Dave's Alternator Rant

     3: Autobot Hound - Jeep Wrangler

     Yep, more trademark fun, they had to put "Autobot" in the name to get it
trademarkable.  This one is initially shipping in boxes with Silverstreak and
Side Swipe, or just with Silverstreak, depending on the shipment.
     Warning: for some reason, I have called Hound "Prowl" by accident, very
frequently, for nearly 20 years.  So if I refer to Prowl at any point in this
review, I'm probably actually talking about Hound.

CAPSULE

     Autobot Hound: Good vehicle mode, complex but not frustrating
transformation, good robot mode, lots of fun features.  Lots and lots of
plusses, almost no minuses.  Strongly recommended.  $21.99 at K-Mart.

RANT

     Packaging: Standard Alternators box, with the Jeep logo found somewhere
on every panel but the back, and the usual half-fade 'reflections' inside the
box.  This is #3 in the series, I hear production delays pushed it back and
resulted in Silverstreak (#4) coming out first (the trademark and copyright
notices list 2003, for instance).  The prototype either had more chrome or
(more likely) the graphic designer spruced up several parts (gun, legs, etc)
to look chromed.  Side Swipe is the co-sell on the bottom panel of the box.
     Standard mode of keeping it in the box, sealed between two bubbles.
There's one plastic strap holding the hood down.  The gun is in a baggie
packaged with the instructions in a larger plastic bag.

VEHICLE MODE

     Model: This is a 2004 Jeep Wrangler Sport, as seen in Hound's colors at:
http://autos.yahoo.com/newcars/jeep_wrangler_sport_2004/13822/style_photos.html
(page down a bit for the photo gallery).  It comes with a convertible top in
the real world, but there is no top for the toy.

     Size/Scale: At 1:24 scale, it's 6.5" (16.5cm) long, translating to 13
feet for the real deal, or aboug 156 inches.  The official technical specs
say it's 155.4 inches long, and given that my own measurement has an error of
at least one percent, that's good enough for me.  The toy is a little over 3"
(8cm) wide and a little over 3" (8cm) tall.  Despite being very close to 1:24
scale, the leg room is still insufficient for a 1:24 scale action figure.  I
had to remove the legs from my Master Chief 1:24 figure to sit it in the
driver's seat (the legs stow nicely behind the rear seats).

     Mechanical Aspects: Open-topped, this jeep has both full sized bucket
front seats and a pair of cut-down rear seats.  All can be pushed forward,
although only the rear seats can be pushed backwards or folded all the way
flat forward.  The doors on either side open 90 degrees.  The rear gate does
open, but it swings up rather than opening as on the real vehicle.
     The hood opens to reveal engine details.  A panel near the front of the
trunk can be flipped over to reveal Hound's Autobot allegiance, or left
hidden while he's in disguise.  The part of the hood that lets the head poke
out will tend to stay up when you close the hood, so you'll need to push it
down from the center.
     Coolest feature of the vehicle mode, though, is the suspension.  Each
wheel is mounted on an axle that is on a spring.  The front wheels can be
compressed by 3/8" (9.5mm) on their springs, the rear wheels by about 1/2"
(6.5mm).  In each case, they compress straight up, independently of one
another.  If you press down on the front and "flick" it loose, the jeep will
pancake or buck around, depending on how hard you press.  Pressing down on
the back doesn't work as well, both due to the weight distribution and the
fact that the rear wheels don't have as much travel.

     Color and Details: Hound's body shell is painted (well, made of) dark
green with metalflakes in it.  The bumpers, fenders, running board, rollcage
and spare tire case are all a very dark charcoal gray.  The interior panels
and seats are a light gray, and so is a spring coil at the hinge of the hood.
The hubcaps are silver (but not chrome), as are the tailpipes.  The interior
panels on the doors are the same dark gray as the rollcage.  The tires are
dark charcoal gray rubberized plastic, with "CYBERTRONIAN" and "RADIAL"
imprinted on them.
     Details are mostly symmetric aside from the tailpipes, so here we go
from front middle to back.
     The license plate is white with a red Autobot symbol.  Above it on the
bumper is "Jeep" in white.
     The main headlights are clear colorless, and part of the trademark Jeep
grille arrangement (the grille itself is green with charcoal behind it).  The
front and side turn signals on the fender are clear orange.
     Just ahead of the doors on the side are "Sport" near the top and "Jeep"
above "Wrangler" just above the running board (okay, it's not really a
running board, but I'll call it that).  The word Jeep is on a raised
outline that sticks up 0.3mm from the surface.
     The side view mirrors are soft plastic to make them less likely to snap
off, and they have chromed mirror sides.  There's no central rear view
mirror.  The windshield wipers are molded onto the frame around the
windshield, but do not move.
     The door handle and keyhole are painted charcoal.  On the driver's side
only, the gas cap is molded on almost at the rear, and pained charcoal.  
     On the passenger side only, the twin exhaust pipes are painted silver.
     The taillights are clear amber plastic with stripes painted along the
top and bottom in clear red.
     "Jeep" with the registered trademark symbol is painted on a raised
outline (again, about 0.3mm high) on the spare tire container.
     On the interior, the steering wheel can be adjusted up and down, but
does not seem to turn (I stopped short of Excessive Force).  It's charcoal,
as are the gear shift and emergency brake on the center hump with the tiny
cupholders.  There's clearly a CD player on the middle panel.


TRANSFORMATION

     What really struck me about this was that it was both complex and
intuitive.  I only needed to refer to the directions to see how the rollcage
pieces needed to be arranged on the back.  And transforming back was a
breeze, with no recalcitrant panels needing to be massaged...everything
snapped neatly into place.
     While following the fairly standard "Hood becomes chest, arms and head
inside the hood, rear half becomes legs" design, Hound has plenty of fun
tweaks on that.  His arms actually come up out of the hood, not down from the
underside.  The lower legs do a LOT of folding and twisting in
transformation, and you even get calf muscles out of the rear seats.  Many
panels and tubes fold nicely out of the way.
     The toughest part about the reverse transform is getting the bulky arms
back into the hood.  Be sure to get the head tucked away first!

ROBOT MODE

     Size: 7.25" (18.5cm) tall at the plate behind the head, 1/16" (2mm)
shorter measured to just the top of the head.  About 4.25" (11cm) across the
shoulders, with a "wingspan" of about 5.5" (14cm) from the opened doors.
When unfolded, the pistol is 3.5cm long, with only a faint resemblance to G1
Hound's rifle.  

     Colors: Again, mostly the dark metal-flake green with lots of dark
charcoal gray.  The shoulders/upper arms, fists, pelvis and feet are also
charcoal (with some dark green paint on the pelvis).  The abdomen, thighs,
knees and ankles are light gray.  The forearms are dark metal-flake green
with three yellow stripes running around the arms, plus one yellow stripe on
each upper arm.  The face is silver, with bright blue eyes.  The Autobot
symbol just in front of the head on the hood is red on silver, with the
whole area raised slightly (about 0.2mm).  The gun, when removed from the
spare tire holder, is light gray.

     Joints: The head is on a ball joint (interestingly, there's a neck below
the head, which fills the gap a bit), as are the shoulders.  Elbows are
hinges, there is no upper arm swivel.  The wrists swivel, the hands open on
two hinges (one for index, one for the other fingers as a clump).  The waist
joint is actually between the chest and abdomen, and is blocked by the front
wheels if they're in a position to not block the hips.  Ball joint hips,
hinge knees, no mid-hip swivel.  The ankles are universal jointed
(effectively) and have a lot of play due to the transformation joints.
     The hands do not hold the pistol as well as I'd like, due to a block in
the heel side of the palm.

     Kibbleosity: Most of the driver's compartment becomes a sort of frame
backpack for Hound, and it's kinda arbitrary how you arrange it (the
instructions have a preferred mode, but I find that this arrangement gets in
the way).  The front wheels block some joint pretty much wherever you put
them, either waist or hips (side to side motion).  And the spare tire just
sort of hangs on the left boot, awkwardly.

     Fragility: Crud.  I just snapped one of the pegs that holds the rollcage
together, it broke off in its hole.  So far nothing else seems to be terribly
likely to break, although the hood will pop open if you're not careful in
positioning the head.  [Late note: the piece with the peg that broke was made
from metal in the Binaltech version, I'm guessing that this was one of the
production problems that delayed Hound...and they still didn't quite get it
right.] 

OVERALL

     A bit of kibble, and the broken peg bothers me, but this is otherwise
probably the best Alternator so far, in my opinion.  And it bouncies in
vehicle mode. 

     Dave Van Domelen, now to find space for Hound on the shelf.