The Energon Pub

I bought longarm yesterday because of the good reviews, but I kind of regret it. I think i should have gotten dropkick instead.

His alt mode looks like a fisher price tow truck, the proportions look wrong. His front is a real bitch to put together. It's really hard to fold up his legs. The left and right side won't stay together, they don't line up properly.

His robot mode looks weird too. He's got a really skinny waist, and what's with the huge ass gun? Its just way too big. He's got good articulation but what poses can you put him in with that huge gun, plus his other parts always get in the way of his legs and arms. That's why in most pictures online you see his standing straight up.

I took off the screw that holds his gun to his right hand. He can hold the gun on his left hand just fine. I don't know why the decided to screw it on.

Overall i think he just sucks.

Blows? Wow, you must hate most of the TF's out there. As for the legs, there IS a pin there that heps line them up. Just make sure the hips and thigh pivot are as straight as possible before you turn him back to a truck.

I'm a fan of Dropkick...he's not the best looking figure out there, although his robot mode is pretty solid, but I really like his transformation, especially for a deluxe figure. The only negative is his bed cover turns into some claw weapon and it's just too big and bulky. I'd probably rather it just stick to his back or something in robot mode. But overall I was pretty pleased with him.

I like the figure. Almost every Transfomer has some sort of weakness, Longarm is no different.

As for the big gun/arm, well, his name is Longarm after all.

At least he does not have pieces that fall off, like Payload.

This is exactly why after Blackout Barricade Bumblebee Megatron and Prime I haven't bought anymore movie toys, 'cept some real gears. I take one look at them and I know they will be something I don't want later and spend my cash on figs
from older lines I never picked up but want now.
Now if Armada Megatron and Galvatron would stop increasing in price on ebay I might be able to pick them up. Then it's on to
Mega Zarak. These movie toys are through with me until I can find the Autobot version of the X-10.

NVS wrote:I bought longarm yesterday because of the good reviews, but I kind of regret it. I think i should have gotten dropkick instead.

His alt mode looks like a fisher price tow truck, the proportions look wrong. His front is a real bitch to put together. It's really hard to fold up his legs. The left and right side won't stay together, they don't line up properly.

His robot mode looks weird too. He's got a really skinny waist, and what's with the huge ass gun? Its just way too big. He's got good articulation but what poses can you put him in with that huge gun, plus his other parts always get in the way of his legs and arms. That's why in most pictures online you see his standing straight up.

I took off the screw that holds his gun to his right hand. He can hold the gun on his left hand just fine. I don't know why the decided to screw it on.

Overall i think he just sucks.

I personally disagree with you on almost all points. I like Dropkick, but I like Long Arm more. His alt mode is a small tow truck, and like most (at least around here) is low to the ground and extra wide. They are built that way to allow them to haul larger loads. Nothing about him looks "Fisher Price" at all.

As to the robot mode, yeah he's got a big ass gun, as do the majority of the other movie bots. At least he doesn't have an unuseable giant claw like Drop Kick. And I've gotten him into a good number of cool poses even with the giant gun, the size of his feet allow for pretty good balance. And if you don't like the gun you can take it off by removing one screw and he even has a hand. Personally I think he's one of the better movie toys. But each to their own.

I like Longarm. He looks very G1-ish. (Big, blocky, white, hood feet.) I just don't see the down side of having a huge hand cannon.


Also, he's very useful in car mode. un-Transform and pose 08 Bumblebee's legs, hook his front window to Longarm's towing rig, and there you have it: the final battle from the movie.


Hey, I also noticed that the Longarm says "Orson's Towing", whereas the tow truck in the movie says "Mike's Towing". Is this perhaps a tribute by Hasbro for Orson Well's being Unicron?

I have Leader Prime and Arcee, would have gotten more if I could find them. I like those a lot, especially leader prime.

Longarm is just in a different league, it is based on a character from the game after all.

His back and front half are suppose to be held together by the doors, but they don't line up properly. If the left side is in, the right side wants to pop out. His doors get in the way of the upper arms when in robot mode too.

I expected to like him based on the reviews. I though I share a different point of view.

Sounds to me like Movie line QC issues have struck again.

I can only judge from the pics I have seen (yet to see any newer figures in stores) but Longarm looks to be the best of the lot.

NVS wrote:I bought longarm yesterday because of the good reviews, but I kind of regret it. I think i should have gotten dropkick instead.

His alt mode looks like a fisher price tow truck, the proportions look wrong. His front is a real bitch to put together. It's really hard to fold up his legs. The left and right side won't stay together, they don't line up properly.

His robot mode looks weird too. He's got a really skinny waist, and what's with the huge ass gun? Its just way too big. He's got good articulation but what poses can you put him in with that huge gun, plus his other parts always get in the way of his legs and arms. That's why in most pictures online you see his standing straight up.

I took off the screw that holds his gun to his right hand. He can hold the gun on his left hand just fine. I don't know why the decided to screw it on.

Overall i think he just sucks.

BOOO!!! to your words Boooo!!!

(and not Buuuu-urns!!!, but Boooo!)

NVS wrote:Longarm is just in a different league, it is based on a character from the game after all.

His back and front half are suppose to be held together by the doors, but they don't line up properly. If the left side is in, the right side wants to pop out. His doors get in the way of the upper arms when in robot mode too.

See mine doesn't have that problem. And currently I have him posed standing on one leg with his gun trained on Wreckage and his other foot kicking Dropkick. Guy has great balance.

Longarm is pure sex.

NVS wrote:I bought longarm yesterday because of the good reviews, but I kind of regret it. I think i should have gotten dropkick instead.

Well here's the thing I don't understand. I'm not arrowing you specifically. But I keep reading people pass up on buying Dropkick or BB08 or whatever. Why would you do that when he costs $9.99, and you know that he's popular and hard to get? Plus the reviews have been generally positive. I've learnt my lesson; the next time I see something I won't hesitate, just buy it.

In future, just buy what you can get, especially if you know something's going to be popular or he'll be gone next time you go back to get it.

NVS wrote:His alt mode looks like a fisher price tow truck, the proportions look wrong. His front is a real bitch to put together. It's really hard to fold up his legs. The left and right side won't stay together, they don't line up properly.

He will, but it's a matter of lining up properly. Whenever my movie line toys don't fit together properly I've gotten into the habit of looking for holes and corresponding pegs, slots and corresponding edges, and so on. Most of the movie figure line up quite well. but then again maybe I've been lucky; even my Leader Megatron's arms in jet mode work quite well. Except for Deluxe Brawl, of course.

NVS wrote:His robot mode looks weird too. He's got a really skinny waist, and what's with the huge ass gun? Its just way too big. He's got good articulation but what poses can you put him in with that huge gun, plus his other parts always get in the way of his legs and arms. That's why in most pictures online you see his standing straight up.

Definitely agree with you there. I was pleassantly surprised by all the ball joints... but then the huge gun totally effs his poseability potential up! Even his waist is ball jointed, so he could have a lot of poses.

NVS wrote:I took off the screw that holds his gun to his right hand. He can hold the gun on his left hand just fine. I don't know why the decided to screw it on.

I'm glad you did that. I was debating whether or not to do that myself, and now I know it would work I'll unscrew mine as well

Why is the gun screwed it? There are two obvious reasons to me.

1. The gun is huge so holding it might not stay tight forever; it would just fall off, and

2. More importantly, the screw ensures a secure fit together in his tow truck mode so that it holds together better.

blows me away! he is so awesome!

AutobotServo wrote:Hey, I also noticed that the Longarm says "Orson's Towing", whereas the tow truck in the movie says "Mike's Towing". Is this perhaps a tribute by Hasbro for Orson Well's being Unicron?

Nope. Good guess though. It's actually named after the screen name (Orson) that Aaron Archer (of Hasbro) used on TFW2005. He became quite the celebrity in this fandom's circles due to that.

He actually took the time to speak to us one on one and address our concerns. But his cover was blown by TFormers and he had to give the gig up.

Both Dropkick and Longarm have their problems. I will admit, the claw weapon is absolutely ridiculous and has no function. "I peench. HARD." Oooh. Consider me shook.

Longarm has a terrible time reverting back to vehicle mode, those legs are nothing short of a disaster when it comes to that. His robot mode and level of articulation outweighs all of that though, and this is where he really shines.

I even considered removing the screw so his gun would come off (it is removable btw) but it didn't want to hold in place all that well, so I left it as is, and he looks fantastic holding it.)

I think Longarm's one of the best game-type TFs (other than Dropkick). Payload's too small, Swindle's strange.

Longarm is very easy to transform, I don't know why you had trouble.

HollyW00d wrote:Longarm is very easy to transform, I don't know why you had trouble.

Agreed.

I found the toys at kmart. They rip you off and overcharge for the tyos, so I just got the more rare one. They had 2 or 3 drop kicks.

I looked at the back of card last night, and you can see even they had problems getting the front of the truck to fit together. There are big seams along the parts where they should connect.

They are always mistransforming stuff. Longarm is easy to transform, if you have patience.

If you have sausage fingers ... I may be able to cope with the idea that he's tough for you to transform.