Bot Reviews: Transformers: Studio Series Deluxe Shatter (Version 2.0)

While the Bumblebee movie hewed extremely G1 in terms of plot and characters, it did introduce a couple great new faces, and one of them was the evil Decepticon ranger, Shatter. Like I said when I reviewed Shatter’s car-mode Studio Series figure, a lot of the early Bumblebee Movie Studio Series releases came out kind of different compared to their movie designs, in a toyline that otherwise sold itself on screen-accuracy, thanks to the fact that toy and movie production timelines meant that they were based off of concept art and an unshot film. Still, I liked Shatter’s first release in the line, even if it did have a completely different headsculpt from the one in the film.

The benefit of Shatter and Dropkick both being depicted in the movie as triple-changers with impossible three-way transformations that definitely couldn’t be pulled off in plastic was that they each got a second toy later on, with Dropkick’s second release taking the opportunity to improve his accuracy, and this new version of Shatter doing the same, changing into her Jet altmode. This new Deluxe has finally come out in Canada, so let’s see how her second entry in the line compares to the original.

Robot Mode

So, Shatter has a fairly large backpack made up of jet turbines and wings, which means it’s intentionally mistransformed to fit into the box. What’s surprising, and very welcome, is that her instructions actually show you how to transform it into its proper, packaged mode.

Standing slightly shorter than her first release, this version of Shatter, naturally, hews pretty close to her onscreen appearance in the film. Her first release was pretty close, too, but this one manages to have a cleaner body (no panels on the legs), and a car-hood chest that deforms like the film did.

She cuts a menacing figure, with long, taloned legs. She looks like a runner, about to bear down on her prey. This is good female Transformer design in general, and I’d like to see more of it.

Of course, the big selling point of the screen-accuracy here is that she has the correct head now.

It’s very well-sculpted, and accurately depicts her skull-like mess of Bayverse-style metal shards. I rather like the look, because it works for a villain, specifically.

That clean body comes at the cost of having that gigantic backpack, in the form of turbines, wings, and a jet cockpit. To be fair, her screen model has this backpack, too, it’s just a bit smaller and a bit closer to her torso. In fact, if it bugs you, the crammed-into-the-box configuration of her backpack, while less accurate, takes up less space, so it exists as a fair alternative.

It’s more flush, and reads almost like a cape.

Speaking of the backpack, it’s not as stable as I’d like, and some of the connections (the landing gear plugging into her backside, the little black panel that plugs into her jet nose, the pegs that attach the wings to the turbines) have a tendency to, annoyingly, come undone. But it all generally holds together. It helps that all of the transformation joints are tight enough that if something comes undone, her backpack still stays in place, rather than parts flopping about. And, in a wonderful act of foresight, the designers gave her absolutely gigantic heel spurs formed from some of her tailfins, meaning she’s in no danger of falling over. The alternate in-box configuration is a bit less stable, but it’s not a real mode anyway, so I can’t blame it.

Shatter’s pretty much three colors only: Bright red, silvery-grey, and black, forming a nice contrast with the blue Dropkick and the yellow Bumblebee. I particularly like how they went out of their way to make all of her grey shiny and metallic. It’s simple, but it looks good, and is accurate to the movie.

For poseability, she still doesn’t have wrist swivels or a waist, unfortunately (I’d hoped she’d have one after the first one didn’t), but if you’re willing to unclip her backpack, you can give her an ab crunch.

Aside from that, though, she’s nicely articulated, with all the expected mainline joints. Her balljointed head has a tendency to fall back into her shoulders as per her transformation when you move it, though, and the only pose she can’t do is that midair kick I love to show off. On the flip side, her backpack has a bit of articulation of its own, too, with her turbines and wings being able to flare outward.

For accessories, Shatter comes with a pair of grey lumps of technology that can fit over her hands, simulating them turning into ranged weapons, as in the movie.

It works well, and you can also mount them on the inside of her wings to stash them when not in use.

Transformation to Jet Mode

Shatter’s a bit of a shellformer, but less of one than you’d think. You basically contort her body (this includes a torso twist that’s fun), then slip the wings, turbines and cockpit over it, then snap everything together.

It’s well-engineered in that all of the tabs actually fit and click into place, there’s no massaging and popping out like on some Studio Series figures, and you can mostly intuit where everything is going to go. It helps that most of her backpack is made out of semi-flexible, softer plastic, so you can bend it a bit if you got the order of steps wrong, rather than backing up.

I’d actually say it’s harder to get her into robot mode, if only because I need to check to make sure I put the backpack together right. Still, it’s a breath of fresh air to be able to pick up and transform a Studio Series figure without needing to check instructions or photos.

Oh, also, you can kind of give her a Gerwalk mode (a thing from Macross where their jet mecha sprout legs and walk).

Jet Mode

Once again, I’m impressed at how well this mode holds together once you snap everything in. I was prepared for this to have stuff pop out while I handled it.

Apparently this isn’t totally screen-accurate, in that it’s not a proper licensed jet mode, but, like, whatever. I’m not big into that kind of accuracy, and it looks good and mean to me.

One thing I like about the transformation is that it tips this jet mode’s color balance from “50 percent red” to “50 percent silver,” giving her a different vibe in this form. I also dig the red and black stripes on the top of the body.

From the side, her thighs don’t sit as flush as I’d like, but outside of that, it’s remarkable how well. They managed to hide her robot parts, with only her feet being really obvious.

There’s some unsightly hinges around the cockpit, but almost to make up for that, they went the extra mile and gave her a clear cockpit with a sculpted seat inside

For features, there’s a flip-out (non-rotating) landing gear wheel beneath her nosecone, joining the other two sculpted further back. For a tiny bit of articulation, you can rotate the thrusters beneath her tailfin downwards to facilitate jet-mode hovering (the ones near the front of her body are sculpted beneath her, and beneath the panel behind her cockpit). Finally, you can attach her two weapons to the undersides of her wings, Seeker-style, for weaponry.

Overall

I’m not exaggerating when I say that out of all of the Studio Series figures I’ve handled (which, admittedly, is just the Bumblebee Movie Stuff, and a pair of Bayverse Voyagers), this is the best one of the bunch. It manages to sidestep some of the line’s common problems of fiddliness, fragility, and overcomplicated design work, despite being a bit of a shellformer.

She looks good in both modes, has a surprisingly well-engineered transformation, and is fun to play around with. The fact that it depicts a favorite character of mine is just the icing on the cake. This is one to pick up if you see it. Heck, even if you don’t collect Bumblebee Movie figures, she’s unique enough that she works as a particularly scary-looking female Decepticon for your G1 ranks.