Toy Review: Age of Extinction Generations Deluxe Lockdown

[christalcase]

Name – Lockdown
Series - Age of Extinction Generations
Sub-line - N/A
Size/class - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 2.5
Released here – Not yet (expected soon?)
Approximate Retail Price - AU$25-AU$30
Approximate Size – unknown
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode – Lamborghini Aventador
Main Features/Gimmicks – gun-face; pressure launch missile
Main Colours – grey
Main Accessories – gun

VEHICLE MODE:

http://i.imgur.com/Mpd3ytw.jpg

Lockdown transforms into a licensed Lamborghini Aventador. It looks fantastic except for missing side windows (guess the window is wounded down). Only gimmicks in this mode are the rolling wheels and you can attach his gun on top which looks stupid.

http://i.imgur.com/Bc0IV4U.jpg

One thing that I am happy with is the fact that the designers bothered to give the vehicle mode a proper sculpted back. No weird gap, no visible robot kibble, just what you would expect on the real thing. It's a good vehicle mode if a little boring.

TRANSFORMATION:

Lockdown is a massive shellformer, most of the car ends up on his back. It's a very easy transformation and lacks any sort of challenge or engineering ingenuity. Apparently he shares a similar transformation to DOTM Roadbuster but I am not sure as I don't have that figure.

ROBOT MODE:

http://i.imgur.com/MjvPter.jpg

Lockdown is a very ugly figure. An awkwardly shaped upper torso, long big arms and short skinny legs makes him look bloated and a far cry from the sleek robot in the movie.

http://i.imgur.com/dylwJWi.jpg

His gun is too massive to look good while he's holding it. Articulation is average, his elbows and legs can be limited due how the jointing was designed.

http://i.imgur.com/tGHFTsK.jpg

Of course, the major feature here is the gun face. You can plug the gun on top of his head to simulate the scene in the movie and trailers although he looks like a drone now. Overall, it is an okay figure, not the best but considering that this is the best figure that we are going to get for the main antagonist, it's a given purchase.

[Sharky]

wow that looks horrible....

[Yongeltron]

I think it's a real shame that they didn't do Lockdown in the voyager class, especially since Evasion Mode Optimus is virtually deluxe-sized in vehicle mode. Taking Lockdown into the slightly larger class size would have given them the opportunity to do a sleeker, better-executed robot mode and one which was more of a match to Optimus (since they were similarly sized in the film). It's especially unfortunate since previous iterations of Lockdown (Animated, ROTF) delivered rather tall robot modes from deluxe-sized vehicles. Instead, we have this rather stocky looking fellow.

[i_amtrunks]

Thanks for the review cc, I will now be skipping anything not a Dinobots from the AoE line.

[AJ_Prime]

I like to call him "not Lockdown", so that I won't be disappointed he doesn't resemble his screen form in any way. Except his face.

If I imagine that he's just some other bot (ie drone) that Hasbro have created for the AoE line then he's not that bad.

Certain aspects of the transformation resemble DotM Roadbuster, but there are also unique aspects that make (not) Lockdown it's own figure.

The BFG is WAY out of proportion though, even for his head. It far exaggerates THAT scene in the movie. Sure, it was a decent sized face weapon in the film. But I think the toy designers got a bit carried away with gun envy...

Personally I think he's worth picking up. There's a lot of nice detail in the mold.

[GoktimusPrime]

I like this toy a lot more than I was expecting to. :)

I think it's actually reasonably screen-accurate for a Deluxe, the main discrepancy appears to be the lack of collar around the neck and the tail lights hanging off the shoulders instead of forming the leg calves. But as I've said elsewhere, much of this is due to the movie designs which are more relatively counter-intuitive to being translated as toys (due to the relative lack of vehicular kibble on the robot). But having said that, this toy doesn't feel quite as shellformery as some other AoE TFs. While much of the upper panels are carried on the back, I do like how they neatly tuck away. Most of the other panels are carried on the arms. Okay, sure, this does make Lockdown look a bit more 'top heavy' than the screen model, but I think it's unavoidable. All those vehicle parts have to go somewhere in robot mode, and the designers have tried to fit them into the body, which invariably bulks it up a bit. The other alternative is to make a thinner body, but then make the toy more of a shellformer (like say Deluxe Bumblebee or Crosshairs). I personally prefer having more of the vehicle parts being incorporated into the toy itself rather than having a thin shellformer. So kudos to the designers for making an effort to avoid creating yet-another-shellformer. :)

As for the length and look of weapon, it appears to be based on earlier concept designs and is reasonably accurate to that look.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nl7IlKp8aFw/U7oaNwoZ-SI/AAAAAAABI3A/w5yCjEFIz0I/s1600/7_lockdown_sniper_06.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BGc_5G5tkRM/U7oaPtkiDFI/AAAAAAABI3I/5TM_9TMxwqs/s1600/9_lockdown_sniper_04.jpg
While the final screen design (http://theinsightfulpanda.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/sniper-bot-2.png) does deviate from the concept design, bear in mind that it does take several months (even up to a year) to create a Transformer toy, so it's within the realms of possibilities that HasTak designers only had the earlier design of the gun to work on before changes were made to the film version later before the movie's release. Either way, I think it's near enough and doesn't personally bother me.

I really like the way that the headlight panels can squeeze in to make the chest look thinner. It's a neat effort to try an 'unbulk' the look of this toy. The instructions don't mention this, and the card photography (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/attach/4/0/5/9/7/10295811_498872023545639_4095465588004104484_n_140 0324483.jpg) shows the chest with the panels out, but most other photos I've seen (including christalcase's ;)) show it with the panels tucked in. :cool:

Some people have remarked that they would have liked to have seen a visor gimmick, similar to Bumblebee's, however that might have potentially impeded on the Sniper Mode gimmick. The top of the head has a small slot for a rectangular peg to fit into, and it also needs to sit flush to the head. So I think that the designers had to make a call between either giving Lockdown a visor gimmick or sniper mode gimmick, and I think that they made the right call, as the sniper gimmick is a lot more fun to play with than the visor one. :)

This toy has a surprisingly good number of paint apps. Silvers and blacks accentuate the gunmetal grey throughout various parts of the toy, as well as metallic gold on the thighs and on the chest, where the Lamborghini logos appear in the screen model. The parts of the chest are far too small to tampograph Lamborghini logos onto them, but I'm glad that they coloured them in gold rather than just leaving them unpainted. The metallic electric blue on the headlights and vibrant red tail lights also look quite nice. The faux-Lamborghini logo on the bonnet is also similarly painted metallic gold like the ones on the chest. The hubcaps are unpainted, but considering that the screen model (http://quatrorodas.abril.com.br/blogs/planeta-carro/files/2014/05/Lockdown-Lambo-Aventador.jpg) has black hubcaps, I think it's acceptable. There's even a really little Decepticon insignia tampographed on Lockdown's chest, which I think is a nice touch (yeah, I know that technically he's not a Decepticon, but for all intents and purposes as far as the toyline goes (i.e. marketing perspective), he's a 'Con ;)). :) Age of Extinction has been plagued with so many toys that have really nice sculpted detailing, but lacking in paint operations to highlight them. Lockdown happily bucks this trend, although it will be interesting to see what TakaraTOMY do with this mould. ;) Nonetheless, this toy has a good amount of colour for a Hasbro figure!

Articulation on the legs is really good, and decent on the arms. I'm glad to see that the hands are positioned with "vertical" hands rather than "horizontal" ones like on Slash, Strafe and Slog. Lockdown doesn't look like he's permanently doing bicep curls! :p The shoulder articulation is limited due to the design of the shoulders themselves; they can swing up and down and inwards just fine, but have a limited range of outward movement. Don't expect Lockdown to be offering any hugs.

I would only have two main gripes about this toy:
* Lack of waist articulation.
* The left door panel on mine doesn't sit flush with the rest of the vehicle. Though this problem may just be isolated to my individual figure.
Otherwise I'm actually quite impressed with this toy. Highly recommended. :)
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/th_jaam_yum.gif

Photos (please excuse grainy phone pics :p)

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Age%20of%20Extinction/aoe_lockdown01_zps153b07b0.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Age%20of%20Extinction/aoe_lockdown02_zps3449e5e6.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Age%20of%20Extinction/aoe_lockdown03_zps5d5ede0e.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Age%20of%20Extinction/aoe_lockdown04_zps5071b423.jpg

[KingGrimlock]

Lockdown has one gimmick that I think makes him lockdown no matter what universe, it was in the movie multiple times even. So, where is the hook?

[GoktimusPrime]

My guess is that they decided to spend more money on other parts of the toy rather than include a hook. Bear in mind that Hasbro will even omit a single paint app if it exceeds the toy's allocated budget. :o Another gripe I have about this toy is the light piping in the eyes. It's completely ineffectual. Even if it worked, it's clear blue, which seems an odd choice (for the sake of screen accuracy, it should be green). I'd rather just see the toy have painted eyes than having unworkable light piped eyes.

Also, I've posted some action shots of Lockdown here (http://otca.com.au/boards/showpost.php?p=436345&postcount=2568) and here (http://otca.com.au/boards/showpost.php?p=436549&postcount=2569). :)

[Magnus]

I've had a chance to play around with this figure, and I think he's not too bad. My main gripe is with his size - my '07 Barricade is bigger and chunkier. A voyager or a bigger deluxe (before HasTak started downsizing) would have probably allowed the designers to produce a lankier figure.

Am I the only one who finds the choice of a 'pressure' missile launcher a bit weird? I would've preferred a 'traditional' spring-loaded weapon, but the upside is that I can display the weapon loaded without worrying about weakening a spring :)

[BigTransformerTrev]

Lockdown is a very ugly figure. An awkwardly shaped upper torso, long big arms and short skinny legs makes him look bloated and a far cry from the sleek robot in the movie.

Overall, it is an okay figure, not the best but considering that this is the best figure that we are going to get for the main antagonist, it's a given purchase.


Yep, agree with all of that. Played around with him tonight, cant says I was impressed. I found it a bit hard to get the peg to fit into his skull for the gun as well. Only got him as, as stated above, he was the main antagonist.

[Bidoofdude]

Something's just not right about this toy from what I've seen. Maybe he's too short?

[GoktimusPrime]

He's about as big as any other AoE Deluxe. The legs carry no vehicle kibble, making the toy bulkier above the belt than below. It's typical of the standard of engineering that we've seen in AoE due to the screen models being so counter-intuitive to toy designs by having robot modes with minimal alt mode parts. :( IMHO Lockdown does a better job than some other toys in its redistribution of vehicle kibble in robot mode. I do like the way that the 'backpack' parts compacts itself to try and minimise its appearance; it achieves this with greater success than say either of the Leader Class Optimus Primes or Voyager Galvatron (although admittedly a Lamborghini Aventador isn't a big blocky vehicle like a Western Star or Freightliner truck, so there's relatively less kibble to compact/redistribute). I can see that HasTak designers have done a rather commendable job with the screen model that they were given to translate into an action figure. I just hope that the screen designs for TF5 will go back to being more translatable as toys.

[Magnus]

It's not just the designs' 'toy-friendliness' or lack thereof, but also the fact that the toys are engineered while the robots are still concepts and the designs (including the transformation schemes) haven't been finalised, so that toys can be on shelves before the movie comes out. RotF leader Megatron and DotM Jetwing Optimus are good examples - they're based on early concept art and bear limited resemblance to the final CGI models seen on-screen.

That's also why the RotF versions of Optimus, Starscream and Bumblebee (specifically Battle Blade, Battle Ops/MPM-2, and Human Alliance) look so good - the designers have had two years to study the final CGI models.

[liegeprime]

took me awhile to finally open mine.... looks froggy to me, but then all bayverse TFs have been fugly as. :p

simple engineering, effective and easy to transform. first time for me for a bayverse toy not needing the instruction sheet, ha! although yeah as is the trend now, he's a tad short and small :(..

Best to get if you really like the character and if cheap... which will be soon Im sure. the resale value of the bayverse toys aren't exactly stellar high. ;p