Behold, Scorponok’s primary alt mode. It’s like a construction vehicle had sex with a robot scorpion. At the core of this awesome monstrosity is a truck cab with two laser cannons, an extended hood and retro-looking grill sitting atop two triangular tank treads. The “tail” bends up over the cabin with a hook. Attach a Minicon and you can deploy a pair of laser cannons. He’s got a pair of giant claws jutting out from the front and the claws can retract to reveal hidden missile launchers. The amount of detail on this sculpt is so crazy, I don’t even know where to begin. There are panel lines everywhere, hinged moving parts, sculpted guns, swiveling guns, vents and grills, its all a lot for the eye to take in. The coloring is just as wild with green camo, orange, brown and loads of cool looking yellow translucent bits. The orange scoops on the front claws even have a nice paintwash, which is something you just don’t see Hasbro doing with a lot of Transformers. There’s a lot of love in this mold.

The toy does feature electronic sounds, but this thing had a hair trigger, so I took the batteries out a long time ago and quite frankly I can’t remember what noises it makes.

Scorponok is technically a Triple Changer, as he does have an official jet mode. Overall, its a fun extra mode, but as is often the case with these secondary modes, its a little funky. The engines that hang off the top of the back don’t really lock into anything and are just flapping in the breeze. Still, I’ve seen worse.

Going to robot mode, Scorponok is one big tower of Decepticon love. Actually, he’s a little too stocky to be a tower of anything, but he’s still a formidable looking robot. The transformation isn’t terribly surprising. His treads become his legs, his scorpion claws become his arms, and the cab becomes his chest, complete with sculpted Decepticon logo. Scorponok doesn’t really have hands, but the claws can still open up to reveal missile launchers and he has cool little energon blades on his forearms.

The tail just hangs off the back and there are a number of things you can do with it from trying to keep it out of the way to putting it over his head to utilize the laser cannons. Normally tail kibble like this would be a problem, but Scorponok is a sturdy enough figure to be able to handle it without toppling backwards. Every last bit of amazing detail from the vehicle mode carries forward to his hyper-detailed robot mode. The head is a great sculpt with a flip up visor that creates a nice nod back to G1 Headmaster Zarak.

Scorponok’s deco remains pretty much the same in robot mode as it does in his vehicle modes. The paintwash on his hands looks great and he even has some silver scuffing on his toes that looks like the paint was worn off from him walking. Once again, I really dig the yellow translucent pieces.

Scorponok represents everything that I loved about the Energon figures. He’s a crazy and imaginative toy packed with so much sculpted detail that its hard to believe he’s in a line that is a continuation of Armada. His extra mode is not great, but its kind of fun and most importantly it doesn’t ruin the toy, even if it does overcomplicate it a bit. Whether sitting in his crazy Scorpion Death Machine mode or standing in his robot mode, this guy is definitely one of my favorite Transformers on the shelf.