Toy Review - The Last Knight Berserker (Deluxe)

DECEPTICON BERSERKER My love for you is like a truck, Berserker
Series – The Last Knight
Sub-series - Premier Edition
Size/class - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco - new
Wave - 1
Released here – late April 2017
RRP - $29
Approximate Size - 14cm
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode – Chevrolet Suburban SUV
Main Features/Gimmicks – N/A
Main Colours – grey, black, red
Main Accessories – x2 morning stars

ROBOT MODE
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psprjr8paw.jpg
This toy is packaged with the robot mode mistransformed. The legs should be bent in a digitigrade stance. The toy is incapable of standing in the plantigrade stance that it is packaged in. Berserker features 15 points of articulation, although head movement is restricted by the long "dreadlocks." The toy is predominantly grey and black with red highlights which help to break these colours up. The red paint ops on the forearms have been airbrushed on which looks quite nice. The torso is entirely grey except for a red "X" on the chest. I feel that the chest really needs more colours to break up the grey. Being a panelformer there are very few vehicle parts that form the robot.

TRANSFORMATION
Son of a GLITCH! :mad: This is one ridiculously cumbersome toy to transform. The real stupid part is that it's a panelformer, and trying to align all of the panels and getting them to stay in position is a royal pain in the arsenal. It's like playing a punishing game of Whack-A-Mole, each time you manage to successfully get one panel into place, another pops out of place. It took me over 25 trucking minutes to finally get all the panels to line up and stay in position! :mad: This is stew-pid! And even after all that, half of the robot feet remain visible anyway, that's just how it's designed. :rolleyes: In the amount of time that it might take you to transform a tricky MP, you end up with this...

VEHICLE MODE
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psp5esclwd.jpg
...it's just not worth the effort! :rolleyes: And the slightest touch risks popping any of these panels out of place, so forget trying to seriously play with this toy and make it see any action in vehicle mode. :rolleyes: It just seems like such a needlessly flawed design, especially when DOTM Crankcase wasn't anywhere near this bad. Speaking of which, let's compare!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...pseai75vtc.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psntrifnlp.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psvc8pxiat.jpg

Yeah. This toy somehow manages to be worse than the DotM Crankcase mould.

OVERALL
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22..._jaam_pain.gif
Don't even waste your money on this. Just stick with Crankcase.

Defs very very painful to transform, but I like the robot mode; it's great to get more of the evil henchbot style figures in the movie lines, and I think it's a nice contrast to the much more human looking bots they're going for now.

A nice robot, but the transformation is a total mess at the back... I can get it together, but there are lots of weird lines and panels :D:D

I have mixed feelings on him

He can be useful if you're after other dreads for your crankcase, but other than that I don't even know who he is and why he exists.

Not bad, but not great either, once I figured out where everything tabs in he actually holds together pretty well for me. I think he is one of those figures that you learn something new each time you transform it. Im not sure if I could consider him as much of a shell former as barricade as I think beserker does a better job of hiding the car mode. I think the transformation is easier than the DOTM version as crankcase felt like he was going to bust out of the vehicle mode from everything being tightly compacted together, beserker has a bit more space and as mentioned once you find out where all the tabs and tricks are its quite smooth. I really like the detail in the eyes however I still think that the DOTM version has a better headsculpt, the solid and uncolored dreads look weird to me as if the head (and for some reason the legs as well) were pulled off a one step changer. I think the figure is much more streamlined than the DOTM version and pulls off the thinner looking bot mode much more nicer. Not an easy toy to design sadly and due to that I think a lot of people will decide to skip but since I buy almost anything I'm ok with having him... for now.

I really enjoy Berserker, his transformation is little fiddly but I found it to be intuitive enough that his transformation took sub five minutes on first try.
He looks absolutely bad ass and is oozing personality, this version really does surpass DOTM Crankcase in ever single way, though it is yet to be seen whether Berserker is actually Crankcase reincarnated...

I think this guy kind of gets a harsh rap.

Robot mode is really characterful and holds together solidly. It's freaky looking in a great way.

The transformation scheme itself is capeformer-y*. I can see why it gets flak though. As far as I can see it basically comes down to the tailgate pegging together terribly, which isn't aided by the fact that the rear windows that end up wrapped around the arms in robot mode are just held in place by friction and fall off too easily during transformation. I'm considering just gluing them in place.

I've found that, once everything is roughly in position, if you do it in this order it is a lot easier:

1. Peg front doors into robot mode hips
2. Peg robot ankles into rear wheel wells.
3. Peg rear window/tailgate together.

In any event it certainly didn't take half an hour or whatever to transform, even the first time through.

Vehicle mode is decent. I find it actually holds together quite solidly if you've got everything pegged together. Otherwise, it's kind of bland but not a particularly bad way.

So, yeah, I like this figure. Bot mode is excellent. Transformation is so-so. Vehicle mode sort of bland but unoffensive.

*For another notable cape-former at this size point see Animated Rodimus Major. Otherwise, Mp-28 Hot Rod is another one.

I too dig it. I found the transformation fine, cleaning up the vehicle mode was a lot easier if you follow the steps in the instructions with regard to pegging order.

I love having a different figure to Crankcase that looks similar in both modes but transforms differently.