Dave's Generations Rant: Titan Class

     Metroplex (City/Battle Station) with Scamper 

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/Metroplex

     Ah, the biggest of big kahunas.  The designers were given a Fortress
Maximus and told to make something even bigger.  The first "regular" (as
opposed to limited edition special color scheme yadda yadda or TRU exclusives
like Masterpiece Soundwave) Transformer over $100, it represents Hasbro
taking a big risk.  And any store willing to carry it takes a bigger risk.
So far, the only major retailer willing to stock it seems to be Toys R Us,
and even they are often putting it behind the service counter rather than
devoting shelf space to this monster.  [Later note: Walmart and Target are
carrying it online, at least.]

     I'm jumping this ahead of a bunch of other toys in the review queue
because I figure I'll put later-reviewed stuff on and around it.  Definitely
a centerpiece toy.


CAPSULE

     $125 at HasbroToyShop.com (with free shipping).

     Metroplex: Big.  Given the known problems with large toys, it does
pretty well in terms of stability and solidity.  If you hate putting on
stickers you might want to wait and see if a version comes out without
stickers, but they definitely add to the looks.  Vehicle mode is a little
unstable but good, city mode is kinda there.  Lots of play value, but not
recommended for children who are shorter than the robot mode.  Recommended,
but note price.


RANT

     Packaging: They made the smart decision to avoid a window box, which
would have been even more susceptible to damage.  As it stands, the MIMSB
fanatics are gonna go nuts trying to find one that isn't at least a little
dinged, as the box weighs 8 pounds (3.6kg) and is made of the thinnest stock
of corrugated cardboard.  Fortunately, HTS had a shipping box not too much
bigger than the toy's box, so I didn't have to bring a hand truck to cart a
comically oversized box from the mail room to my car.
     2 feet (60.5cm) on the long side, 14.5" (37cm) on the short facing side,
and 6" (15cm) deep.  Note that I don't say high or wide, because that depends
on which large side is facing out.  One side is in portrait mode (2 feet
tall), the other in landscape (2 feet wide), to give the store stockers
options for how to find a place for this monster.
     The landscape side has art of the robot mode reaching out for something,
while several Autobots stand on his shoulders and arm (Skids, Orion Pax, the
new Thrilling Bumblebee, and I think Hoist), plus VTOL-mode Sandstorm flies
next to Metroplex's left hand.  The general trade dress is the same as other
Generations toys this year, with the red gridwork and grayscale Kirby Krakl
above, and a sort of gray stone-and-krakl pattern along the bottom with the
name.  On the right edge under the Transformers logo is the claim "BIGGEST
(Autobot symbol) EVER!  OVER 2 FT. TALL!  ACTUAL SIZE!"  That last bit
doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's cut and pasted from the other side,
which has a photo.  :)
     The portrait side is dominated by a photo of robot mode, with a ruler
next to it to emphasize the 2' figure (it's not 2' tall at the head, you have
to count the shoulder cannons).  Both sides also have the Thrilling 30 logo
and a warning that you'll have to buy two AA batteries as they are not
included.  There's no other toys shown for comparison on the portrait side.
     The two longer sides just have the Transformers logo (no co-sells,
although if this does well enough I could see them making a Metrotitan),
suggesting that the landscape side is the proper front.  The side left of the
portrait has the bio note, techspecs and an extreme closeup of Metroplex's
face from the art.  The other side has photos of city and vehicle modes, and
insets showing the firing missiles, light and sound features, and Legends-
class (not Legion-class) Scamper.
     Inside the box is an inner tray of thicker corrugated cardboard with an
unattached lid formed from a sheet of the same cardboard.  The instructions
and UTTERLY INSANE STICKER SHEET are held onto the lid by tabs.  Inside the
tray, the robot mode is tied down and partly dismembered and dislocated (the
right arm is detached, the left is bent backwards, the feet are pointed out
to the sides).  Ten strings hold the main bulk of the toy in place.  Two more
hold the right arm, two on the main gune, one each on the two secondary guns
and one on Scamper.  The missile is not tied down, and mine had come loose
from wherever it was supposed to be and was rattling about.  Scamper is in
vehicle mode, with his gun pointed backwards to reduce the chances of
damage.  Two rubber bands keep Metroplex's helmet from rattling around.

     The stickers have their own instruction sheet, but it's not always
correct (31 and 77 are swapped, as are 73 and 82), and even when correct it's
not always helpful (the top-view of city mode is particularly crappy, with a
lot of stickers trying to symbolically position over things that are not even
visible in the top view, and would need a side view or front view for).  I've
heard tales of it taking over two hours to apply them all.  Sticker 98
(Scamper's Autobot symbol) is smaller than implied by the instruction sheet
and rather hard to find, it's tucked into a corner on the left edge with a
red 98 next to it.  I put a larger ReproLabels symbol on my Scamper instead.
Also, an added benefit of trying to figure out if a smaller Scamper-only
sheet had fallen out, I found MicroChanger Perceptor's microscope barrel.
     Amusingly, the stickers for the windows on Metroplex's ascot show that
he isn't Cyberverse scale...the only Transformers I have that are even close
to the size of the characters shown on the stickers are the Monopoly tokens.
Which makes Scamper the size of a large combiner.

AUTOBOT: METROPLEX
Series: None
Number: None
Altmodes: City, Battle Station
Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (2)
Previous Name Use: G1, Cyb
Previous Mold Use: None
Partner: Scamper
Function: Autobot City
Motto: "Peace or else."

     The most vast and mighty AUTOBOT ever created, METROPLEX is a member of
a race thought of as nothing more than a legend.  He is impossibly ancient,
brought online in a time before the long memory of his AUTOBOT comrades even
began.  He is a living artifact of an era when CYBERTRON was united, and
needed defenders only against hostile outsiders.  It is his memory of that
peaceful past that drives him to fight for the AUTOBOTS.  It is hope for the
return of peace that motivates him to crush every DECEPTICON he can see
beneath his mighty feet.

STR (inf)  INT 9  SPD 4  END (inf)  RNK 9  COUR (inf)  FRB (inf)  SKL 4

     Yes, the return of infinite techspecs.  With that infinite firepower,
it's probably a good thing he only has a skill of 4 with which to hit you.
:)  

     Robot Mode: Yep, this is a big'un.  Maybe not as hefty as Fortress
Maximus, but slightly taller and with the benefit of modern articulation.
Based on the Optimus Prime visible on one of the stickers in the control room
Metroplex wears as an ascot, I'm putting the scale at about 1:500.  At that
scale, a Jaeger from Pacific Rim will be about 6" (15cm) tall.  So you can
get the NECA 6" tall Pacific Rim action figures and they're to scale with
Metroplex.  Sadly, the HeroClix are more like 1:1500 scale, so this pic
doesn't quite work: http://www.dvandom.com/images/metroplexrim.JPG  (I'm told
that the designers figure that if it were twice as tall it would be to scale
with Cyberverse toys, suggesting they intended something more like 1:128, but
then the window stickers would need to use Mini-Cons rather than bulks.)
     It's clearly recognizable as Metroplex, unlike the Cybertron toy by the
same name, but it's like G1 Metroplex started working out and got totally
ripped.  Leaner, more detailed, more aggressive-looking.  And with a wheel on
the bottom of his groin.  Well, those muscle-building supplements are bound
to have some side effects.  There's a few color changes, like losing the
chrome on the legs, adding more gunmetal, and making the shoulder cannons
black instead of white, but I like the changes.  Especially once the stickers
are on and the extra details are added.  There's also one big difference in
weaponry: the two red rifles are replaced by a single larger missile launcher
that can either be held in one hand or pegged onto the shoulder (as seen in
that "metroplexrim" pic I linked earlier).
     Merely 23" (58cm) tall at the head, but that's still taller than
Fortress Maximus by a bit.  The "over 2ft" claim is only true when you
include the shoulder cannons, and then it's 24.5" (62cm).  The shoulder
width "bare" is 15" (38cm), the add-on cannons each add about an inch to
that.  The color scheme is dominated by white with black, and some gunmetal
gray and red details.  Yellow, almost entirely due to stickers, is a distant
second.  They decided the missile launcher was big enough to be covered by
the toy gun laws, so it has an orange safety tip.  [Much later note: with all
accessories attached, the total mass is 2817g, or 6 lbs 3 oz.]
     Most of the plastic is white.  The hands, helmet, chest frons, shoulder
cannons wheels and the soles of the feet are black plastic.  The boots are
also black plastic, but almost entirely painted over in this mode.  Gunmetal
gray plastic is found on the shoulder joints, upper arms, inner knees and
several joints.  The main gun, helmet guns and some struts on the kneecap
area are opaque red plastic, while the visor and a round detail on the chest
are clear red plastic.  Paint is fairly simple, with a LOT of white and dark
gray on the boots, some gunmetal and silver details, and a very few bits of
orange.  They rely on stickers for details on pretty much any flat surface,
leaving paint only for textured or oddly shaped surfaces and large areas like
the boots.  The final results are pretty good once you have all the stickers
on, although a simple mod would be to paint the fingertip lenses to make them
look more like blaster barrels (they're the wrong shape to use stickers).
Many of the stickers include Cybertronian writing, which I'm sure someone has
already translated and put on TFWiki somewhere.  :)
     As you'd expect for a toy this size, there's a lot of stiff ratcheting
joints.  However, they're not enough to support some of the more dynamic
poses, and it's really easy to get into a cascade fail where the while thing
starts to slump once a single joint clicks one time too far.
     The head turns smoothly, and the non-removable guns on the sides of the
helmet can swing down.  If you flip up a panel in the back of the helmet,
there's a clear red lever that lets you make the eyes look back and forth,
although it's really only noticeable if you do it while the LEDs are on.
IIRC there's other Transformers with articulated eyes, but I think this is
the first with articulated light-up eyes.  The waist is a ratcheting swivel.
The shoulders are ratcheted universal joints, and a bit of orange plastic
inside the shoulder joint is revealed if you lift them out to the sides.  The
upper arm swivels and elbow hinges are ratcheting, but the wrists are smooth
pivots.  There's also a smooth hinge to let the entire hand fold inward (but
not outward, so no "HALT!" pose possible), and smooth hinges at the base of
the thumb and of each finger.  So, yes, this is one of the Transformers that
can flip you the bird.  Ratcheted universal joint hips, thigh swivels and
knees.  Theoretically there's hinges in the feet for transformation, but
they're not strong enough to be relevant for any pose that involves
standing.  The kneecaps are on struts to swing down for other modes, but you
could also use this joint to let a couple of Deluxe-sized figures ride on the
boots in a way reminiscent of the "Scramble City" function of the G1 toy
(where the Aerialbots could be connected to his limbs).  There isn't a
similarly good way to attach other figures to the arms, though.
     There's a LOT of 5mm connection points, mostly holes but a few pegs.  At
1:500 scale, a human could stand up fully inside the tunnel formed by a 5mm
peg hole.  One on each shoulder is reserved for the secondary guns, one on
the right side back is for the main gun (which has a non-5mm connection to
the palm of the hand when used as a rifle).  Four on each forearm (two on
top, two on bottom), two on top of the left back (hard to get at unless you
flip out the guns for battle station mode), two on top of each foot (actually
usable thanks to the sheer size of the toy), one on each kneecap.  Each toe
has five 3mm peg holes (mainly useful in city mode).  There's three peg holes
on top of the main gun, and each secondary gun has a 5mm peg accessible while
attached to the shoulder.
     Supposedly the visor goes up and down when you turn the cannons on the
helmet, but it doesn't seem to work for everyone.  In my case, if I manually
push the visor up, turning the cannons either way will let it pop back down
on its own, but nothing makes it retract automatically.  It's possible that
when the helmet came off early in mucking about, I didn't get it reconnected
properly and I disabled the gimmick.  But I've heard others say theirs don't
auto-retract either.

     Weapons: The main gun is 9.5 (24cm) long with the handle swung back, or
8.5" (22cm) when the handle is folded down, and looks kind of like they took
the G1 toy's two main guns (Six Gun's legs) and stuck them back to back.  It
has some details on top that make it look like an independent space
battleship out of Star Blazers/Yamato (although the scale would require it be
run by Microns or squishies), your basic flying plot device cannon.  It's
almost entirely red plastic, with the very tip being safety orange plastic
and the trigger and missile being medium gray plastic.  There's matte black
paint on the spinal gun mount details, and some orange paint for the final
collimator ring.  It only fires the one missile, which is about as small as
you can get and be child-safe, but at least it uses a spring and not one of
the current generation of weak push-missiles.  The grip has a 5mm peg for
connecting onto Metroplex's back, and a unique connector that fits into a
slot in either palm.
     The secondary guns, which mainly go on the shoulders, don't look like G1
Metroplex's Ion Pulse Cannons, but do have what look like accelerator rings
in them, so they fit the idea of an ion cannon.  They're mainly black plastic
with a single sticker on top, but also have a gunmetal gray piece that's
hinged for reasons the instructions don't bother explaining.  I found a way
of using it for city mode that looks better than the official way, but it's
mainly so that these can be held as pistols if you want (they have tabs at
the end compatible with the palm slots).  6.75" (17cm) long regardless of how
the handle is folded.
     It's worth noting that the instructions never show ANY of these three
guns used as pistols, they're only shown attached to the torso or shoulders.
The portrait side of the box shows the main gun held in the left hand, but
the secondary gun use as a pistol is an Undocumented Feature.  Also, while
all of the guns seen on the G1 toy are represented in some way on this toy,
most of them are integral, so you can't remove them and try to make a Six Gun
out of them.  With a little fiddling around, though, you can put the two
secondary guns onto the main gun to make a single super sentai cannon sort of
thing.  

     Light and Sound: This alternates speech clips with various attack and
action sounds when you press the ascot area.  The eyes and chest light flash
red while the sounds are going on.  Phrases are:

     Metroplex heeds the call of the last Prime.
     Foolish Decepticons.
     Decepticon deactivation commencing!
     Target synchronizing initiated.
     Target...obliterated.
     These Decepticons scatter like cowards.
     'Til All Are One.

     There is one exception to the talk/zap pattern, there's no sound effects
between the last two on that list.  But there's a zap between the end and
cycling back to the top.  What I have as the last line might therefore be the
intended first in the loop.  ;)

     Transformation: Going to vehicle mode is fairly simple, and similar to
the G1 toy.  Sit down, point the arms backwards, slide the cannons built into
the shoulders forward, maybe move the secondary cannons to the forearms, fold
the shinguards out as a carrier deck.  The helmet folds forwards to become a
turret, but it's kinda tricky to get it back on the head properly when
returning to robot mode.  The right chest panel opens and after some
struggling the ramp pulls out (if you have a small enough hand, it comes out
much more cleanly if you can pull from the back of the ramp).  A panel on top
of the left chest flips open as a cannon, revealing a gunnery seat.  And a
crane can be pulled up out of the left leg (I needed a tool for this, my
fingernails aren't long or strong enough).  One subtle point is that there
are sliders where the knees connect to the boots so that the boots can snap
together snugly.
     Not in the instructions, but visible if you check out the photo of
vehicle mode on the side of the box, the black panel on the left pectoral can
be opened and folded down to reveal missile racks.  It's a very secure panel,
though, you're not likely to accidentally open it.
     For city mode it stars by inverting the legs and spinning at the waist
so that the carrier deck is on the bottom and the boots can fold open to the
outside.  The left arm folds back on a strut so that the left chest can fold
open into a larger helipad.  The right arm points forward and a gunnery
station opens up on the forearm (another thing I needed a tool to get open).
Warning, the hinges on the boots require some care, it's easy to get stress
marks trying to open or close the boots.
     In neither mode do the hands really hide in any meaningful way, and the
exact positions of the secondary guns are kinda vague, as I will note in each
mode's description.
     The only difficult parts about getting back to robot mode are the
helmet, and figuring out how to get the shin panels to lock properly (a tab
at the top of the boot).

     Vehicle Mode: 34" (86cm) long if you go by the photo on the box and put
the shoulder cannons on the forearms and pointed backwards, about 31.5"
(79cm) long if you follow the instructions and leave the shoulder cannons on
the shoulders and pointed forward.  An argument in favor of the photos is
that the secondary guns have little nubs on their gray pieces that line up
perfectly with one of the two arm peg-holes if the peg is in the other hole.
The carrier deck is 17.5" (44.5cm) long with the arrows (made more obvious by
stickers) having the right lane departures and the left lane arrivals.  The
chest ramp drops down to the departure lane, and an articulated claw arm
folds up from the back end of the arrival lane and can theoretically place
things onto the ramp.  There's two pairs of wheels on the boot chunk section,
two pairs on the hips, and a ninth wheel under the groin.  The helmet is
rotated forward to become a rotating gunnery station for a Cyberverse figure,
and a panel on the left torso opens up to create a fixed gunnery station for
another.  The integral cannons on the shoulders extend and provide extra
firepower, and the main gun goes on the right torso.  As noted earlier,
there's a bunch of places you could put the secondary guns.  There's a
helipad molded and painted on the back of the left shoulder, which can
accomodate a Mini-Con-sized helicopter like Blazemaster.  The back of the
right shoulder has a minimalistic control station without pegs but with a
small control screen (the sticker instructions make it look like the sticker
goes on the front windscreen of this, but it's probably supposed to go on the
display screen).
     The color balance is darker in this mode, as the carrier deck is
predominantly unpainted black plastic.  The helmet-turret has a fold-up
sighting reticle made of clear red plastic (and a sticker showing the target
that's down by the knees of any figure operating the guns!).
     Fully straightened, the crane is about 5" (13cm) long, with a universal
joint "shoulder," ball joint elbow and wrist, and the claw at the end is
hinged to open.  It's made entirely of medium gray plastic.  Otherwise,
articulation is limited to elevating the guns and turning the helmet turret.
Well, the waist can still turn and the arms move, but you stop being in
proper vehicle mode if you do that.  It does roll along a sufficiently flat
surface, but the ratchet joints aren't quite strong enough to keep it from
bending when you don't want it to while vrooming it around on the floor.  The
kneecap pieces tend to drag as well, the pegs holding them in place aren't as
snug as I'd like.
     In addition to the connectors mentioned previously, there's several more
either revealed or made more useful.  There's two 5mm peg holes on the back
of each shoulder, sliding the shoulder cannons out reveals one on top of
each, opening the gunnery station on the left chest makes the two holes a the
back accessible, and a number of screw holes on the backs of the shoulders
and arms are 5mm-compatible.  The front of the helipad has three 3mm peg
holes, although they're close enough together you probably won't be able to
use all three at once.
     I tried running various hard-plastic-wheeled cars down the ramp, but
they inevitably skidded out.  Rubberized wheels work a bit better, but are
kinda rare these days unless you're using Lego (and not Kre-O, those have
hard plastic wheels).  Of course, the big problem is that the carrier deck is
clearly for flying vehicles.  Ground vehicles will launch off the end and
have a bit of a fall, and then be utterly unable to get back on board.  The
crane arm is not positioned to be able to pick up things from alongside, as
it's mounted as close to the centerline as is practical.

     City Mode: Oy.  If they weren't sure what to do with the shoulder guns
in vehicle mode, they have no clue here.  Several of the diagrams seem to
come from competing designs, and none of them seem to take advantage of the
hinged pieces in the guns.  So, basically, it comes down to following the
rest of the instructions (if you can, they're really too small on some
important details) and then stick the guns wherever you think looks best.
     The exact dimensions depend on how far you want to splay the legs, but
if you want the chest ramp to go into the right leg it needs to stay pointed
forward, so the city has a length of about 29" (74cm).  If you point the left
leg out as far to the side as it'll go (about 70 degrees), the city will be
31" (79cm) wide.  And if you give up on the chest ramp (it'll still reach the
floor, but now it's more of a ladder) and spread both legs apart to the max
(please refrain from lewd comments), the city is 45" (115cm) wide and about
18" (46cm) deep.  In any configuration, it's 16" (40cm) tall at the main gun
tower.  
     One of the design goals of this mode is to maximize the attachment
potential, so there's even more peg-holes of both 5mm and 3mm sizes.  The new
helipad opened up on the left chest has one 5mm peg hole, four 3mm peg holes
and two 4mm holes, presumably for backwards compatibility.  :)  The kneecaps
and toes become bunker roofs or something, and those five 3mm peg holes on
each toe are now more useful.  The right arm opens up into a new gunnery
station with a sliding gray cannon with two 5mm peg grips and a 5mm peg hole
in its center.  There's four peg holes on the outer section of each boot
(most of which are used to peg it together, but not all) and a few accessible
5mm pegs on the inner sections.  Two struts that fold out from the helipad
area have 5mm peg holes on their undersides, and I wonder if they were
installed upside down (the package photos agree with the toy, but that would
just mean the error got made early in the process).
     The inner halves of the boots are just techno trenches, but the outer
halves have tech stuff and ramps so vehicles can drive in from behind.  The
right one has various sensor scopes, while the left seems to be Scamper's
home (a big sticker shows a technical readout of his vehicle mode).
Ironically, the ramps are just a tiny bit too narrow for Scamper to roll up.
He gets stuck and has to be forced through.
     The upshot, though, is that this more is very much a Cyberverse
accessory.  If you want to set up big battles among your Cyberverse toys,
and have the space, city mode is the way to go.  But I expect most people
lack the room to leave it in this mode long term.  Vehicle mode makes better
Cyberverse display on the shelf, and of course robot mode emphasizes that it
is in fact a Transformer.

     Hybridizing: Obviously, partial transformations to city mode work too,
and in robot mode you can deploy the vehicle mode shoulder gunnery station
and the city mode forearm gunnery station to get some more Cyberverse
interaction without having to flatten it out into one of the other modes.

     Scamper: It's packaged in vehicle mode, so I'll start with that.  As in
G1, it's a six-wheeled black combat car with a cheaty transformation.
However, while G1 Scamper unplugged the arms to use as guns (so the "regular"
car mode didn't even include the arms anywhere), this one cheats by making
the rear part much wider to just let the arms peg to the sides.  It's like
they took a sports car and bolted on weapon pods with extra wheels and fuel
to make it a combat vehicle.  The side pieces have blasters molded onto them,
so even if you remove the rifle, the car is still armed.
     2.75" (7cm) long, it's basically Hot Wheels sized.  Predominantly black,
with some metallic blue, silver and dark gray bits, and a red roof-mounted
gun.  The fronts of the side pods are dark gray plastic, the gun is red
plastic, the six wheels are very dark gray, the rest of the visible car mode
is gloss black plastic.  The windows are painted metallic dark blue, and the
engine block behind the driver's compartment is painted silver.  The guns on
the side pods are unpainted, but painting them silver is a pretty simple
customization bit.  It depends on the sticker sheet for an Autobot symbol on
the hood.  The front wheels are connected by a nice solid pin through the
hood section, while the rear four are snapped into slots and have weird
weight-saving hollows in them that makes it look like Scamper's supposed to
be amphibious (i.e. the rear wheels act as paddles).  There's a 5mm peg hole
on the roof for the rifle, and the fist peg holes are accessible on the rear
fenders.  The rifle is 33mm long with a 5mm peg handle and another 5mm peg at
the back. There's a 5mm radius slot in the front of the strut that connects
the two barrels, and other details that make me think it was intended to
connect to something else that's not listed in the instructions.  The stock
peg does not let it plug into Metroplex's main cannon when you remove the
missile, though.
     Transformation is fairly straightforward, with the rear section
unfolding into legs, a little bit of pelvis hinge-ing, and the side pods
becoming arms.  You do need to be careful when moving the forearms into
position, as the elbows are stiffer ball joints than the shoulders.  The hood
folds down to make the chest.
     In robot mode it's still loaded for bear.  The side cannons from vehicle
mode are now on the insides of the forearms and pointed backwards (so don't
try sneaking up on him), it has the commonly-seen missile pods flanking his
head, and of course there's still the rifle.  The feet are molded so that the
figure has to stand with spread legs to keep the feet flat on the table.  The
shoulder joints are at the level of the eyes, giving a slightly hulking look
to the robot mode.
     3.25" (8cm) tall, it's as tall as the Generations Commander Class
Optimus Prime, so even if you assume it's not to scale with Metroplex it's
still pretty big as a Cyberverse figure.  Gray plastic is seen now not just
on the shoulders, but also the collar area (including those missile pods),
pelvis and thighs.  The head, incongruously, is red plastic with a metallic
blue visor as the only new paint in this mode.  Ball joints for shoulders,
elbows, hips, knees...and neck.  The neck is a very stiff joint, though, and
it's very hard to get a good enough grip to turn the head.  The hands can
grip 5mm pegs, so Scamper can either hold his own rifle or borrow someone
else's weapon (like Roller or Blazemaster).  I checked all the various
gunnery stations on Metroplex's vehicle and city modes, and it can grip the
controls perfectly in almost every case (the pegs on the left chest gunnery
station are way too close together for both hands to get on them at
once...Scamper's articulation allows it, it's just that the hands would have
to occupy the same space).  Other Cyberverse figures might have trouble with
it, but at least the included figure can do the full interaction.

     Overall: For all the effort they put into designing this very impressive
toy, it's kinda sad that they cheaped out on the instructions.  A few more
pages to outline all the play features, to clarify sticker placement, and
just make it easier for kids to figure out some of the transformation steps
wouldn't have increased the cost by more than a buck or two, but would have
made for a much better experience.
     My complaints about the actual toy, once I figured everything out that
should've been in the instructions, are pretty minimal.  The helmet
transformation is annoyingly tricky, and the city mode is kinda lame (but
most city modes are).  There's a bit more hollowness in some of the details
than I'd like, especially the fold-out panels, but nowhere near things like
Optimus Maximus.  But just looking at it as a gigantic robot that turns into
a land-carrier, with a "bonus" city mode, it's a great toy if you can find a
place to put it.

     Dave Van Domelen, may eventually dig out his painted TF Monopoly pieces
and pose them around Metroplex.