I was very surprised to see this listed "In Stock" at TFSource and instantly bought it, and a few days later here it is, Movie Masterpiece Barricade! Barricade has always been my favorite Bayverse original Decepticon, and I'm thrilled to see him get the Masterpiece treatment. Short review with limited pics because I'm at work, but here are my initial thoughts.

Vehicle Mode

Excellent, screen-accurate Mustang cop car from the first few films. Rolls nicely, looks sharp from all angles, and the tampos are great, down to the Decepticon police badges. My main complaint is how jarring the panel lines are on his doors; the black plastic under the white paint really sticks out and does take away that otherwise sharp look. Another minor nitpick is you can see robot parts through the windows, but it's not a big drawback; maybe smoked windows would've worked a little better but it's not enough to really bother me. Other than that, everything fits together really well and locks into place smoothly...it's a great vehicle mode overall.







Transformation

Transforming Barricade is a little challenging, but nowhere near as bad as MPM Optimus Prime. It's actually fun to transform him, only taking a few minutes, and there's a little bit of the old Automorph in his chest transformation. All the parts and panels have somewhere to peg into and in the end you've got a brutish bad cop robot.

Robot Mode

THIS is where MPM Barricade shines, in my opinion. We've gotten some pretty good Barricade toys over the years, with Human Alliance Barricade being the best until now, but this one is the definitive Barricade. Nails the look of the original movie design, especially getting the chest accurate at long last. He's got the kind of squat proportions, long arms (of the law), and lots of little design cues absent from other Barricade toys. He's well-articulated, able to hold good poses through ratchet joints in the right places. One drawback is the lack of wrist articulation as a result of his transformation...you won't get to many poses out of his hands. Waist articulation is slightly hindered by part of his back kibble, but it can be worked around. His headsculpt is fantastic, and even has an opening mouth. There's one design element that might be contentious, and that's the use of blue paint highlights where purple has been traditionally used on Barricade toys. Honestly I think the dark metallic blue looks MUCH better than the lavender—way more fitting for the police theme and just looks cooler, IMO.






His weapon gimmick isn't anything special (it spins, and it looks pretty wicked, but nothing really exciting), but it's neat that they incorporated it.



My ONE MAJOR COMPLAINT about this toy? No Frenzy! I wish there had been some way to incorporate a little Frenzy, even just as a better version of the one that came with HA Barricade. I'm sure 3rd party companies will solve that problem in time, though.





Overall, excellent Movie Masterpiece toy and far and away the best Barricade we'll ever get. A few nitpicks aside, his vehicle mode looks slick and intimidating, and his robot mode is on-point. Not sure what the Takara one is going to look like compared to this, but MPM-5 Barricade is an absolute must for fans of Barricade, Movie toys, or just straight-up awesome Masterpiece Transformers.

8.5/10

 

I can't wait for this guyyyy.

 

I love how many movie-style flourishes this toy finally has, like the angled wheels in the wrists, the crumpled up from end, etc.

Can't wait. I don't even have Bumblebee and I want Barricade.

 

It's somewhat unfortunate though that because of that wrist build, he couldn't have properly functional wrist joints. Thankfully, it's less an issue for a design like Barricade than it is for most, since all he needs his hands for is threatening grabby poses, which the toy achieves just fine.

Honestly not worth the effort, at least for me. The process looks involved, but it's pretty much telling you to transform the entire arm back to car mode, complete with chunk of rear windscreen awkwardly hanging off it. And then the mace weapon simply clips to the end of it all. You might be able to find some nice "photography magic" camera angles with it, but in-hand it mostly just looks dopey. It pretty much stays permanently in its little display stand/holster piece in my case.

 

Anyone got any pics of him with PeruKill? Im curious to see how they look together in both modes?

 

Just got mine today.

Utterly fantastic figure. They took the HA TFmation..made it better and he looks pretty incredible in bot mode. Weapon is lame looking to me, but hes worth every penny.

 

Just so happens I also have Peru Kill at work!

 

Thank you sir,they look great in both modes together,Im even more excited now to get Barricade.

 

Would you say he's worth $20 above MSRP like TCP is selling him for? Because I'm really tempted.

 

Only problem i have is going back to vehicle. The roof wants to pop-up so not sure what the problem is

 

Ugh I really had no intention of getting Peru Kill but that picture makes me really want him.

 

I was just fiddling with mine last night. He really is a fantastic figure.

 

Hahahaha same here   will try to content myself with the studio series though...

 

He looks it. The cost is just a bit much for me to swallow. But the fact he scales with the MPMs so well...

 

I got mine shipped from ebay for $60

 

*runs to eBay*

 

Are you sure that's not a KO? The $60 ones one eBay are all coming from China. A couple of them actually say they are KOs.

 

positive. The seller I have bought a few Legit MPs advertises them as damaged boxed authentics. The seller puts them up and they are usually gone fast. The boxes arnt MANGLED..but sometimes they do have some serious hits. Everything inside is fine.

 

Cool, good info. Thanks!

Looking like right now my best bet would likely be a preorder at HLJ.

 

Looking at his arm weapon..I put it on and I think it just looks ridiculous.

In the movie it looked wicked..but this thing looks like He's been relegated to shrub trimming or some shit..is it just me or is it so big it looks stupid?

one thing thats is real cool, his hands are perfect for holding a HA figure..lol. Instead of such a big obtrusive weapon thing, I would have like a set of hands that made a fist. I remember in the movie when barricade made a fist it was massive, and looked like a wrecking ball. THAT would have been cool to have. this thing is just funky for me.

Lucky its something that can be tossed aside. Im currently looking for some stuff that looks like the TLK accessories that will work for him. A nightstick and pistol would be cool, but im not sure that stuff suits this look. He just needs a gun I think.