Dave's BW Neo Rant:

     Longrack (C-29)

     Okay, people kept bugging me to get Longrack and review it, so I
started trolling through eBay looking for bargains.  Managed to snag one for
$25 including postage from bigbadtoystore.com's eBay auctions.

CAPSULE

     Longrack: Beast mode is a good-looking statue, transformation is pretty
good, robot mode is okay, third mode is laughable.  Mildly recommended.

RANT

(Techspec courtesy of The Protoform Project, slightly modified)

CYBERTRON: Longrack
Altmode: Giraffe
Function: Cybertron Deputy Commander

Longrack is the gabby, annoying student council member-type of the group.  He
is quite serious about following rules to the letter, and will butt in and
aggressively complain to others about it.  His Arm Shot attack extends his
right arm, while his Crush Arm grabs and mangles his enemies.  Longrack also
specializes in tinkering with machines.

STR 8  INT 10  SPD 9  END 8  RNK 8  COUR 8  FRP 7  SKL 7  Avg 8.125

     The crew under Big Convoy's command is a bunch of raw recruits, students
basically.  Longrack is the kind of guy who runs for student council because
he actually thinks it's an important position in itself (rather than because
it pads his resume or because it boosts his ego, the usual motives).  To
continue the comparisons, Break is the short punk who's always mouthing off,
Stampy is the guy who's always been picked on and expects that to continue,
and Corahda is the cool guy who sits in the back and keeps to himself.

     Beast Mode: A giraffe statue 9" (23cm) tall with correct colors from
nature for a giraffe.  The tail is on a ball joint, the head can tip to look
up, and pushing in the tongue causes the eyes to cross.  That's about it for
useful poseability.  The rear legs can move, but since the front hips are
immobile this doesn't get you much.  
     Other than the eye-crossing thing, there's no real gimmicks in this
mode.  The triggers for the robot mode's gimmicks are pretty touchy, however,
and it's easy to accidentally launch his kneecaps.  As long as you keep his
tabs firmly together, the claw launching gimmick won't fire down between his
legs, however.

     Weapon Mode: Just silly.  Okay, it aims his missiles forward and puts
his claw on a sort of turret, but the main body looks like a giraffe had an
accident with a train.  WHAM.  You can get a slightly less stupid weapon mode
by messing with the neck and back pieces to generate a walker tank with claw
turret (kinda like Big Convoy's weapon mode).

     Transformation to Robot Mode: A bit of trouble with panels snapping off
during transformation, but he's not the worst of the "shellmasters" of BW
Neo.  

     Robot Mode: 6.5" (17cm) tall at the head, a bit taller if you include
his backpack of giraffe forelegs.  To the giraffe colors, the robot mode adds
red, black, silver and a bit of yellowish green.  A panel rotates in front of
his chest to cover his spark crystal, and it has slits cut in it so you can
see the spark shining through.
     Poseability is fairly good, if blocked by kibble.  Ball hips, hinge
knees and ankles.  Ball shoulders.  Right elbow is a universal joint (hinge
and swivel), left elbow is a ball and swivel.  Both wrists are ball joints.
Neck and waist are swivels.  Big giraffe chunks on both arms get in the way
of poseability, and hip-flaps are a bit of a nuisance.
     His big backpack is a pair of missile launchers, but it's clear from the
instructions that the launchers are not meant to be used in this mode (unless
he wants to cover a retreat).  The launchers are really only meant to be used
in the weird traffic-accident-victim mode.
     In robot mode, his two gimmicks are melee weapons.  His right arm lances
out by 3" (8cm), the claws usually snapping shut from inertia at the end of
the strike.  The other weapon is a bowie-like knife that flips out from the
giraffe kibble on the left arm.  The instructions say it can be removed and
pegged onto the fist, but it takes a LOT of effort (or a pry tool) to detach
it or reattach it.  Plus, it holds on backwards if you do as the instructions
suggest.  It's best to just flip it down.  You can also use the giraffe tail
to control the left arm marionette-wise.

     Overall: I'm glad I didn't pay the going rate of $35 plus postage on
this, it has pretty much all the weaknesses I expected of it.  It has
strengths, to be sure, but I just don't see this as being as great as people
have raved to me about.

     Dave Van Domelen, putting Longrack back in the box now....