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You know, I bought Siege Springer back in 2020, and in the four years between then, and selling him at TFCon this summer, I never once wrote a review of him. I think that’s because there was something bizarrely forgettable about the figure, something that made his existence just vanish from your brain the second you stopped looking at him.
Which is odd, considering that Springer’s whole character is supposed to be Mr. Charisma. When he was introduced in the 1986 Animated movie, he was transparently written as a wry Han Solo stand-in, and pretty much every subsequent appearance over the years has depicted him as a brash, two-fisted hero-adventurer, who’s often in charge of leading the Wreckers, the Autobot’s black ops squadron.
He’s had more than a few figures over the years, but it took a long while before they managed to make a new one that was a proper car/helicopter/robot triple-changer, like the G1 original. And that one (2014’s Thrilling 30 Voyager) has been called one of the best Transformers of all time, though it was based on his appearance in IDW’s comics.
So there was certainly room for an animation-accurate version, which is what the Siege one was supposed to be, until it came out, and everyone immediately memory-holed it. This Studio Series 86 one feels like a mulligan, an attempt to inject some charisma into a figure that was strangely forgettable. And I mean inject pretty literally, since it’s actually an extensive retooling of the Siege Voyager, with extra engineering and accessories, sold as a Leader-Class figure, so he has that whole need to justify the inflated price tag, too, on top of trying to be, like, good. So, let’s have a look, and I’ll be treating him like a new figure, since the old one’s already sold, and I’ve forgotten so much about it already (I don’t understand how it does that!).
Robot Mode
The foremost question on my mind, and presumably yours, upon this Springer’s reveal was his size, so let’s get that out of the way: He’s definitely still a Voyager, but he’s got some substance to him, but not as much substance as some other short Leader-class figures. He’s about a head shorter than Legacy Jhiaxus, who was famously large for a modern Voyager, but you pick both of them up, and Springer definitely has more heft to him, to say nothing about more obvious complexity.
On the other hand, he’s a head and a half shorter than Kingdom Leader Galvatron, and obviously much slimmer and lighter. So, he’s not quite a Voyager, and not quite a leader. One thing he is is really heavily retooled from the Siege version. His whole upper torso’s basically new, save for a few bits and bobs, and the only thing on him that I can immediately peg as being from the Siege version is his lower legs. This feels like a new guy.
In terms of animation-accuracy (the whole reason for this exercise), he’s not quite the Perfect Cartoon Replica you’d expect from Studio Series. Specifically, his animation model’s got proportions make him into this rounded, bulbous thing, with a thick, barrel-chested torso, whereas this version is proportioned more like a standard humanoid, slimmer and boxier.
I can’t say I mind, I really think his animation model would be kind of ugly in 3D space, and this is better, it’s just amusing that he kind of doesn’t fulfill that brief (he’d probably have to be 100 percent new, but would be worse off for it). The one thing that does bug me, visually, are his new shoulder pads. They’re supposed to be flared diagonally outwards, in an attempt to imitate smaller ones on his animation model, but I find that they look awkward,, and moving his shoulders around puts them in odd locations, exposing a lot of his inner articulation joints.
It doesn’t help that it’s unclear just how far out they’re supposed to go, with the animated ones being almost entirely horizontal. I leave them a bit more vertical most of the time, and it’s even possible to just put them where the Siege toy’s pads were, perfectly straight.
One thing that does work is his new headscupt, which does accurately translate his Floro Dery-designed mug into 3D space in a way I find really pleasant. He’s got an expression that looks like he’s trying to be a tough guy, and it fits his personality.
For colors, it is….it is green.
Okay, he’s got plenty of color on him. Light green, dark green, a kind of milky green-white, some yellow, and some dark gray, plus a red Autobrand and blue eyes. It’s all very complete-looking, and pretty lush. I do find it funny, again, that in the “we must be like the toon” line, they added way more yellow to the grill on his chest than he’s supposed to have, but again, I think it looks better via adding more color variety. Speaking of color variety, he had enough budget that they could sprue out most of his deco as plastic, instead of paint, with most of the painted-on color being the yellow accents, and some dark green on his backpack and head. (I always view less need for paint as a good thing, less chance of scrapes, chips, and qc issues).
Build quality is definitely one area where we’ve got a massive improvement over the Siege one. I remember that his lower legs really had problems staying together, and would come apart when you posed him. I don’t know how they fixed it, but it’s no longer an issue here, they keep together. His feet are also a bit smaller and looser than I’d like, but I can still stand him on one leg. There is one very large, disappointing build quality problem with his forearms, but it’s not really visible until we get into his features/alternate mode, so more on that later. When he’s Just a Guy, he holds together well.
One advantage of these kinds of size-class-cheating guys is that they have potential for generous articulation, and that’s…sort of on display here? Firstly, he’s got all the good joints you’d expect from a modern mainline Transformer. And when it comes to bonuses, he’s got hands that can open and close mitten-style (on top of his swiveling wrists), and feet that don’t just have ankle tilts, but forward-and-backwards rockers. While his elbows and knees aren’t double-joints, they made sure they have a broad range of motion. And, much as I groused about how his shoulder pads look, I appreciate that they went out of their way to make sure his shoulder articulation is both unimpeded and generous. I think the only issue I have is that his head can only rotate, and can barely look up or down. He’s tall, he’s got a lot of people he needs to look down at!
Okay, features and accessories. This is where the money is, quite literally, and there’s a lot of it. So, firstly, he’s got two entire swords, a bigger green one, and a smaller silver one, with a blue hilt.
This is some crazy toon accuracy: The smaller one resembles the sword he uses in animation, while the bigger one changes into his copter mode’s rotors.
They seemingly just gave him two, because they couldn’t make the former change into the latter. Me, I like having him dual-wield them.
Next up, he’s got guns! Specifically, two little laser pistols that he’s kept from the Siege version.
They fit nicely in his hands, and host blast effects well.
You can also combine them into a singular, very long rifle, like Rodimus Prime’s.
Next up, he’s got a larger laser rifle, painted in bluish purple. It’s impressively detailed, and feels a little oversized for him. Or perfectly sized, if you’re a Wrecker leader.
Speaking of that, the weirdest thing he comes with is his “iconic Wreckers hammer” (according to product copy), a little mallet he’s never used before in anything.
It’s unpainted milky light green, has a groove in it for a Wreckers faction symbol that isn’t there, and really feels like they said “we have a little more money, let’s give him one more thing.”
The second-weirdest thing he’s got, though, is a big purple mortar shell, which is somehow the largest singular accessory he has. It’s specifically supposed to be the one he was loading up when he said “I’ve got better things to do tonight than die,” and it’s a funny one, because there’s like, no clips or anything to help him hold it, you’ve just gotta cradle it in his arms (I’m having Origin Bumblebee flashbacks).
On the other hand, it’s got a good port at the back for blast effects, and you can always mount it on his back to make him into some form of Rocket Man.
Speaking of accessory storage, he’s, impressively, got a lot of it. A number of his accessories (the swords, the hammer, the mortar, the big gun) have these rectangular tabs on them, and he’s got bespoke mounting points in three places on his backpack for them.
He’s also got five millimeter tabs across his body, seven in total, for additional storage. I haven’t quite managed to finagle a configuration where every accessory is stored on him, he always needs to be holding something, but it’s still very impressive, and covering him with his gear really emphasizes how so much of his budget went into giving him all this stuff.
Honestly, accessories often feel like a smokescreen to increase perceived value on figures like this, where the complicated engineering is less visibly taking up the budget, but this is one time where the pile of extra stuff feels like a legit use of the money.
His final feature’s super-janky for multiple reasons: Flip his right arm upside-down at the elbow swivel, rotate his wrist so his hand’s facing up, flip out a panel on his arm, and flip out a tiny little wrist-gun. All of this engineering exists entirely so they can replicate the “We’re outnumbered!” *Shoots at Starscream* bit.
And it’s kind of a mess. For one thing, it pops out of the top of his arm in the animation, hence the complicated rotation here that leaves him without an elbow joint. But more importantly, it exposes an odd tolerance problem: The unfolding panels on his forearms are on an extremely loose rotation joint, and sheer gravity can make them pop out, rotate, and sag.
It’s a strange bit of jankiness that a retool like this ought to fix, and it becomes more of a problem in other modes. And speaking of that!
Transformation to Car Mode
So, this is complicated enough that I still need instructions, and likely will for the foreseeable future. The abstract of it is simple (fold up the chest, fold in the feet, compress the arms, do a belly flop), but there’s a lot of manipulating of tiny panels, and more importantly, a lot of tiny tabs that need to snap in just-so. VERY IMPORTANTLY: In particular, you need to make sure his shoulderpads peg into the back of his upper arms when you fold them back, or they won’t sit right in his hands. This is also a secret tool that will help the copter mode, later on. Additionally, I’m still not really sure how to align all of the stuff that makes up the midsection of the car (his thighs, feet, and roof), I just kind of press and squeeze them until I hear a big snap.
So, it works, but it’s a bit shaky to get there.
Car Mode
This is a fun kind of futuristic space vehicle. It’s partially a big, armored tank-like thing (with the tiny cockpit providing a sense of scale,) but then you have Jetsons-esque details like the swoopy fins in the back section. It’s a style clash that I like.
It’s also funny comparing it to the animation model, because the panels on his roof are supposed to be tinier, and the fins at the back larger, but they’re reversed.
Doesn’t matter much, though, it looks good here. So, this is pretty big for a car mode, but still not Leader-class big. I’d say he’s comparable more to Legacy Tarn.
It’s a panelly, complicated sculpt, mostly due to all the transformation steps, and they’re trying to hide his fists beneath his unfolded shoulderpads, to no avail (same with his thighs). But, it’s a Cybertronian Space Car, so it bugs me less than it would. Meanwhile, his colors are a bit more green, and a bit less gray, and some clear blue is added in the form of that tiny cockpit. He’s also got painted rims on his wheels!
I’ll say this for his construction: As hard as it is to get everything in place, even with his robot mode feet kind of hanging there in the middle of the car body, slightly off of their tab (if there’s a way to get them to line up, I haven’t found it), the whole car still manages to hold together well, and even rolls on his four wheels, which pleasantly surprised me, since those are usually the first thing to not work when a Transformer’s this complicated.
That’s the only unique feature in this mode, with the rest being accessory storage. And let me tell you, the instructions recommend some weird ones. One of them is putting his green sword on his roof, specifically by the peghole it uses for his copter mode (the instructions are insistent on this), meaning it spins freely.
You can always just flip it over and use the much more stable rectangular tab, but that still doesn’t answer the question of why this armored car needs a backwards sword on its roof. Or a smaller, front-facing sword that can’t clear the windshield.
You can always just cover him with guns, though, between the three rectangular pegholes on his roof, and the four 5-Millimeter ports on his sides.
It’s much more fun, and slightly more practical.
Transformation to Copter Mode
This is technically easier than robot-to-car, if only because a lot of the tricky work with the midsection is already done. That being said, there’s just enough complicated rotational business going on with his legs here that I, again, needed to consult the instructions. So, remember back in the transformation to car mode, when I said that it’s really important that his shoulderpads are plugged into his upper arms correctly? That’s relevant here, because those panels on his forearms that flip out (one exposes his little arm laser) form little winglets on the sides of the helicopter, and will not pop into place unless the shoulderpanels are flush from being plugged in, because those extra millimeters make all the difference.
I didn’t discover this until a long time after I bought this guy, and just assumed there was a critical design flaw with the winglets, since they didn’t go on straight, and wouldn’t plug in at all. Lastly, you transform his larger, green sword into rotors, and pop it in on top of him, and you’re done!
Copter Mode
Technically, Springer’s still the size of a normal Voyager in this mode, but he feels much larger, thanks to the long tail and thick front end.
Despite having the same cockpit as his car mode, he also manages to feel significantly different, which is impressive. Lots of details have been moved around, and other things have their context shifted (like the rear wheels being the tail rotor), and it’s got a more slab-y vibe to it, which is funny, since this is the flying mode.
I like it, though, it’s got very swooshable energy. There is an odd choice with the sculpt, here, and it’s his rotors: The blades are…how do I put this…symmetrical? When they’re supposed to point in opposite directions. It’s because the sword splits down the middle, but a little rotational joint could have probably fixed that. Still, it doesn’t bug me as much as I expected.
The colors are blocked the same way as the car mode, though, with few surprises, except for one detail: An odd strip of dark green paint at the front end of his tail, meeting his midsection. It’s kind of thinly painted over the gray plastic.
For features, the rotor spins nicely, and he still rolls on his wheels, for takeoff and landing! You can mount weapons on his roof, if you can avoid them hitting the propellers, and he’s got the same four pegs across his body, though the ones on his tailfin can’t really host guns that aim ahead. But he flies, so them aiming up and down makes sense!
Overall
Well, I’ll say one thing off of the top: I think this guy justifies the Leader-class pricepoint, just due to the sheer amount of stuff he comes with, which is not something I expected to think about the accessories. As for the robot himself, I do think he’s a bit too complicated for his own good when it comes to his transformations, and I feel like he’s going to end up living in robot mode on my shelves, because of it. And while there’s a few other little issues, generally he’s a pretty solid, if overly complex figure. But more importantly, unlike the Siege one, he’s memorable. It feels like the purpose of this retool was to implant a soul to a figure that somehow didn’t have one, and it was a complete success. Which is especially surprising for Studio Series 86, a line that I’ve found tends to make figures that feel like soulless box-checkers.
So, this isn’t a 10/10 guy. Like I said, he’s overcomplicated in ways that make me shy away from handling him. But he’s still, overall, pretty good. So I’ll say this: If you don’t have a Springer, get this one. If you have, like, the old Thrilling 30 Springer, though, this isn’t really essential. And if you have the Siege one, and don’t like him, or find him boring, or forgot you owned him, get this one.
For over 200 Bot, Non-Bot, and Retro Bot Reviews, click here to view my archive.
Regardless of the rising and falling fortunes of modern Transformers, one thing that I love about where we are today is how many d-list nobody characters get to have modern updates, like Road Pig here.
Originally released in the final year of Generation 2, the early 90s revival of Transformers, Road Pig was a Laser Cycle, a motorcycle-former with a light-up weapon as his gimmick. He had a bio note that described him as a dimwitted, boisterously rude bully with no friends, who was only really good for harassing the enemy, and when it comes to fictional appearances, he has that common d-lister resume of “cameos in random comics and manga,” and nothing more.
So, why do I care about Road Pig? Because the original was one of the few Generation 2 toys I owned, back in 1995. I specifically remember ignoring his bio note, and deciding that he was Laser Optimus Prime’s long-lost brother turned to evil, for no reason other than the fact that they both had mouthplates. My original copy’s long since been broken and lost, but I got a chance to look at the tooling again when it was repainted in the 2000s as Robot Masters Sideways, reviewed here. As for this new one, it pulls the same trick as the Legacy update of his Autobot counterpart, Road Rocket, reviewed here, in that he’s a retool of another motorcycle-bot that I never got a chance to pick up: The Junkion Crashbar, one of the many new members of the tribe introduced in the Legacy toyline.
So, we’ve hit the double-whammy of character I specifically like, and tooling I’ve never owned. How can I resist? By the way, this guy’s another Wal-Mart exclusive, a part of the new “Star Raiders” subline. In theory, the whole thing’s themed around a group of pirates called the Star Seekers, with everyone in the line being members of the crew, but in practice, it’s mostly an excuse for them to make a toyline of unrelated randos like this guy. I’m certainly not complaining. I’m also not complaining about his availability, which, unlike some previous Wal-Mart exclusives, is actually pretty good. As of this writing, I saw multiple copies him on Wal-Mart shelves yesterday! Let’s see if he’s worth you, dear reader, picking one up.
Robot Mode
So, an interesting thing about this figure is that out of the box, his silhouette’s pretty different from the original Road Pig, but you can swap his accessories around if you want, to make him a bit more accurate to the original’s shape (not that the instructions tell you to).
Out of the box, he’s kind of a bottom-heavy bot, with big shins full of motorcycle wheels, and short little thighs. His upper torso, meanwhile, feels like it’s made entirely of rectangular boxes, and feels a bit scrawny. The only bit that isn’t a box is the three orbs on his chest, which are sculpted to resemble the original Road Pig’s motorcycle-front chest. It’s funny, because Crashbar also had this, meaning they’d planned for this retool from day one, yet it feels like kind of a half-hearted homage, with the chest and head doing most of the work.
It’s a real nice headsculpt, though, capturing the helmet, mouthplate and triangular eyes of the original really well. He and Road Rocket both had these oddly polygonal heads, that looked to me like early 3D video game graphics, and that whole look’s preserved here.
I think one reason he seems kind of scrawny is that he could have used more of a backpack, or parts on his arms to bulk him up. As it stands, he’s got two transparent pink exhaust pipes poking upwards (which are sculpted after the original’s singular laser cannon), which feels a bit thin. However, it’s entirely possible to reconfigure him to look a bit more G2 accurate, which I’ll get into when I cover his accessories and features, since it’s all about moving those around.
The colors, meanwhile, are a more successful homage to the original, in addition to just looking good on their own merits. Road Pig’s a striking combo of black, red and gold, really evocative of a specific era of robot toys in my mind, after the bright, loud excesses of the early 90’s had started to fade. There’s also some silver accents, and those translucent pink weapons, but that’s about it. It’s pretty simple and clean, and it works very well on this body. It’s also pretty close to the layout on the original, and the places where it differs (red thighs instead of black) are to make the colors more balanced, so I appreciate it.
Build quality’s a mixed bag here, thanks to one of his gimmicks. He’s mostly a solid, stable figure, with nice big feet to keep him standing, but he does have one weak point: His lower legs detach from his body, along his thigh swivels, a remnant from when he was a Junkion. The thing is, the connection’s a little bit on the loose side. He’s not in danger of falling apart, but it’s a little too easy to take his legs off, especially when transforming him. I might give them a layer of glue or floor polish.
Meanwhile, his articulation’s pretty good for a deluxe, hitting all the necessary notes, including wrists and ankles. Speaking of ankles, there’s a funny bit of asymmetry with them: His left ankle tilt has way more range than his right, due to the sculpting. I don’t know why that is, but it’s more interesting than a problem.
Now, for his accessories and features, therein lies the key to additional G2 accuracy. So, first, he’s got a pair of square, boxy laser pistol-type weapons, cast in black, but painted gold. They’re not based on anything from the original toy, but he looks good dual-wielding them, and there’s an unusually high amount of 5-millimeter pegs on each of them (three apiece!), so they’re very friendly to him using them in all kinds of different ways, including giving him the original figure’s arm cannon. See, both of those exhaust pipes on his back are removable, too, and they each have three more 5-millimeter pegs on the end, so you can plug them into the ends of each gun, plug the gun onto his forearm, and make him look a little more like his old self. Of course, his old self only had one arm cannon, so I tend to try and stash the other set on his back, where a wheel went on the original.
Speaking of wheels, the one on his right leg can pop out, via moving the ligature it’s on outwards in either direction. And once it’s in hand, it’s got a nifty gimmick, the same one I last saw on Legacy Chromia…
You can unfurl three spikes on it at once through a geared motion, turning it into a big Ninja Star. It’s a neat, stim-y gimmick, and the fact that the wheel is larger than Chromia’s means the geared motion actually works more solidly, and isn’t prone to jamming or scraping. He can’t really hold it by the blade like Chromia, but the 5-millimeter peg on one end of it means he can hold it by that, or you can mount it elsewhere on him. I’m fond of putting it on his left leg, because, again, it mimics the silhouette of the G2 original
So, there’s a lot of plausible weapon combos you can do with this guy, between his five accessories, and the 13 different weapon ports across his body. Funny enough, his asymmetrical legs mean his right thigh has two ports, and his left has none. He’s also got a couple in an unusual place, on either side of his abdomen, and ports on both the inside and outside of his forearms.
As mentioned before, the other hypothetical feature is that he’s supposed to be able to come apart, like the Weaponizers, Modulators, and Fossilizers of previous toylines, and serve as a set of weapons for larger figures.
In practice, though, that’s not really the case? Like I said earlier, his legs pop off, and so do his arms, and that’s basically it.
The instructions also tell you to take his head out of his balljoint, which is patently ludicrous, especially considering it’s partially translucent plastic. I guess you can give his arms and legs to someone else, but they don’t really resemble weapons, so I’m not super sure what the idea is here, besides imitating the way the Junkions can come apart and recombine. To be fair, official Hasbro social media has suggested making a big combiner out of the junkions, but on his own, there’s not much to this gimmick, aside from loose legs.
Oh, and they went out of their way to make the entire back of his head transparent plastic, to facilitate a lightpiping gimmick, and then painted his face so well that it doesn’t work. I wonder why this is such a common thing with modern lightpiped figures.
Transformation
An upshot of the Weaponizer aspect of Road Pig being so mild is that you can transform him without needing to take him apart and re-assemble him, like all the other -Izers I’ve handled. On the other hand, because of how loose his pop-off legs are, I usually end up detaching them anyway, transforming them separately, and pegging them back in. While this guy’s pretty different in transformation from Legacy Chromia, he’s got the same basic idea of turning himself sideways. The big difference here is that you also flip the entire bot upside down. It’s an easy enough transformation that I was able to figure it out off of muscle memory after one or two goes, but it’s not without its wrinkles. Plugging the very front of the motorcycle into his folded-up arms can be a bit frustrating, since the arms don’t really have a set resting place, and there’s basically three different spots, all a millimeter apart from each other, that each of the cycle front’s two pegs could go into. You want the middle ones, otherwise the whole thing won’t rest evenly.
That, and I’m honestly not sure how to get his folded-away head back out for robot mode without a prying tool.
Motorcycle Mode:
So, technically, you don’t need his accessories to complete this motorcycle mode, but like robot mode, he looks a bit threadbare without them, so you’ll want to add his blasters to the rear sides of the vehicle to form saddle bags, and his two transparent exhaust pipe to form….exhaust pipes.
Do so, and you end up with a mean-looking high-tech hog.
Granted, it doesn’t look very much like the original motorcycle mode did (and not just because he only had one exhaust pipe), but neither did Road Rocket, it’s fine.
I’m mostly interested observing how the front end of it’s completely different, but his robot mode chest is still sculpted like it’s composed out of the original front end. Speaking of the front end, I’ve been spoiled by Chromia, Road Rocket and Studio Series 86 Wreck-Gar, since while he has handlebars, he doesn’t have little sculpted-in speedometers. A positive of this new design, meanwhile, is the way his weapons turn into turbo-powered jets at the back of him.
For colors, we’re still in the same slick black/red/gold/silver zone, but with more of the red hidden.
Meanwhile, a bunch of interesting tampos are now more prominent. He’s got “Transformers (™)” in gold on his left side, like the original did, since I guess they didn’t care about disguise at this point.
It does bug me that it’s a different font, though. And the trademark would bug me, but I think it’s funny.
What’s also funny is how they tried to have their cake and eat it, too, with the faction symbols. There’s a gold G2 Decepticon symbol on the opposite side, while there’s also a teeny tiny silver Star Seekers logo on the front of the hood. Also, for no specific reason, I find the gold-painted rims on the front wheel to be quite slick.
For features, a cool thing about this bike is that while it doesn’t have a kickstand, the exhaust pipes act as a stand, and keep the bike supported. I do find myself missing the fact that the front wheel can’t turn with the handlebars, but the transformation prevents that, and it’s a rare thing on cycle-bots anyway. And the wheels roll nicely, too! Meanwhile, his -Izer functionality is still present.
You’d think this would be less relevant in this mode, but the instructions specifically tell you to remove the front and rear of the motorcycle, and create a combined vehicle mode with another Star Raider, Lockdown. I don’t have him, so this doesn’t mean much to me, but that’s fine, since he holds together way better in this mode, with all the extra tabs and connections.
And speaking of -Izers, he’s got plenty of room for arming up, with nine visible ports (including the two on his guns), plus about six more if you remove his accessories. I’m glad that this feature that was made a standard way back in Siege (in 2019! 5 years ago!) continues to have life in it like this.
Overall
Hm. Okay, so, this isn’t a bad figure, but he’s very underwhelming. Admittedly, some of that is bias on my part, since the original was an important early figure of mine, and I wish this was a bit of a better homage to him than it is, but then again, he’s such a d-lister that “retool that partially works” is about what I’d expect him to get.
Stripped of his need to look like something specific, though, he’s still got issues. I think his robot mode looks a bit awkward unless you cover him with accessories, and his -Izer gimmick is kind of nothing, while causing issues in that robot mode, and with his transformation. On the other hand, I do like his loadout of fun accessories, he’s got a lot of good customization potential with all of those 5-millimeter ports, and on a basic level, he’s still well-made, without any real figure-killing problems. There’s just something about him that’s a little underbaked, and I feel like I ought to be more enthusiastic about what’s here. So, I guess, I’d call him worth picking up, but if you don’t see him, don’t lose sleep.
For over 200 Bot, Non-Bot, and Retro Bot Reviews, click here to view my archive.
One thing I’ve become wary of in modern Transformers collecting is chasing the dragon of slow, gradual upgrades of classic characters. It’s something, for example, I ranted about at the end of my review of Studio Series 86 Brawn. To be fair, Transformers isn’t as bad about this as, say, Star Wars or Marvel Legends, and Transformers: Legacy’s concerted efforts to focus on figures from non-G1 parts of the franchise is very pointedly not that.
But it’s still a thing that happens. Case and point: Siege gave us really good updates of a bunch of the G1 cast, with the caveat that they all had Cybertronian alt modes that were kinda-sorta-earthly, enough to make people think that these were going to be the definitive update of the characters for the next few years. And then Earthrise promptly re-did everyone again with more Earthly forms, with Studio Series 86 and Kingdom supplementing the updates. And now, with the advent of Studio Series 86 Commander Optimus Prime, and the unrevealed-but-leaked Studio Series 86 Megatron, we’re staring down the barrel of a third round of even more animation-accurate updates, in a very short timeframe. Frankly, I want to get off the train.
I think the other major factor in not committing to the next round of updates is that I don’t usually drop Commander-class money, unless it’s for Rodimus Prime, so I was already priced out of the new Optimus. And not getting him meant I wasn’t going to be on the hook for Studio Series 86 Megatron, either, meaning I was looking into closing out my G1 collection with War for Cybertron. And wouldn’t you know it, Takara is seemingly doing a final victory lap for War for Cybertron-era figures, with the Dramatic Capture Series.
DCS is one of those “fancy Takara repaint” lines, like Premium Finish, and many other little sub-lines before that, where they go ham on the deco (and the price tag). The gimmick this time is that each release is a big multipack themed around a specific scene, with this first one being the “Nemesis Bridge,” from the show’s first episode (let’s ignore that Shockwave wasn’t on the Nemesis at all.) And there was enough going on here to make me want this first set, enough to drop about $200 Canadian on it at TFCon (I had made a lot of money in sales, so I had it to spare). Now, three Voyagers at Canadian retail, after tax, is about $170, so for me, it was a question of whether or not the extra deco and stuff in the box justified the additional $30.
Let’s have a look, but it’s going to be a shorter, rambly look, since a) there’s a *lot* of stuff in this very big box, but also, b) I’ve reviewed every single tooling in here previously, so you can refer to those past reviews for longer takes (I’ll link them as I go).
Megatron
First up, we’ve got the Big Bad himself, showing up as a repaint of Earthrise Megatron, whom I previously reviewed when they did a version of him in his green Generation 2 colors, here.
Here’s the thing: I actually kind of like the Siege version of this tooling (reviewed here) better. That one’s got a headsculpt that reads more as G1 Toon Megatron to me, and the transforming sword-gun-thingie is a better accessory than Earthrise Megatron’s odd little extra cannon with a tiny knife on the end, which this guy still has.
But this was also the first version of the tooling to get a deco that was both shiny silver (as opposed to flat gray), and didn’t have battle damage all over him, so Earthrise it is. And, to be fair, you can just chuck the extra cannon-spear-thingie in a bin. The figure’s still a perfectly cromulent G1 Megatron without it, pretty much just being his cartoon character model with some extra tank treads in the back.
And this new deco is honestly a complete chef’s kiss, justifying the whole “premium Takara” exercise. He’s slathered in bright, shiny silver, with accents of black, gray, red, and a bunch of other colors, to imitate his show deco as closely as possible. I’m particularly fond of the red on either side of his torso, it’s something that’s usually left out of these.
In terms of his build quality, though, this is the one figure in this set that’s absolutely gotten hit with the “this mold has been run too many times” problem. The less bad issue is that the panels his arms are attached to don’t really peg in anymore (but that’s fine, you need to move them yourself to get them out of place). The worse issue is that his knees are on the loose side now, which can combine with his backpack to send him toppling if you’re not careful, though it’s not so bad that he can’t hold a pose.
He’s still got that great Siege articulation, by the way, including ankle tilts that aren’t loose like the Siege one was, but are tight like the Earthrise one was. His backpack kind of gets in the way, but not too badly.
See, one good thing about this version is that a hypothetical Studio Series 86 figure would probably lack 5 millimeter ports, because they sometimes hate fun over in Studio Series. This guy, he’s still got about 10 of those ports all around his body, for doing fancy things with his removable fusion cannon, tank-spear-knife thing, or accessories from other figures, like Soundwave’s weird gun that’s 100 percent here to imitate Megatron’s back-mounted gunbarrel.
Megatron’s transformation Is still complicated enough that I had to re-check some photos from my previous reviews to understand how the legs work, and he still partsforms in a somewhat awkward way (a panel from the Tank Spear comes off, and plugs in between his rear treads), but at the end of it, you get a tank mode that’s incredibly shiny.
I have to start with the colors, because they dominate this altmode. He’s still got bits of black, red, and gray (including two odd rectangle patterns in black on the turret), but most of the non-silver colors on him are hidden now, so he’s just an endless field of shiny sterling, and it looks great. Really makes the whole thing feel premium.
So, ideally this is supposed to be an Earth-mode tank, but the retooling out of his Cybertronian mode was always a little half-baked, between the obvious fusion cannon in the turret, and the legs hanging off the back. This is just less-Cybertronian. But it still looks good, and in these colors, I don’t think it really matters. For playability, he rolls on tiny wheels beneath the treads, his turret rotates, and he’s still got six visible 5-millimeter ports, plus room on his turret for blast effect parts.
Overall, I’d call this guy the best G1-style version of this tooling, but it’s sort of “by default.”
Still, if you’re not going in on the Studio Series 86 Leader, he looks really good leading your Decepticons, and fighting your Optimii, all while being a lavishly-painted version of this workhorse of a tooling.
Soundwave
After years of it not being a problem, one day, my Netflix Soundwave suddenly yellowed.
It’s a shame, because he’s an excellent figure, as I said in my initial review, over here. So, sourcing a replacement for him was the impetus that led me to this set. In terms of what the replacement would be, though, it was a toss-up between this DCS box, and the Leader-class Legacy United box, which has another version of this guy, along with three cassettes.
I went with the Dramatic Capture Series one, because I already have the Blue Soundwave Minion (reviewed here) in his Studio Series 86 form.
And it was worth sourcing a replacement, because, as I said in the original review, this was an excellent version of the Decepticon spymaster, perfectly emulating the man-made-of-boxes as seen in the cartoon. Well, almost perfectly. This was a heavy retool of the Siege figure (reviewed here), so there’s parts of him that are still overly-greebled with tech details in a way the original never was, and he has these odd vestigial flip-out landing feet on his forearms.
But still, he looks good, and he feels great in-hand.
As for this release, the premium differences are present, but not night and day like with Megatron. Soundwave’s got a bit more shiny silver on his limbs (and laser cannon), as well as red accents on his forearms and weapons, all G1-accurate things that the Netflix version skimped on, and all appreciated here. He’s a little more lavish, on top of his already lush dark blues, silvers, golds, and reds.
In terms of build quality, it took me a moment to notice that Soundwave’s also gotten hit by an issue: His legs actually can’t straighten at his hips, they’re stuck splayed out slightly. I’ve heard this is actually a difference in tooling, and not a QC problem. I didn’t notice initially, mostly because I typically pose him in an A-stance, so it’s sort of a non-issue. The rest of his articulation’s just as good as before, and all of his joints are plenty tight.
For features, he’s got his shoulder cannon, his round laser pistol, and that strange, long, unfolding gray gun that feels like it was meant to be handed off to Megatron.
There’s a bunch of different ways you can combine the weapons, and a bunch of different places you can mount them on him, thanks to his 12 5-millimeter ports.
Strangely, while he’s supposed to have lightpiping eyes, they don’t really work on this version, and I’ve held him straight up to the light to try and get them functioning.
One thing he does still have is that lovely spring-loaded tape-deck door. Having a spring-loaded gimmick on a mainline figure these days at all is exceptional, to say nothing of one that works as well as this.
It makes for a good little stim toy. And inside, we have Laserbeak, who, to be honest, is prone to flopping out when you open the chest, thanks to how strong the mechanism is. Just make sure you put him in there the right way, or you can jam the door!
So, Laserbeak is, as far as I can tell, unchanged from the Netflix release. Not that he really needed changing. He’s still a rectangle of nothing in the vague shape of a mini-cassette, with a flip-out peg on him so Soundwave can carelessly use his pet as a shield.
And he transforms into bird mode in a satisfying little set of steps.
Amusingly, if they wanted him to be animation-accurate, they should have removed the little Decepticon logo from his head, but I guess they weren’t in the business of removing paint apps. Either way, he’s a fun little bird, with a poseable head and wings, and, in a fun undocumented feature, you can still use that flip-out peg on the bottom of him to get him to perch on any figure with a 5-millimeter port in the right place.
Anyway, back to the big guy.
His transformation was never going to be as smooth as the vintage G1 version, but it’s still fairly intuitive, and involved enough to be satisfying. I will say that it’s a bit of an effort to get his robot legs plugged into his body correctly, and I had to do some massaging and clipping-and-unclipping to get them to line up.
But at the end of it, you get a miniature tape player. Bearing in mind that this is an insane kitbashed retool of a Siege figure that was never meant to turn into this, I’d say it came out pretty well. I’d say the only downside is the backside, with its arms that hang out, and the accessories that have to just plug in there instead of hide away as batteries, like on the G1 version.
I do like mounting that long gray cannon back there, though, and pretending it’s an antenna.
He looks like what he’s supposed to look like, the dials and buttons are all sculpted or painted on (well, not the ones on the sides of the player, but I didn’t know those existed until I handled the Retro version, reviewed here), and most importantly, you can still pop the tape player open. Or cover him in guns if you’re abandoning the disguise angle, whatever you feel like doing.
Overall, though, this is still a good, fun figure, definitely the best one in the set. And Netflix Soundwave’s rarity was such a tragedy, that I’m just glad he’s available to the public again. Honestly, if you don’t go for this version, and get the Legacy United reissue, that’s valid, too, and you get more than one cassette in the box.
I’m a bit miffed this guy doesn’t at least come with Ravage, but I feel like they’re saving him for an upcoming Dramatic Capture box, myself.
Shockwave
This is definitely the most unusual choice of release in this set. So, when I reviewed the Siege Leader back in the day, I wasn’t terribly impressed, if only because he felt like bad value for the money, a sub-Voyager figure with a bunch of armor, pretending to be a Leader. Well, this figure absconds with the armor, and just gives us the core robot.
And let me restate this right off the bat: This is more of a big Deluxe than a little Voyager, to me. But in an odd boxset release like this, size class stuff matters less, so he’s allowed to just be a well-made Shockwave, which he is! It’s only logical, after all.
So, yes, this is the Shockwave we all know and love, with the gun-arm, the rubber hose, the cyclops eye, and the giant chest. The only things about him that aren’t Sunbow as hell are his big backpack, and his extensive techie greebling. The backpack’s the alternative to the G1 figure’s partsforming, where you just eject the barrel of his gun mode, and the greebling’s due to the fact that he was a Siege figure. But, honestly, it vanishes a bit into his color scheme. And speaking of that color scheme, this guy’s particular shade of purple is really hard to photograph.
My best way of describing it would be the kind of warm purple used on Kingdom Galvatron, but tuned into a darker shade. In fact, that’s mostly what’s different from the Siege version. He’s still gray, black, and translucent, with Decepticon logos on his forearms) it’s all just different shades, with the Siege battle damage removed. His arm-hose being purple instead of black’s one of those odd things where they try really hard to imitate his cartoon colors. Meanwhile, his chest does this neat thing where there’s metallic paint underneath the translucent purple plastic. Finally, unlike Soundwave, his yellow mono-eye lightpipes VERY well, literally without trying.
For build quality, this is the one figure in this set that’s QC-issue-free, and poses out very well with his full Siege suite of joints. It’s probably because he was designed to host a bunch of heavy armor, so his joints are extra-stiff, including some ratcheted legs.
Speaking of that, the downside of him not coming with that armor is that he has no real accessories or features to speak of, aside from the lightpiping, not that Shockwave usually has much. But the fact that he WAS supposed to hold armor means that he has a ton of 5-millimeter ports on him for accessories, 15 of them by my count, so you can certainly turn him into a weaponized monstrosity yourself, if you wish. Me, I’d rather turn him into his altmode.
His transformation is a process it feels like I keep goofing up little bits of, despite it being a very easy assignment of “fold his arms up, slap the gunbarrel shell around them, and compress his legs.” Protip: Remember to rotate his arms at the elbows, so his barrel doesn’t sag.
At the end of it, we have his little “spaceship mode,” complete with a tiny little command bridge with fins sticking out the side, and a piece of landing gear upfront. But, of course, it’s really clear that this is his classic gunmode upside-down, and there’s nothing to stop you from just flipping it over, and making a few adjustments for comfort (folding the fins in and the landing skid away, maybe moving the rubber hose to somewhere more convenient).
Of course, it’s kind of a dinky gun mode, with a handle that barely fits into my Large Adult Hands, but it’s the thought that counts, and that thought was to make him a stealthy triple changer with an unofficial show-accurate gun mode.
So, yeah, this is a very good version of Shockwave, with my only real caveat being that this is a nomad of a figure, with no real good pricepoint, meaning the only way to get him is to a) overpay for the Siege one, b) get this boxset, or c) buy the Comic Book version that comes with Optimus Prime’s head.
Honestly, that one’s overpriced, and I think getting him in this boxset’s the best bang for the buck.
The Throne
It’s a throne.
Specifically, it’s the throne that came with Studio Series 86 Coronation Starscream (reviewed here), 100 percent unchanged, same shade of purple, and everything.
Its inclusion here makes sense, since it was always styled after the throne on the bridge of the Nemesis.
And it’s a really fun accessory, great for photos, worth owning in some form, so throwing it in here’s yet another shot at getting it.
It’s got no paint, and all it has for features is a few 5 millimeter ports on the back for accessory storage, some of which are really hard to get to, because they were designed to specifically work with Starscream’s bits and bobs.
But just having a chair that mainline Transformers can sit in is, in and of itself, a feature.
Overall
So, like I said at the top of the review, this set cost me $200 at TFCon, and after tax, three Voyagers at Canadian retail would cost me about $170. Granted, Shockwave is a bit less than a Voyager, but Soundwave’s a bit more than one (which is likely why he’s never been released in a single-packed format), plus he has a Siege Micromaster, in the form of Laserbeak, so that balances out. So, the 30 extra dollars gets you a big chair, and a bunch of extra, flashy Takara paint, most evident on Megatron, but present on both Soundwave and Shockwave.
But is it good? I think so. These are three solid toolings. I’d like Megatron better if it was the Siege version, but it’s not a Siege/Kingdom Mirage quality drop, it’s a good, solid Voyager, albeit one that’s been hit by the QC stick a little bit. Soundwave and Laserbeak are still excellent, the stars of this set, and any vector to own them is worth pursuing. And Shockwave is a bit basic, but a very well-engineered update of the original. And the chair is just fun.
Here’s the thing: The Dramatic Capture Series, as an exercise, really feels like a victory lap for these War for Cybertron-era toolings, before newer, even more show-accurate versions come down the pipeline. We already know Megatron’s getting a Studio Series 86 Leader, though we don’t know what he looks like, but the answer is definitely “more animation accurate.” And there’s nothing stopping them from putting out a Soundwave in a few years that’s a fully original tooling, and not an (admittedly well-done) modification of the Siege version. And I’m sure they’ll do a Shockwave that’s a) smooth and ungreebled, and b) fits into a size class properly.
But like I said at the top, I tire of chasing the dragon that is the churn of G1 updates, and I’m taking this boxset to be my final versions of these three characters (I hope.) These are three very good figures from this specific era of updates, presented in the best possible package they can be, and I’m very content with this box of stuff. If you’re aware that they’ll probably get updates in the next few years, and are okay with that, then I think this whole box is well worth the fun that’s contained within. Heck, I’m looking at the other two sets they’ve announced as a part of this series, and seriously contemplating them on the merits of how well this one turned out.
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As I said when I opened my review of the Kingdom Commander version of this character, Rodimus Prime doesn’t get enough respect. After Optimus Prime’s death, the new 1986 Autobot leader had a tough act to follow both in-universe, and in real life, and people weren’t kind on both sides of the fourth wall. It didn’t help that the storytelling around the character decided to be ambitious, and present them as sullen, self-doubting, grumpy and overwhelmed, inheriting too much responsibility, and trying not to buckle under it. Sure enough, after Optimus Prime came back to life, Rodimus went back to being Hot Rod, and we spent the next 35-plus years remembering their time as a rambunctious youth in the ’86 movie, instead of the more challenging stuff that followed. These days, honestly, I relate to the character a lot. What modern adult doesn’t feel put upon, grumpy and overwhelmed in the face of modern life? Rodimus Prime was just ahead of their time, and was truly the Autobot leader of the 21st century.
This level of quiet non-acknowledgment extended to toys and merchandise for a long time, with there being tons of Hot Rods, but few Rodimus Primes that were totally standalone, and didn’t “evolve” from Hot Rod instead. But this ended in 2021 with the release of that Kingdom Commander figure, reviewed here. And let me tell you, that’s one of my favorite Transformers of all time, and really felt like redemption for the character. And, now that I’ve looked at the Omega, it’s time to go back to the Alpha, and see where it all began, in 1986, with the original Rodimus Prime figure, released at the same time as the younger Hot Rod version, reviewed here. To be clear, this is the 2004 Commemorative Series reissue of Rodimus Prime, but research tells me there’s apparently no difference between it and a vintage copy, outside of being much more minty-fresh. Generation One figures are always so interesting for me to look back at, and I’m eager to see how this one stacks up against modern offerings. And I’m also interested in how it stacks up against the G1 Optimus Prime that it was supposed to replace, too.
Vehicle Mode
Ahh, the Space Winnebago. So, Rodimus Prime’s futuristic vehicle mode was supposed to be based on a specific GM concept truck, but in practice, wound up looking exactly like a camper van. And, thanks to the unique design tastes of Floro Dery, the character designer for the movie cast, this wound up looking like a camper van from the future as envisioned in the 1950s.
Between the gigantic chromed exhaust pipes, and the way so many lines on the thing are diagonal, or curved, there’s a definite retro-future feel to it, almost Jetsons-esque in places. This aesthetic can be very hit or miss for some people, but I like what it’s doing. 1986-ers like this don’t really look like anything else in Transformers.
It’s a surprisingly small vehicle mode, too, roughly the size of a modern Voyager-class figure’s altmode. In fact, compared to Optimus Prime’s full cab-and-trailer setup, Rodimus is positively puny.
There’s an abbreviated version of Hot Rod’s sports car mode squished into the front of it, and while it looks like you should be able to remove it to reveal a full car mode, it’s not really meant to come out, and doing so will expose the legs and torso of the robot mode, flopped into the ground. Really, it’s supposed to stay as one solid piece.
For colors, we’ve got a really fetching combination of deep red and bright orange as the main two colors, with smokestacks in silver chrome, and accents of yellow and red (for the Autobrands on the hood and trailer). The red is identical to the smaller Hot Rod, while the orange is a bit more vibrant, and the yellow a bit darker on the spoiler (and identical everywhere else). A large chunk of the coloring is provided by foil stickers, most of which actually came pre-applied in this mode. In fact, I don’t think there’s a lick of paint on this outside of the chrome. There’s a yellow flame pattern on the chest, and a gorgeous multi-color pattern down each side, both stickered on. Up top, the orange and yellow stripes near the back of the trailer were the only stickers I had to apply myself in this mode.
Finally, there’s dark clear blue for the driver’s compartment, under which you can just barely make out squashed driver’s seats, behind a very large dashboard. I’m a strong believer that Hot Rod should be pink (which is why the Retro version, reviewed here, is a near-perfect toy, in my opinion), but I think this darker set of colors should always be how Rodimus Prime looks. It’s very striking, and very well-rendered here.
In terms of construction, this is a 1986 figure, so fiddliness was out, and chunky solidity was in. This isn’t the super-dense brick of the Kingdom Commander, but this is a solid, hefty volume of chunk in its own right, one that holds together really well. That being said, I worry about the chrome on the smokestacks getting worn out, and foil stickers love to peel as time goes on. Still, as far as G1 goes, we’re out of the “every copy on the aftermarket is broken” phase of things, and into the “this could mostly survive a toddler throwing it around” phase of things. Also, there’s some nice-feeling rubber on the tires.
For features, this is one area where Rodimus Prime comes up kind of short, especially compared to their predecessor. The vehicle can roll just fine on its rubber tires, that’s for sure. And on the front of the trailer, there’s a standard rubsign, that you can use to reveal Rodimus Prime is, shockingly, an Autobot. But that’s all that it does, and that feels like a missed opportunity. For example, around back, there’s no way to open the trailer, it’s just a solid block of plastic.
There’s nowhere to mount weapons, there’s nothing happening. Compare this to Optimus Prime, with his opening trailer, his Roller companion, his launcher, and all the other stuff he did.
Now, granted, I don’t really mind. This is a chunky vehicle that I can roll around on my desk, and that’s all I need. It’s just interesting to compare the two, and see how much less Rodimus has. Wait, am I acting like the public did in 1986? Uhm. Anyway. Moving on.
Transformation
So, this is extremely simple, even more simple than G1 Hot Rod is. Basically, you yank the robot out from under the trailer, stand it up (flipping out the feet in the process), pull out the arms, and do a multi-step torso inversion to get the hood-chest down, and the head up. You also partsform the spoiler a bit, taking it off its lower vehicle mode location, and moving it to its higher up robot location, but I’ll talk about that more in a minute.
The trailer’s even simpler, splitting open sideways, with a gun that then raises up along a ratcheted “neck” joint, a process I find a bit funny. You then apply two little “shields” to the side of it, accessories that, annoyingly, have nowhere to go in altmode, and tend to get lost on the aftermarket.
The whole thing’s fast and easy, but effective. I’ll admit that it’s not as fun as the sheer hand-candy that is Hot Rod’s transformation, but few things are, and this gets the job done just as well.
Robot Mode
Okay, before anything else, let me talk about that spoiler. The whole reason it’s a removable part during transformation is you’re supposed to place it in a new, higher position for robot mode. But here’s the thing: I don’t think that higher position looks very good aesthetically, and, as you can see above, it makes it look like Rodimus has some kind of lizard’s frill around their neck. But more importantly, it introduces an engineering problem, where Rod’s arms actually bump into it when posing them.
Meanwhile, if you just leave it on the lower, vehicle mode peg, and rotate it around, it’s still visible from the front, and doesn’t impede the articulation.
Considering that I actually bought the spoiler separately, thanks to this copy missing it, it’s a strange unforced error to create a whole loseable accessory over an aesthetic change that doesn’t actually work. It’s not a dealbreaker at all, since I can just leave it in the lowered position, it’s just a funky engineering quirk, and less egregious than, say, G1 Optimus not being able to hold his gun straight (every modern reissue re-engineers his fists so that isn’t the case).
Anyway, not counting the spoiler, Rodimus Prime’s about the height of a modern Voyager-class figure in robot mode, but a lot skinnier, which is a big visual thing here. These are some strange proportions, all tall and narrow, looking almost like a plank from the side, with legs that are very long, and arms that seem stumpy by comparison. While Hot Rod resembles a version of the character’s animation model that’s been squashed into blocks, Rodimus Prime’s a version of the character model that’s been vertically stretched.
The same details are present, like the pipes at the wrists, the hood-chest, and the triangular boots, they’re just warped in a different direction. In particular, their lower legs flare out in a way that almost suggests bell bottoms.
One upshot of this larger figure is that their torso isn’t hollow when viewed from the side anymore, though there’s now an odd gap between the truck mode cockpit, and their back.
The headsculpt is where things get equal parts strange, but characterful. Rodimus Prime looks to be two things: Old, and grumpy.
Their face seems to be lined with age, and their narrow eyes and pursed lips just communicate a sheer sense of simmering annoyance. This is a person who has had enough of your shenanigans. They look actively resentful, and full of spite, and it makes the figure for me. Maybe that really tall helmet and crest are too heavy.
For colors, we’re still operating in the same mostly red and orange territory. There’s a lot more orange on Rodimus than on Hot Rod, largely due to the chest, and the more vibrant shade of orange really gives this figure a certain something. Again, most of the rest of the details are made up of foil stickers, which I had to apply myself. Some of them were stressful, like the ones on the thighs, which don’t have any obvious sculpting to adhere to, and just kind of free-float. The stickers introduce bits of blue, red, black, silver and yellow, seemingly random patterns that aren’t suggesting anything specific, like technology, or armor, they’re just there for vibes. I sound like I’m ribbing on the figure, but I’m not. It’s a weird design, but an intriguingly weird one. If the alternate mode was something from the Jetsons, the robot mode is something from the cover from an old, pulpy sci-fi paperback novel.
For build quality, we’ve got the same rock-solid construction as the alternate mode, save for that pop-out spoiler. It’s all solid plastic chunks, until you reach the feet, where the toes are chunks of unpainted diecast metal, and it makes the figure even more stable than it already was.
Like a lot of G1 figures, articulation here is basically nil. Rod’s shoulders can move forwards or backwards on ratcheted swivels, their head can look down a little bit thanks to their transformation, and that’s it.
On one hand, it’s G1, I’m not expecting much. On the other hand, this is slightly worse than the smaller Hot Rod, who had more than two arm joints. That, and I don’t get why the legs are an immobile chunk. They don’t need to do anything for the transformation, and there absolutely could have been some knee and hip joints here, something other G1 figures were starting to do at the time. The figure’s knees even look like they should be articulated, there’s a molded-in joint right there. Ah, well.
For features, the core robot’s got just one accessory: The photon eliminator rifle, cast in black. It’s not as ludicrously long as the Kingdom version’s weapon, which I appreciate.
It’s got the same kind of flared details on the end as one of Hot Rod’s two pistols, making it seem like it grew along with the robot. It fits in either of Rod’s hands fine, though it’s a non-standard peg size, so you can’t really give it to other figures.
The other big feature is the battle base that the trailer splits into. Well, battle base is a generous term.
So, the thing’s still on functional wheels, and can roll around, and is really a tiny little platform, dominated by a huge gun turret. To my pleasant surprise, the turret itself is way more robust than I was expecting. It’s cast in black and gray, is surprisingly large, and actually has articulation! The head’s on a pair of swivels that lets it raise, lower and rotate in almost any direction. It’s the most poseable thing here!
And while I begrudge the blast shields for being a loseable accessory with no storage, I suppose it does make sense to give the gunner some torso protection.
Speaking of those panels, there’s different patterns on either side of them, diagonal lines on one side, and boxes with Xs in them on the other side. I followed the illustrations instructions when it came to which side faces forwards (the diagonal lines), but when I broke out the Kingdom Commander’s trailer, I noticed the shields are sculpted with the sides with the Xs facing forwards. I wonder what’s the “true method?”
Speaking of that trailer, the main problem here is just how tiny the G1 version is, compared even to the original Optimus Prime’s.
Basically, Rodimus can stand at the turret, or another figure, but there’s no space on the platform for anyone else to join the gunner.
Between the small size, and the wheels, it almost comes across like an oversized Segway with a gun on it. The flipside is, at least it doesn’t take up a lot of shelf space, a problem with both G1 Optimus and Kingdom Rodimus’s big party wagons.
Overall
This is a weird figure, on many levels. The Jetsons Space Camper vehicle mode, the strangely elongated robot mode, the tiny little one-bot turret base, it’s all very strange, when you take a long look at it. But, see, it’s the interesting kind of strange, and the whole figure has this kind of alien, retro sci-fi vibe to the package that I just find myself liking.
I have to admit, though, this is something of a hard downgrade from the original Optimus, the figure this was the “replacement” for, so on a raw toy level, I can see where some of the criticism lies. Rodimus is smaller, less articulated, and has fewer features and gimmicks. I’d even say the whole package isn’t as tightly designed as the original Hot Rod, which is a figure I’ll go to the wall for as still being fun in 2024. Something about the odd issues with the spoiler, and the loseable blast shields bugs me.
But neither G1 Optimus or Hot Rod have the really specific *vibes* this one’s putting off, between that characterful face, and all the endearingly odd quirks of the design and engineering. Plus, it’s got that mid-to-late G1 solidity to its engineering, giving it a really good handfeel that adds to the presence. I like it, and if you like the odd vibes, you’ll enjoy it, too. It does help that I managed to assemble the whole package (after buying a spoiler) for about $65 Canadian, so if you can find a similar deal on a complete figure, you’ll probably be feeling as good about it as I did.
For over 200 Bot, Non-Bot, and Retro Bot Reviews, click here to view my archive.
Transformers News
Lego is rumoured to continue their yearly Transformers releases in 2025 with Soundwave. The information was found in a Lego Leaks subreddit (link below). Of course, these are still just rumours. Let us know if this is one you’d get. ...
We have a newsletter from TFSource. Black Friday is coming. This week, on November 20 TFSource VIP members can shop the Black Friday Early Access Sale. Become a TFSource VIP member today and you can score those deals ahead of time, and enjoy a...
Rassoul Edji was one of the lead VFX designers on Rise of the Beasts, and is responsible for, among other things, the head face and battle mask of Optimus Prime. He took to Twitter to discuss at length about the process and studio notes he received...
Fans voted for the top 10 official Transformers with the most pop and shelf presence this week, here are the results! https://youtu.be/Xt_ChdymoGg Source: Cybertron
Thanks to friend site Cybertron.ca we can report that the new Transformers Studio Series Wave 26 Voyager is out at Canadian retail. Studio Series Gamer Edition GE+09 Ratchet was found at a Walmart in Ontario. Happy hunting! The post Transformers...
As the world prepares itself for the release of G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra in mere days, more news has come out about the fate of another video game adventure featuring A Real American Hero. Released in 2020, G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is a...
It took many years of nominations, but Transformers has finally been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame for 2024. Transformers will be joined by My Little Pony and Phase 10, beating out other nominees Apples to Apples, balloons, Choose...
I ended up with an extra copy of this figure set, but instead of just blindly returning it to a store, I thought I'd see if there was anyone else around here that might be looking for it. Asking $85.00 even for it... which is only a couple bucks...
Thanks to 2005 Boards member Daimao for sharing in our boards photographic proof of his sighting of the new Transformers Legacy United Wave 3 Leader Armada Galvatron at US retail. This redeco with a new face expression of the Legacy United Armada...
The latest news from the Product Does Not Convert corner of Transformersdom involves an upcoming batch of Blokees, the blind-boxed, assembly-required model kit-type representations of our favorite characters from Generation One (and actually...
Coming to us via the official Blokees Weibo and Instagram accounts, we have a new promotional stop-motion and full reveal of their new Blokees Transformers Galaxy Version Defender – Galaxy Shining 01 collection. These are small 5.5 cm tall “chibi”...
For those whose heads are buried deep into the Energon Universe comics, Image Comics is bringing two offerings related to Transformers for Free Comic Book Day in May 2025: - TRANSFORMERS: WORST BOT EVER SPECIAL : Say hello to a new Decepticon...
Thanks to multiple reports we now know that the *GI Joe Classified* *Road Pig* has been released in Canada at Gamestop. Share what figures are... More... Source: Cybertron
Skybound has revealed variant covers and preview pages for G.I. Joe #2, part of the ongoing Energon Universe. Cobra Commander unveils the next phase of his plan--meet THE VALKYRIES, the newest Cobra special operatives unit. And as they race to...
Today marks the day that Transformers One starts its next distribution phase as it goes to Paramount +. There, families that have the service will be able to discover it at no extra charge. We'll see how it registers on the charts in the weeks to...
Everyone's favorite officially licensed Transformers Statue company, Yolopark, took to Social Media to show off the Official Yolopark Rise of the Beasts 2.2 Meter Statue! This MASSIVE statue, coming in at over 86" Tall (220 cm), captures the...
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