Review of
Transformers Animated Lockdown.
I, along with a handful of other lucky Transformers fans in Hamilton, Ontario, were given the chance to purchase the first wave of deluxe class
Transformers Animated figures last week when they unexpectedly showed up at retail in one Wal-Mart in Hamilton. I thought I would share my find with you all in a series of photo reviews. Now it’s
Lockdown’s turn.
Vehicle Mode
One of the great benefits of the Animated cartoon’s style is that it allows Transformers to have some wild stylistic interpretations. Also, because the show is set in future Detroit, the Autobots and Decepticons can get away with looking a little Cybertronian on Earth. Case in point, Lockdown’s vehicle mode is a badass, spiked black muscle car with a mean grill that is part cow-catcher and part nightmare. I love the look of this car. It’s got a post-apocalyptic/Death Race/Road Warrior feel to it. The angles and details, including the translucent headlights, brake lights, and windshields, give this car a lot of personality. Lockdown kind of reminds me of the 1977 movie
The Car starring James Brolin in which a customized 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III with a monstrous grill terrorizes a small town.
The only downside to Lockdown’s vehicle mode is that you can see his face through the windshield; however, if you didn’t know it was the bottom of his jaw, you wouldn’t know it was part of his face.
Transformation
The sides of Lockdown's car mode extend to become his legs, the back break lights become his feet, and his front headlights become his hips. You twist him at the waist, unfold his arms, and open his chest to flip up his head. Fairly simple!
Robot Mode
In robot mode, Lockdown is friggin tall! For a deluxe, he taller or as tall as some of the voyagers by comparison. He towers over Bumblebee, Prime, and Prowl. He is articulated at the neck (peg joint), articulated twice at the shoulders, at the elbow (pin joint), at the mid-arm (ball joint), hands (pin joint), waist (peg joint), hips (ball joints), knees (pin joints), and feet.
Although his upper half has a fine selection of articulation, his lower half is stiff. His legs are more like stilts, so you cannot get any real variety of poses out of them. However, because he is so tall and imposing, you can achieve many good poses with less.
He has light piping in his head, but his eyes are very small so you need a very strong amount of light to see any effect.
While mostly great, my biggest gripe is with Lockdown’s hands. They flip out but only go so far. You can see in the close-up that his hands only come out to a point – you cannot make them parallel with his forearms. As such, he always looks like he has limp wrists or T-rex hands. I almost broke the left hand trying to get it straight because I thought it was just stuck. DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE! Do not force his hands or they will snap.
Accessories / Features
Lockdown comes with his hook upgrade that attaches to either is left or right arm. On this upgrade fits his blaster as seen in the cartoon. If I am not mistaken, the blaster also fits on the upcoming Ratchet figure since, according to the show, Lockdown stole it from Ratchet. He looks fantastic with the hook out.
In conclusion, Lockdown has a wicked vehicle mode and good robot mode, although the legs are barely articulated. Still, his design, height, and accessories more than make up for his stiff legs.
Lockdown: 4.5/5
[ Click to attempt signal recovery... ]
