I absolutely wanted all four figures in this wave but the one I was looking forward to was Runamuck. Having had the TFCC pair for a long while I was definitely keen on having more true to G1 takes.

The car mode of this guy is pretty goddamn wonderful. It's got an absolutely killer 80's sports car look to it, a refreshing change of look to many of the curvy super car look. I love the paint scheme too. You don't get many slick looking all white cars. The color with the shape of it makes it really great.

Transformation is fairly standard for cars nowaways. Flip the feet, pull out the legs, fold the arms out of the side, pull head out of fake chest, fold up backpack. It makes for a robot mode that captures the design cues of the G1 toy, including the hood around the head and the paired wheels at the feet. Awesome! Articulation is great, althoug the shoulders are a bit limited. Eyes are painted purple which is a great touch. Not a common color!

If you ask me this is definitely a killer figure. The figure looks killer and while one can levy complaints about the blandness of the color scheme, I think it works. There's times where simplier is better and that works out here. The choice to make the alt mode based on an 80s aesthetic is a great touch that, as a car guy, I really dig.

Definitely pick this guy up!

 

Good write up and nice illustrative photos. Got him on pre-order and looking forward to him myself.

One thing I’m seeing here that wasn’t apparent in the stock photos (at least to me); that robot has a laughing evil face for a codpiece... 

 

Quick question; you said the shoulders are limited. Could you go into detail about that?

 

Looks great! Can't un-see his grinning crotch!

 

Great review! I'm very please to see the taillights are painted and its news to me the eyes are purple! I'll agree I like the simple colors and 80s car aesthetics on this one.

Damnit. Guess I'm not going to un-see that!

 

I get a kick out of the faux-wheels. Love it.

 

Fuckin' hell, goddamn you!   A good looking face, nevertheless!

Yeah sure. So the shoulders are designed in a way where the upper arms sit on top of the shoulders when you're doing side to side motion. Because of all the stuff sitting behind the head, it does mean that certain poses are unfortunately limited due to the shoulder design. Here's a pic to illustrate what I mean. Smokescreen has the more...I guess "normal" shoulder design vs. the one used by Runamuck. Fasttrack and Sunstreaker uses this style of shoulder design too.

 

Do the faux wheels serve an actual purpose for the integrity of the figure?

 

Just part of the heel spur. If you don't like 'em you can cut them. Heel spur is pretty big as is.

Oh yeah the hole is also a 5mm hole for Parts-to-jam-onto-folks-izers. So you're losing that if you cut.

 

The fake chest and fake wheels are just so bad. I was so excited about this guy, but meh, I’m gonna pass at this point

 

Still kinda baffled by the fake wheels but I like his look overall. I always appreciated the battlechargers for being among the few transformers that actually look like they could blend in and be, you know, robots in disguise.

 

The wheels are just an homage to the original toys, which through the mechanism of the transformation had the car wheels next to each other in robot mode.

 

Which is hella rad...or WOULD be if they'd bothered to sculpt the fake wheels to actually LOOK like the real wheels, and maybe even painted the hubcaps.

 

I think it was a case of animation defining the look of the final product. It would explain the lack of orange too ( which honestly is doing me a favor)

 

Gonna paint my fake wheel rims. Gonna be so good.

 

Those fake wheels look incredibly stupid. If they don't fold away they are getting cut off.

Other than those, I dig him.

 

Fake wheels look incredibly stupid. Fake chest... meh!

 

Thank you for the review. I kinda wish they added orange paint like the G1 toy, but I guess in the cartoon he was all white/mostly white.

I been on the fence with both battlemasters, but I guess I do want this now. If I can get Runabout in ~Dec, I will definitely pick up Runamuck.

 

Would you happen to have your TFCC Runabout around? I'd be interested in seeing a picture of ER Runamuck with him. I kinda like the idea of them being different molds, especially since ER Runabout isn't retooling the car at all.

 

I think the fake wheels are a cool design cue. No idea why the hate for them or the “dreaded fake chest”.