Man, I think I got a QC failure. The arms on mine are super loose, the legs are wobbly, and on the back of the truck mode one set of the rear-tires/bird leg simply will not stay flush and keeps popping out because I think the bird leg part is somehow crooked. This figure has definitely been a big bummer for me.

 

Finally pulled the OG out of my display case. The faithfulness to the original is very impressive.

 

If you mean the little robot and the little bat, they don’t come with him.

If you mean the little gray engine block, he only comes with one.

 

I accidentally popped the leg off at the knee and I can’t for the life of me get it to peg back on.

 

Keep working it or take the leg apart. I got mine back in without taking it apart but it was a B!

 

Nifty little discovery that I haven't seen covered on here: you can flip up Double Dealer's Decepticon badges in rocket-bird mode! They sit more or less flush against the front.

 

Big fan of bird mode. I put the bomb part on the bottom of the turkey. And knok in the chest plate and skar pegged on the plate covering the head or transformed and pegged on the blaster part of the tail piece. Little floor polish fixed us the loose knee pegs and the hinge on the wings. Elbow section and 180 arm rotation hinge. Noice n touite.

 

Does Skar fit pegged onto his back with the front of the missile attached? Or does it get in the way?

 

It can fit but there is a 5mm peg pushing on the face of skar.

I wouldn’t leave it like that for a long period of time.

 

Had to perform this surgery myself today, using a bit of rubber band instead of putty, and the hips are much better now. The procedure was mostly pretty simple...

...EXCEPT that two of the screw heads stripped while I was doing it, and I had to get creative with a drill. That part was a pain in the ass, but I finally did get everything back together.

Thanks for the tutorial!

 

Ha! I suspected I wouldn’t be the only one. Just popped off the knee joint while swiveling the leg around. The way it goes back together is not obvious.

@RetrogradeMercury did you fix yours yet?
@Wespy , any tips?

Otherwise, I am loving DD. This is a super fun, great looking figure. It’s a good enough that if I did actually break it, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a replacement right away.

 

I just kept trying to finagle it back into the spot until it just popped in. I had him spread eagle and the leg exposed in a way that it had popped out. It’s tough tho because it just wants to move around as you try. I just kept at it with the knee in a very unnatural position similar to how it came out. It odd as the peg has a nipple or something on it which is something I’ve not seen on a toy before.it must keep it locked in when it’s in a natural standing position.

good luck and keep at it.

a treatment of future goes a long way with this guy.

 

I get mine (Double-Dealer) this coming Thursday morning and i can't wait. I'm so excited about getting this figure I've got to track down my orginal G1 figure this weekend that i have and all of his extras of course.

 

Thanks!
This is helpful...I will keep at it.

That little nipple/tab on the mushroom peg is totally new to me too. I think you're right about it being some kind of a lock but this is also probably why it's hard to get back together.

 

Phew! Fixed it.
The “nipple” on the peg is both the cause of and answer to all of life’s problems. It functions to keep the leg from rotating all the way around. Why? Anyone’s guess. I suspect that it makes the toy feel more planned, deliberate, or polished like having detents or locking tabs.

The joint comes apart if you override that lockout on the rotation and it will force the clip open. I don’t usually break my toys and I don’t remember using much force on this so be careful.

I’m fairly certain that they assemble this swivel joint prior to firing that pin for the knee joint because reinserting this peg seems to require a bit of plastic flexing..the same flex that allowed the joint to come apart. Perform at your own risk.




So I took the lower leg apart to more easily manipulate the black connector piece...but as @Wespy discovered, it can be done without taking the lower leg apart. Honestly, it’s three screws. Disassembling the lower leg is going to make your life easier IMO.



The side of the peg with nipple piece needs to be inserted first, sinking the nipple into the depressed area. Nipples often help me when I’m depressed so that made sense to me.



Once the nipple is in the recess, you’ll need to twist and push together at the same time until it clicks back together.



Reassemble the lower Autobot whomper and you’re good to go. Make sure the short screw goes into the same hole from whence it came.

 

It took me a while to figure out how to start this review. Mainly because I’m out of practice. Usually, I would talk about the character for a bit and make a joke, but honestly? Doubledealer is kind of a non-entity. He’s had precisely three toys in his thirty years, and the previous one to this was a repaint of the worst Blitzwing toy. I owned it, cos I like the character’s concept. A mercenary playing both factions? That’s a fun idea. However, that toy was godawful. So as soon as this new version got announced I sold it on. Good luck with those shoulders whoever the hell I sold it to!

Thing is, aside from the concept there’s pretty much fuck all to know about Doubledealer. His most prominent role is in the Japanese Masterforce cartoon, and that’s not even him! He’s a suit of armour of a blue-haired orphan with an inferiority complex. And then we had him in IDW where he got beaten by a magic 8-ball (who later turned out to be one of the Transformer’s gods…sort of, but still).

But after all that I just decided to sit down and write because I need to get this done and back into writing as a whole.


So, we have the first “proper” leader of the Siege/Earthrise line. Ok yes, we had Astrotrain, Prime, Shockwave etc, but they were Voyagers with bits of armour or boxes. While there’s a little bit of that with Doubledealer because of his accessories, but he has enough mass to him to feel like a leader class. His bot mode is rather lovely, featuring colours you don’t see much in the franchise melded together to make a brick wall of a robot armed to the gills with weaponry and a good amount of articulation to boot. Hell, he even has wrist swivels. The only real point of contention elbows could have done with being tighter, as there are many reports he can barely hold his giant gun. Mine can hold it fine in his right arm, but not the left.

As for his gimmick, well it works. See way back in the far-off year of 1988, Doubledealer had three modes. An autoboot robot mode, a Decepticon bird mode, and a “neutral” ICBM launcher mode (which is a weird way to describe a mobile nuke launcher). Those were accessed by his two Powermaster partners, a Decepticon bat and a Not-Rumble/Frenzy. Since you know, complicated parts like that would probably make this guy cost like £100 at least in today’s economy, Doubledealer now accomplishes the same with hinges on his shoulders


Yeah, I tend to put his as a Con because due to his bulk, colours and weaponry, he doesn’t scream Autobot. And this is even taking guys like Roadbuster into consideration. And I’m glad they did this, allowing him to be a Bot or Con in robot mode rather than his original incarnations way.

Speaking of awkward segues, let’s talk about his Powermaster partners Knok and Skar! Because they’re back! If you shelled out £25+ for a pack of 4 sub-legends class toys because dammit you want Rumble (FIRRIB FOR LIFE!) for your Soundwave.


Yeah, that’s about all you can say. They’re fine for bots that turn into rectangles. Just like the rest of the Soundwave tape guys. Though speaking of Soundwave, Doubledealer managed to steal his schtick, as his chest opens up allowing you to stick one of his little buddies there for storage, or to flip around and display him like a Powermaster. He even features a small engine block which you can stick on little guys pegs for that later 80’s nostalgia. Still it only really works with Knok, as he is the same colour as Doubledealer’s chest since he pretty much was the bot mode chest back then. Also at least on mine Skar seems just that bit too small to fit securely.


As for his other modes. Well, they’re fun! But they’re kind of a pain to get to. Transforming his torso for both modes is fine, but his goddamn legs are annoying. For both modes you have to fart on with his double-jointed knees, positioning them just right so they line up with slots. However getting to vulture mode is the most pain in the arse way, because you have to sort of fold the knees in on themselves so a tab on the bottom of one joint can slide into a tab on the other joint and if you don’t get the knees in just the right position to allow this, it feels like you’re going to break the damn things.

And after all, that, are the results worth it? Kind of!



OK, this is one daft looking vulture, what with the front half of an ICBM launcher hanging off his arse…but it works. I dunno, it’s just stupid looking but weirdly nice at the same time. Sure, his articulation is limited to his toes, wings and head but it’s just a daft piece of fun.

And yes, you can store his missile on his crotch so he has the big bird dick if you want.



As for the ICBM mode, honestly, it’s a great mode in both transport and launcher mode, although the way his head is kinda just sticking out the back looking up makes the disguise a little daft. The rear ramp also allows you to connect him to other Earthrise bases and/or robots who turn into bits of a road for reasons.

I like Doubledealer, despite his problems. Yes, he’s got some loose joints, his transformation is finicky. He’s also technically a partsformer, but I’ve found myself softening on that now as long as it’s done OK and doesn’t involve taking the robot apart and putting it back together again. His concept is a fun one, and I’m glad they went with the robot mode allowing him to have both factions rather than being some sort of weird reverse Punch/Counter-Punch gimmick.

 

Additional hidden transformation step I just noticed: to prevent the wing tips from dragging along the ground underneath DD in truck mode, both wingtips can be bend back a notch, upward towards the truck on a slight angle; enough that the outer wingtip holds the inner wingtip in place against the body of the truck.

 

Also, of you unscrew the purple part and turn it around (but I don't know if that interferes with transformation yet).
If you then flip out the wingtips you can store Knok or Skar underneath the pine panel.

I like him. I love his size. I love that we got Knok and Skar, and that hey can hide them in his chest.
But when it comes to articulation and fit there is so much I wish they had done differently.
I wish the arms weren't pinned to the body but were ratcheted. How do you even cone up with pinned shoulders?
In this day and age shoulders shouldn't be pinned anymore.
I wish the knees weren't constructed in such a strange way that makes you pop the lower legs off if you move them in a way the designers didn't intend.
I wish the platform the rocket is attached to in truck mode was ratcheted.
I wish the wings didn't have that folding piece, but were made out of one piece.
I wish the rocket didn't have so many useless tabs and holes and that the "radar-dish" had more of them.
I wish the arms could lock in against the main body better in truck mode. Same with the side panels of the legs.

But he is so cool. He has so much presence and is so accurate to the original toy!
He drives really well and the launch platform that bothered me when he was revealed is totally cool and looks great on his back in bot mode.
His double-jointed elbows are great.
If only his knees were so well designed.