Bot Reviews: Transformers: Legacy United Voyager Star Raider Ferak

I don’t know how it is in other parts of the world, but in my neck of the Canadian woods, Transformers don’t actually go on clearance that often. Once in a blue moon, though, Wal-Mart will decide it needs to get something off the shelves right now, and very suddenly marks it down. This was the case with Ferak, a part of Wally World’s exclusive Star Raiders sub-line. I’d had my eye on him for awhile, but couldn’t really justify it, and then he suddenly went waaaaay down in price. Which sort of makes sense, because making such an obscure character into a made-it-to-retail Voyager was always a strange choice, especially considering he was the only Voyager in the little toyline, so there was a lot of him to go around.

So, who is Ferak? He’s one of the earliest media-exclusive characters, invented by Bob Budianski for issue 17 of the original Marvel comic, the same story that gave us Straxus, the big, boisterous blue baddie who got his own Comic Edition figure a couple years ago. But while Straxus was the big new standout star of that issue, Ferak was way less important. He was the leader of a squadron of Decepticon Hunter-Seekers picking off innocent Cybertronians, until Blaster showed up and shot him down.

Basically, his job was to get owned to help sell the actual new Autobot toy. He didn’t even get a robot mode, either, we just saw him as a spaceship! Later on, in the pages of Marvel’s UK-exclusive comics, another unnamed Hunter-Seeker commander got gunned down by Rodimus Prime, and later media would retcon this guy into also being Ferak, in his robot mode.

The guy can’t catch a break! Since then, he’s mostly had minor “hey, remember that Z-list guy?” cameos in a few comics here and there.

He did manage to get a BotCon exclusive figure back in 2014, as a repaint of Cyclonus, the flimsy justification being that both characters have horns on their head.

That year’s BotCon set was themed around “Knights versus Pirates,” and so Ferak got to be a part of the Star Seekers pirate crew, which is why they brought him back for the modern Star Raiders toyline. It’s because the new one is also a Cyclonus repaint that I decided to go in on him. See, Kingdom Cyclonus (reviewed here) is an excellent figure, but one thing that we wouldn’t learn until later is that he’s also a part of that unfortunate set of toys that came out around the pandemic that suffered from plastic that turned yellow over time (Kingdom Grimlock, Kingdom Tigatron, Netflix Soundwave, and Legacy Jhiaxus were some of the others, something none of my reviews reflect since, well, we didn’t know at the time).

So, when mine began to turn an ugly brownish-bronze, I sold him, and went with Ferak as my representation for the character. Either way, let’s see how this repaint and retool holds up.

Robot Mode

The biggest surprise is how much retooling there is on Ferak, especially because most of it isn’t obvious at a glance. He’s got a new head, a new chest, new shoulders, and new shoulder-wings, and yet, when I look at him, I still just see Cyclonus.

The new facesculpt does help differentiate them a tiny bit, I think. It’s a nerdy reference, in that it’s sculpted after an earlier animation model for Cyclonus that would sometimes show up on the cartoon as an error, and it does look a bit more goblin-y and less noble than the finished design the Kingdom figure is based on.

As for his new chest and shoulders, I wasn’t sure what they were going for with the insignificant little shifts in detail, until I checked the Wiki, and figured out that they’re imitating details from the older, small Universe 2.0 Deluxe Cyclonus that Ferak’s previous figure was a repaint of, for another nerdy reference. His wings, meanwhile, are shaped the same, but include clips for two thin laser accessories, which I tend to leave on him, since they at least alter his silhouette a bit. Those tastefully-folded-back wings are the only bit of altmode kibble on him, and I don’t mean the wings themselves, but the little bit of them that hangs down behind his arms, making him a very clean robot.

On one hand, Cyclonus was a good-looking Voyager to begin with, and all that goodness is preserved here, with his very clean silhouette, and his retro-future designed-by-Floro-Dery vibes. On the other hand, I’m not sure those high-tech vibes totally suit a random not-connected-to-Unicron mook like Ferak, and the retooling doesn’t really get rid of them. On the third hand (the foot?), this does mean I can stick him next to Galvatron and Scourge as a Cyclonus-proxy for now, when he’s not hanging out with Straxus.

For scale, Ferak’s bigger than your average Voyager, tall and wide, feeling like he’s getting close to being a modern Small Leader, and as Ferak, my instinct is to make him hunch and loom a bit because of it.

Ferak’s colors are interesting, because you’d think they’d want to imitate the white, red and dark gray of his BotCon original, and at a glance, you’d assume that’s what they did, but comparing them side by side (using images, I don’t have BotCon Exclusive money), you can see they actually made him quite different. His white’s been hue-shifted into a light gray, his gray’s been shifted to a much darker shade, and his red is, well, still red. But also, it’s all been laid out in a different way, in different places on him. The shift from white to light gray feels like an effort to imitate how he actually looked in the Marvel comic, but the rest of it seems to be a “for the heck of it” remix. For extra pops of color, he’s got yellow eyes, some translucent reds along his stomach, and a little Star Raiders logo on his left forearm. 

Now, I like this color scheme, but I’ve got to admit that it’s not very eye-catching, and I can perhaps see why he sat on store shelves because of it. This is a Stormtrooper. This is minion #3. This is not a leading character. 

In terms of build quality, there’s some contrasts here. On one hand, he’s mostly just as weighty, solid and stable as Cyclonus was, with one exception: There’s little panels on his winglets that fold in for this mode, and the joint they’re on is a little loose, making them flip out a bit too easily when you handle him.

At the same time, to skip ahead to the gimmicks portion of him, the 5-millimeter ports on his left forearm and left wing are a little bit loose, making them bad at mounting accessories. I chalk this all up to the mold for this figure being run a few too many times, but also, I’ve heard reports that the Targetmaster Cyclonus version of this tooling’s got really loose shoulders, and that isn’t a problem here. A weird design choice that both toolings share is his knees, which, thanks to the way they transform, have these big hollow baskets that are exposed when they bend.

Ferak’s articulation is really good, better than you’d expect. He doesn’t look like he has ankle tilts or a waist joint, but he actually does, they’re both just well-hidden on the sculpt. And those ankles are omni-directional, so he can do a running pose better than most bots.

At the same time, he’s got some nice bonuses, like swivelling wrists, and two entirely separate neck joints, giving him an unusually expressive head. Add that to the standard post-Siege articulation suite, and you’ve got one bendable bot.

For accessories and features, there’s some give and take. I’ll start with the take: Kingdom Cyclonus was one of those rare modern figures with lightpiping in their eyes, and there’s a window for it on Ferak’s head, but his eyes have been painted over, and the window is full of opaque plastic. Meanwhile, Ferak has the same fancy laser rifle as Cyclonus, complete with blast effect nub, and I still appreciate the way the back of it is sculpted to specifically fit around his rounded forearm.

He also includes nubs for blast effects on his right leg, and left hip, which I foolishly forgot to photograph. In terms of weapons ports, he’s got eleven of them across his body, with two more available if you transform his wings a bit, though, again, two of the ones on his left side are a bit loose. You can still impressively arm him up, though. 

One way to do that’s with his two new accessories, those long, thin, dark gray lasers, which you can remove from his wings, and hold with 5-millimeter ports, or mount on him.

It’s a little extra, and I appreciate it.

Transformation

This was a highlight of Cyclonus, and all the essential goodness of that transformation is preserved here. Well, mostly. See, Ferak’s got a retooled jet-mode nosecone, so the really impressive trick where the whole front of the jet unfolds from his torso like origami actually has one less step to it.

Other than that, it’s the same transformation, that wonderfully walks the line between “really involved” and “not too tough to figure out.” 

Jet Mode

So, Ferak’s original alternate mode in the Marvel comics (which is the only form he appeared in) was a kind of round, stubby airship.

Cyclonus’s long, sleek, pointy jet mode is pretty much the opposite of that, in terms of shapes, and so Ferak’s stuck with something that really resembles a retro-future 1950s sci-fi jet, all big triangles.

The retooling in this mode’s really trying to evoke the Marvel altmode, however, with a new nosecone that’s trying to match the comic art, and those two lasers on the wings revealing their true purpose as, again, being comic details. I may be grousing about the innaccuracy, but I do like how this whole spaceship looks. Something about this version of the jet really makes me think of a random background Star Wars spaceship. And it’s still just as impressively large and clean as it previously was, with only a bit of the cowling around the cockpit being a bit messy.

I think the Star Wars vibes of it are also a result of the colors. Nearly all of the red on Ferak is hidden in this mode, or quarantined on his underside, making him almost entirely the two shades of gray, with the exception of the windows on his cockpit, which are that sharp translucent red. Unlike the arbitrary changes to his BotCon toy layout in robot mode, this makes a lot of sense as a design choice here, and I appreciate how sleek it makes the whole vehicle look, particularly the gray stripe in front of the cockpit. 

For build quality, Ferak’s just as solid in this mode. Which is to say that he still suffers from the fold-down part of one of his wings flopping down really easily, and one of his 5-millimeter ports being a bit loose, but overall, he feels stable, solid, and weighty, which is impressive considering his size. 

For features, Ferak has three pieces of flip-out landing gear, a rare thing that I appreciate on a modern jetformer. Outside of that, he’s got five accessible 5-millimeter ports for weaponizing on him.

Personally, I tend to leave his robot-mode gun on his roof, it feels right. You can, of course, also unclip the lasers from his wings, if you want to put him in the mix. Additionally, he’s got four ports at the back of the jet that are in the ideal position for hosting blast effects, perfect for giving him a contrail.

Overall

I was a big fan of Kingdom Cyclonus, which is what led me to this repaint. And all the good elements of the original are here. He’s big, very cleanly-designed in both modes, has a fun, inventive transformation, a ton of articulation, and just a lot of presence. It felt like someone on the design team was specifically a fan of Cyclonus, and put extra effort into him. And all of those good points are present here, in a package that (probably) isn’t going to yellow. 

That said, Ferak is really a nobody of a character, the most obscure kind of background goon, and between that, and the kind of dull colorscheme, I can see why this version of the tooling shelfwarmed and hit clearance. It’s funny how much the retooling puts work in to make him seem like something other than Cyclonus, for him to just feel like A Cyclonus Who Isn’t Purple. I’m a Marvel Transformers fan, and him not actually looking like the guy he’s supposed to be is a bit of a knock against him, too. 

At the same time, well, he’s still a really good figure, and if you can find him for a deal like I did, he’s very much worth a look, especially if your normal Cyclonus has yellowed, or if you outright don’t have a version of the tooling. That said, there’s been persistent rumors that Cyclonus is getting a re-release (and probably a repaint) in Studio Series 86, one that presumably won’t yellow, so if you really need him to be purple, that may be an option in the near future, too. In fact, it wouldn’t shock me if one gets properly announced before this writeup even goes to press.  

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