Dave's Transformers Rant: Voyager Wave 1 Blackout Autobot Ratchet Ironhide Starscream Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Voyager1 Updated 7/5/07: Reader comments incorporated on Blackout and Ironhide. This may be two waves, or a wave and a revision, all crushed together by the street date fun. The P/N's are not all sequential (Blackout and Ratchet are together, Ironhide and Starscream are together), further suggesting the two waves thing. I found all but Starscream at Target, and then just Starscream and Ironhide at Wal-Mart. Distribution has since evened out. CAPSULES Blackout: Good design work, but iffy implementation, and bland colors. Requires a bit of work by the owner to fix deficiencies. Mildly recommended. $19.99 at Target. Autobot Ratchet: Ugly colors, bizarre head sculpt. Otherwise, though, it's a pretty good design in both modes and has some good transformation moves. You might want to wait for a recolor. Recommended if you can get past the tennisball coloration. $19.99 at Target. Ironhide: MAJOR quality control problems. If you can find one without these problems, it's got a good vehicle mode, interesting transformation, and an okay robot mode. Mildly recommended. $19.99 at Target. Starscream: Decent if kibbly vehicle mode, pretty good transformation, better than expected robot mode, fun launcher gimmick. While you might want to wait for a more vibrant recolor, I'm going with "recommended" on this. $19.76 at Wal-Mart. RANTS: Packaging: Joy, more hard to grab weird box shapes. Fortunately, I had a cart at Target. (And I filled it entirely o_O) Okay, start with a window box 11" (28cm) wide, 8" (20cm) tall and 4.5" (11.5cm) deep. Now cut off the lower right corner, so that the vertical right side is only 6.5" (16cm) tall before bending in. No big deal, eh? But then have the left front curve back, so that there's no left front corner at all. So, from the top, the box looks like a rectangle fused with a slightly flattened quarter circle. Fortunately, the inner tray is reinforced enough that you can grab the box by the left side without crushing it, unlike some of the weirder A/E/C boxes. The front is mostly window, with the usual red armor movie toy trade dress. By the left end it's pockmarked and battle-damaged, with interior tech greebles showing and flowing into the arc seen at the top of Deluxe blisters (with "Automorph Technology" proclaimed on it). Across the upper left is the TF logo and relevant faction symbol. At the lower right is the character name, faction, and a head shot. The right panel has the name and faction symbol at the top, "VOYAGER CLASS" on the bent-in part, and in the middle the Automorph Technology blurb seen on http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/VoyagerT1 packaging. The top is partly window, and otherwise just has logo, faction symbol, name and faction. The bottom is just legalese. The back is dominated by photos of the robot and vehicle modes, with licensing as relevant, and a co-sell for one other Voyager. Blackout and Ratchet have each other, Starscream and Ironhide have each other. This reinforces the idea that this is actually two waves arriving at once. They're all listed as having Advanced Conversion (level 3) in the upper left. The techspecs and bio note are in the upper right. No matter which way you open the box from, there's a lot of tabs and tape to deal with, but going from the bottom seems to leave it in the best condition for re-sealing. The paperwork baggie is taped to the back of the inner corrugated cardboard tray, and comes with instructions and the same "a little bit of everything" catalog seen in other sets (well, Ironhide and Starscream have the catalog). The inner tray has the "mecha eyeball" background typical of movie toy packaging, and a blister held down by taped tabs. As per other reviews, I'll be adding my own Function and Motto lines, since they don't have official ones. Mottos taken from previous official characters of the same name when I think it still fits. DECEPTICON: BLACKOUT Function: Hunter Altmode: Pave Low Helicopter Licensor: Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation Previous Name Use: G1 (Micromaster), Armada (Mini-Con), Energon Package Call-Outs: "Spinning blade grinder!" "SCORPONOK mini-figure included!" "Carries SCORPONOK into battle!" "Spinning rotor blades!" Motto: "Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't hope to hide from me!" BLACKOUT is the largest of the DECEPTICONS. Most often seen looming silently over the right shoulder of MEGATRON, he is his leader's hound. He pursues any target he is given with relentless efficiency, allowing nothing to stop him in his task. Those who defy him beware: his rage knows no bounds. He will fill the air with fire and burn the land clear to take his revenge. Paired with his minion SCORPONOK, he is a dangerous and deadly foe. STR 8 INT 6 SPD 8 END 7 RNK 7 COUR 5 FRB 9 SKL 5 Avg 6.75 Packaging notes: Mini-Scorponok is held in by a rubber band threaded through a hole in the blister tray. No catalog in with the instructions. Two twist-ties go through the back of the cardboard tray, and there's cardboard spacers instead of the usual plastic ones (Ratchet also has cardboard spacers, while Ironhide and Starscream have plastic). A third tie holds the rotors to the blister, but you don't need to undo the blister to get at it, just remove the other two ties and slide the rotor out. A trio of rubber bands secure the rotor blades to each other and to the body. Another hand holds a little plastic shield over the wing stub, and yet another holds the fuselage together. Vehicle Mode: The Pave Low is a big transport helicopter, one of many modifications of the H-53 series. Specifically, this is the Pave Low III (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/mh-53j.htm) MH-53J, the "largest and most powerful helicopter in the Air Force inventory," to quote the GlobalSecurity.org page. And with a fuselage length of 22.35m, it's indeed big. Blackout is merely about 10" (25cm) long, making this about a 1:90 scale toy. Rotor diameter is 8.5" (22cm), making the rotors 1:110 scale. This is not too surprising, as rotors on toy helicopters are often a little stubby, comparatively speaking. There's two sets of little wheels under the wing stubs and a nub near the back in lieu of a third wheel. However, the nub is too tall, and it actually skids along on a protrusion of the pelvis and the tail nub, with wheels barely making contact. A job for a file, I suppose. There's two honest to goodness dead Mini-Con hardpoints on the wing stub tops. Not a lot of clearance between them and the rotors, but you can mount some of the slimmer Mini-Con weapon modes here. [Update: I've been informed that there's a nosewheel. Having taken some time to fiddle with it, I find that if everything is just right, you get a four point contact with the three wheels and the tail skid. But it doesn't take much sagging apart of the seam between roof and body to turn that into a three point leaning to one side deal.] The toy is mostly made of a sort of bluish slate gray plastic that strikes me as being more appropriate for maritime use than any desert mission. The main rotor, tail rotor, turbojet intakes, nose cannon and gimmick trigger are black plastic (as is a lot of the robot kibble visible on the underside). A few of the other bits are black plastic with a very good paint match slate blue. The windows are all painted black, with yellow trim around the side cockpit ones. The radome at the nose is gold, and there's two red stripes on the tail. There's no 4500X identification on the tail (a detail from the movie...odd, given that Barricade's 643 is on all his toys). There's some black smudge paint work here and there. [Update: the "nose cannon" is actually a refueling boom. I should note that it can be popped out and back in, but since the tab that connects it is not an appropriate shape for going anywhere else, it's not adaptable as a hand weapon. Well, I suppose it could be a tiny hatchet if you assume the tab is a blade.] The rotor gimmick is like a big version of those "spin open" Christmas trees and Easter eggs and stuff, where you push in on a rod sticking out the back of the tail and it spins the rotors. The rotors have proper angle of attack and cross-sections, so this actually generates a tiny bit of lift. The blades are a bit too loosely attached to the hub, though, and when the rotor stops you often get several blades bunching up. Probably fixable with a little nailpolish topcoat, though. The second action gimmick on the toy is Scorponok's cage. Scorpy is mostly visible through the cage at the back, and pressing a black button unlatches the cage. It has no internal spring, relying on Scorpy's own spring to force him out. More details on that later. I had to put nail polish topcoat on the pegs holding the robot legs onto the fuselage top to get them to stay in place. There's still another seam that doesn't stay closed because it relies purely on a joint's stiffness, and I don't think I can fix that up with nail polish. You can definitely see why there were all those rubber bands around it in the package, though. Transformation: Automorph the legs and head (helps to pop part of the roof aside first). Twist the legs around at the initially REALLY stiff waist. Rotate Scorponok's cage around to the other side to get it out of the way, then collapse a set of folding panels to bring the nose section against the roof. Fuss and fidget a lot to get the side panels re-locked...it helps to remove the backpack and transform the arms first. If you keep the tail and rotor chunk on the back, the hub connectors can rearrange a little to let the six blades fold down to look like wings or a cape. There's a little triangular mark on the hub top to let you know where to fold things inward, so you don't have to try all six possibilities every time. :) Automorph: Pulling down the legs piece makes the head rotate out of the nose section. There's a secondary decorative Automorph, where pulling down on the kneecaps makes little panels on the shins flip forward. [Update: pulling down the legs also realigns some internal bits. If you do this without first freeing the tabs on the sides, it will strip gears and make transformation more difficult.] Robot Mode: Only 5.5" (14cm) tall at the head, 6.5" (16.5cm) tall at the shoulderpads, and if you leave the backpack on, the rotor hub chunk rises to 7.5" (19cm) off the table. Really, he's more to scale with the Legends figures or 3" Titaniums than with any other full-sized toy...but he still seems kinda small for a Voyager, thanks to all the plastic that went into his removable rotor chunk gimmick. Much of the arms and legs are black plastic, with some slate blue paint in parts. A couple of panels on his forearms that become trailing edges of the wing stubs are slate blue plastic. His hands and some missiles in his shoulderpads are very light gray plastic...were they shooting for "Marine in dress uniform with white gloves" motif here? The head is slate blue with a LOT of black wash on the front, but no wash on the back, which sorta clashes. The eyes are lightpiped orange-red. The center of the chest is painted black and silver with a small silver Decepticon symbol at its center. The head and waist both turn. The shoulders are ratcheting universal joints, with smooth upper arm swivels and hinge elbows. The hands are hinged at the wrist for transformation, which gives them some useful range of motion. The hips are universal joints that ratchet forward and back but move out smoothly, and the hip armor hinges out to accomodate. There's a smooth swivel right above each stiffly ratcheting knee hinge. The two toes in the front are hinged up and down, with limited independence (they can go to about 20 degrees different) helping with stability. The heel spurs are hinged, but by default a piece of hull armor keeps them partially locked in place unless you get it out of the way. As with Armada Cyclonus, the tail is kinda long and keeps the figure from leaning back. Unlike with Cyclonus, the tail chunk can be removed. Then you fold the front end down 90 degrees, move part of a shoulderpad (either one) out of the way, and set the tail down on the hardpoint peg so revealed. A peg at the front of the rotor assembly fits into the robot's hand for a little more stability. This does shift his center of mass way over to that side, and the fact his hips don't ratchet in the side to side direction does mean he may sort of sloooowly sliiiiide over onto his side if you're not careful in setting him up. Anyway, set up like this, he uses his main rotor as a weapon (as opposed to how he's shown in the movie, using his tail rotor), and L'il Scorponok gets a nice seat from which to...well, he can't watch the action, since there's an opaque barrier at the front of the cage. But he can cheer. And he's right-side-up now. Scorponok: Blackout comes with a mini-Scorponok that fits in a cage, and also has means to connect to the Deluxe version. The mini-Scorponok that comes with Blackout is made of a very light gray plastic with a black wash (heavy on the tail, light on the body, not at all on the claws). It's 2" (5cm) long and 1.5" (4cm) wide. No real poseability, there's a spring-loaded joint at the root of the tail, but it's there just to make the tail push up for opening his cage. In Blackout's vehicle mode, he stores upside down, but this lets him land upright when flipped out of the cage. In robot mode, the cage rotates up to be on Blackout's back, or on top of the rotor weapon configuration. When you get Deluxe Scorpy plugged in properly (the rear peg is the most important), then triggering the rotors also makes Scorponok's claws spin. And if you can get the whole thing to roll along without your hand getting in the way, Scorponok's gearing will make the rotors spin too. However, it doesn't all stay together very well, in part because of the problems Blackout has with his center fuselage pegs. Deluxe Scorponok is about three times larger than Mini-Scorponok. Assuming that Mini-Scorponok is proper scale to Blackout, that puts Deluxe Scorponok at about 1:30 scale...about the same scale as most of the Deluxe and Voyager Autobot vehicles. And, having seen the movie, that feels about right. However, the official movie guide says he's only 8' 8" long, or about 1:16 scale, so the Mini-Scorponok would not be proper size with respect to Blackout. Seemed a lot bigger than nine feet, though. Overall: While not as bad as Ironhide (see below), this is definitely a toy that needs some user-tweaking to work correctly. It's also kinda bland in color, even for military hardware. Some good design elements, though, and a welcome variant on the rotor gimmick that reduces its drag on robot mode. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT RATCHET Function: Medic Altmode: Hummer H2 (Emergency Response modification) Licensor: GM Previous Name Use: Universe ("Ratchet" on its own was, of course, G1) Package Call-Outs: "AUTOMORPH forearm cannon!" "Hidden axe!" "Roof rack converts to shield or combat stretcher!" Motto: "You break it, I'll remake it." AUTOBOT RATCHET is devoted to saving life, no matter what form it takes, and no matter whose it is. Every AUTOBOT has had his Spark preserved at least once by him, and more than one DECEPTICON has opened his optical sensors after a mortal blow only to find AUTOBOT RATCHET welding shut the fnial incision. He joined up with OPTIMUS PRIME not because he wanted to be a soldier, but because he believed the AUTOBOTS presented the last, best hope of preserving life in the universe against the evil of the DECEPTICONS. STR 4 INT 9 SPD 6 END 9 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 3 SKL 10 Avg 7 Ratchet's last job was at Babylon 5. :) Packaging notes: 1 twist-tie through all the way, gotta undo the tape on the tabs holding the blister tray to get at the other ties. Two more ties hold the vehicle to the blister. One rubber band holds the center of the vehicle together. Vehicle Mode: This is a Hummer H2 with modifications for emergency use, mainly a boofed up rear to hold paramedics and stuff, plus a roof rack that comes off to be a stretcher. It's 7" (18cm) long, making it about 1:32 scale (I used wheelbase to figure the scale, since the total length is likely to have been altered by the EMT outfitting). The wheels, roof rack, bumpers and various brushguard stuff are made of black plastic. The windows and the entire door piece on each side are made of clear blue plastic. Most of the body is a medium chartreuse plastic that is VERY poorly matched by the paint on the doors. However, some of the joint pieces are a different light chartreuse that matches the doors pretty well. A small peg in the center of the spare tire at the back of the roof rack is also this lighter color. It's not big enough to be a Mini-Con hardpoint, but the center hole is large enough to let a Mini-Con fit on it loosely, and it's "live" in robot mode too. Of course, while chartreuse is a perfectly legit EMT color, Ratchet's actually more of a canary yellow in various stills and promotional materials, oops. A red stripe runs along each side, going into an EKG "beep" zigzag just behind the door on each side, with "SEARCH & RESCUE" in negative at the back. The emergency flashers atop the roof, which are actually part of the roofrack, are also painted red. There's copper paint strips along the bottom of the doors and along the back, plus "FIRE DEPARTMENT" printed in copper above the S&R bit. The turn signals are also copper. The headlights, the lights on the brushguard and the high beams on the roof rack are silver. An Autobot symbol over fire department shield logo is printed on each door. The roof rack is removable, but since it carries the emergency flashers, it's not really meant to be removed in this mode. None of the doors open. The wheels roll freely. And like the FAB Rachet, the robot head is on the underside between the front wheels, only partly protected by a shield. If Ratchet ever actually goes offroad, he's in for a major headache. Heh. If you pop down the head shield, Ratchet's vehicle mode gains a mouth. NOM NOM NOM Transformation: Lead off by opening the doors, although this will pull additional side panels along. The instructions are a little vauge on what to do with the cab roof, so here's a little more explanation. The windshield halves pull apart and rotate to the back, and then the roof moves forward while staying parallel to the hood, you may need to unstick a strut between the roof and the hood. Now, remove the roof rack if you haven't already, and unfold the legs to get them out of the way. Once unfolded by 90 degrees, Automorph the feet and boots, separate the legs, and then spin the boots around 180 degrees while straightening the legs. You'll need to be a bit careful about the windshield halves when swinging the torso around to snap into place, but they should end up covering the small of the back (neither the instructions nor the box photos really show them clearly in their final positions). From here, the arms are pretty simple. Despite the much higher complexity, it's essentially the same transformation as the Fast Action Battler, amusingly. Automorph: Pulling down the toes makes the kneecaps flip down and causes some panels on the sides of the legs to bulge out, giving him more of a calf muscle sort of look. There does not seem to be a forearm cannon at all, Automorph or no. However, there's an upcoming auto-transforming Ratchet-themed Nerf gun, maybe the copy got misplaced. Robot Mode: 7.5" (19cm) tall at the head, a little bit higher if you measure to the tops of his front wheels, which act as "blinders" (in the horse sense) on either side of his head. The two chartreuses work a LOT better in this mode, with the lighter color used for upper arms, lower thighs, knee joints, hands and blinder posts, therefore being distributed evenly among the darker green. The forearms, most of the torso, the feet and various kibbles on back are black, as is the shield/claw weapon made from the roof rack. And the rest (shoulderpads, head, upper thighs, boots, accent pieces elsewhere) is the darker green. Very nice balance. The painted doors aren't even really visible in this mode, though, so the paintmatch problem there is still without an excuse. I FINALLY placed his head shape. For a while I was thinking it was a sort of robot pig deal, but it finally hit me...it's a sumo wrestler robot. The whole topknot hairdo deal in the helmet shape. So it's a sumo pig, I guess. Anyway, it's darker chartreuse with blue lightpiping on the squinty eyes, silver paint on the nose and cheeks (it goes too high to really pass as a walrus mustache), and a red strip down the middle of the top and a couple red spots on the sides of the nose. As movie bot head designs go, it's not that bad, but that's damning with faint praise. In the actual movie it looks a lot less like a sumo pig, and the "mustache" moves like tusks. So, um, non-sumo boar? It works better live, in any case, than in toy form. The head turns, but the waist does not. The shoulders are universal, with upper arm swivels and hinge elbows, all smooth. The hands wiggle a little at the wrists, but the right hand swaps out for an axe (more on that in a bit). The roots of the shoulders also swing out a bit on transformation hinges, giving him a bit greater range of motion reminiscent of some of the weird back cuts seen in bulkier Marvel action figures. The hips are theoretically universal, but the wheels on the hips block most of the outward motion. There's swivels above the knees, the knees are hinges, and the ankles can move a little without undoing the Automorph. The forearm armor of the right arm can rotate out and then fold open into a sort of butterfly axe, with the hand stowing under a flip-up darker green panel. The roof rack can plug into a hole on the left forearm, with a little notch in the hole matching a tab on the peg to keep it firmly pointed the right direction. Then the pseudo-hardpoint on the spare tire can be moved back and forth to make the rack open and close as a claw weapon. So, Rachet can grab you with his left arm and then julienne you with his right. And then patch you up later. There's a hole in the piece that protects his face in vehicle mode, you can plug the peg on the claw weapon into that for storage. This gives him a sort of beetle elytra thing (the shell over the wings). So he's a sumo pig beetle! As a final note on this mode, the general proportions remind me of Energon Ironhide, with the somewhat flat and squat torso but big bulky legs. Overall: It's an ugly green, and an ugly head sculpt (although it's growing on me). But a good design overall, and given that a G1-themed recolor is likely if not inevitable, you might want to wait and grab the much less ugly recolor. AUTOBOT: IRONHIDE Function: Security Altmode: GMC Topkick (pickup truck) Licensor: GM Previous Name Use: G1, G2, BW, RiD, Universe, Armada (Mini-Con), Energon Package Call-Outs: "Cannons combine for battle!" "Quad-missile cannon fires 4 projectiles!" Motto: "High tech circuitry is no replacement for guts!" AUTOBOT weapon specialist and old-fashioned warrior IRONHIDE is the big stick that backs up the soft steps of OPTIMUS PRIME. Paint scarred and chrome chipped by shrapnel from a hundred battles, he is the oldest of the AUTOBOTS. His right hip is a mass of bypasses and temporary solutions, his power core and timing system are irregular, and his idle is set way too high; but his optics are the sharpest on CYBERTRON, and his cannon arm is as steady as ever. OPTIMUS PRIME relies on him for tactical advice and a cool head. As long as they keep making missiles compatible with his cannons, he'll keep fighting, until every last DECEPTICON is a smoldering wreck. STR 7 INT 6 SPD 5 END 9 RNK 8 COUR 9 FRB 6 SKL 5 Avg 6.875 Nifty bio note, too bad the actual toy looks assembly-line new. A few nicks and dents, especially on the non-vehicle parts, would have been a nice touch. Packaging notes: Three twist-ties through to the back. No need to undo the blister tray, though, there's no additional hidden ties. Rubber bands at front and back hold things together. The missiles are loaded into the launcher rather than being tied or banded down separately. Much more pleasant than some. Of course, the fact that the missiles aren't spring- based is a big part of what let them pack 'em loaded. Vehicle Mode: A black GMC Topkick (specifically built up from a GMC C4500 4x4 Crew Cab Topkick), a heavy-duty four-door pickup truck with slightly jacked up suspension and extra fuel tanks for long distance travel (aka the robot's weapons). It has exhaust pipes along the rear corners of the cab, presumably to avoid problems with the exhaust being dinged by rocks in the road. It also, incongruously, has a bed-lid but no accompanying bedbox...mainly to avoid having to deal with hollow legs. It's 7.25" (18.5cm) long, 2.75" (7cm) wide and 2.75" (7cm) tall. It's remarkably hard to find actual information about the Topkick online (GMC's own site has nada), but the wheelbase is supposed to be 169", which would make this 1:36 scale. Yeah, vehicle size in this line is determined by mass of plastic needed, not by any attempt to keep consistent scale. :) Mainly made of black plastic, but the roof, hood and door panels are clear medium-to-dark blue plastic and the fueltanks are a darkish blue gray with a slight metallic sheen (the trigger pieces are black plastic, though). Black paint covers the clear on any part not supposed to be a window, and the rear window is painted metallic medium-dark blue (it's on a black plastic piece). The roof lights are painted medium gloss blue, the turn signals are painted orange. There's silver paint on the taillights, headlights and grille border, with red on the brakelights and on the "GMC" in the center of the grille. The usual "4X4" logo seen on pickups with the white 4s and red raised X is printed on both sides, just behind the rear doors. The front bumper has "ROAD ARMOR" molded on the top front small, and also molded larger in logo form on the underside. The rear gate has a molded but unpainted Autobot symbol at its center. Other notable lacks of paint are on the exhaust pipes, the hubcaps, and side mirrors. There's no real "poseability" in this mode. The wheels spin freely, but none of the doors open, nor does the gate drop. One "action feature" is found in the cannons/fuel tanks...when not linked together, both have rattling pieces, which is the one aspect of this toy that actually fits the "held together with bailing wire and good intentions" thing from Ironhide's bio note. When properly pegged together, though, everything else holds tightly with no rattling or flexing to speak of. Transformation: Lead off with the hood and side panels, you can leave Automorphing the legs for last...the rest is kinda murky. You need to get the arms partly transformed in order to spin the VERY stiff pseudo-waist transformation joint, but can't put them all the way up or you'll block in the head (the centers of the wheel hubs lock onto pegs on the collarbone area, setting the head in place, but those same pegs can be blocked by the wheels). A lot of joints are stiffer than they need to be, causing some problems in transformation. The instructions aren't really clear about what to do with all the roof panels, but there's several ways to fold them reasonably out of the way. The waist wouldn't plug together right until I did some filing on the pegs. The chest won't hold together properly in anything resembling the photos on the package, I have to have the halves much farther apart. For going back to truck mode, there's some rather complex pegging at weird angles around what was the robot pelvis, getting it all together can be tricky at first. Automorph: The hood-and-doors chunks fly apart once freed up a bit, but this barely counts, IMO. And, frankly, it's more hassle than it's worth, since it keeps the chest from laying flat unless you pull the halves way apart. The main Automorph involves the feet, where pulling down the toes makes the heels come down, the rear wheels flip back and the bed lid panels fold around and sort of out of the way. Maybe. Robot Mode: 6.75" (17cm) tall at the head,the doors as winglets rise a little above that. All of the parts revealed in this mode are black plastic except for the lightpiping, which is dark blue and pretty much needs sunlight levels of illumination to show up. The blue metallic paint from the rear window is used on the chest, pelvis, shins and a little on the face. There's some dark gold accents on the face, chest, pelvis, hips, feet and biceps. Head turns, waist doesn't. Shoulders ratchet forward and back but lift out smoothly. Smooth upper arm swivels, hinge elbows and swivel wrists. The hips ratchet forward and back, move out to the sides smoothly. The thigh swivels just above the knees are...in need of stiffening. To the point that the legs spin almost like wheels. The knees are smooth hinges, the ankles don't really do much useful because of being bound to the Automorph. Mine is pretty much limited to straight-legged poses, otherwise the legs just spin and it falls over. Turns out you only need to loosen the screws on his thighs a little and the lower legs pop off on short pegs with shallow lips, so I applied a few coats of nail polish topcoat, and that seemed to do the job. The hands can hold 5mm pegs, but his cannons don't have pegs, just holes to fit on his forearms. There's two pegs on each forearm, a thinner one near the front and a wider one near the back. On the right arm, the front peg is essentially a "dead hardpoint" 5mm peg, but on the left arm both pegs are about a half millimeter thinner than on the right. This is probably to keep you from swapping them in vehicle mode. The root cannon goes on the right arm, the one with the missiles goes on the left. Neither cannon fires on its own, they have to be connected so that the triggers on the root piece push out the "marble shooter/Cyberjet missile" projectiles, of which there are four. The loaded length of the full weapon is 5" (13cm). However, the cannon halves don't latch together properly, there's just a little too much pressure inside and the latch pops. A little use of a round needle file inside the latch hole solved it, though...both releasing the pressure and making the surface rougher. Still, it's yet another quality control problem with this toy. I haven't been flooded with emailed warnings, so it's probably not an issue with every Ironhide, but still...not really a toy for anyone who isn't up to a little repair work. Overall: Hm. If you could find one where: 1) the cannon holds together, 2) the waist can transform properly, 3) the chest isn't a problem, 4) the pseudo-waist transformation joint isn't practically fused, and 5) the mid-thigh joints aren't insanely loose, it's a decent toy. But I have trouble believing that it's easy to find one with none of these problems. Especially #5, since it seems linked to the way the legs are constructed. As a lesser nit, the "none more black" color scheme washes out a lot of details, and the choice of dark metallic blue as the main accent doesn't really help. Anyway, I wanted to like this toy, but it just has too many problems for me to enthusiastically recommend it, even if I did get the worst possible one in the batch. [Update: getting reports in from other owners. 1) I seem to be in the overwhelming minority on this one. 2) A few people had it take excessive force, but so far no one else had to actually file bits off to get it to go together. 3) Most people seem to have this problem, as the springs are just too strong. The hood pieces are meant to rest at maybe 30 degrees up from horizontal, but end up above 45 degrees. 4) Looks like it's just me on this one. 5) Most people don't seem to have a problem with this one. 6) However, some people are reporting a problem I didn't have, namely that the bed cover pieces don't want to go back in place in vehicle mode.] DECEPTICON: STARSCREAM Function: Decepticon Second-in-Command Altmode: F-22 Raptor fighter jet Licensor: Lockheed Martin Previous Name Use: G1, G2, MW, Armada, Energon, Cybertron, Classic Packaging Call-Outs: "6 firing missiles!" "Missile launchers attach to arms!" Motto: "Conquest is made of the ashes of one's enemies." Leading the hunt for the AllSpark during the absence of MEGATRON on Earth has given STARSCREAM a taste for command. He has experienced firsthand the brutality that allows MEGATRON to maintain control over his DECEPTICON legions. It is a style of leadership that STARSCREAM takes to with gusto, punishing disobedience without mercy and rewarding success with only a narrowed eye and threatening gesture. He craves ultimate control, and looks forward to the day when MEGATRON makes the mistake that allows STARSCREAM the opportunity to slip a jagged shard of steel between his processor clusters. STR 8 INT 4 SPD 10 END 7 RNK 9 COUR 5 FRB 8 SKL 8 Avg 7.375 What's up with the low Intelligence? We gonna get another brainy Skywarp recolor or something? Packaging notes: 2 big twist-ties go through the main tray, but you then have to remove the blister tray to fully get the toy out, as 4 more ties through just the blister hold the vehicle in. Two large rubber bands hold the main plane together. Vehicle Mode: Well, from above it's definitely an F-22, albeit with a few odd seams. The under-wing loads, however, are pretty huge, to the point it looks like an F-22 sitting on top of a weapons platform a la Energon Bulkhead's add-on. 8.25" (21cm) long, 5.75" (15cm) wingspan. If you flip out the missile racks (which are out in-package) and put the missiles in them instead of in the launchers, the total width is 6". Most of the toy is a sort of brownish light gray (or "french gray" to go by the Prismacolor display) or taupe. The nosecone, a bit that covers the robot face and the "claws" of the rotary launchers are a rubbery version of this color. The rotary launchers, flip-out missile racks on the sides and a number of joint pieces are black plastic. The missiles themsevles are a darker french gray. The cockpit is amber clear plastic. There's silver trim on the wing and tail edges, the tops of the intakes and around the cockpit, plus small silver Decepticon symbols on the wings. Black paint is airbrushed in a charring pattern on the leading edges of the wings and the undercarriage kibble, plus on the undersides of the vertical stabilizers and non-airbrushed on the intake covers. There's a couple of dark gray accents on the tops of the intakes. The jet rolls along on four wheels. Two larger light french gray wheels on the rear undersides of the rotary launchers, and two small black wheels at the front underside of the intakes. As the toy rolls along, the launchers rotate, and a little "thumb" piece on the underside trips the triggers for automatic firing action. The thumb cannot be moved out of the way without preventing rolling in this mode, hence the external missile storage. The external racks don't hold the missiles very firmly, though. Stability is decent once you get all the pegs locked down. The tail sections (vertical and horizontal) are all on ball joints, though, so they can flop around. It's fun to roll the jet back and forth and make the launchers spin. :) Transformation: I'd recommend starting by removing the missiles and folding the racks back. They'll just fall out (or launch if left in the launchers) otherwise. The arms are easy from there, they just need to be kept out of the way of the rest of transformation. The legs are a tad tricky, because you have to open up panels in the thighs and do a weird slide and rotate swap to get the "thighbones" reversed in direction inside the thigh armor. The thighbones are pegged on so that they'll pop off before you exert enough force to break the struts...but this also means they'll pop off when you just try to bend the knees, d'oh. The next bit is to unpeg the wings and fold them up some, and engage the Automorph to transform the torso. It's difficult to get the wing bits to fold over the collarbone without popping off tail bits. Once you have this done, the shoulders just bend into place, no locking pegs. The black struts the shoulders are connected to do peg onto the wings for a little extra stability, but the pegs aren't exactly robust. When going back to jet mode, be sure you get all the pegs in place. There's a lot of them, and if they're not all firmly in place, the rest will come apart much more easily. Once they're all pegged, though, the whole thing is reasonably solid. Automorph: As far as I can tell, the only Automorph involves pushing up the cockpit to become the chest, making the wings flip up and apart. Robot Mode: His theoretical maximum height is a bit more than the 7.25" (18.5cm) he rises to when in his typical digitigrade (chicken-legged) stance, but he doesn't really look right with straight legs. He's a real gorilla in bulk, over 7" (18cm) wide at the shoulders and with somewhat apelike arms. A bit more of the black stuff is visible in this mode. The head is light french gray with amber lightpiping. The face is painted a mix of solid black and bronze, with some black airbrushing as well. The pecs that are revealed by Automorph are painted bronze with red lines in all sorts of tech greebling, evoking the Protoform Starscream. The head turns, but the waist does not. Shoulders are smooth universal joints with smooth upper arm swivels below them. The elbows ratchet. Between the three barrels of the launchers are three claws that can be pulled back, although in truth, his missiles are his fingers, hence the weird joint-like appearance. Seriously, missiles with knuckles. Load them with the hollow sides towards the center for the best hand-like appearance. The hips ratchet forward and back, and move smoothly out to the sides, with peg swivels right above the knees. The knees ratchet VERY stiffly, but are meant to be bent at 90 degrees most of the time. The digitigrade ankles are also ratches, and also generally fully bent. The toe-ankles bend smoothly, which combines with the above-knee swivels to give pretty stable stances. Spinning the wheels at the elbows makes the launchers spin as well (on mine, one spins pretty freely, the other slows quickly). The triggers are VERY sensitive, so that just being brushed by the "thumb" piece...or, say, by your hand while posing the figure...will launch the missiles. However, the thumb can be bent back to let you spin the launcher freely with minimal chance of accidental firing. One last note on the face. It's not really a Starscream face. In fact, if it could be said to resemble any non-movie face, it'd be Waspinator. Frankly, the faces are the weak point on most movie designs, and I'm glad that a lot of the non-movie toys (like Wreckage) went with somewhat more traditional head designs. Overall: Decent if kibbly jet mode, interesting transformation, and the robot mode is better than I expected (although leg articulation isn't as useful as it first looks). Worth picking up, although you may want to wait for an inevitable recolor for somewhat less blah coloring. Dave Van Domelen, wonders if he'll get through the last of his Street Date Wave stuff before the next waves hit....