Transformers Reveal the Shield Lugnut

I teased this one slightly at the end of last week's blog, but this is a figure I have been wanting to get for a VERY long time, and I definitely wasn’t expecting to write about it pretty much as soon as I got it, so forgive me if I sound more biased than usual. Without further adieu, It is time to look at what I believe to be one of the most well received figures, even by today’s standards, in a decade, let’s look at Reveal the Shield Lugnut. 

This is such a unique figure. I know I said that before with Springer, but I really mean it this time. This is a main line Generations figure of an essentially brand new character, Lugnut was introduced in Transformers Animated, only 3 years prior to this toy's initial release in 2010. To put that into perspective, his Autobot counterpart Bulkhead, who was also essentially a brand new character at the time still hasn’t gotten a Generations update. (He did end up being in Transformers Prime though, but that isn’t really the same). The only characters I have found with a shorter turnaround from first appearance to Generations toy are comic characters like Drift and Windblade, but I don’t really count those cause Generations is the only toyline they can go in. 

Enough about other characters, let’s get back to Lugnut here and as always let’s start with the head. It should be very obvious that this is not your standard head in both shape and design. It is obvious his main feature is his large cycloptic red eye, which is quite unique all on it’s own but he also has 2 smaller eyes on either side of his head, for a total of 5 eyes, which is even more unique. His other main feature is his large jaw, which is actually moveable. It isn’t a lot of movement but enough to get the point across, unfortunately the jaw does hinder the rest of the head's articulation, meaning you can only really open it when he is facing straight ahead. Speaking of articulation the head is on a ball joint giving him a bit of up and down and side to side, but even without the open jaw the articulation is limited by the shape of the head, but he has enough to get by. Since he is the first figure I have reviewed to have it, I obviously need to mention his light piping. All of his eyes and the inside of his mouth are all light piped but it doesn’t really work the greatest. The main eye gets most of it and that is about it, luckily he doesn’t have “dead eye syndrome” like most figures that use light piping, and I am assuming that is because of the plastic used. 

The torso is a very interesting shape, as he has a hunchback like appearance with the head being sunken into the chest and the shoulders being positioned both above and behind it. The chest is primarily this thin purple pillar and on either side you have these cockpit halves that help fill out the chest, each one of those cockpit panels has a small turret that is fully rotatable and can fit blast effects on them. These sections are spring loaded and because of that they have a tendency to slide back from their proper positions, it makes the chest a bit wider and a bit more dynamic now that the windows are on an angle, it isn’t really a bad look, so I can completely understand if someone might prefer it over the regular configuration. He does seem to have quite a long torso because of his stature which almost seamlessly goes into his backpack which is just the entire tail section of the plane mode. It does end up going pretty far down his back meaning it can hinder leg articulation but it is on a rail and a hinge so it can be moved out of the way pretty easily. 

Moving on up to the arms, or well more specifically the shoulders. The large section right behind the head is where the shoulders connect, now this part doesn’t connect super well and tends to wobble a bit. The shoulders themselves are made up of the main turbines which is both accurate to the character and super cool, what is even better is that the entire middle section of the turbine is ratcheted allowing for outward arm movement. As for forward and back movement, that’s where it gets kind of weird, because of how the shoulder rotation is designed he doesn’t have any at the shoulder propper, but they did add a joint right beneath the turbine that is both a bicep swivel and a hinge that gives him some semblance of shoulder movement even if it is only 90 degrees of forward movement. Almost right below that joint is his elbow joint, which goes just under 90 degrees, and right after that you have his massive hands. Lugnut’s hands are quite spectacular and that is all because the fingers are articulated, the thumb is on it’s own separate hinge then, one for the whole palm and then the fingers are individually articulated. The main section of the hand is also on a rotation but that is mainly for transformation. 

The legs don’t have a lot going on, full waist rotation, hip ratchets and thigh swivels, knees go well beyond 90 thanks to a double hinge and a lot of clearance. The lower legs are considerably chunky but that shouldn’t be a surprise considering the rest of the figure. I think the feet are the most interesting part of his legs because of how much articulation they have, albeit most of it is left over from transformation, the heels and toes can move inward almost like bird claws, the ankles are on ball joints as well as a separate hinge for more forward movement, although that one is critical to his balance. 

Lugnut doesn’t come with any accessories, but he does have quite a few features and gimmicks. First off is the spring loaded missile launcher that hides in the plane's tail and is the main reason the tail doesn’t fold away better. Now I got this figure second hand, and he didn’t end up coming with the missile, which is fine by me as it does not hinder my enjoyment of this figure in the least, but I can still deploy the launcher as ridiculous looking as it is. Next up is the plethora of 3mm brackets, in just the shoulders and arms he has 10, 16 if you move a couple panels out of the way, plus the 1 on the missile launcher and the 2 on each leg. This guy can be a walking armoury if you have the resources, which I unfortunately don’t. Finally both of his fists are spring loaded to simulate his famous P.O.K.E, or Punch Of Kill Everything, attack. This unfortunately only works on one of my fists because I had to take the spring out of the other one as it was misaligned and was keeping the arm from transforming properly. Oh and before I forget since Lugnut was released in Reveal the Shield, he has a rubsign on his left hand which reveals he is of course a Decepticon when heat is applied. 

This transformation is pretty rad, with the way the main torso extends out, the arms unfolding into the wings and the legs collapsing up to form the bomb bay and leave essentially no undercarriage, which is usually a big problem with jet formers. The jet mode itself is absolutely FANTASTIC, it is an amalgamation of a few different WWII Bombers, mainly the B-25 Mitchell, B-24 Liberator, and B-17 Flying Fortress plus some more modern technological updates like having turbines instead of propellers. There are so many little things on this plane mode that really put it above the rest. The translucent red cockpit windows, the fully rotatable guns, the shark teeth pattern, the caution stripes on the turbines, the leetspeak version of his name on the wings and tail fin as well as the little molded gunner section at the very back. As for features in the is mode the launcher can still function just as well as it could before and he still has almost all of his 3mm brackets available to use at your desire. Oddly enough though he can actually roll, and rather well i might add, thanks to 4 tiny wheels on his underside. 

There was a lot to cover with this figure but I think I have covered pretty much all of it. I absolutely love this figure and am SO glad he is finally a part of my collection as incomplete and “broken” he may be, none of those things really hinder my enjoyment at all. This could very well be the last Lugnut figure we ever get and I would be ok with that. He is a decade old figure that stands right alongside modern day figures in terms of quality and general playability, not to mention size. Reveal the Shield Lugnut is an easy 9/10 and can really only be described in one word. Glorious. 

Hope you all enjoyed that one, and feel free to check out Lugnut’s photo gallery for more pictures, you won’t be disappointed. Next week we are going older than this weeks with a figure that I think is pretty cool and holds up almost as well as Lugnut but has a few flaws holding him back, so see you guys then.