OK, so it's "just" a prototype, but I thought I'd start a new thread for this worthy addition to the Transformers world.

Vehicle Mode

The vehicle mode is a six wheeled military hauler/personel carrier. Good rounded form, looks to be rather true to the animated look. Great amount of detail where it can go, though in actual color pics I think some of it gets covered with paint apps. He's good and bulky too. He really has a solid feeling to him. The only bot mode carry-over is the enclosure for his head, and the gap in the top of his back area.















Transformation

His transformation is simple, once you know what you're doing. My package came without instructions so I had to take a blind leap or two.



First you fold down the back ramp area.



Then you rotate his legs down from under his cab area.



A little twist folds his front two wheels into heels.





Next step you unfold his top area with the light bars down to the side.



Here his first Automorphish gimmick kicks in and his arms spring forward.



You just need to push his shoulders a bit to lock it in to his body. Then you have to push up and back on the front cab area to put his body into place. This activates his second automorph and flips his head around.



Finally you separate his back ramp and it can click out a touch to give it the bended look.




Robot Mode

Awesome. Purely awesome. Really. He's a stout Mo-Fo with a wrecking ball. He's rather articulated despite the stubby legs and stout arms. Bending knees and full motion hips, and maybe even a bit of ankle motion if you want to count his wheel heel a bit. Full motion shoulder, rotating bicep, elbows, and three fingered hands on his arms. His head had two joints, and it works well. At the bottom of his neck he has what must be a rather flat ball joint, and at the top of his neck is a swivel joint so that he can turn his head all the way upside-down, while looking forward. And his head is pretty good, even in just red. The big unibrow and jaw give him a cavemanish expression, but for his body size its what's right.










The only "problem" with him is no hip/waist movement, but if I was that bulky I probably wouldn't twist around much either. The only kibble is the remnants of his shell on his sides, and maybe the bit over his head, but that's represented in his animation model so it doesn't count, right? He's rather agile as well, despite all of the bulk.





Other Gimmicks

His two gimmicks pop up in his arm. The first, and most drastic is his left arm wrecking ball. I darn near put my eye out the first time I discovered it. It is a gumball type of launcher without springs, the only thing that saved my vision was a tether that goes back into the arm. It is activated by pulling back the orange (on the proto) tab, until it fires. The second arm gimmick is kind of odd. When his right arm is straight if you pull back on the blue (again just on my proto) tab, his arm bends back. It seems to be more tedious to bend his arm that way, than just to bend it, but maybe I'm missing something here.







Overall

If you like the Animated feel, buy this guy. He's solid, and in a good way. Even though he's not human proportioned, he's got a setup that's fitting. Heck, all of his lines are very smooth, and bits that end up meeting up from across the alt mode end up lining up very smoothly in the 'bot mode.

 

But he pulls it off well. The design works "around" the size, not as if it's something that was added late.

He's actually pretty good at posing. Must be the low center of gravity. Plus his hands give you 4 points to rest on, to make the John Woo poses. And my eye is fine, but just because of the string on the missile. Without it there likely would have been an incident at the workplace, and I don't think I could get workman's comp on it.