First: Rumble is NOT the easiest Alternator to TF. That honor belongs to Hound, with Jazz a close second.

The big sticking point with the transformation is the legs. They're pretty tough to get into and out of car mode. There's a perfect storm of large and small pegs, side panels rubbing against the door frame, tightly wedged feet, and almost no working room. What's worked for me is to:

1.) Slide the doors ALL the way back.
2.) Unpeg the legs from the door frame.
3.) Push DOWN on both legs until the side panels slide down from the windshield.
4.) Separate the legs, then rotate out the leg with the large peg FIRST. Manuever each leg to get the side panel bits around the door frame.

It also turns out that the feet have to be in a specific position to get the legs BACK into car mode; there's a joint that has to be one "click" in towards the back of the legs. This is not obvious, not documented, and tends to pop off the feet.

Oh yeah, you also have to turn the waist around. This is not as easy as it sounds. Basically, you have to TF the arms and head, then bend the roof windshield assembly inward to get enough wiggle room. If you don't, then you'll have to use brute force ... which I expect will result in plenty of scratches over time.

In short, he's as easy to TF as any other Alternator -- which is to say he kinda isn't. But the thing is, I expect quirky and difficult stuff from Alts, so this isn't necessarily a minus. I still remember how infuriating Smokescreen was; now I think he's fun to fiddle with.

As for the figure itself -- he looks great in both modes. If you treat the back guns and tape chest (with sprockets!) as the visual homages they are, it works. I don't mind the lack of hands, though it would've been nice if the pile drivers could actually touch the ground -- especially since the shoulders can slide up and down to simulate the movement.

Unfortunately, he's not really posable due to the feet. Like many recent Alts, his feet are a complete afterthought, can't really support his weight, and tend to fall off during transformation. I'm not sure how much help nail or floor polish would be; the ball joints need to be a LOT stiffer to work at all. This is by far the biggest problem with this figure.

All in all, he's alright. Just wish he could actually stand on his own two feet. Perhaps the package needs a new tagline: "Wall Not Included."

Final Grade: B-

-XCN-

 

The feet are not tight enough to balance the weight and mine tends to fall over. Nail polish solved that problem. Other than that, the joints are nice and tight. I almost did not want to push on the clip that holds the weapons to his back for fear it would snap.

 

Oveall I like Rumble, however I do find him to be the easiest to transform. It took me no less then 2 minutes the 1st time with no instructions. I have no issues with the legs. Hound and Jazz are more difficult to get alligned. To me rumble just falls into place.

The only thing I don't like is how loosy goosy he is. THe pile drivers just hang there, the ankles hardly support him. He can basically just stand straight up. Still, a worthy addition. No regrets on picking him up at all, he just could have been better.

 

Easy to transform, but his legs lack support and pile drivers just dangle. Still a cool figure though  

 

I was on the fence about Rumble, mostly becasue of the no hands thing. I got it in fear that after having Ravage if I passed I would regret it later. I was probably right. After getting him I am impressed more than I thought. He is the easiet Alt to transform that I have owned. Thankfully too since mine came with no instrucions.

I think his alt mode looks good with nice details. And really like the look of his bot mode. A nice tribute to his G1 cassette mold. I got my KO Frenzy the same day and my 4 year old daughter asked if they were brothers.

Some QC issues with mine though include, lack of instructions, the driver door just will not close all the way, I have tried everything I can think of, and scuffs and scratches on it right out of the box. It was sealed to well to have been a return so it had to have been shipped this way. And since A friend of mine shipped it to me since my city didn't have them I am stuck with what I got.

Overall I am glad I bought it. He looks too good standing next to Ravage to have passed on it.

 

I got Rumble last night and I was fiddling with him into the wee hours. What I was looking for was a way for him to, I don't know, point his guns at the enemy rather than having them hang from his back. There's no point of having guns otherwise.

There's nowhere on his pile drivers that the guns attach. So I was looking on the rest of Rumble's arms and luckily I found a spot: the spoiler. If the arm is flipped around and the shoulder joint is slid back to it's car mode position, it looks great. Reminds me of Armada Demolishor's shoulder guns.

 

Regarding the looseness of the ankles, my Rumble's ankles are really tight and have no problems supporting his weight, so I don't think the "loosy goosy"-ness is universal amongst all Rumbles.

 

Thanks for the info fosterlager. I like that better than the pile drivers.

 

Same here. No issues with ankles. Several spots on mine still creak or snap because they're tight...the chest/leg flaps, the trunk and hood, to name a few.

 

Mine seems to be sort of a middle ground. the ankles are strong enough to hold most of the time, though you need to avoid leaning much, especially backward.

 

That does look pretty good. Thanks Foster. Anyone else having problems with either door closing? I am hoping there is a possible fix for it.

 

The only problem I've having with mine is trying to get the doors to lay flat on the sides of his legs. The rear view mirrors get in the way, and rub against the inside of the windshield.

If they could just fold out of the way like on some other alts, it would be fine.

 

The guns also mount on Rumble's hood for "Omnibot" mode:

 

Hey fosterlager...

Using the spoiler to hold the guns like that can also give him surrogate elbows by opening the trunk.

 

someone was complaining about Rumble's weak ankle?

 

That is how mine seems to be too.

As simple as he is (for an Alt), Rumble is a lot of fun to mess around with. I do wish he had proper arms (w/o a mod) but he is still a good figure. I'm glad I finally found him and Ravage.

 

He looks really happy there...

 

that picture needs a guitar, stat!

 

LOL, it does look like he has a smile, very Robot Chicken like

YES SIR!

 

Rumble's Transformation seems almost like a bunch of ideas that were cobbled together.

The bumpers actually swing all the way down to the feet, but wherever you position them, they still seem like they're not where they should be.

As it was mentioned before, the way the doors fold against the interior is somewhat awkward.

The tabs on the guns are fiddly. the head meanwhile can face several directions in alt mode, but the only ones where it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb are when it's looking to the side.

Like on the weapons the (release) tabs on the pile drivers are also a bit on the fiddly side. The pile drivers themselves are irritatingly loose when deployed like they meant to tighten up the internals but didn't bother, or perhaps instead they initially intended to fit more powerful springs.



Did anybody get ones that DOESN'T have loose piledrivers?


Inspite of the XBrawn style head, the alt mode is pretty well done. Robot mode...
is a bit of an aquired taste, the combination of Roof, Door and Hood kibble weakens it quite a bit.


It's not the weakest mold in the line so far - it beats the simplicity of the Ram mold by a decent margin. I'd personally compare it to the Corvette mold - not bad but a little bit of a clumsy transformation with some kibble that could've been tidied up with a bit more attention to detail.


Between Ravage and Rumble, I'd rate Ravage a little higher.