Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 6, 2010 21:39:00 GMT
Animated Wreck-Gar
Here's a question: How many Generations 1 Transformers characters have alternate modes bettered in a later version ? Rodimus Prime in Energon is much improved by being a truck rather than a camper van and ..... well not a lot really. Until Wreck Gar !
The new Animated Wreck-Gar is a dust cart. How spot on for the character is that for an alternate mode? Wreck-Gar collects rubbish and lives on a planet of junk in the 1986 film so a Dustcart is a perfect vehicle mode. As a bonus there's never been a Transformer dustcart before. He's an orange cab with a rubbish container on his back. Mounted on the front of the trailer are a pair of fork lifts which fold forward revealing a slider on each side which make the forks rise - my assumption is that this is for lifting the sort of rubbish container industrial firms use. The only real complaint about the vehicle mode is that it is rather small for a toy sold at the Voyager price point.
Transformation: Pull the top of the vehicle - the whole rubbish container and the top of the cab from the bottom of the windows - upward via a hinge in the rear bumper. The legs fold up from inside the vehicle and the feet & heel spurs fold out. The arms unclip from the sides of the vehicle - note the position of the shoulders (front - silver circle - facing) and hands (folded up - top of fist to front). Fold the head up and fold the hands down. The front wheels fold up into the top half of the cab which in turn folds into the underside of the waste container. The silver strut attached to the robot's back folds down over his bottom. That's attached to a black strut which clips over the cab top inside the waste container and then into Wreck-Gar's waist.
The robot mode screams Wreck-Gar at you without being an exact replica of the G1 toy. The robot is much bigger than you'd expect from the vehicle mode, much more Voyager sized and you wonder why it wasn't packaged in this mode to justify the price. The head is an Orange TV set - complete with aerial - with a white face complete with beard. The chest is formed from the truck's grill. The body is formed from red, orange, black and silver plastics. The head turns as do the shoulders which also swing to the sides. There's bicep swivels and elbow joints on the arms with bending fingers on the hands. There's a Universal joint at each hip, a swivel joint bellow it and bending knees.
Wreck-Gar doesn't come unarmed - a lever on his rubbish container backpack raises a pair of blades out of the top. These can be removed and, with the aid of a fold out handle, pegged into the wheel closest the elbow on each arm. The blades can be joined together to form a similarly mounted combined weapon.
Overall: I don't really like the Animated design aesthetic. It doesn't fit well with the previous 25 years worth of Transformers (the same applies to the majority of the toyline for the Bay movies) But this is the first ever Wreck-Gar update and - within the Animated style - nailed it dead on. Well worth a buy, especially at the £10 price TRU are asking for their MBC imported Mexican versions.
Hasbro: Now go away and do it in the usual style for the Universe/Classics 3 line !
Here's a question: How many Generations 1 Transformers characters have alternate modes bettered in a later version ? Rodimus Prime in Energon is much improved by being a truck rather than a camper van and ..... well not a lot really. Until Wreck Gar !
The new Animated Wreck-Gar is a dust cart. How spot on for the character is that for an alternate mode? Wreck-Gar collects rubbish and lives on a planet of junk in the 1986 film so a Dustcart is a perfect vehicle mode. As a bonus there's never been a Transformer dustcart before. He's an orange cab with a rubbish container on his back. Mounted on the front of the trailer are a pair of fork lifts which fold forward revealing a slider on each side which make the forks rise - my assumption is that this is for lifting the sort of rubbish container industrial firms use. The only real complaint about the vehicle mode is that it is rather small for a toy sold at the Voyager price point.
Transformation: Pull the top of the vehicle - the whole rubbish container and the top of the cab from the bottom of the windows - upward via a hinge in the rear bumper. The legs fold up from inside the vehicle and the feet & heel spurs fold out. The arms unclip from the sides of the vehicle - note the position of the shoulders (front - silver circle - facing) and hands (folded up - top of fist to front). Fold the head up and fold the hands down. The front wheels fold up into the top half of the cab which in turn folds into the underside of the waste container. The silver strut attached to the robot's back folds down over his bottom. That's attached to a black strut which clips over the cab top inside the waste container and then into Wreck-Gar's waist.
The robot mode screams Wreck-Gar at you without being an exact replica of the G1 toy. The robot is much bigger than you'd expect from the vehicle mode, much more Voyager sized and you wonder why it wasn't packaged in this mode to justify the price. The head is an Orange TV set - complete with aerial - with a white face complete with beard. The chest is formed from the truck's grill. The body is formed from red, orange, black and silver plastics. The head turns as do the shoulders which also swing to the sides. There's bicep swivels and elbow joints on the arms with bending fingers on the hands. There's a Universal joint at each hip, a swivel joint bellow it and bending knees.
Wreck-Gar doesn't come unarmed - a lever on his rubbish container backpack raises a pair of blades out of the top. These can be removed and, with the aid of a fold out handle, pegged into the wheel closest the elbow on each arm. The blades can be joined together to form a similarly mounted combined weapon.
Overall: I don't really like the Animated design aesthetic. It doesn't fit well with the previous 25 years worth of Transformers (the same applies to the majority of the toyline for the Bay movies) But this is the first ever Wreck-Gar update and - within the Animated style - nailed it dead on. Well worth a buy, especially at the £10 price TRU are asking for their MBC imported Mexican versions.
Hasbro: Now go away and do it in the usual style for the Universe/Classics 3 line !
