Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 5, 2011 17:23:52 GMT
This has taken an age to get round to writing......
Revenge of the Fallen NEST Lockdown
DISCLAIMER: I'm working here from Lockdown's repaint Axor. The toy has some remoulding between Lockdown & Axor so there may be some subtle differences here that I don't get.
Lockdown is the first animated character to make the jump to another toyline, although Lugnut is due to follow as part of Reveal The Shield in 2011. Lockdown is a a green and black muscle car, not dissimilar to Cybertron Downshift. The car is long and low, with a spoiler, and is covered in grey spikes including one projecting from the hub of each wheel. The engine is mounted through the bonnet. The windows and front headlights are moulded in clear orange.
Transformation: reach under the car and fold the hook out to the side. Pull each door panel out. Fold the rear of the car up. Fold the front of the car down and out the back of the car. Look at the underside. Fold the arms up to the shoulders, and pull the roof of the car forward over his head to form his chest locking the shoulders into place. Fold the car panels on the back of the shoulders down to form armour. Fold the hook up shortening the piston in the forearm, and fold the left hand out of the other arm. Remove the engine block, separate the legs, pull the front of car halves forward to form the feet and fold up. Plug the engine block into his left forearm to form a gun.
Lockdown's robot mode is very tall for a deluxe toy, I'm pretty sure I have Megas and Voyagers shorter than he is! To the top of the heads he's exactly the same height as Classics/Henkei/United Voyager Megatron. Most of the revealed limbs are in a similar black to the car body, but there is some silver grey visible on the upper arms, joints and inside the upper legs - a nice detail here is that the detailed silver panel within the upper leg turns as you turn the leg at the thigh swivel. The articulation isn't the worst I've seen but is a little odd in places: The ankles bend, there's a sideways joint in the leg halfway up followed by a backwards then a forwards bending knee, then the aforementioned thigh swivel and hips that turn and bend out to the sides. The wrists bend in, the elbows (at the other end of a long forearm) and shoulders are ball jointed, while the neck turns at it's base and, courtesy of a couple of ball joints, bends twice in the middle. The hand and hook are a disappointment, both are made of rubber (Thanks for checking Ken) and as such are quite bendy which feels odd on a Transformers toy. TFWiki tells me the cannon formed from the engine can be replaced with Deluxe Ratchet's missile launcher. Nice touch.
Overall: I'm sure Animated fans are delighted to see him back again but Lockdown didn't rock my world. Sorry.
Released in the US & the UK at the start of 2010, he was Japanese Movie toy RD-26, which looks like it was released there *before* his Animated counterpart.
Hunt for the Decepticons Axor
Axor started life as Action Master Axer with the name reused in Robots in Disguise. He's not the only Action Master to get an update in 2010, Hasbro released a new Banzaitron.
From car mode Axor looks like a straight repaint with the body becoming grey and all the spikes blue. Transforming to robot mode reveals the black of the robot limbs is now blue too while the silver/grey become beige. The rubber parts are now blue too, with the hook remoulded into a hand. He gains a new head with red lightpiped eyes.
Doesn't do it for me at all. I only bought it because it was cheap in the Sainsbury's pre Christmas toy sale. Released in 2010 along with Rescue Ratchet he was sold in the UK & US but I can't any record of a Japanese release.
Revenge of the Fallen NEST Lockdown
DISCLAIMER: I'm working here from Lockdown's repaint Axor. The toy has some remoulding between Lockdown & Axor so there may be some subtle differences here that I don't get.
Lockdown is the first animated character to make the jump to another toyline, although Lugnut is due to follow as part of Reveal The Shield in 2011. Lockdown is a a green and black muscle car, not dissimilar to Cybertron Downshift. The car is long and low, with a spoiler, and is covered in grey spikes including one projecting from the hub of each wheel. The engine is mounted through the bonnet. The windows and front headlights are moulded in clear orange.
Transformation: reach under the car and fold the hook out to the side. Pull each door panel out. Fold the rear of the car up. Fold the front of the car down and out the back of the car. Look at the underside. Fold the arms up to the shoulders, and pull the roof of the car forward over his head to form his chest locking the shoulders into place. Fold the car panels on the back of the shoulders down to form armour. Fold the hook up shortening the piston in the forearm, and fold the left hand out of the other arm. Remove the engine block, separate the legs, pull the front of car halves forward to form the feet and fold up. Plug the engine block into his left forearm to form a gun.
Lockdown's robot mode is very tall for a deluxe toy, I'm pretty sure I have Megas and Voyagers shorter than he is! To the top of the heads he's exactly the same height as Classics/Henkei/United Voyager Megatron. Most of the revealed limbs are in a similar black to the car body, but there is some silver grey visible on the upper arms, joints and inside the upper legs - a nice detail here is that the detailed silver panel within the upper leg turns as you turn the leg at the thigh swivel. The articulation isn't the worst I've seen but is a little odd in places: The ankles bend, there's a sideways joint in the leg halfway up followed by a backwards then a forwards bending knee, then the aforementioned thigh swivel and hips that turn and bend out to the sides. The wrists bend in, the elbows (at the other end of a long forearm) and shoulders are ball jointed, while the neck turns at it's base and, courtesy of a couple of ball joints, bends twice in the middle. The hand and hook are a disappointment, both are made of rubber (Thanks for checking Ken) and as such are quite bendy which feels odd on a Transformers toy. TFWiki tells me the cannon formed from the engine can be replaced with Deluxe Ratchet's missile launcher. Nice touch.
Overall: I'm sure Animated fans are delighted to see him back again but Lockdown didn't rock my world. Sorry.
Released in the US & the UK at the start of 2010, he was Japanese Movie toy RD-26, which looks like it was released there *before* his Animated counterpart.
Hunt for the Decepticons Axor
Axor started life as Action Master Axer with the name reused in Robots in Disguise. He's not the only Action Master to get an update in 2010, Hasbro released a new Banzaitron.
From car mode Axor looks like a straight repaint with the body becoming grey and all the spikes blue. Transforming to robot mode reveals the black of the robot limbs is now blue too while the silver/grey become beige. The rubber parts are now blue too, with the hook remoulded into a hand. He gains a new head with red lightpiped eyes.
Doesn't do it for me at all. I only bought it because it was cheap in the Sainsbury's pre Christmas toy sale. Released in 2010 along with Rescue Ratchet he was sold in the UK & US but I can't any record of a Japanese release.