Name: Nitro
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Lethal Hunter
Bio: Nitro Zeus (Nitro for short) comes across as little more than a loudmouthed, trash-talking, strutting, self-aggrandizing jerk. He is all of those things, but unfortunately for his enemies, he's got the strength and skill to back up his ego. Though his manner makes his seem like a rowdy brawler, Nitro is actually more the stalk-and-destroy type. He is a powerful, merciless hunter, using his vast arsenal and formidable tracking skills to locate and capture whatever targets Megatron demands.
Even off the battlefield, Nitro makes it his business to know everything he can about where you live and who you associate with, just in case. Ever since Nitro was taken prisoner by humans, he's been passing the time by tracking his captors' families. Fortunately, Nitro is such a braggart that he'll share all his intel before he gets a chance to use it.
Shockwave's death on Earth greatly angered him, and now both humanity and the Autobots are in Nitro's sights.
Nitro Zeus (Nitro for the toy, presumably to make it sound slightly less silly) seemed like a fun Decepticon, one of a handful introduced into The Last Knight, Suicide Squad style. Sadly, that tough talk and bluster turned out to be just that and he lasted all of five minutes in battle with Optimus' bloodthirsty Autobots. Shame. Still, he was memorable enough to be turned into plastic for the film's supporting toy line. As a a fairly late shipping figure, he was hard to come by at retail (at least here in the UK), leaving online the best way to pick up this bruiser.
Robot mode: Nitro's a funny one in robot mode. He looks amazing (well, except for those silly random number prints that just look awful) and pretty powerful looking, all bulk, angles and curves, but once you get into moving him around he's a bit more problematic. See, Nitro is dressed like a cricketer, all knee pads and guards so he looks a bit clumsy when you try and pose him. I do like his arm mounted weapons, though. A gattling gun on his left arm and a blade/ crossbow thing made of the cockpit on his right. Props for the moulded in fist on the right arm that makes him look like he's at least got a hand here and that he's holding the assembly. Nice. I really like the head sculpt on him too. It's a horrible swirl of black with this bright yellow eye peering out, with a hat made out of knives and radio aerials. In a nice bit of play patterning, the head is detachable and is on the same connector system as a Titans Return Titanmaster, as well as the line's own Cogman, so you can have decapitation and head swap fun. The aforementioned Cogman looks at home atop Nitro's mighty frame. This is based on a scripted, but ultimately unfilmed part of the film, but it's nice to have it properly realised in the figures themselves. Good work, Hasbro.
Alternate Mode: Nitro's jet mode appears to be a riff on the classic F-15 military jet. It's a nice looking thing, all wings and nosecone. I'm not sure about the cockpit being done in black. It draws your eye to the front of the jet and looks as if it's a completely separate part. Still, it's nice and swooshable and the robot junk underneath is tucked up all nice and tidy, giving you a very clean and sharp looking jet. Nice.
Marks out of ten for the following:
Transformation design: Blessed with one of the cleverest and nicest transformation sequences I've seen an aircraft based Transformer get. There's some really clever stuff here, with the way the arms disconnect from the torso and arrange themselves to become the front and rear of the jet. The legs are a little bit of a fiddle – they fold around and clip to the sides of the fuselage and they're a bit of ratbag to tab into place, but it all works. Most of all I like how those huge back mounted pillars unclip and fold out to form the wings. Only the tops of these popping off is a failing, and even then it's not because they're an intrinsically weak or unsecured part, just that the clutch power they have is a bit much. It's really great and satisfying stuff, and I'm very impressed. 9/10
Articulation: As I mentioned, I find Nitro's articulation's good, but a bit awkward to use. His legs are basically banana shaped, so putting all those joints to use just makes him look a bit clumsy, or like he's skiing. The arms have a lot of movement too, but are a bit restricted by the chunks of aircraft parts on them. However, I don't mind this when he's got two cool weapons on either arm. As he contains the Titan Master gimmick, despite not being one himself, is head movement is also a little limited. 7/10
Durability: Aside from the back turbines popping off, the only thing to worry about is losing the small white missile pods. 9/10
Fun: I think Nitro has to be one of the best Voyager-szed movie figures out there. He looks great, has a solid alt-mode and I love the interaction with the Titan Master style figures you can get out of this guy – there's even room in the cockpit for one! 10/10
Value/ Price: It's been so long since I picked up Nitro, I can't remember how much I paid for him. I think he was around the £30 mark, including shipping. Which seems a fair price for him. Like with most good figures, the amount paid seems less of an issue when it's awesome. 9/10
Overall: Nitro has that winning combination of a memorable and fun character, coupled with an incredible toy. There's honestly very little to fault and he's a great addition to any collection of movie bots, or just on his own right as a fantastic example of what Transformers are all about when they're at their best. 8/10
TLK Nitro
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TLK Nitro
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- Nitro 001 (480x640).jpg (232.74 KiB) Viewed 11997 times
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- Nitro 009 (640x480).jpg (177.77 KiB) Viewed 11997 times