I bought these at Toys R Us, they did not have any Octane in stock, and he is due at the house on Tuesday. Finding these was a welcome surprise among the new Animated figures, but does that surprise equal fun toys...
SUNSTREAKER
Sealed in the package, I did not like this toy as much as Prowl. The pictures made it look boring, and the vehicle mode was a little too plain. However, the figure has really grown on me and it is a much better toy than Prowl.
ROBOT MODE
The neatest feature on the robot mode is how the head it deployed. To do so, the front chest piece is rotated down, and a mechanism raises the head. His ears (for lack of better terms) are spring loaded and pop out to the sides when the head raises. I like this robot mode, the lines are clean, articulation is good, and nothing is ready to pop off. His head has a ball joint for full range of movement, even with the mechanism, and he is able to stand quite well. One oddity are the tale pipes located at crotch level, kind of odd placement.
CAR MODE
Following a smooth transformation, Sunstreaker becomes a
bright yellow sports car, reminding me of a fictional Lamborghini. Not much here, wheels all roll fine, his weapon stores under the car, and the robot parts are well hidden.FINAL THOUGHTS
I really like this toy. There is a fun transformation, the weapons stay on the toy, and the license plate reads WE R 84.
PROWL
On the opposite end, this is a toy I should return for a refund, if not for my completest nature. The best I can say about Prowl is that the paint job is decent, and the shoulder missiles are attached, which makes one less thing to lose.
ROBOT MODE
First off, I hate the head/neck area. For some reason, the designers wanted to include a little automorph action, in the form of a spring that pops the head up when the hood is opened. Problem is, with the head resting on this little black piece, articulation is reduced to a swivel joint. Next issue, the arms have terrible shoulder joints, which leads to akward poses thanks to the wheels hitting the car doors. The attached missiles lack any kind of paint, giving them a bland look.
CAR MODE
The transformation is not fun, mainly because the doors have a tendency to pop off their ball joints. Once in car mode, it is an improvement over the robot mode, but not too much. The detailing is nice for a sporty police car, but the seams needed for transformation stick out way too much.
FINAL THOUGHTS
See above. Quite possibly my second least favorite of the classics line (Starscream remains first.) Please visit my Flickr page for high resolution images featured in this review.
