Bot Reviews: Transformers: Studio Series 86 Deluxe Kup

You know, despite having a whole subline of Transformers dedicated to one of my favorite bits of media in the franchise (the ‘86 movie), I haven’t gone in on Studio Series 86 as much as you’d think. That’s thanks to Kingdom, which is focusing on my OTHER favorite bit of media (Beast Wars), coming out at the same time. While I’m not sure how deep I’ll end up going with 86, I had to get their take on Kup, if only to hang out with Hot Rod.

Before IDW turned him into a memetic tough guy, Kup was an unlikely companion of Hot Rod’s in the original movie (and an advisor in the subsequent show). His and Hot Rod’s strange, vitriolic, inter-generational friendship was a highlight of the whole film to me, and really anchors the back half of it. You have this young, impatient hothead, and this slow, old-but-sturdy bot with a billion stories, yet somehow, they get along. It’s stuck with me.

On the merchandise side of things, this figure’s basically the fourth dedicated tooling Kup’s gotten (G1, Generations, Titans Return, and now this), and it’s got some big shoes to fill, given that the Takara Legends retooling (pictured above) of the Titans Return guy is already a really, really good representation of him (a shame I never got around to reviewing it.) Anywho, let’s see how this new version of an old bot holds up. I’m gonna compare him to Legends Kup a lot, since if you’re like me, the question is “is he an upgrade?”

Robot Mode

Kup comes from that neat looking retro-future Floro Dery school of robot design, where he isn’t obviously a vehicle configured into a person. Instead, this is a greenish-grey man with boots, a belt buckle, short, dense sleeves around his shoulders, a little backpack, and a crownlike helmet.

But is this version accurate to it? It seems like every version of Kup HasTak puts out skinnier and skinnier, and this lanky robot is no exception. Honestly, this time around, I think they went a bit too far, and he looks a bit too noodle-limbed to me. Kup had more mass to him, and without it, the silhouette seems wrong. I almost feel like the Legends one nailed that silhouette better.

The tradeoff with this version is that a lot of tiny surface details are much more correct than ever before. His boots, the little abs above his belt, his weird shoulder-sleeves and droopy arms, all kinds of things like that are lovingly sculpted in. The tech details beneath his chest are also oddly non-screen-accurate (though more interesting than the blank slate he normally has). Also, the wheels on his lower legs are a detail from the original toy instead of the animation model (though it was definitely a case of them having to go somewhere) He does have a little bit of a parts backpack, but this is amusingly more accurate than the backpackless Legends version.

The head is especially strange, and is where the weird offness of the sculpt is most noticeable to me. His head’s too tall and thin, it should be shorter and thicker, and too-prominent cheek lines and a too-recessed nose give his face kind of a strange look. It’s like they recast the actor playing Kup, or it’s his stunt double. It sounds like I’m being picky, but this is only because the Legends version already hit the headsculpt near-perfectly (odd mouth aside). That, and he’s in a line with Hot Rod and Jazz, both of who have perfect straight-from-the-screen noggins.

Okay, enough complaining. What he DOES have going for him is a great paint job. He’s a combination of extremely dark grey-green, and extremely light grey-green, favoring screen accuracy over the more vibrant greens of the original toy, and some other releases. They’ve impressively copied the colors of his animation layout almost one-to-one, including things like the orange accents on his wrists and belt, the tiny little grey squares on his knees. It’s almost the same layout as the Legends one, just with slightly darker shades on some of the colors. I do wish that they’d put some effort into copying the little outlined stains and dings he had onscreen, though, especially considering they were weirdly consistent from shot to shot (like, he always had one on the left of his chest).

Another positive thing: His build quality’s really good. Jazz had me worried about the Studio Series 86 Deluxes as a whole, what with how flimsy he felt. But Kup is surprisingly meaty and solid-feeling in hand. He feels a lot like Hot Rod, and that’s technically a Voyager crammed into a Deluxe.

That’s one advantage all modern War for Cybertron-and-affiliates stuff has over Prime-Wars-Era stuff like Legends Kup: The plastic feels more solid and substantial, and you can shake him without hearing rattling. I don’t know what engineering or materials trick they cracked (especially considering the Legends mode is actually heavier), but they figured some secret out.

Kup’s joints are all really tight, too, but not too tight. He may be lanky, but that makes the articulation stand out. He’s got all you’d expect, including ankle tilts, and mid-limb swivels halfway up each joint. His head even nods a bit. He’s oddly missing wrist swivels, though, which are usually only absent if the transformation requires them. Kup’s satisftingly stable, too, and can pull off a running pose really well, something that’s often hard for figures to do.

Kup comes with a little bright green gun as an accessory, based on his toy’s “Musket laser.” It’s a bit of a pea-shooter, but it looks right.

His other accessory is fun, too. It’s his “energon goodie dispenser” from the scene in the movie where he (unsuccessfully) tried to make peace with a horde of Allicons.

It’s rendered here as an army-green box with a clear gum-like stick of Energon coming out, and a clear peg for his hand. I kind of wish the clear bits were transparent purple, but I think it’s gang-molded with his windshield.

My other wish is that these accessories stashed somewhere on him when he’s not using them. It really feels like they could have fit on his backpack somewhere (like how Hot Rod had a couple of slots on their back), but there’s nowhere on this guy for them to go.

For other features, Kup actually has lightpiping in his eyes! Between him, and Kingdom Cyclonus, I really hope it’s making a comeback.

But his weirdest feature of all, is, of course, the fact that he has pop-off limbs, the secret true purpose of those mid-limb swivels, to replicate him getting attacked by the giant squid on Quintessa, like in the middle of “Nothing’s Gonna Stand In Our Way.” (Yes, I linked the song. Take a minute, listen, and come back.) You know, maybe this is why he’s so noodly.

Whatever the reason, those limbs basically work the same way as Weaponizer parts, and also manage to stay on securely, along with not looking like they come off. Not only do they work the same way, but they’re compatible with the Weaponizer system as well. While the idea is to pose him with Hot Rod repairing his limbs, the Transformers fandom’s already had a field day replacing his limbs with weapons, other weaponizer limbs, giving his arms and legs to other WFC Figures, and just, generally creating monstrosities.

And, you know, it’s pretty fun, and makes up for him only having ports on the soles of his feet, himself.

Transformation

This is a surprisingly involved transformation! In fact, I’d say the Legends version’s got it beat when it comes to simplicity, though like Studio Hot Rod, this one’s in service of screen accuracy. Basically, Kup’s whole body folds backwards at the waist, like he’s doing yoga, with his head between his legs, and then you start adjusting panels.

This is one of those transformations with a ton of little tabs and slots and panels to line up, complete with the usual massaging. That being said, this guy came out good enough that everything does actually fit together.

There’s a moment or two where I hold a bunch of panels down, slide another one in, hear a big “pop,” and suddenly everything’s in place, with no more need for adjustment.

Vehicle Mode

Kup’s short for Pickup truck, so while he’s technically one of those, he’s moreso another weird retro-future Floro Dery vehicle. His front quarter’s a wedge, with some hooded wheels on the sides, and he’s got solid rectangles for sides, with a tiny truck bed in between them with no back (I don’t know how he’s supposed to carry stuff).

Weirdness aside, this is what he looked like in the film, and it’s faithfully replicated here, moreso than even his robot mode is.

The sculpt’s a bit more greebly than the cartoon model, but generally impressively copies a lot of little details.

On one hand, it feels a bit undersized, and I wish it were bigger and chunkier, like the Legends one, but on the other hand, the fists aren’t visible on this version.

In fact, it’s a really clean-looking mode, and despite the seams, it holds together really well.

For colors, he’s now got a lot more unbroken dark green, and a bit less of the light green. He’s got a clear windshield with all of those odd tech details beneath, his Autobrand upfront, and black wheels, with no painted rims (the first thing it feels like we’re missing). Well, that and he’s missing the bit of yellow on the back that his animation model (and the Legends one) has. But it still feels very well-painted.

He’s a bit light on features in this mode. For one thing, if you don’t get his transformation just-so, he won’t roll, thanks to his belt buckle dragging on the ground. Aside from that, he’s got small, bespoke H-shaped ports on his truck mode sides for mounting his weapon, and his goodie box, and that’s about it.

No ports, no gimmicks, just a space-truck.

Overall

The one thing that bugs me about this version of Kup is how weirdly off-model his robot mode looks to me, in a line that boasts screen-accuracy. The Legends one does a better job of looking the part, at least in robot mode. This guy’s too lanky, and his head’s weird.

But as a TOY he’s solidly built, sharing excellent handfeel with a Voyager-class Hot Rod. That, and his gruesome gimmick is nice, and his altmode’s definitely the best-looking it’s ever been.

But, is he worth the upgrade from his previous Deluxe? Well, if you have the Titans Return version, I’d say so, since that version’s combo of G1 toy and IDW comics accuracy makes him quite different from this guy. But if you have the Legends one, it depends. The Studio Series guy is a better-constructed toy, in most ways, except for his transformation, and his robot mode aesthetics (and the amount of tiny robots he comes with). But it’s not the night-and-day upgrade Studio Rod was, and I’m at least partially justifying it by shuffling my Legends guy over to my G1 shelf, to be “Season 4” Kup, while this guy goes on the TFTM shelf.