I will cut to the chase, he is fine for kids, much better than the simpler toys of this size from Robots in Disguise, but still just a shadow of the great toy it could be. And it wouldn't need so much more. He reminds me a lot of Leader Animated Megatron in a way, with the similar aesthetics and decent yet simple transformation that efficiently gives you two good looking modes. It also reminds me of the Cybertron line where the robot is fully made up of the alt mode parts yet we see different sides of the same part to give the two modes different details. I love those two lines, so this is high praise, but the toy falls short mostly due to lack of crucial articulation and intrusive gimmick.
Now let's get to it.
We get the toy in robot mode and my instinct is to try posing him. That's where the problems start and where the interest starts sinking fast. For a big figure, he does not have much more articulation than a very basic toy. There is no articulation at the neck, bicep, elbow, wrist and no thing swivel. You cannot even move the cannon out of the way to see his other fist. So the static pose is his main stance, though you are welcome to try other poses.
The gimmick gives him another stance where you bring the arms together (this is the same transformation step for getting him into tank mode) where you can press a button and flip out to cannon. This makes it look like the cannon is firing and while we did see stock photos of this, there is no lock in mechanism so you can only keep seeing this effect when you keep pressing.
Turning him into a tank is easy and I am sure I have seen this transformation elsewhere (titanium Fallen?) But I didn't mind. For a simpler toy, it has some nice steps, especially the feet. It's a simple but elegant way to get from his lower leg into his full tank treads.
I can see a young kid really enjoying this transformation. It's easy but very blocky, like one of the simpler Cybertron toys. And in tank mode, all the parts that made up the robot are flipped so you see new detail for the tank mode. The tank looks great, I have no issues with it, and unlike some other tank Transformers, you can't make out the fists as easily even though there is no extra step to hide them.
This is easily the better mode for me. The gimmick makes more sense here, it rolls and basically get the job done as well as I would expect for any tank former. Its got a nice meaty size too, especially height wise.
So in the end, this is a major step up from the Power Surge and three step figures from Robots in Disguise, so that’s good news for kids. However, it is not on par with leader toys from the Cybertron era though I do see some similarities in the design to what we got in the Animated and Cybertron leaders. This can be the basis for a much better toy, but as it stands I do not recommend him to collectors.
