring that after his rather terrifying beast mode, his robot mode could only be described as 'cute ugly'. His face, painted on the base of his fin, looks like a frog, really. A cute, pointed frog. Or a fish. Look at him. He just looks so cute. I mean, just imagine him going all Godzilla in his beast mode, then he transforms to reveal that cute face. 'Wawr!'

Colour is still about the same. Black, orange and red being the main ones. Articulation, however, gets improved. Due to the fact that his beast mode hands still stays beside his chest, Repugnus gets four hands — two beast mode hands and the two halves of his dinosaur head/neck. Each can move independently, which kind of makes sense. The dino heads could be used as some kind of pincers while battling, while the fingered dino hands could be used for more delicate tasks. In the cartoon Undermine used all four hands for doing stuff.

Repugnus looks quite weird, but refreshing compared to most other humanoid robots from the Cybertron line. At least he can keep his balance very well. He has his fair share of weapons too. Like many Jungle Planet characters (Snarl, Scourge) and really many other transformers with beast modes the tail becomes a weapon. However, unlike that line's Scourge's unwieldy, oddly jointed axe-thing, the designers have undoubtedly planned ahead. Repugnus' tail has a club on the end so it doesn't look awkward, and it is jointed at regular intervals so it doesn't look as stupid as Scourge's axe-tail thing. It attaches to either one of Repugnus' beast head arms, on the lower jaw.

The Cyber Key gimmick still works, and the blade swings out from above his head. It looks kind of cool, and is realistic that Repugnus would jump into the fray, headbutting with his head sword, clubbing people with his mace, scratching, biting... screw the cutesy face, his arsenal is savage!

All in all, something that I expected to be mediocre or below average turned out great. Refreshing, and kind of a gem among a toyline where most of the toys are sub-par.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation Design: 6/10 I keep thinking that the beast mode heads and how he holds his mace could've been improved, but I guess that's all you can get at this scale.

Articulation: 8/10 A whole bunch for a toy of his era. To compensate for the lack of the neck and hip joints, the legs have more hinges, and his beast mode hands can move in robot mode.

Durability: 8/10 He's a brick. However, you can lose the Cyber Key (which isn't a big loss) or the tail (which is a big loss).

Aesthetics: 7/10 I love weird-looking Transformers. Plus, he's one of those that look cute. Deal with it.

Fun: 7/10 He's a spinosaurus that transforms into a frog-faced, four-armed freak with a prehensile mace. And he can sprout a horn-sword thing. Total weirdness, but fun nevertheless.

Price/Value: 7/10 Not bad. I got him cheap, though — in a three-pack with more than two-thirds the price knocked off. If I had to pay for him with the same inflated price I had to pay for the Scouts class toys nowadays, well...

Overall: 7/10 An average toy, with decent gimmicks, articulation and a wacky look. Your mileage may vary on whether his weirdness is charming or not, though. But he is not worth getting if you already have Undermine. If you like beast modes, or want to see a unique toy and don't mind Cyber Keys, try him. A nice crowd filler for your growing collection, though, if you can get him cheap.

[Denyer]

Just a typo in the file. Fixed.