It’s no secret I love me some Decepticon cars, so it should be pretty obvious that I was excited about getting Crankcase. He’s a Decepticon Chevy Suburban, which is just plain awesome. I was hoping for better things from him in the movie, but as it turned out he was mainly a stand in for Bonecrusher in what was largely just a rehash of the highway battle scene from the ’07 movie. He was still plenty cool though, and I really liked how the scene had three identical Suburbans transform into three different Decepticons.

Crankcase comes packaged on a standard Deluxe Class card with the cool Dark of the Moon space deco. He’s mounted in his Suburban mode with his MechTech weapon beside him. The back panel of the card has his Tech Specs and his bio blurb. Nothing new here, but it looks pretty good. Oddly enough the package suggests that Crankcase is a police car, and while he does have lightbars on the roof, there aren’t any other indications that he’s a police vehicle. I’m guessing he was actually intended to be an undercover Federal vehicle.

As a sinister looking all black Suburban, this alt mode is pretty much perfect for a Decepticon, although if you’re into exciting paint apps you’ll be disappointed because you pretty much just get black on black. There is a small silver Decepticon insignia on his side. The sculpt is solid, although not exactly brimming with detail and overall it feels small and out of scale with the other Deluxe figures, but then scale has always been a sticking point with the Transformers, so I’m not going to make a big deal out of it. The only other drawback is that the vehicle rides very high on its wheels and leaves quite a bit of kibble visible underneath. There’s a socket on his roof for his MechTech weapon to peg into, but more on that later.

Transforming Crankcase isn’t too daunting, at least not when you’re going from alt mode to robot. When you’re done, there’s a lot to love about this guy. Everything packs in really neatly and there’s very little in the way of unsightly car kibble. I’m particularly fond of the way all the stuff collapses onto his back without forming a bulky, ungainly backpack. All in all, this is a very cleverly designed transformation. Crankcase is also a really distinctive looking Decepticon with loads of sculpted detail to make up for his somewhat plain alt mode. His head sculpt features multiple sets of eyes, and his gold dreadlocks and mandibles give him a bit of a Predator vibe. Between the head sculpt and the pincer-like blades that protrude off his back and he really looks like he could have been intended as an Insecticon homage.

Crankcase’s MechTech weapon is a big gun that converts to a claw weapon. As already mentioned, it can be attached to the roof of the Suburban mode, although I think it looks pretty silly because it’s just so damn big. In robot mode, Crankcase can wield the weapon in either hand by pegging it into his arm and here’s where it works really well.

This guy turned out to be one fantastic figure, and he’s definitely among my favorite DotM themed toys so far. Sure, I’m biased because I think a black Suburban makes for one bad ass Decepticon, but beyond that Hasbro just blew me away with the distinctive look of his robot mode. He’s got tons of personality, and I just can’t get away from the Insecticon vibe that I get from him.