Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 18, 2008 9:44:18 GMT
Finally the drought is over at Phil's Death Fortress in Swindon - some new TFs to review.
I'm skipping Animated because the design Aesthetic does nothing for me. Well there might be some Dinobots at some stage ;-)
These have showed up first on the Hasbro website for £12.99 each, but the Hasbro site is free shipping on orders over £25. I'll remember that when they get the SW:BMF in.
Prowl is a black and white police car. Well he's passed the first test then ;-) He does look like the G1 version, and the form is quite close to the original, though having checked TFU.info ( www.tfu.info/1984/Autobot/Prowl/prowl.htm ) the original doesn't have a spoiler. The wheels - my goodness what is going on there ? Huge 5 spoked hubs and non existent tires. Haven't seen wheels that bad on a TF since Nightbeat ! Red angled lightbar atop the car looking a bit like an arrowhead or Prowl's head crest on the roof of the car. Windows are clear smoked plastic, and front headlights are clear plastic.
He comes with a fold up gun which stored under the car. The handle wants to be facing down from the car body and the hinge needs to be at the head end. Instructions don't make this clear.
TF: Remove the gun. Pop the sides of the car - from the rear of the door to the front - out and forward slightly - there's a small arm and ball joint connecting them to the main body of the car, and you're pretty certain to pop the ball joint off at some stage - I'd pop the front off and pull from there. Reminded me of Movie Barricade. Hold the car looking at the bottom. Pull the side fronts down and over the wheels so the outside half of the sides is pointing forward. Fold the side fronts up inside the doors giving you the traditional Prowl door wings. Next the legs - note how they're slightly bent in car mode at the knees - necessary when reversing the TF. Flip up the rear bumper and fold the rear of the car back and down to form the lower legs. The feet.fold out, and from there you can fold the heel spurs back. Fold the door wings back a bit, and pull the front wheels out to the side - again they're on a little arm - and pull the arms out. Again not that the fists are positioned almost so they're holding the guns in his back. Look at the front of the car and position the arms so the wheels face back, the arms can bend forward at the elbow and the fists are correct. Push the head up through the bonnet - it will autoTF into place. Fold the doors as far forward as possible and fold the bonnet onto the robot's lower body. Position the roof of the car to form the back of the robot. Now from here you've got the option of folding the back down, folding out a pair of blasters that mount on his shoulders original Prowl style. I like the option. Unfold the gun and place in the hand.
The robot is very G1 Prowl, the only real differences being the body is slightly narrower having lost the sides of it, and that the rear of the car is on his knees not his feet. Colours are all white and black here - anything you'd expect to be silver or grey is white so some of you might be getting your paint pots out on this one to finish it off. Head is perfect - with a pale blue lightpipe - huzzah ! Love lightpipes. It's a little back heavy so you may want to weight it slightly forward at the legs.
Articulation: Ankle, a joint where the lower leg connects to the rear of the car which is essentially part of the TF but gives the robot some extra movement, a swivel below the knee, bending knee, ball jointed hips, a waist and neck joints. Far too much going on at the shoulders - they can bend forward and back on the connecting arms I mentioned earlier, and up to the sides at where they connect to them. The shoulders themselves swing back and forth, and raise to the sides. There's a bicep swivel, a bend at the elbow and finally a swivel at the wrist - these joints are open at the bottom of the wrist and one of my fists popped out due to not having been inserted properly. Might be worth checking yours but they do pop back in easily and securely.
Overall: Apart from a few more paint aps you couldn't really have done better. bucket loads of articulation and definitely shouting "I'm G1 Prowl !" at you. Get it. Ian (Shockprowl) will love it.
I'm skipping Animated because the design Aesthetic does nothing for me. Well there might be some Dinobots at some stage ;-)
These have showed up first on the Hasbro website for £12.99 each, but the Hasbro site is free shipping on orders over £25. I'll remember that when they get the SW:BMF in.
Prowl is a black and white police car. Well he's passed the first test then ;-) He does look like the G1 version, and the form is quite close to the original, though having checked TFU.info ( www.tfu.info/1984/Autobot/Prowl/prowl.htm ) the original doesn't have a spoiler. The wheels - my goodness what is going on there ? Huge 5 spoked hubs and non existent tires. Haven't seen wheels that bad on a TF since Nightbeat ! Red angled lightbar atop the car looking a bit like an arrowhead or Prowl's head crest on the roof of the car. Windows are clear smoked plastic, and front headlights are clear plastic.
He comes with a fold up gun which stored under the car. The handle wants to be facing down from the car body and the hinge needs to be at the head end. Instructions don't make this clear.
TF: Remove the gun. Pop the sides of the car - from the rear of the door to the front - out and forward slightly - there's a small arm and ball joint connecting them to the main body of the car, and you're pretty certain to pop the ball joint off at some stage - I'd pop the front off and pull from there. Reminded me of Movie Barricade. Hold the car looking at the bottom. Pull the side fronts down and over the wheels so the outside half of the sides is pointing forward. Fold the side fronts up inside the doors giving you the traditional Prowl door wings. Next the legs - note how they're slightly bent in car mode at the knees - necessary when reversing the TF. Flip up the rear bumper and fold the rear of the car back and down to form the lower legs. The feet.fold out, and from there you can fold the heel spurs back. Fold the door wings back a bit, and pull the front wheels out to the side - again they're on a little arm - and pull the arms out. Again not that the fists are positioned almost so they're holding the guns in his back. Look at the front of the car and position the arms so the wheels face back, the arms can bend forward at the elbow and the fists are correct. Push the head up through the bonnet - it will autoTF into place. Fold the doors as far forward as possible and fold the bonnet onto the robot's lower body. Position the roof of the car to form the back of the robot. Now from here you've got the option of folding the back down, folding out a pair of blasters that mount on his shoulders original Prowl style. I like the option. Unfold the gun and place in the hand.
The robot is very G1 Prowl, the only real differences being the body is slightly narrower having lost the sides of it, and that the rear of the car is on his knees not his feet. Colours are all white and black here - anything you'd expect to be silver or grey is white so some of you might be getting your paint pots out on this one to finish it off. Head is perfect - with a pale blue lightpipe - huzzah ! Love lightpipes. It's a little back heavy so you may want to weight it slightly forward at the legs.
Articulation: Ankle, a joint where the lower leg connects to the rear of the car which is essentially part of the TF but gives the robot some extra movement, a swivel below the knee, bending knee, ball jointed hips, a waist and neck joints. Far too much going on at the shoulders - they can bend forward and back on the connecting arms I mentioned earlier, and up to the sides at where they connect to them. The shoulders themselves swing back and forth, and raise to the sides. There's a bicep swivel, a bend at the elbow and finally a swivel at the wrist - these joints are open at the bottom of the wrist and one of my fists popped out due to not having been inserted properly. Might be worth checking yours but they do pop back in easily and securely.
Overall: Apart from a few more paint aps you couldn't really have done better. bucket loads of articulation and definitely shouting "I'm G1 Prowl !" at you. Get it. Ian (Shockprowl) will love it.
? What could that possibly be?
