Last Thursday I was in the middle of a whole G.I. Joe thang and Transformers Thursday got pre-empted. I had hoped I could come back to it this week and look at some Energon figures or maybe something from Armada, but no, the Bayformer Hostage Crisis continues. I think this is Week #7 but I may have passed out and lost count somewhere along the way. Either way, I’m looking at another movie toy. And so, I dug my mitts into the Bayformer Tote and pulled out… this guy.

I have no idea who this is. I’m guessing he’s another one of those Expanded Universe figures from the 2007 Movie. Hang on, while I hit the googles… OK, it’s… Dropkick? Really?? Part of the reason I’m starting to thin out my Transformers collection is because of figures like Dropkick here. I’m being totally honest when I say that I had no idea who he was when I pulled him from the tote, and yet at some point I walked into a store, pulled him off the peg and bought him. If I can’t even remember his name and I have no meaningful connection to the character, than I have to ask myself, why do I own him? Maybe he’s just a really bitchin’ toy? If he was, I’d probably know his name, but let’s press on and find out.

As we’ve already seen Dropkick is a pick-up truck. The sculpt isn’t bad, but maybe a little plain. He does have a really suspicious sliding knob on the cap in his truck bed. What’s that all about? Well, as you can see above, it’s a giant pincer claw that comes out of the tailgate. That doesn’t seem terribly practical. Don’t tailgate Dropkick or he’ll deploy his pincer and scratch your front quarter panels! Still, if you don’t like it you can take the whole thing out, giving Dropkick just a regular empty bed. Let me also point out here that Dropkick’s truck mode does not stay together well. I think a lot of it has to do with his spring loaded head and hood parts. He wants to pop apart at the slightest inclination and it’s almost impossible for me to get the roof or the passenger side door to stay tabbed into place all the way.

The deco here is kind of ugly. First off, he has a giant Decepticon insignia that takes up the entire hood and roof of the vehicle. Hey, Dropkick, ever hear the expression, “robots in disguise?” Why don’t you just paint a giant target on yourself? Optimus Prime ain’t no touchy-feely robot of peace in these movies. When he finds you, he’s probably going to rip off your face and blow a hole in the back of your head. But it isn’t the garish faction symbol that I find so ugly here, it’s the bare grey plastic that looks like all the paint has been stripped off and we’re look at a truck’s primer. It makes the toy look unfinished. The front bumper also looks like it’s screaming for some additional paint apps. Blah. Let’s transform him and see if the robot mode is any better.

Dropkick has some cool stuff going for him. I like the way his windows angle to form his chest. It’s a lot like the movie Optimus Prime design only executed better than it was on the 2007 Prime figure. There’s also a ton of intricate sculpting to seen behind those shields. I also dig the dual blasters that fold out under each hand. And while it took me a while to warm up to them, I’ve grown to like the “chicken-leg” aesthetic that came out of the movie designs.

On the downside, look at all that truck kibble up around the shoulders. It might not be so bad if those giant chunks of truck with the front wheels didn’t flop all over. Also, those doors are inexplicably spring-loaded so they automatically stick out like that. The ability to tuck those back would have cleaned up Dropkick’s profile a lot, but they just spring right back into position. I’ll also note here that Dropkick is yet another Transformer who’s shoulders will not stay pegged in for love or money. Before every single shot, I had to repeg those suckers back into place. Lastly, the torso mode could have used some more paint apps. All that sculpted detail looks so bland in that bare grey plastic. Hasbro put some wonderful paintwork into the Revenge of the Fallen toys, but they sure skimped a lot on these 2007 Movie figures.

I do like the head sculpt on Dropkick. It’s very simple and very un-movie-like. Instead of looking like some kind of rabid space bug, he just looks more like a proper 80’s Transformer with a mouth plate and a visor. The antenna on the sides of his head are cool and I like those droopy ear things on his “helmet” it makes him look like a sad Decepticon. Awww… It’ll be Ok, Dropkick! Here, have an energon cookie.

Dropkick is by no means a terrible figure. He’s got some personality to his design that makes it impossible for me to totally hate on him. Unfortunately, he’s also got plenty of issues that hold him back from being anything better than average at best. And that’s even after I’ve bumped him up a few points for being a Decepticon truck, because I usually love Decepticon trucks. I had to consider this one carefully. Do I keep him or pack him into a box bound for my nephew in New Jersey? It was a tough call. Especially with him looking up at me with that sad face. But in the end, I decided I didn’t really need him in my collection anymore. Sorry, Dropkick, you’re headed to the Garden State. It’s been nice knowing ya!

It’s Transformers Thursday, and I believe this is Week #6 of TFT being held hostage by the Bayformer menace. Today my random grab into the Transformers Movie Tote pulled out Deluxe Class Brawl from the first movie. Or is that Devastator? Yeah, the people making this movie cared so little that they couldn’t even get the name of the character right. How did they not even clean that up for the home release for Chrissakes? Anyway, there’s no in-package shot so let’s jump right to Brawl’s alt mode.

Yup, he’s a tank. He’s actually a pretty nice looking tank too. You can say a lot of bad things about some of these movie toys, but for the most part they had really good alt modes. There’s some nice attention to detail in the sculpt, including bolts, hatches, mesh grating, and the individual wheels in the treads. Brawl sports a simple green camo deco that’s appropriately understated for his military nature. There’s nothing flashy or terribly special here, and certainly not a lot of visible paint apps, but it’s a solid effort that leaves me with no complaints.

Brawl’s tank mode even features a decent amount of articulation. The main turret will turn left and right as will the secondary turret on top of that so the smaller guns can track flanking Autobot targets while the main gun is pounding away at something else. You also get two small missile packs mounted on ball joints on top of the main turret. Brawl is basically guns on top of guns, and I can’t imagine a Decepticon would want it any other way. I should point out that Brawl’s main gun can fire a missile, but like most of my ’07 Transformers, I have no idea where that missile got to.

Transforming Brawl is surprisingly simple for a movie toy. The engineering here is so intuitive that’s it’s hard to believe the designers were able to get such a great robot and alt mode out of him. At heart, this robot mode is a great nod back to G1 Brawl with the front of the tank making up the chest and treads packing away neatly on his legs. The turret forms a backpack and it’s very clever the way his arms unfold from the turret so that the main gun from the tank lands on his right arm. You gotta love the arm cannon! It’s enough to make Megatron jealous. Another cool touch is the way the two guns peek up behind his shoulders just like G1 Onslaught. The plows on the front of the tank form a set of vicious chest armor, and he has a wicked claw weapon that folds out from his left wrist.

While I’m generally not a fan of the Bayformer portraits, I like Brawl’s headsculpt quite a bit. It downplays the whole insectoid look that some of the other bots have and there’s some pretty good light piping here too. I also really dig the way the treads land on his shoulders. It reminds me of the pieces that some medieval armor had to help prevent decapitations in combat.

Alrighty, so Brawl features a solid tank mode and a really great looking robot mode, but guess what? As a toy he’s still a piece of crap. Why? The shoulders! The shoulders are designed to tab into the torso and they simply will not stay locked into place. Get one in and the other pops out. Try to manipulate his arms and they pop right out. Stand him on the shelf and look at him funny and they pop right out. Dig a hole in the back yard and bury him… I’m going to guess they’ll still pop right out. Just trying to get some shots of him in robot mode with them still attached had me gritting my teeth in anger and frustration. Wait… why am I getting a sense of Deja Vous? Could it be that there was another Decepticon tank that had a floppy shoulder problem that ruined what was an otherwise fantastic figure? Of course there was… It was Generations Blitzwing. It’s nice to know that Hasbro learns from their mistakes.

And so what started out promising ends up a bust. Brawl has so many great things going for him, but it’s all for naught because of two goddamn tabs that won’t stay in place. It really hurts too because I wanted to love this figure so much. When I pulled him out of the tote I definitely recalled having some bad memories about this guy, but it wasn’t until I transformed him that I remembered those damn shoulders. But what really sucks is that I never ponied up for the Leader Class version of Brawl that now goes for ridiculous amounts on the secondary market. A design this cool deserves a solid figure and this Deluxe just ain’t it, but I hear that Leader version is quite a beauty.

It’s Week #5 of Transformers Thursday held hostage and I’m looking at Transformers based on the live action films up until the release of Age of Extinction. And hey, lots of in hand pictures and reviews of the AoE figures have hit the Interwebbings last week and I’m now more comfy than ever about saying that I won’t be buying any of them. Anyway, today I reached my mitts into the dreaded Tote of Bayformers and I picked out Arcee from the first live action movie. Of course, she didn’t appear until Revenge of the Fallen, so this figure is one of those Expanded Universe kind of efforts. This figure is also another one in which I remain so very torn. Let’s take a look at her alt mode.

So someone, somewhere and at some point decided that Arcee was going to be motorcycle and that’s been the case ever since. I seem to recall that it was the Energon line that first gave her that alt mode, but please someone correct me if I’m wrong. In this case, Arcee is a sporty purple crotch rocket and I have to say this is one kick ass alt mode. I’ll concede that the use of what is a very Decepticon-ish deco of purple and black gave me pause at first, but the shade of plastic is so gorgeous that I just don’t care. Toss in some very sharp metallic gold and silver paintwork and you have a very sexy looking motorcycle.

But this bike shines even beyond the striking deco. The attention to detail here is just killer. The sculpting in the wheels, the engine, and even the chain on the motor is all dutifully recreated. The handlebars and brakes are sculpted, the rear view mirrors are there, and the contours of the front shield, seat and gas tank all look amazing. The piece is finished off nicely with some silver lettering, an Autobot insignia and a fully detailed license plate for Massachusetts. I’m not sure the significance of that, but I do appreciate the detail. There are a few minor bits of robot kibble visible, like her hands hanging off the back, but I’m still prepared to say that this is a Five Star vehicle mode.

And then there’s this. Ok, so I’m probably going to surprise some people when I say that I do not hate Arcee’s robot mode. It would be more accurate to say that it’s so close to being great, I hate the few lazy things about it that hold it back. Let’s go with the good stuff first. Hasbro did a really fine job transforming a motorcycle into what is a fairly feminine looking figure. She’s got the long legs, the shapely thighs, and the robot equivalent to high heeled boots. She’s even got a bit of a chest and the slender arms help hammer the gender of the robot home. Even the front of the motorcycle and the front wheel fold fairly neatly onto her back. And as with the motorcycle mode, Arcee’s deco in robot mode really shines. You get a lot of the same gorgeous purple plastic with black accents and some really attractive gold, silver, and blue apps all along her torso. I love the detailing on this figure and I love the way the color scheme and quality of paint compliment it.

So, for me the most aggravating thing about Arcee are the half wheels on her shoulders. They’re ungainly, awkward, and I don’t like the way that they just flop around using gravity to keep them pointed down. There are actually a couple things you can do with them, including folding them into her chest like this…

To me that looks better, but it severely stifles both the articulation and the proportions of her arms, so it’s not really a viable fix for me. What kills me about the wheel shoulders is if Hasbro had just made the hinge that they’re on able to bend back as well as forward, you could have neatly folded these back and out of the way and I think the figure would have been vastly improved by it. Granted, I don’t know what’s involved in costing out additional movement like this, but the hinge is already there for chrisakes. Just give it a little extra movemenet. Sheesh!

And then there’s that head sculpt. Arcee’s face looks kind of like a robot cartoon chicken. Or is that just me? Her lips look like a beak. Either that or possibly a sex doll… only because I read about those once. Needless to say, I’m not all that keen on Arcee’s portrait. I will say that the paintwork is nice and the blue light piping in the eyes is pretty good if you can get it just right.

The back of Arcee’s bike comes off during transformation and converts to a missile launcher. Alas, I couldn’t locate her missile, which usually isn’t a big deal, although in this case if you insert the missile the sides pop out to make it look like a crossbow. It’s a very cool weapon, but without the missile in place, it just looks like an arm blaster.

Arcee’s got some problems. You get an amazing motorcycle mode, some great coloring and quality paintwork, counterbalanced by a really bizarre head and some unfortunate shoulder kibble. The problems I have with this figure could have been easily fixed, but I’m not sure if they were lazy design elements or just poor design choices. Still, when you consider the monstrosity that was Revenge of the Fallen Arcee, this release doesn’t seem so bad at all.