The Energon Pub

Dear people,

Thanks to the people who replied my other post on how to post pictures I hope this works out.

Anyway...

The new wave of new toys is in for us. The previous wave was Payload, Longarm, Dreadwing, Final Battle Jazz. This time round, we've got Dropkick, Leader Brawl, Recon Barricade and a fresh load of Leader Megatrons.

First some thoughts on some of the figures I didn't buy.

Final Battle Jazz looks good. I like the paintwork, and the damage isn't just painted on, but sculpted in. And no, unfortunately he doesn't separate in two. It's the exact same as the original Deluxe Jazz... still has that lousy clip on cannon in car mode, but somehow with the battle damage sculpting he looks less fat.



Recon Barricade doesn't look good in car mode; he looks cheap. But the colouring for the bot mode looks decent enough.

You can see that Leader Brawl really isn't that big. He looks smaller in person than I could see from posted pics and vids.



Now on to Dropkick.

Alt Mode: Covered Pickup Truck

I'm not going to waste any pics on the alt mode: you've all seen this. I will just say that the tailgate drops down, which is a nice detail, and the clamp weapon when removed doesn't detract from its appearance since it then looks like an open, as opposed to covered, truck. No gaping hole there.

Robot Mode
This is one of the most pleasant surprises for me. The good news for me really were his arms. From the pics I've seen on the net, it looked like his doors and the entire front section form his arms, which looks like a real cheat, not to mention real ugly. Like so:



I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this was a mistransformation. I really don't know what the hell is happening with these promo pics when the toys aren't even transformed properly for photography. Which idiot does this I don't know but it happens often (remember Leader Brawl with the visible head in tank mode?)

In reality the front section of the pick up truck, front wheels and doors fold back, like wings ala BB08.
Here's how he should look like


One caveat: he also has shoulder pegs like Deluxe Brawl, but in this case, relax, because they fit very nicely and firmly enough so that posing isn't going to cause increases in heart rate and flailing of fists.

Here's another shot... look familiar somehow?



I'll be damned if it doesn't remind me of Prime himself. First the windows being separate from the frame are a pleasant surprise. They're just like the panelling on BB08 and Ironhide, but not an automorph feature.

Automorph
I would say he in fact has 3 automorphs the way they have been acceptably classified based on other toys:

1. His head is a true automorph. When you flip the top of the cab back, it springs out.

2. During transformation, by pulling the nose apart, his car doors flip up (hard to describe, but you'll know what I mean when you get him)I regard this as an automorph if Ironhide's similar feature is.

3. If Bonecrusher's rake and Arcee's bow could merit "Automorph Technology" on the box, his claw (which forms the cover of the truck bedding) does too, a similar 'automorph' feature to Bonecrusher's rake.

I wasn't expecting any of this. you'd think that Hasbro would find it beneficial to have it say "Automorph Technology" instead of "As seen in the video game".

Detailing
The detailing is good on this figure, and not just painted but sculpted detail. You see pipes, cables and gears in the arms, legs and chest area. He has red piping. Here's an example of the foot:




Articulation

Head: ball joint. However head flexion severely limited by chest protrusion
Shoulder: ball joint
Elbow: hinge joint -30º elbow E to 150ºelb F
Wrist joint: none
Waist movement: none
Hip joint: ball
Knee joint: hinge
Ankle (Leg elbow) joint: hinge
Metatarsal joint: hinge dorsiflexion 15º plantar flexion almost full to 80º

His lower limbs have the bird (horse hind) structure of Starscream, but not quite as chicken stick like. No balance problems. In terms of poseability, some shoulder kibble gets in the way, but happily enough I find him not just poseable but playable, i.e. I don't have to worry about being too gentle with him.

I won't go into the transformation except to say that it's good. Nice solid, definite feel, none of that is-this-right-will-I-break-this-part apprehension/ caution I've learnt to have with these figures. Lots of parts to flip out, swivel round, fold out, etc. Not difficult, but enough steps to keep me amused.

I wish that more of the other Deluxe figures that cost the same were done as good as this. It's obvious to me that they put different effort and possibly, designers, onto each different figure. For my SGD$27 (USD$18-21) I would hope that more figures had the detail, transformation, looks and fun that this one has. Just like BB08 with two automorphs, looks, etc. While not as popular (yet!) I would group Dropkick as being in BB08s leagues when everything is considered.


Hopefully with the next figures they'll put in more effort. Dropkick's fast becoming my favourite Decepticon; I'd say I like him as much as Wreckage or Bonecrusher. 8/10


To end off, here's a size comparison between him and BB08, a down -and-dirty streetfight with knife and guns

Nice review!

I love Dropkick. I'm gonna buy him the second I see him.

cool thread dude!
thanks for this info,i like the alt mode of dropkick..looks like a small pick up truck..if i have money and if this figure will hit our country i will get this one eventhough its not part of the movie.cool review!

Nice if I find he will be mine!

I really do like my Dropkick. Those legs of his give him alot of posability and his alt mode looks awesome with that Descepticon insignia.

One thing though, is that his color scheme just doesn't seem to photograph well. I thought he was a shade of purple till I saw him in the store and reized he was a nice blue.

Oh and where are you that they have Leader Brawl in stock?

Thanks for the excellent review, indeed very informative. I've been running the stores for 2 weeks and no sign of Dropkick, eventually got a decent deal off eBay, looking forward to its arrival in the mail soon.

Cheers!

Thanks for the encouragement guys! My first review, so any suggestions for improvement is welcome. To my mind reviews are only useful if they tell people what they want to know about a figure. So if anything you feel would make a review more complete, do let me know here or PM me!

Ragnorok64 wrote:

One thing though, is that his color scheme just doesn't seem to photograph well. I thought he was a shade of purple till I saw him in the store and reized he was a nice blue.

Yes it is hard to photograph accurately at least with what I'm doing. He's a bit of a blurry line between purple and blue, as you say. But fits the colour scheme of traditional decepticons like Galvatron, Scourge and Cyclonus well. Maybe that's one more reason I like him: he reminds me of old school

Ragnorok64 wrote:Oh and where are you that they have Leader Brawl in stock?

Singapore at the moment. We get these figures early; got Longarm and Payload as far back as June. We seem to be getting them earlier than you guys even, except for Hong Kong and Malaysia... I guess that's the route they trickle down by.

Nice review! What wave is he supposed to be in...my TRU got a ton of new stuff in and no Dropkick.