Prime Mainline (RiD) Vehicon

Arriving in the third wave of Transformers Prime "Robots in Disguise" Deluxes, the Vehicon is a toy which has had a lot of fans on board right from the start with his "clean" and "kibble" free robot mode that accurately recreates the look of the Decepticon troopers as seen in the Transformers Prime show. The toy does not let you down either, as it looks and feels as great in hand as the promotional pictures lead you to believe.


Transformers Prime Vehicon Vehicle Mode

We'll start with the mode that the Vehicon comes packaged in, his car mode. It is quite a bit smaller and more compact than the First Edition in car mode, looking a bit faster and sleeker in design. Where the First Edition version's car mode was all about "big dangerous vehicle" this mainline version is more of a "swift interceptor", though still with that boxy muscle car front end. It's cool, it gives the two toys their own identity. The car mode is a nice dark navy plastic that all but appears black to the naked eye, a good match for the look on the show.


Transformers Prime Vehicon Vehicle Mode Gun Mounting Options

There are two sockets to the rear of the vehicle mode for you to mount the (large) blaster cannon that the Vehicon comes with, as well as two spots on the front of the car's hood if you want to do the more show-accurate hood mounted blaster.

Transformation on this one is amazing! It is seriously one of the cleverest ways of making a car turn into a robot to come along in the last few years, and we have seen some extremely creative choices in that time. What this one effectively does to give us a slender robot mode with minimal car parts is to have the whole roof of the car, from the spoiler to the hood, roll up and form the lower legs.


Transformers Prime Vehicon Transformation

It is one of the high points of an excellent toy - well worth experiencing for yourself, if you are not collecting - ask a friend if you can transform theirs.


Transformers Prime Vehicon Robot Mode

The Vehicon in robot mode is very impressive. From a car mode smaller than the First Edition, we get a robot mode which manages to stand shoulder to shoulder with the First Edition, and thanks to the lack of parts on the back, it manages to seem even larger. The Vehicon in robot mode has excellent poseability, aided by the fact there are minimal parts hanging around to catch on one another and impede the movement of the parts. The Vehicon can strike a whole bunch of great poses - chances are anything you see them do in the show, you can do with the toys here.

There are a few flaws in the poseability though. The elbows are a uniquely designed set of a swivel, a ball joint and a hinge, which give a good range of movement but takes a bit of getting used to, and can look weird in a few poses. There is no waist rotation, and no technical reason why it should be omitted, so it was probably left out to reduce costs. The head is also a little weird, since it sits at a slight angle, so it does not twist in the usual sense, making it hard sometimes to pose the Vehicon simply looking to his side. These are minor complaints though, you quickly learn how to work around the oddities in the joints, and the lack of a waist is excusable considering all the other good things this toy does.

The Vehicon's main weapon is his rather large blaster. You have three options in robot mode - you can have the blaster handheld, like a shotgun, arm mounted, like in the show, or shoulder mounted using the same sockets as in vehicle mode. There's a nice selection of different display options there. The arm mounted look is particularly good, thanks to how the part fits with the arm.


Overall, the Vehicon is a great example of all the good things that are being done with Transformers toys right now. It has a clever transformation, a very clean and uncluttered robot mode, plenty of poseability, and very few serious drawbacks to knock the toy on. Just about the only downside is that he's the shortpacked toy in the assortment! Hopefully Hasbro can correct this with a revision case tout suite.

Check out more pictures in the gallery!

Transformers Prime Vehicon Gallery

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Originally Posted by Lance Halberd Sol Fury can be likened to a German clock. A very exact, complex, and tightly-wound precision instrument that occasionally goes cuckoo.

great review!

Man that is pretty slick. On a side note i really hate the way the new board set up is. it has a very off putting feel to it.

this. i hope it's not permanent

This figure is so well done. I can't wait for him to come out here!

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I'm 99.9% sure it isn't intentional.

Anyways, great figure. I liked this from the very beginning. Glad I didn't waste money on the first Vehicon. This one looks better and is easier/cheaper to troop build.

Nice review . The colors on vehicle mode look so much better than on the FE.

Glad I bought 4 of him! 2 Takara and 2 Hasbro.
come on already! cannot wait to see what shiny paint job TT's version has!

Cool photo gallery. Though I have to disagree that the RiD looks just as bigger if not bigger than the FE. RiD may be of similar height but he looks much thinner/spindlier (screen accurate) than the FE in photos, while the FE seems more "muscular" with his added bulk (not just talking about the back kibble; his chest and limb proportions appear broader than the lanky RiD). And while the RiD is more accurate in bot mode, I much prefer the look and coloration of the FE in alt mode. RiD car is decent (color is more subdued though I'm not a fan of the giant 5mm port in the back) but the FE is just sexy.

Already have this guy on preorder on BBTS along with Knockout and Hotshot, but if I see an RiD Vehicon out in the wild somewhere I'll pick up another one too (for a total of two FEs and two RiDs). Both are very cool molds in my book, and give the Eradicons some variation (hopefully a Jeticon mold is in the works).

For President 2016: Punishment and enslavement we can believe in.

oh god, i want this. i want this so much. that transformation looks amazing.