Two Transformers Reviews

You know, as I really don't have much to talk about today, beyond the fact that I found one of the better happy hours I've ever found yesterday, I figure I might as well show off two new toys I got recently, both of which I've been looking forward to for a while, and one of which I went out of my way to get as it's so flippin' rare.

First off is the Cybertron Scout figure Clocker. After seeing the pictures of the figure originally, it amazed me that the figure was going to be a scout-class, especially with the shrinkage that's occurred within this price range since Energon. It's a nice-looking figure that could easily belong in the Deluxe, $10 class if it were, you know, made a little bigger.

Being the final figure released from the Speed Planet, Clocker's alt-mode is a sleek, semi-roofless sports car. Nothing much to say about it except that it surprises me how small it is, no more than 2 1/2, 3 inches long, yet looks a lot better than even some of the larger figures out there. My only beef with my particular figure is the plastic pipes are bent a bit, giving it a look that's not so symmetric. The Planet Key feature is fairly straightforward, yet works well, with the key popping the two gun turrets out of the top of the vehicle. Some manual work is still needed to flip the cannons out, but still looks a lot better than other Key features on other figures.

Robot mode is nice. Again, its surprising how decent the figure looks, considering he's probably no taller than your average GI Joe figure. The plastic's a little iffy in some places, but it works out nicely. The main concern is kibble. He's one of the rare figures where you have to take off pieces in order to transform him, and putting them ALL back onto the figure kinda looks dumb. And if you want to give him both tailpipes as guns or claws, the main gun has to be set aside. Unlike Override, Clocker doesn't have an alternate place to put his big, bulky gun.

Nit-picking aside, Clocker's probably the best Scout figure to come out so far for the series.

The other figure to review, which I picked up last night, is Alternators Swerve.

As I mentioned in a previous post, for Alternators Hound, the Alternators line was created specifically for the old-school TF fans, the ones who have been with the series since the 80's, and are now currently in their 20's and 30's. They're more detailed, more complex, and molded as real vehicles in a 1:24 scale.

Swerve is the third Alternator to use the Corvette as its alt mode. The first two, Tracks & Ravage, have both had their difficulties in the fan community, the former because of its scarcity, and the later because of its sucksity. Well, that's just my personal opinion, as I'm REALLY not a fan of human-based figures with animal heads, especially when the figure is supposed to be based off of a G1 character that WAS an animal.

But I digress. Swerve was supposed to alleviate the fan's issues with Tracks by being more available. Turns out it hasn't been, and I am fairly sure this will be the ONLY Swerve figure I will ever see on shelves.

His alt mode is, like the others, a Corvette. Red, this time. Nothing much to say about it, except that this particular mold came with a flame hood sticker, the first sticker I've seen in a Transformers figure in a LONG time. Thankfully it's optional.

As with the other Alternators that I own, his transformation to robot mode was frustrating. This time for different reasons than the others. Its relatively simple, without any need to break stuff in order to get it successfully accomplished. However, the parts themselves were so flipping TIGHT, that I ended up hurting my fingers trying to pry it apart.

Once I got it done, though, I was pleased with the result. The color scheme, red and gold, is fairly rare in the TF universe, and looks really good. The chest plate is really original. Similar to some of the newer Optimus Primes (G2/Scourge & Cybertron), the Alternator Corvettes are allowing the flavor of the original figure to show through without sacrificing the look of the more modern alt-mode.

And, yes, that only makes sense to me.

One other cool carry-over from the original Corvette figures is the shoulder-mounted cannons, which, unlike the kibble of the originals, can be flipped up from the back, and may even be able to be used in vehicle mode, if you wanted to be weird.

So those will probably be the last figures I get before I move. Ah, what am I saying, I'll probably end up caving and buying Vector Prime as soon as I lose my current Ebay bid for the Japanese version.

EDIT: I decided to be funky and added these pictures since I posted originally. Thought it'd be neat.