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Hasbro: Transformers Age of Extinction- Hound.
Knowing that Hound was going to be one of my favourite figures of the movie line, I intentionally kept him last to open and overall I'm fairly impressed.
Two sizeable gripes with the actual character before I get on to the toy.
Firstly he should be named Bulkhead or maybe even Kup, but not Hound. I'm not normally a stickler for the whole name game with movie, but this one did bother me. He clearly has the look of Bulkhead and the "old timer" attitude of Kup. The name Hound also implies a tracker, or recon type soldier, who relies on stealth to complete the mission; much like the character from the G1 series. Movie Hound is none of those, quite the opposite really.
Secondly I love John Goodman. If I didn't already have a good relationship with my father, I would actively search out John Goodman to be my Dad. With that in mind I was mortified for him by the terrible one-liners they gave to him in the movie; Such a brutal waste of good talent; at least it is on par for these Bay-verse movies, but disappointing never-the-less. Maybe he will be included in the bevy of new movies that are apparently in development complete with a new personality? Who am I kidding? Those movies will never be about the Robots.
With those character gripes aside, I can move on to, what I consider, an overall great figure. Be it Saturday morning cartoons, team based comic books or even video game properties there is always a big, fat or big and fat guy. Movie-verse Hound certainly fits the part (one may even call him a... fat ballerina.... ugh) but his plastic incarnation unfortunately comes up a bit light. Not only is he too short, he is also too skinny and would have benefited greatly from the now defunct "ultra" size class. As his girth is a known complaint, the popular 3rd party accessory maker Dr Wu had released a kit to rectify it; but at $32 US it's just not worth it to me.
His other oddity is his soft plastic curved forearms. Most of the pictures do little justice as they actually look ok in person. I can see what they were going for and appreciate the design aesthetic in the movie as he is literally made of bullets, but the un-natural bend and flat grey plastic give it an odd look. It also limits the amount wrist movement, but that really has little overall bearing on the figure.
One thing I do love is the arsenal of weapons that he comes with, Kudos to Hasrbo for not only releasing him with all these great weapons, but for providing a place for him to hold everything in both modes.
Lastly I do appreciate the transformation; I have been very vocal about the level of complexity of the previous movie toys as it relates to my ineptitude for transforming them and Hound (as well as most of the other movie cast) has provided a near perfect balance of complexity and fun. It's just really too bad that Hasbro has now swung too far with the basic stuff.
Despite his "shortfalls" Hound is a solid contender for best of the line and esaily one of my favorites in recent years.
Pros: All-around fun toy to have, massive arsenal that both true to the character abd that fits everywhere in both modes, nice head Sculpt.
Cons: Size, girth, stature.
