Thursday, June 9, 2011
Review: [Hasbro] Transformers Dark of the Moon MechTech Weapons System Roadbuster
| Figure Information | |
| Manufacturer: | Hasbro |
| Origin Series: | Transformers: Dark of the Moon |
| Scale: | Non-Scale |
| Height: | Approximately 15cm tall |
| Original Price: | 13 USD |
| Figure Blister Card: |
Now the DotM line sports a different feel from past lines, this time, you can see a part of the Earth in all deluxe packaging and then a shadowed Moon at the upper right of the packaging thus being "Dark of the Moon" of sorts, well, the box maybe weird for some but I actually like the color scheme; there's also this Mechtech Weapons System logo since the whole DotM wave starts with a so-called line immediately rather than just belonging to the series itself like the 2007 Movie and the RotF toyline (although they do feature the Mech Alive) But yeah, MechTech will be explained later, and going back to the packaging, the blister card, well, you see these crater-ish effects on them in the deluxes thus giving a neat moon-ish feat, and as usual, the bot's head is somewhere below. So yeah, overall, I liked DotM's packaging for some unknown reason. XD
| Figure Details: |
Starting with his Vehicle mode, Roadbuster's a NASCAR Sprint Cup Chevrolet Impala since the wreckers are sponsored by NASCAR and the items themselves count as sponsor items, the vehicle mode is truly magnificent overall sporting a lot of decals all over it which clearly shows it being NASCAR sponspored.
Though not overall perfect in terms of the paint since there are obvious irregular lines, he does sport a very clean white paint compared to the usual dirty white that Hasbro uses, and overall the green used for Roadbuster is very good, I like it very much. At the same time, he does have clear windows which lets you see a view of the insides, which is a really appreciated touch for me. :D
Though not overall perfect in terms of the paint since there are obvious irregular lines, he does sport a very clean white paint compared to the usual dirty white that Hasbro uses, and overall the green used for Roadbuster is very good, I like it very much. At the same time, he does have clear windows which lets you see a view of the insides, which is a really appreciated touch for me. :D
You might've noticed some small particular circles on his vehicle mode, and those are actually MechTech ports although the sides I think doesn't work until bot mode or I just didn't try hard enough to try to insert a MechTech weapon there.
Now the Mechtechs are basically 5mm pegged weapons with spring loaded features that convert the weapon into a different one and I think based from the trailer these things do exist in the movie and does sport out of their vehicle modes (we'll found out in a few weeks I guess XD). Anyway, Roadbuster's Mechtech is a blaster which converts into a chainsaw, though I like the chainsaw, there's actually no built in lock for you to make it hold as a chainsaw, one of the ways to do this is to jammed something in the holes so it won't spring back into a puny blaster. Though I wish that the Mechtech for deluxes had locks since they did actually do it for Voyagers.
Again, as I've said, the mechtechs are 5mm weapons so you can actually port any other non-mechtech 5mm post weapons on the mechtech ports.
Now the for the Robot mode; as much as how impressed I was with the Alt mode, it's the exact opposite in the bot mode, as the bot mode's more than 50% cheap gray plastic and Roadbuster supposedly has a few more green panels on the pure plastic gray parts which is really sad and I feel pretty much ripped off, well, I do not mind the color in actually but he clearly lacks details and thanks to the use of the said color, the inner machinery frames look cheap as well as they look like tiny child carved details since the color doesn't help in making them stand out. So unless, you paint this guy up, he's just so-so in bot mode though one ridiculous catch is that his face has silver paint in it (wow hasbro...) And the 2nd most turn off factor for me is that his back is a big car kibble which doesn't help him look even better. He does have missile launchers near his head and despite this review having the two folded at the back of his head, you can actually split them apart so you can at least help in making RB look a little decent.
Now as mentioned before, the side MechTech ports work perfectly on his bot mode, so, you can actually attach an additional weapon there for this wrecker.
Particularly the one thing that made me at least change my mind on his bot mode is that he has 3mm clip bars found on his missile launchers and under his arms, so, if you got quite a variety of c-joint weapons, you can totally arm this wrecker to teeth, which makes him a fun little figure.
Additionally, he does have light piping for his visors which is pretty neat although unlike other DotM figure who also has the light pipe, RB's light pipe isn't quite as sensitive as the others which make them awesome.
Now a particular complaint on DotM figures would be that they are small and yes, they are smaller than your previous size counterparts and take Cybertronian Soundwave below for example as size comparison, if you actually compare them to the tip of the head, Roadbuster's obviously smaller.
| Articulation: |
Particularly this field is similar to most TF figures out there; his beck uses a ball joint, thus, allows you to have fine range in adjustments though iirc, he can't look up pretty well.
His arm gets the usual sets of joints: a ball jointed shoulders, a bicep swivel and a hinge elbow; you might find a hard time adjusting his arms through the bicep swivel thanks to the car kibble but it's nothing impossible, just an extra challenge in adjusting them.
Similarly, his leg articulation uses the same: ball jointed hips, thigh swivels, hinged knees and ankles, so you pretty much have good enough articulation for Roadbuster overall.
Now Roadbuster does look cool in action since you can pretty much focus more on his action poses and make you (or at least me) forget about his lame paint job. And if you can lock open his chainsaw mode, then he's a pretty sweet piece overall and thanks to those clip points, he can even be more fun; while DotM figures might actually look crappy sometimes, they have an awesome amount of play value and that's for sure.
| Final Thoughts: |
I really have mixed personal opinions on him, since the alt mode is no doubt good but the robot would depend since I'm actually a detail person even if simplistic details for articulated figures like figmas please me immediately but I do know when I should call a detail crappy and Roadbuster isn't saved for that unless of course you are good at custom painting TFs, then Roadbuster's a highly suggested piece sine I do like his head most out of the 3 wreckers in the upcoming movie but if you're like me who doesn't know how to, then he'd pretty much look like a rip off though I do admit that his fun factor is way beyond my expectations, so yeah, it's really just up to you I guess and hopefully, this review will be of help in some way. And yeah, don't expect Takara to remaster this guy since they probably won't be like in the previous movie lines (and even if they did, the difference would hard be noticeable sometimes.)
| Rating (Out of 10) | |
| Details | 7.5 |
| Articulation | 9 |
| Price | 8 |
| Overall: | 8.17 |
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