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Hasbro- Transformers- Dark of the Moon- Human Alliance: Icepick and Sgt Chaos.
Going forward in my reviews you will see a lot of figures circa 2010-2015 that I purchased and promptly put into storage because I did not have the new toy room built yet. With that said It’s hard to believe that Dark of Moon came out 6 years ago and that there has been 2 other Transformers movies since; where does the time go? Sadly since that time my interest in Transformers has diminished some due to live action movie fatigue, boring cartoons, less than impressive toy offerings and a staggering price increase that is preventative of collecting at the same scale. However the good news it that I still have some of the best figures in Transformers history MISB, just waiting to be opened and maybe that will re-kindle my appreciation of the franchise.
Icepick and Sgt. Chaos (it’s also odd that they gave Sgt Chaos top billing on the package. SMH: human superiority...) is part of my favorite Transformer Sublines: Human Alliance. The line originated with movie robot characters that were paired with movie human characters. The cool thing was that the Robots were engineered with space for their human counterpart to sit as a driver or operator. And while the little human figures were a bit meh, it still lead to some Masterpiece level Transformers for a fraction of the price and still are among some of the best Movie figures to date in my opinion.
Icepick was released in a Human Alliance line that had smaller vehicles that were inspired by, but not featured in, the movies and had a similar design asthenic. As with many of the movie figures, the overall toy is a mixed bag; that is to say, the snowsled vehicle mode is nice, but the robot is a bit of a mess of hinged parts and lanky appendages. The Human Alliance figures also feature a somewhat suspect 3rd weaponized mode that the Human figure could presumably use in battle, but often seem like they were an afterthought. Issues aside though because Icepick gets all the love from me as a closer look reveals that he is sporting a Goalie mask for a head; how great is that? Not to be outdone it seems as though Sgt Chaos may have a bit of inspiration from Cobra with a very familiar helmet design. Someone at Hasbro was having a good time for sure and I would be lying if I said that I would not buy the crap out of a Transformers/GIJoe Human Alliance subline.
Pros: I like the Human Alliance concept and feel that more could have been done with it. The goalie mask is also an amazing detail.
Cons: Robot mode is a bit weak.
