Animated Leader Bulkhead Review
Been promising some photos of this guy for a while, so i figured i might as well do a review too, since i've had him a good chance to play with him now.
First off, unfortunately i don't have Voyager Bulkhead to compare to, but it seems most ppl have made up their minds on that topic anyway! Onto the review
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Head
Well, this is pretty much spot on accurate to the cartoon. His eyes are transparent blue, but as you'll see in the photo, the electronics (activated by pressing the Autobot symbol on his chest) light them up as an orange colour. The electronics also cause his head to rotate to the left, while his brow raises and mouth opens. Unfortunately this seems to be a bit hit and miss - mine didn't do it initially, but if i nudge the mouth a bit before pressing the button, it works properly. It's a shame because the effect is quite good and closely imitates how he animates on the show. As a result of the electronics and movement, his manual head articulation is reduced to just rotating to the left. I wouldn't mind so much if his mouth movement worked more reliably! My pet peeve with the head, is right on his mouth, there's a stub of white plastic where it was trimmed at the factory (perhaps?).
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The button on his chest also activates 3 voice samples while the head moves: "Time for the big guns", You can do it buddy" and "Sorry, my bad" (which is much more fitting here than it was in OP's movie dialog!). The voice is show accurate and clear, and i think adds a good amount of character to the toy.
In addition, Bulkhead comes with the Headmaster (head only) accessory which while true to the show, isn't that reminiscent to the traditional headmaster concept (It doesn't transform). The show accuracy however is pretty strong, only the horns are clear transparent, rather than all pink. It still looks good, and the face is painted on transparent plastic giving it a nice 'liquid metal face' appearance. It's also smirking - quite true to character. The main attraction of the accessory is the alteration of electronics when placed on Bulkhead's head - it now says "Ownage, Total Ownage" as in the show. This is quite cute and even got a laugh out of my wife :)
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Robot
Bulkheads robot mode is predominantly green plastic with touches of black, gold & metallic brown paint, with a smidgen light grey plastic. The paint is the nice metallic style seen on Leader Megatron, Voyager Starscream and Prowl, and overall well applies. The show accuracy is again top notch, excepting perhaps his saw blade and forearm attachments. Forgive me, but i can't remember if the saw was used even briefly in an episode? Both of his 'hands' can be controlled by a sliding tab on his forearm. The saw spins as you push (u need a bit of rhythm to keep it going fast), while the claw opens and closes. Both are very simple and i can't help but feel the voyager class gimmick (ball and chain) would be more befitting a leader class toy. The forearm attachments have the appearance of a shield with 'air torpedos' on them. We all know firing missiles are overdone, but these weapons, while nicely painted, do absolutely nothing at all, except detach. Considering this is a point of show inaccuracy, i would have thought more effort would be made to warrant their inclusion on the toy, but unfortunately that isn't the case.
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Bulkhead doesn't have much in the way of kibble, unless you count his overhead shoulder things (technical name huh?). They don't get in the way of his arm posing too much, even when you place them above his head. His arms are very well articulated, and (as with the rest of the toy) feel very solid when clicking through the joints. You can rotate at the shoulder (and also just below the shoulder), ratchet up and down at the shoulder and also at the elbow. His legs rotate and ratchet at the hips, and rotate and ratchet at the knee. You can't bring his legs up so that his thighs are parallel to the ground though, because of his overhanging truck bumper. It is enough to bend his knees and put him in 'painting' pose, with his shoulder things rotated down to form his 'chair' as in the show! (sorry, i forgot to take a photo of this) A great little touch. His feet are limited to up and down, but are hindered so they too don't come past parallel for Michael Jackson style posing (not that Bulkhead's weight distribution could ever pull that off!). Overall thoough, he is a very stable bot. One downside i think is, despite movement happening during transformation on his back, when complete, the robot chest does still look like half of the car, making his transformation seem less complex.
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Height wise, Bulkhead is about the same height as Voyager Prime, making him generally in scale with the rest of the cast (sans ken griffey bumblebee).
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Transformation
Bulkhead's transformation is a step up from the complexity (or lack of) for Leader Megatron. That said, it is still quite easy to see how it all goes together. The only part you might have trouble with, at least the first few times is rotating his arms back into the sides of the truck. There's only a single ratchet point that gets them sitting perfect, and it can be a pain to remember which one it is! In both modes, the toy should be commended for slotting together VERY solidly. There's notches in places you wont realise until it clicks in! The chest area lifts for robot mode, and depresses for truck mode - although it is VERY stiff. I can't see a child ever being able to do it, it's that tough. It has gotten easier, but not as easy as it should be. When pushing the chest down for truck mode, despite the stiffness, it's the only part (at least on mine) that doesn't sit flush. This causes a slight problem when fitting the 'hatch' over his head as well.
Armored Truck
Scanned from an armored SWAT truck on the cartoon, Bulkhead's alt mode, while a good looking sculpt, is not like any SWAT truck i've ever seen (in photos!). The cartoon accuracy is sacrificed for the addition of weapons on the sides (perhaps we'll see them in season 3?). The other main point of difference, is the hatch over his head. An unfortunate requirement thanks to the electronics connecting his head, I personally don't mind the hatch as part of the design - i can see a truck like this having a tank-like hatch. As i mentioned above, the hatch has trouble closing over his head because his chest doesn't sit flush. It still close and connects, but it obviously doesn't close as much as it could, were the chest flush.
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The truck also has more extensive detailing (rivets, circuit board style moulding) than the cartoon (and voyager toy from my limited experience) This makes him look more realistic and less plain in my opinion. I'm not sure how realistic this is, but his wheels are detached from his hubcaps, so the hubcap design is always 'smiling', never rotating. I would have liked to see the fuel tanks painted some colour rather than just green plastic.
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Overall, i like Leader Bulkhead, mainly because to my eye, he looks good in both modes and displays excellently with the Autobot team. That said, i do have a list of improvements they could have made, and there's not a lot here to justify the extra cost. Some of you might have noticed i recently acquired TM-SP DX Convoy. Comparatively, that toy has a LOT more play value, with it's inventive mass weapon storage and display - making Bulkhead seem disappointingly simple for his size class, made all the more obvious by the 10 year discrepency between their releases! But, Bulkhead certainly fits the Animated aesthetic, and at least matches what i've come to expect from the line.
