260-2
Hasbro- Transformers: Dark of the Moon- Human Alliance: Roadbuster and Sgt. Recon
Rating of worst to best of the Transformers movies continued; see review 208-2, 213-2, 217-2, 223-2, 226-2, 230-2, 234-2, 239-2, 243-2, 246-2, 249-2, 252-2 & 257-2 for previous instalments:
Transformers Movie Rating #3: Transformers The Movie
The Bad:
I would be doing a disservice to the movie if I did not spend some time on the controversy (within the fandom anyway) of the design choice of the Transformers themselves and while they were not universally hated, there was certainly division amongst the fans. For my part I will say that I was fine with the overall look, but would not have been upset if they actually looked liked the G1 designs that we were all used to. I will say that as an alien species, these designs actually make sense given that a really “blocky” G1 look would be very impractical, but nostalgia is a hell of a thing and fans want what they want. I will say that I hated the influence that GM had on the vehicle modes way more than the alien looking robot modes. I’ll give a pass to Ironhide, but making Jazz and Solstice and Bumblebee a Camero was almost inexcusable. Some other “bad” moments from the movie were the “hacker” subplot and the home scene where Sam was looking for the glasses. The hackers added very little to the overall story and could have easily been replaced by a military computer guy/girl and the home scene, while probably was meant to be funny, just felt like a long setup to the line: “Honey, I think we blew a transformer” BADUM-CHE.
Pros: I can;t recall when or where I picked up Roadbuster, but I think it was relatively late in the run of Dark of the Moon figures and I think I was pretty excited as he was my favorite of the Wreckers and a Human Alliance figure to boot! And while my lofty expectations for this figure were not met, there are still some things I can appreciate starting with the tricked out, militarized vehicle mode that looks really bad ass. Also I will always appreciate the engineering that goes into a complex figure like this that requires seat space for the Human figure. Lastly the sculpting on the robot mode is pretty great including the added sunglasses feature on his head sculpt. It's a little thing and totally could have been cut for budget reasons, but it's a neat little thing that I can really appreciate.
Cons: As mentioned Roadbuster did not really do it for me and I think this could be partially due to how great the other Human Alliance and the current Studio Series figures are that any deviation from that is slightly disappointing. For example, the robot mode is really meh with limited possibility due to odd articulation and somewhat silly human alliance integration that feels as an afterthought. And while the vehicle mode looks cool, it’s just the weaponized mode with no option for a normal NASCAR car mode which feels a bit like a cheat as it may as well have been some crazy cybertronian design. Lastly the transformation was super frustrating with the instructions providing no help whatsoever. I don’t say this often enough, but thank you to all the Youtubers that upload review videos for these things; really helps when the manual is lacking.
