Originally written October 2019
Movie toys are a funny thing, and this doesn’t just go for Transformers. It takes longer to prototype and produce a toy than it does to finish a movie, which can be altered up until the 11th hour instead of locked in far in advance. So for merchandise to be ready on time for a film’s release, it has to start production at a time when the movie’s nowhere near finished. This means that toymakers aren’t working with a finished film, and sometimes only have a script and non-final concept art to work with. So, you’ll have figures that don’t look like what showed up onscreen, because what was onscreen wasn’t finalized, or toylines featuring characters, accessories, and even whole playsets revolving around moments that were changed, or cut entirely.
Remember when Berserker got like four toys in The Last Knight’s line despite being in the movie for literally a few seconds?
All of the Transformers movie lines have examples of this, but one of the selling points of the Studio Series was that it avoided this. It was based on movies that had been out for a long time, and they knew what the final version of characters looked like, and who the important ones were. However, this wasn’t the case with Bumblebee, whose Studio Series releases, again, had to be prepared long in advance of the film. To be fair, though, they didn’t turn out too inaccurate. Studio Series Deluxe Bumblebee has door wings his final model didn’t, but those parts had to go somewhere when he transformed, anyway. The first Dropkick wasn’t very accurate, but he was translating an impossible design into plastic, and there was a second, later release that came out more accurate.
Shatter, the Bumblebee Movie’s main villainess, had a similar issue. Her deluxe figure has an entirely different head from the one she has in the movie, and it’s based on a battle helmet the character was supposed to use, but didn’t make its way into the final film, save for a couple of really tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it background cameos during the Cybertron scenes.
Concept art depicting the helmet in question, though the final (very briefly seen) version was red.
This is a very long-winded explanation for the main problem people have with this figure, that it has the wrong face. Outside of that, I’d also heard a lot of bad things about this release in general, including floppy joints, and an impossible transformation. And there’s rumors of her getting a second figure, like Dropkick, with the promise that it will be far more accurate. Still, a sale and giftcard later, and I decided to give her a shot anyway. What I found was surprising: This is actually a pretty good figure, despite what I’ve been hearing.
Robot Mode
Aside from the head, Shatter’s not too different from her screen design in the Bumblebee movie. Her chest is supposed to deform more, there’s some different details on her legs, and she has longer, spiky wings, but this is still pretty close for a toy this scale. She’s bright red, contrasting nicely with Dropkick’s blue and Bumblebee’s yellow (I wonder if each of them being a primary color was on purpose?). Aside from that, she’s got black plastic, and a bunch of silver paint to pick out details in her design. And it’s a really sleek-looking design, with oddly-long legs, taloned feet, a traditional car-hood chest, and doors that curve downwards like wings (her backpack isn’t attached in-package, you need to move it up and clip it in).
And while it’s true she has the wrong head, it’s a sleek-looking helmeted, visored design. She looks like some sort of hunter/tracker, which perfectly fits her character and role in the film. Her minimal car parts help, being limited to her backpack, with the sides of the vehicle clinging closely to her legs.
In terms of poseability, she’s not quite up to par with modern standards. She has no waist joint, and no sideways ankle tilts, plus her leg and hip articulation are a little bit impeded, with no sideways hip movement. Still, on the plus side, something about her large feet and legs actually makes her really stable. She’s able to easily slide into running poses that most action figures can’t manage as a result, and it helps that she looks like she was built for running.
As for the figure’s talked-about build quality issues, the only place they’re present in my copy is her shoulders, which are somewhat loose ball-joints, especially compared to her elbows, which are on really tight joints by comparison. It feels weird in-hand, but the shoulders stay posed, and don’t pop off. In fact, everything on her feels pretty stable. I’m not sure if I got lucky with quality control, or if this more recently-released copy is fixed, or what. Either way, she’s fun to pose and handle.
In terms of weapons, she has a pair of black machine gun-looking things that are meant to clip onto her arms. As far as I know, they aren’t based on anything she used in the movies (where she just had standard Bumblebee-style arm guns), but they look good on her. Plus, they also fit in her hands, and you can even double them up to give her a very Star Trek-looking Alien Gun. Even better, the pegs on them are the same size as Siege weapon ports, so Siege figures can steal and use them, too
Transformation
Again, this was something I’d heard horror stories about, but in-hand, I actually found it easier than Studio Series Car Dropkick was. To be fair, one of her shoulder joints did pop out while I was moving it, and again later on when I changed her back to robot form, but since they’re ball joints, I just popped it back on, and kept going. It’s easier to fit her car parts together than it was for Dropkick, and while her altmode can come out gappy if you’re not careful, the problems are with too much empty space, instead of not enough room like him (or Bumblebee), making them easier to deal with.
Vehicle Mode
Like Dropkick, Shatter started out transforming into a muscle car, then later acquired a second jet mode. This figure just does the muscle car form, with the rumored future release being the jet version (2020 edit: Confirmed, and out now!). And it’s a mean-looking red car, with a big exterior engine, a roll cage, and spotlights on top. It’s not the most-painted vehicle mode (its upper floodlights and its wheels are solid black), but it does look good in red, black and silver. The wheels on the car are weirdly high, but that just means it rolls with absolutely no problem. It holds together really well, too.
One thing I appreciate about this mode is that, unlike a lot of Studio Series figures, there’s integrated weapon storage, in that Shatter’s two guns fit into the bottom of the vehicle, and hide from view, when most figured in the line don’t have such options with their weapons.
Honestly, the only real flaw with this mode is that those big, taloned robot feet don’t hide very well, and are pretty visible behind the back wheels. On the other hand, they’re out of the way enough not to interfere with the car rolling.
Overall
Gotta be honest, this is a pretty good figure, and I’m not saying that to be contrarian. I bought it on sale, because I wanted to get all of the Studio Series Bumblebee Movie figures, and was expecting to write about what a mess it was. But in hand, it doesn’t really do anything wrong. It’s got a nice-looking robot mode that poses well, it’s a good transformation, and has a nice altmode. Of course, it’s got the wrong head entirely, but the head that it does have still works with the figure. Bearing in mind that I might have gotten lucky with the quality control roulette, I actually recommend this Deluxe, especially if it’s on sale. Of course, different strokes for different folks, so if the head being wrong is a dealbreaker, that’s understandable too. I’m sure when the Jet one is (presumably) unveiled, it’ll have the right face. (2020 edit: It did!)
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