WFC: Kingdom Maximal Grimlock

Welcome back, this week is the beginning of my first ever 2-part review. This means that I will be taking a look at a single set of figures with each one getting its own blog post. This review is also kicking off Kingdom Month (and a half), where each week I will be looking at a different Kingdom figure, in some capacity, and provided they all come on time. Last week I promised we would be “continuing on the dinobot train” and that is exactly what I am going to do. So without further adieu let’s kick this off and look at Kingdom Maximal Grimlock.

This figure comes from the first of 2 Amazon exclusive box sets for Kingdom. They got the name the Battle Across Time Collection, as each one came with a repaint/remold of a Beast Wars Kingdom figure and an earth mode version of a G1 character we got in Siege. This specific set came with Maximal Grimlock and Autobot Mirage and the other set features Maximal Skywarp and Autobot Sideswipe. Grimlock here is a repaint of the Kingdom Dinobot mold with a new head, which makes sense as that is what his original toy was. This figure got a lot of backlash when it was revealed as it has some questionable paint choices. I will detail all of them as I get to each section, but I liked that they tried combining the 2 BW Grimlock decos that got released(The original Beast Wars version and the Dinobots subline version). It is an interesting idea that could have been executed better, but enough talking about this figure's history, let’s get into it and you’ll see what I mean.

As always we look at the head and I would be lying if I said this isn’t one of my favorite head sculpts I have ever seen. Just absolutely stunning. The helmet is cast in this beautiful black plastic, on either side you have these spade shaped panels that have diamond shaped panels on top of them that wave molded vents on them. In the middle is this giant mohawk that goes all the way across the head and even continues down the back a bit. On the front it has this vertical drop off that actually tiers inward slightly as to not fully connect with his angled brow. His face plate is painted in this fantastic shade of grey plus it has his titular chin spike. Interestingly on the original toy his face plate was white and the Dinobots one was red. I find the fact that it is grey here kind of odd but I am not going to let that distract me from how good it looks. To top it all off are the bright green eyes that pierce through both of the dark colors. They are set in more than I might like but they can end up looking pretty dramatic thanks to the head articulation. Speaking of which, the head is on a ball joint and there is nothing around to hinder its movement so you end up with a pretty full range of movement

The torso is a pretty basic block despite his animalistic alt mode. The chest is odd to say the least. So it is supposed to be the Dinosaur head but slightly flattened thanks to Dinobot(the character)’s show model. You can see the top of the actual Dino mode head in the middle but the area around it makes no effort to match it. It is our first instance of “missing” paint as at the very least I think that the fake dino eyes should have been painted green. I am unsure about the rest of the fake head as the original never had this much black it was just spotted, but I think the added black would have looked nice and broken up the primarily white chest. The back isn’t too bad as it is just dino parts that condense down nicely, nothing too special here.

Moving onto the arms, which are the design’s traditional raptor leg arms. There isn’t a lot going on here other than lots of articulation and some very nice texturing, which is present throughout the entire figure. Like I said these arms have tons of articulation; double upward shoulder joints, full shoulder rotation, full bicep swivel, 90 degree elbow, full wrist rotation, back and forth wrist movement and the hands can open up thanks to the hinges on both finger sections. You may have noticed that the shoulders are white but the forearms and hands are grey and this is what I was talking about when I said this toy takes inspiration from both BW Grimlock decos. The original toy had fully white arms but the Dinobots one had the hands all the way up to the biceps grey similarly to this one, albeit this one stops at the elbow.

Now we get to the legs and you can probably already tell they are a kind of a mess, visually at least. All the articulation you would expect for a modern figure is here; ankle tilt both inward and backwards, 90 degree knees, full, but rather tight, thigh swivels, full range of motion in the hips, but the back movement is a bit restricted by the shape of the back of the crotch piece, and a waist rotation but it is off center so going too far in either direction makes it look wonky. Now onto the visuals of the legs and this vertical white and bronze split really isn’t working. I get the idea cause anything in white is visible in dino mode so they wanted it to match with the rest. The least they could have done is painted or molded the other halves in white so they match.

As for accessories, the raptor tail opens up and becomes two. You get this sword which can plug into either hand but because of how it is designed it can’t be used by other figures. The rest of the tail can also be plugged into either hand as a sort of rotating shield. I don’t really get it but it looks kinda cool and it can rotate thanks to the full wrist rotation. You can combine both accessories together to get this large wrist sword/lance/bow and arrow thing. Again looks cool but that is about it. The tail weapon can be stored on his back and obviously the sword can be stored inside the tail.

Transformation is kinda interesting but at the same time, nothing special. It is cool how the entire back of the dino unfolds from the torso, but it is so simplistically designed that after the first time it becomes boring. As for the Velociraptor mode itself it looks cool but that is about it.  The colors are a neat combo especially for a raptor, and you can really tell they took this design from the Dinobots version. The original Beast Wars Grimlock was just white with black spots so it makes sense to liven up the design a bit more, I do wish there were more spots throughout the whole dino mode though. There are a few spots on the neck and they stop right before the thighs but I do think they could have gone further with them. He doesn’t have anything in the way of features and his articulation in this mode is limited. His head can look down, his jaw can open, the shoulders are on universal joints, the elbows go about 90 degrees and the hands are on ball joints but are molded in this downward position. The knees can bend forward a bit and the feet have all the same articulation as the robot hands, since that is what they are.

I think that is pretty much it for Kingdom Grimlock, he is oddly boring as a figure and tries to make up for it with looks but doesn’t quite go hard enough to pull it off, 6/10. I am still not quite sure what to do with this guy, but I am thinking I might keep him and make him my first big custom project to see if I can make him reach his full potential. As always gallery for this guy is up and next week I am obviously going to be looking at the second part of this set, Kingdom Mirage, but I still have a couple surprises in store, so see you all then.

Transformers Studio Series ROTF Megatron

Welcome back, I hope you enjoyed last week's review on Earthrise Trailbreaker. I thought it turned out really well, but you're not here for last week's review, you're here for this week’s and I’ll be real for a minute, I have not been looking forward to this one. I know some people like this figure but I really don’t, so if this review seems partially negatively biased I apologize and if I am going to be fully honest, my disdain for it mainly comes from the design of this version of the character, but that doesn’t mean the toy itself doesn’t have issues of it’s own. I guess I should stop beating around the bush and just get on with it, so here is a look at Transformers Studio Series #13 Revenge of the Fallen Megatron. 

Like I said I am not a big fan of this design, and I was not originally going to get this figure because of that, but I ended up getting it as a gift so I figured I would give it a shot and man I am not impressed. It has some neat ideas going on but his color pallet is extremely dull and he is generally not fun to mess with. I can’t say I am super surprised though because out of all the live action Megatron designs we have gotten over the years, this one is definitely one of the weakest, at least to me.

Getting right into it with the head, it is your standard Bayverse Megatron head and it is one of the only parts I don’t dislike on this figure. The general design is pretty neat, with the permanently angry head crest unibrow, the spikey half mohawk and the metal shard mutton chops that go so far back they seem to turn into some type of horn. As for facial features, his mouth is set into the head a bit, which ends up pronouncing the chin, the teeth are painted gold but his facial expression is somehow anger, disbelief and disgust all rolled into one, which is kind of impressive. It isn’t helped by the beady solid red eyes that are very likely to stare into your soul. Articulation is actually really good because the ball joint is positioned at the back of the head, giving him a lot of clearance and range of movement. 

The torso is very static and very dull and that is about it. Ok, that may be an oversimplification but it is accurate nonetheless. The chest has all the right details and is accurate for the most part. The Bronze paint does help break up the grey but not enough to really pop and make a huge difference. He also has some holes in and around the lower half of his torso which are unnecessary and just bring attention to the fact that the entire torso is hollow, like completely hollow. Unlike Trailbreaker who, if you remember from last week, also had a hollow inner torso, the emptiness is visible from every angle in one way or another. The back is a bit better than the front just from a design standpoint, but it still has the same issues as the front. I really enjoy the gunmetal paint apps and the large thrusters, not to mention the movable back cannons, which unfortunately are not modern blast effect compatible. 

Megatron’s arms are unique since they’re asymmetrical. His left arm is very spindly and thin, even the shoulder is more rounded with a layered look. This arm has pretty standard articulation; full shoulder rotation, outward movement over 90 degrees, full bicep rotation, and a 90 degree elbow. The fingers are articulated as well, they’re separated into two different sections with each one able to move separately, unfortunately they don’t really look good when you do that. Now the right arm is where all the action is. This entire arm is one big cannon, and is considerably more beefy than the other one,  the shoulder has this cool trio of metal spikes. That aesthetic continues to the rest of the arm with a rather large spike protruding from the top of the cannon and he has an even bigger spike/blade that can be flipped out from its hiding place of the entire forearm. Doing this pretty much doubles the entire length of the forearm. Articulation in this arm is pretty much the same as the other one with the exceptions of the elbow going slightly more than 90 degrees and the shoulder going slightly less. Obviously since there isn’t a hand on the arm there isn’t much in the way of hand articulation, other than the single finger on the inside of the cannon and is in my opinion the most pointless thing on this figure.

Now then let's get onto what is probably my least favorite part of this figure, the legs. My hate for them stems from both the design and function, seeing as I very much dislike the digitigrade leg style on pretty much anything, this figure included obviously. As for function, let's get all of my issues out of the way right off the bat, starting with the panels. The upper leg/thigh panels, while not horrible, don’t like to tab in and if they do, they don’t like to stay that way, they can also pop off from time to time. On the subject of “popping off panels” the ones on the back of the knee I'm convinced don’t want to live there because they will come off with next to no force. My other big issue lies in the feet, and how unstable they feel. The feet are made up of a section of tank treads folded at an angle, with the front splitting to help with balance, in theory anyway. In reality the feet don’t get a chance to actually be feet because of two panels, one is there for extra support since the foot are oddly shaped so I am not going to give that on too much slack other than being slightly too tall so they end up being the only thing the toy is balancing on, but the panels on the inside of the feet do absolutely nothing for the figure other than mess with his balance since they sit too far down and mess with his balance since they are constantly at an angle. As for the legs as a whole, I do like the idea of the entirety of the treds becoming the legs and feet, even if I am not a fan of the execution, and the dark grey plastic really helps the bronze, silver and grey paint shine. Articulation is fine, full range of movement in the hips, full bicep swivel, knees go about 90 and the ankles tilt about 45 degrees inward.This would be the point where I would move on to talk about the features and accessories this toy comes with, but he doesn’t do or come with anything, so i guess I will just move onto transformation an vehicle mode. 

Transformation is pretty simple but the legs always confuse me, they never look right until I plug them into the main body. You will also be hard pressed to transform this guy and not have any of the leg panels fall off in the process. Megatron’s vehicle mode is this cybertronian tank, but it looks more like a pile of scrap metal with treads and guns attached, although that can be used to describe most bayverse designs. There aren’t really any new details here aside from the main cannon section, everything else we saw in robot mode. That being said it is all still very good, and almost works better in this mode. You may have noticed that this altmode is not very clean and you can see quite a few robot bits, from the back you can see the hands and you can very clearly see the head from the front, now this one is accurate but it doesn’t excuse how dumb and lazy it is. For features in this mode he can roll but it isn’t great as it is just on 4 small plastic wheels, the main cannon cannon can look down but not up at all, but the smaller back cannons have the same amount of articulation as in bot mode. 

And just like that we are done with Studio Series Revenge of the Fallen Megatron. As you could tell i really don’t like this figure but as modern figures go he is pretty standard with decent articulation, very good film accuracy and a simple transformation. It is the design itself that bugs me more than the toy. All that being said though, I am still going to give this guy a 5/10. I get little enjoyment from him as a whole and so I don’t think he deserves being ranked any higher. As always the gallery for this guy is up, it is a bit smaller than the others but that is because I didn’t have a lot of time this week and all the poses I put him in looked the same so I had trouble finding good poses for him. Next week is going to be a figure that was fairly well received at the time but now makes it very clear of how far we have come in 5 years. See you all then.  

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.

Transformers War for Cybertron: Siege Springer

I hope you all enjoyed last week's review, it was a bit of a departure for me in all honesty but I thought it turned out rather well. Enough about that, let’s move onto this week's subject matter, which was decided with the help of some friends, Transformers War for Cybertron: Siege WFC-S38 Springer. Don’t forget to check out the full gallery afterwards for 126 pictures of Springer in all his glory.

For as much of a prominent character Springer was in the 1986 movie and third season of the G1 cartoon he hasn’t really gotten as many toys as one might expect and when he did reappear in the late 2000’s he was stripped of his main gimmick, which was triple changing, and he was relegated to be just a green repaint of existing figures that had similar alt-modes to one of his. Of course that all changed in 2013 with the Thrilling 30 figure, and as good as that toy looks, it is not the one I am covering today, even though I am sure I will eventually.

Siege Springer here is a one of a kind figure in multiple ways, he is the first G1 cartoon accurate Springer figure we have ever had and he is the only use of this mold, which seems very rare for Transformers figures nowadays, with most figures getting at least one repaint at some point. With that being said though, his design is pretty unique and doesn’t really share a lot of traits with other characters and his colors haven’t really changed all that drastically either so I can understand why the mold hasn’t been used again. 

On the topic of unique, Springer’s head sculpt is one of the most unique parts of his design and this toy absolutely NAILS IT. From the head crest that continues back to form the sides, to the thin mohawk-like section on top, to the cheek vents being a darker green than the rest of the head (plus the insides are even painted yellow). The face is done up in a very nice pale green that really separates it from the rest of the head. The sculpting here is very nice as well but I find that the mouth gets lost in the paint a bit and the eyebrows get lost underneath the helmet, at least it is not the eyes getting lost this time as they are done up in a nice royal blue, making them really standout from the rest of the head. The head is on a ball joint but because of the head shape and the length and size of the neck plate you don’t get a lot of back and forth or side to side movement.

His chest is technically the standard hood chest, but his is much more compact and angular looking than most, thanks to his very mid 80’s space age-esque alt-modes. It obviously has some of the almost universally disliked “ Siege battle damage” and you guys can have your own opinions about it, but I personally really enjoy it as I think it gives some character to the figures without going too overboard. Springer here is no exception and I think he is one of the better examples of it as it is in places that makes sense for the figure. Moving to the back which has one of my bigger issues with the figure, and that is the backpack. It doesn’t really like to sit still, the main section just kinda flops around as it doesn’t tab in anywhere and it can cause the hinge that is keeping it upright to untab. Other than that though it looks very nice and has storage for all of his weapons/accessories. Not much in the way of articulation here other than the waist swivel but even that is limited from going a full 360 by a transformation hinge, although it is enough to get some decent poses with. Before moving onto the arms I would like to mention that you should be weary attaching the arm struts to the back, as the panel they attach to is made entirely of translucent plastic and one of my tabs has sheared off. Luckily this doesn’t affect stability, as the arms also clip in at the top but figured it was something worth mentioning.

The arms don’t have a lot going on other than some rather good articulation including full wrist and bicep swivels and elbows that go slightly over 90 degrees. The shoulders are where they get a bit limited, the shoulder rotation is hindered by the arms transformation struts, but they can rotate 90 degrees in either direction which is good enough in my opinion and his signature shoulder pads stop the shoulders outward movement just shy of 90 degrees. While we are on the topic of the shoulder pads I know some people take issue with them as they can not rotate outwards to be fully cartoon accurate, and while I understand that complaint I don’t think it could have been done justice without sacrificing stability or some of the more necessary engineering already in the shoulders. 

The legs don’t feel quite as hindered as the arms in terms of articulation. He has full hip articulation and the engineering used for the hips is the best they have ever done, and I am very happy they carried it over through both the Earthrise and Kingdom lines. There is a full thigh rotation and I do believe the thighs are cast in green plastic entirely painted in the same pale green as the face but it is quite hard to tell, they may very well be cast in a pale green plastic. The knees bend just over 90 but are stopped due to the molding on both the thighs and lower legs. This is where another one of my bigger issues lie, which is that the shins like to untab from the strut the knee joint is on, while not the biggest deal it can get pretty annoying when trying to pose the figure. The shins themselves look very nice in the sand blue plastic with a couple of silver paint apps and battle damage, as well as the black from the wheels to help break it up. Now here is where we get to a section of the figure a lot of people seem to have issues with which is the ankles. Now supposedly Springer here can have loose ankle joints, which I can see why that might take away some enjoyment, but I guess I got lucky cause I don’t have those issues at all and he is extremely stable. He has incredible ankle tilt both forwards and to the side and it is a shame that some people can’t really experience that.

Last thing I am going to cover before transformation to the car mode is the weapons and accessories. He comes with two identical swords, two distinct looking guns and the rotor blade housing for helicopter mode. Now all the weapons have INCREDIBLY dumb yet great names, cause that was a thing they decided to do during Siege I guess. You have the “W-10 Airslice Chopper Blades” which are obviously the swords, the “JF-10 Warp Blaster” which is the more greebly looking gun with the tabs and 5mm port on the back, and the “C-10 EM Void Blast Capacitor” which is the other smoother looking gun. You can put any of these weapons wherever there are 5mm ports and like I said before you can plug everything on the back for storage, the swords even tab into the sides but it isn’t the greatest connection. The weapons can also plug together in all sorts of ways for a variety of larger rifles or swords. 

Transformation to car mode from robot mode isn’t too tricky. Your main issues are going to be flipping the chest piece up over the head especially since that entire apparatus is attached to clear plastic and that joint seems unnecessarily stiff, at least on my copy, and then getting the entire waist assembly shifted forward. This step is necessary to get arms and legs in the right positions otherwise you will end up with a lackluster and unsecure car. Oh and don’t forget to take the back fins out of the legs, while not necessary it is important for the accuracy and aesthetic. If you have gotten all those steps down, you should end up with a very solid, hefty and relatively accurate car mode. This car mode looks like one hell of a bruiser but also looks like it could break the sound barrier if needed. All of the newly revealed details are what really sell that look with the armoured plating around the cockpit area and the thrusters and fins at the back, not to mention the blast effect ports on the back to really help sell the illusion that this thing can cruise. As for functionality, it rolls well enough and it has all the same ports from robot mode so you can equip the weapons however you like.

Onto the final mode, the helicopter mode. Getting to this mode from car mode isn’t too hard and mainly involves extending the legs out to create the tail section, which is one of my favorite parts of Springer’s engineering, and of course creating the rotor using the swords and the housing. There isn’t a lot of visual difference between this mode and the car mode seeing as the main section doesn’t really move. The legs extend and the arms move back slightly, you do get some sort of wings/stabilizers from the forearm panels and obviously the main rotor section. Despite that you end up with is another solid mode, although there are quite a few small gaps especially in the back. This mode does have a free spinning main rotor which is EXTREMELY nice and the back rotor spins pretty well too, but then again they are just the back wheels, so that is kind of expected. You can also plug the guns in in almost all the same spots as car mode, the exception to that being the ones under the rotor as they can stop the rotor from spinning. To counteract this, you can now use the ones from the robot mode forearms, and attach the guns to the side of the helicopter, and while this is the official way to display them in this mode I prefer them on the front beside the cockpit. I totally didn’t forget they were supposed to go there for helicopter mode till after I took all the pictures. 

I think that is it, I think I covered everything, Springer has a quite lot more going on than Deep Cover so apologies if I missed anything, not to mention I feel like I went much more in depth on him but at the same time this will probably be my only time looking at the mold so i guess it makes sense. He is a really good figure and a great representation of the G1 character if that is what you're looking for. Speaking of looking, have a look through the gallery if you have the time, you might find a picture you really like.

Now for something new, well new for this place. If you know me, you will know I love to rank things so i figure I would give each figure a rating out of 10, and maybe rank each figure in a given toy line against one another, not sold on that one yet though, plus I should probably wait till I review more than one figure per line to start that. Getting back on track I give Springer here a solid 7.5/10, he is a very fun figure with some great engineering and play value, he just has a couple things that bring him down. I guess I should retroactively give Deep Cover a ranking too, so I will update his post to give him his, so check it out if you're curious. Anyways, that is all for now, see you all next week.