Yes, there’s still plenty of Transformers goodness to be had at Ross Stores around here. The ridiculous glut of Bumblebees and Cliffjumpers that choked the pegs may have thwarted me from picking this guy up in the regular toy aisles, but so far all the TF: Prime Deluxes that I missed out on have been making their appearances in the Ross Toy Graveyard. Finding Rumble made me particularly happy because I am such a big fan of Decepticon cars. Why? I don’t know, but I just can’t resist them.

Wow, packaged Rumble looks awesome. The combination of the character art, the card deco and the nice bright blue car sitting under the bubble, it all makes my TransFan mouth start watering. Plus, Ross was nice enough to put their obnoxious price sticker on the bottom of the bubble. It’s almost like the 90-year old lady with the pricing gun said, “Oh my, there’s no way I’m going to mess up such a beautiful Transformers card. I better stamp this one on the bottom!” Yeah, I’m sure that’s what happened! You’ll note from the packaging that this figure also includes an episode on a DVD. Alas, it’s still “Loose Cannons,” the same episode that came with my Sergeant Kup. I’m guessing they’re all the same? Anyway, let’s get Rumble out and check out his vehicle mode.

Rumble’s alt mode is a very cool little blue “tuner” car. I had no idea what a “tuner” car was on account of the fact that I’m very old and not very hip. I thought it meant a car with a stereo tuned so loud so that it pisses me off when it goes by. A little research proved that I was only half wrong. Anyway, I really dig Rumble’s alt mode, particularly the tinted red windows and the Decepticon emblem on the front grill and the trunk. He’s roughly the same size as Bumblebee or Kup in their vehicle modes, so he’s still kind of small for a Deluxe, but he fits right in with the other Prime figures.

There aren’t a lot of paint apps, but with a nice glossy blue plastic, the car really doesn’t need them. Sure, I would have liked painted tail lights and license plates, but I think the car mode is still attractive without them. There are pegs on the sides of the car to plug in Rumble’s weapons. They’re called pile drivers, but they look more like guns to me and I really like the way they look on the car as guns. I’m not sure when it happened, but I’ve become a really big fan of Transformers who’s weapons can be clipped on to their alt mode. When it’s done right, it’s just lots of fun.

Rumble’s transformation is pretty clever. He splits right down the middle, his hood folds into his legs and the rest of the car parts to the sides to form his arms and shoulders. Rumble’s head automatically springs up into place when you pull his chest forward. It seems like it should be rather involved, but he actually transforms very quickly when you know what you’re doing.

Given the name and the fact that he’s a blue car, I expected a solid G1 homage out of Rumble’s robot mode. Well, it’s not there, but unless you demand homages that’s not a bad thing at all. Actually there is an homage at work here, but it’s to Bludgeon not Rumble. Yes, the skull configuration of Rumble’s chest reminds me more of a Bludgeon homage than anything else. Yeah, it’s weird, but Rumble is definitely his own robot and he looks really good. I wasn’t sure how the car kibble on the shoulders would look once I had the figure in hand, but when they’re angled the right way they look just fine. Rumble’s head sculpt is particularly appropriate for a Decepticon and very nice.

The color scheme here is still mostly blue and black with a little yellow thrown in to make the figure really pop. It goes to show you, that you don’t need to go nuts with the paint apps to make a figure look good. Of course, the crazy amount of red translucent plastic helps too, and Rumble employs some very nice light piping effects.

Rumble can hold his weapons in each hand. Again, these are supposed to be pile drivers, but I think they work better as guns. There’s not enough homage here to bother with the pile-drivers reference anyway.

I’ll hand it to Hasbro, the Deluxes in this line have come a long way since that first Bumblebee figure and Rumble is a fine example of that. He isn’t quite on the same level as Kup, but he’s still a really dynamic design in robot mode and is packed with character. Sure, I’m usually willing to be rather biased in favor of Decepticons that turn into cars, but in this case Rumble doesn’t need the charity. He’s a fun and well-engineered little figure and a great addition to my Prime collection.