Now onto Berserker!
As I said, a definite step up from Barricade in terms of several problems I had. Firstly, he is literally a step up by being a tad bit taller and more in line with what I expect from a deluxe.
Secondly, the deco and paint apps don't leave me wanting that much more. It's not like there are places which badly need paint and nothing seems cheap. I especially like the asymetrical "X" on his chest. It looks like war paint, lending to his more barbarian and predatory design. All his claws (feet and hands) are painted too to distinguish them from the rest of his hands and feet. The silver highlights on his face give him a nice premium feel as well.
Lastly, there is a major improvement over barricade (and other shellformers) in how well the shell folds away. This isn't anything close to the genius of Prime Vehicon, but it is better than TLK Barricade, the AOE Leader Optimus Primes and the movie Sideswipe toys we have gotten in the past. There is a lot of compressing and folding to have as little car parts showing as possible.
Personally though, while it's an improvement over other shellformers, it also becomes the figure's downfall. Since the ROTF line, Takara has improved on its engineering for robots which don't show much of their alt mode. Instead of creating a back pack, the found new techniques that involve either turning the figure inside out (AOE Voyager Hound and Optimus Prime) or fully compressing a backpack (Voyagers AOE Galvatron and TLK Optimus Prime) and minimizing alt mode kibble on the robot. However, here they went the old way which means you have all these overlapping panels all across his back (and protruding above his head) plus some really random looking car details along his arms, like movie Leader Ironhide. Also, the car panels that rest on the back of his legs dont fold flush, which is a bit of a bummer, since it brings further attention to kibble that shouldn't be there.
Oh, speaking of those arm car parts, here's a new complaint: glue is missing. They are "stuck" to the arms due to friction but can drop to the floor at any given instant and will be sure to come off during transformation. Then again, I did complain about them looking random in robot mode so them not being glued means you could remove them no problem for him to look more like the Dreadwind character model. But he probably isn't in the movie anyway (at least not looking like this) so what is the point either way? Moving on, these are not the only parts to come off, the head is really loose and will also come off easily.
Aside from the car parts clashing with the rest of the figure, the robot mode isn't bad at all. Nice articulation and very expressive.
The shellforming nature of the figure does come to bite it in the butt when you start transforming it. He is actually quite simple but because he has more seperate panels than need connecting than any transformer I can remember (even more than Leader Sentinel Prime), it becomes a very frustrating transformation. There is a lot of panel massaging and multiple panels clipping onto one another at once from different parts. So clipping another panel can undo the previous ones. One odd thing I noticed while transforming was that he has a hole under his crotch and it doesn't serve for anything (maybe a stand? but it looks too small). A little distracting.
The shellforming nature means almost none of the robot is visible in car mode and they do succeed here (some robot parts show in the back). You have some panel lines but nothing egregious and if it is transformed correctly, it will all stay together tightly with no gaps. The vehicle appears to look puny at first but it is as long as any other deluxe vehicle. It just looks small because the type of car is usually bigger than a car for a deluxe Transformer. One really cool thing no one has mentioned is how this brings back the pins for the wheels rather than the pressure pegs. He rolls nicely.
In the end, if you were ok with shellformers from the ROTF era, this is pretty much the same thing with a more finicky transformation and parts that fall off. Still, you get a nice looking robot mode and vehicle mode that look nothing like eachother. I personally preffer it to his other new mold wavemate, Barricade, simply because they do a better job with the back pack, deco and don't overly simplify the transformation. However, I still remain unimpressed with this line so far due to its lack of anything new or smart in terms of engineering.
