For more pictures, click on the image above Remarks: Longrack is a repaint with some extensive changes of
Armada Hoist, so look for the full review there. Just some words on the changes here. Longrack is based, of course, on the
Beast Wars Neo character of the same name and his look reflects that. He has received a brand-new head which is a very close match to that of the BWNeo figure. His coloring was also adjusted. He's missing the giraffe spots the BWNeo figure had, but he's mostly yellow (a deeper yellow than the BWNeo figure) with light grey limbs. All in all a very good color-match to the figure it pays homage to.
Some more changes were made to the figure than just a new head and some different colors, though. The original, Hoist, was built to have his gimmick, the big shovel arm, activated by his Minicon parter. As a Cybertron figure Longrack doesn't have a Minicon partner, he has a Cyberkey. So a Cyberkey slot was installed in his right shoulder in order to activate the gimmick. Also, the top of his shoulder was changed quite a bit, a very different-looking top-piece when compared to Hoist. It's probably meant to somewhat resemble the giraffe head the BWNeo figure had in this place. Looks good.
Longrack didn't appear in the Cybertron TV series, but he played a small role in the Cybertron text story "Force of Habit", which was available exclusively to members of the Transformers Collectors Club. A far bigger audience might recognize the figure from elsewhere, though, namely the IDW Beast Wars: Ascending comic book series. This figure was selected to serve as Longrack's pre-Earth mode, making it the same character as the Beast Wars Neo figure. So to me, he's more a Beast Wars figure than a Cybertron one, no matter that he was sold under the Cybertron banner.
Whichever series you sort him into, Longrack is an excellent remold of an already excellent figure. Bonus points for taking an obscure character mostly unknown to Western viewers and more bonus points for the design changes made, that didn't take anything away from the figure but instead subtly added to its play value. Every Transformers fan should own at least one version of this excellent mold and, to me at least, Longrack is just a tiny little tad better even than the original. Now I just need the Botcon 2006 Dinobot version.
Rating: A
