I picked Crankcase up today. I love the robot mode,
I dont love the vehicle mode. The mix of glossy and matte plastic looks aweful. Also, he can be a pain in the ass to transform into carmode, and you have no idea why it doesn't fit. Turns out the guns next to his head were in the way.

 

Were you rotating them upward against the glass? I never had the shoulder mortars get in the way of transformation, having flipped him between modes 4 or 5 times now.

 

i hadn't even touched those, not even in robotmode. But they are quite loose, so they probably rotated during transformation.

 

I subjected this fella to a comparison-photoshoot with his vintage version, which was a favorite of mine back in the day. I'm a bit bummed he doesn't have the action-feature for the guns.

 

Wish they could have kept the more Range Rover proportions of the original instead of the more Scion of the Skids/Legacy update.

 

Pathetic retool. Saw someone selling it for 8 bucks but I ain't going to the middle of nowhere just to pick it up.

 

Man, I love this guy. He's great. I was a fan of the Skids mold, and I love how they made just a few changes to it, and now Crankcase really feels and looks like a different character.

My only real disappointment is of course the shoulder canons not being blast effect compatible. Now that is a missed opportunity.

 

I like him OK. The floppy knees gave me some problems pegging them together to go to vehicle mode, while the waist part that has to move during transformation was super tight. I don't know if this was possible on Skids, but the gun carried over from him can be stored on the back Crankcase's vehicle mode (I put it on the left side) to kinda resemble an antenna. The unfolding chest gun is kinda meh.

+-MWG-+

 

This is probably my favorite of the wave, even with some of its issues like the small cannons. The colors on that alt mode give it this tough and sinister feel that is really different from the road trip van feel that my Burnout has. Funny enough that comparison with Knockout works for me because this guy does make me think of TFP Breakdown. He's like a dwarf version of Knockout's comrade.

I look forward to seeing him weaponized. If anyone's going to get kitted up like crazy, it's a Triggercon. That 5mm chest port has promise.

How is the retool pathetic when the entire alt mode is reshelled, and there are even slight alterations to the transformation?

 

Where are the shoulder cannons that are the size of him? Do they have the ability to stick out in alt?

No?
Then it’s pathetic.

 

Just ignoring everything else about the remold there. Not that I don't want them to have done it but I'm not sure if it'd even be physically possible.

 

Yeah, the guns being so tiny is a disappointment.

But the retool itself is fantastic. New shape to the atlmode, new head, new details, heck new steps in the transformation that lead to a new silhouette.

 

Had so much fun with the G1 version as a kid... Sucks they don't do gimmicky toys like that anymore.

 

So how do you actually lock the chest down in robot mode? Every time I move one of his arms, the chest comes up.

 

I have the same question. There's no clips or pegs or anything. It feels like it should clip in somehow, but it just....doesn't.

Edit: okay, so the backpack lifts up and (sort of) tabs into the torso just behind the hinge. Problem is it doesn't work very well. The pegs are too small and the slots too shallow and too close to the hinge – basically, there's so much leverage when you push on the chest that there's no hope for these tiny things to hold it in place.

 

The comparison shows how much of a retool was done to get it close to the og figure. Pretty amazing IMHO.

Overall alt side profile could be closer, true, but looks pretty solid from the front. And totally trashing this because “No flip out guns = lazy hasblow trash” seems, uh, hyperbolic. IMO.

 

Good review. I agree vehicle mode looks unfinished. Once toyhax release their sticker kit for him I will be jumping on it. I think it will smooth out a lot of that overwhelming black in vehicle mode.

 

Looks good, though he feels... fussier to get into vehicle mode than Skids, who was pretty smooth to flip back and forth. Have much more trouble with getting the two halves together on him.

He's also nicely improved by the addition of Nonnef Productions set.

 

That's Hasbro QC for you. It's supposed to lock in. Probably something is too wide or too small.

I have the same problem with SS86 Ironhide and SS86 Arcee in addition to Crankcase.

 

Niiiice, good ol' Nonnef with their molded plastics. Their stuff always feels better in-hand and look better overall.