Toy Review - GEN-2015 DLX Rook

(Please post comments, photos or even a fully comprehensive review - these are just some brief details to start you off)
Impressions of the group or a combiner as a whole can be posted here or in the pre-existing group review topic here.

ROOK
Series - Generations
Sub-line - Combiner Wars
Size/class - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco - new
Wave - 3
Released here - Not here yet (out in Asia April)
Approximate Retail Price - (probably about $30) US$17
Approximate Size - 15cm
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode - Armoured transport
Main Features/Gimmicks - Combiner limb
Main Colours - White, blue, black
Main Accessories - gun/sword, combiner fist/foot

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/tran...5/gen15a28.jpg

In my opinion this is the worst protectobot, not because he is a new member (my first Stunticon from CW was Offroad!) but I think he looks ugly. His face looks like an American Football player helmet, and his feet are huge! His vehicle mode is better then robot, but I will probably still get him as Defensor is my favourite non-Devastator CW combiner.

Does he not have hands?

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Originally Posted by Trent

Does he not have hands?

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from those photos i think he does but the hole to peg weapons is not the 'top' of the hand as usual but the 'front'.

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Originally Posted by UltimateGalvatron

In my opinion this is the worst protectobot, not because he is a new member (my first Stunticon from CW was Offroad!) but I think he looks ugly. His face looks like an American Football player helmet, and his feet are huge! His vehicle mode is better then robot, but I will probably still get him as Defensor is my favourite non-Devastator CW combiner.

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In hand he's actually pretty decent. Not the best of the wave, but I'd rate him above Breakdown. Plenty of posability, you can pull a Hulk/Hellboy with him by giving him one or two combiner hands.

He's a little bulky as an arm, especially compared to Blades (probably the slimmest CW deluxe so far) but otherwisw I've got no issues with him. The only figure in the line so far to have ankle tilt means he can pull a few poses the others just can't.

The bulk and the headsculpt make me think Hasbro is trying to make this guy look like the typical "tough" American "footballer" - you know, the kinda guys who strap on 10kg of padding just to play a derivative of rugby - once again shoving American ideals onto an unsuspecting/uninterested world.

The backpack is what makes this guy interesting, not because of what it is, but because of what it could represent. Over two thirds of the alt-modes top half is in this one piece - swap that out for something else, say a tank turret, maybe swap the wheels on his legs for tank treads and you've got a half track tank (like Straxus) called Brawl perhaps? Or take the remould a little further (there's certainly evidence supporting HasTak's willingness to completely re-shell CW releases) and replace all the wheels with tank treads, and maybe even swap the tank turret for a Thunderbirds #4 style drill and call it Nosecone.

Footballer? Nah dude he's totally wearing an Ushanka - you know, those Russian winter hats police in cold regions wear? I guess they beefed it up with the face grill so it looks like he's wearing riot gear as well.

I want to buy him just because of his cute hat. :p
Thanks for the review prjkt.

Eh... we've seen similar style "armoured faces" on Transformers before.
e.g. Dreadwind, Polar Claw, Optimus Primal, Optimus Prime (RiD)/Omega Prime, Optimus Prime (CYB) (etc.) just to name a few. And I don't necessarily think that this style of guard is exclusively grid iron; many other sports including baseball and cricket also use similar style helmet guards, as did many medieval and Renaissance helmets.

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Originally Posted by tinyJazz

Footballer? Nah dude he's totally wearing an Ushanka - you know, those Russian winter hats police in cold regions wear?

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In Soviet Russia, Ushanka wears you! :p

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Eh... we've seen similar style "armoured faces" on Transformers before.
e.g. Dreadwind, Polar Claw, Optimus Primal, Optimus Prime (RiD)/Omega Prime, Optimus Prime (CYB) (etc.) just to name a few. And I don't necessarily think that this style of guard is exclusively grid iron; many other sports including baseball and cricket also use similar style helmet guards, as did many [

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It's weird, because I like most of the above characters but not Rook

YouTube decided to play nice, so here's my review of the new Combiner Wars Protectobot Rook. I have to say I was skeptical about the new team member, but I think I actually like him the most out of the team!

Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Rook - YouTube

Great new mold to be honest! Hope you can check out the video :)

http://i1329.photobucket.com/albums/...psnlnkaaqn.jpg

Finally opened the first of my Protectobots tonight that I've had for nearly a month. And unlike the Stunticons I decided to go with the new guy first instead of last.

I quite like him. I think he makes a good addition to the Protectobot team - a bit of muscle to rescue bots (no pun intended) out of combat situations or buried under detritus. The robot mode seems quite sturdy, muscular (for a bot) and looks like he should become a SWAT vehicle. I was kinda surprised to see his hands dont have the option of holding a weapon - kinda odd in this day and age of TF toys.

The vehicle mode is blocky, tough and strong. A good SWAT tank with good police colours and the claw arm can be positioned in several different places depending on what scene you are setting up with him. Very nice!

The transformation was intuitive - certainly didn't need the instructions for it.

The comic as well at least had something to do with the Combiner Wars, even if Rook wasn't in it personally. Makes a change from some that came with Wave 2 :rolleyes:.

Overall, a nice looking figure, a good addition to the Protectobot team and well worth getting to make (one version) of Defensor. Glad I picked him up :)

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Originally Posted by UltimateGalvatron

His face looks like an American Football player helmet

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American Football player Transformer? STOP EVERYTHING THIS IS A MUST BUY

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Originally Posted by Handsprime

American Football player Transformer? STOP EVERYTHING THIS IS A MUST BUY

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Sure, Rook's got the look, but for an actual American Football Player....

I think you're looking for Eject...

So I picked him up today and already I'm having fun.

Yes he does have that footballer appearance, but there's nothing wrong with that. Sure his hands are weird, but who doesn't like weird Transformers?

However, the highlight is what you can use him for. Due to how his vehicle mode is designed, it can be used as a foot for any combiner. In fact since Rook looks like a footballer, you could buy a few and create a Transformers football team!

OK so that's not canon, but I don't read the comics so whatever I think is best for the figures, is what is best.

8/10

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Originally Posted by Handsprime

In fact since Rook looks like a footballer, you could buy a few and create a Transformers football team!

OK so that's not canon

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Depends, most of the world refers to soccer as football and Krok was a mechasoccer player so a TF football team sounds pretty canon to me

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Originally Posted by prjkt

He's a little bulky as an arm, especially compared to Blades (probably the slimmest CW deluxe so far) but otherwisw I've got no issues with him.

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If you have his backpack like in robot mode then just angle the arms back towards it you can get a slimmer arm mode. Much better than the stock transformation.

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/w...psc2lbhpga.jpg

I think this is my fav of the Portectbot limbs; the blockiness is a nice contrast to Blades, and I love the head sculpt and ankle tilts! A very good DLX figure.

Yeah he's grown on me. :o

I don't see what the big fuss is about, he's a pretty ok figure but nothing overly special. The front fist facing peg holes are cool, but I find myself wishing he has normal fist peg holes as well. The stupid senior citizen nifty nabber accessory really bothers me as well. Mind you he's only my second combiner wars deluxe so far (the other is Alpha Bravo) so I haven't yet had the opportunity to be let me down by the rest of the team :p

Of the four deluxe Protectobots, I think Rook is actually the best. He's full of nice touches which make him feel just that little bit more special, such as the ankle tilts. The sculpted detail is nicer on Rook than the others as well, and shows up quite well against the bright white background. I also like the fact that he has a small Autobot symbol on his head - I'm a big fan of subtle, perhaps hard to notice, faction symbols. I find the transformation intuitive and fun.

I was particularly impressed by the transformation to leg mode; it is possible to just stick him in as a leg in vehicle mode, but that makes him significantly longer than other combiner limbs which causes problems, so he can be transformed in a similar way to the other car limbs whereby part of the car swings downward. The fact that this isn't immediately obvious but goes together so well when you do find it, and that it matches the other limbs, is impressive to me.

In robot mode, I find I can't resist giving him Hulk hands. That's okay because it means First Aid gets his fork accessory, which at least looks a bit more like a medical or repair tool than a damn axe (the axe is for amputations. First Aid mostly does amputations. He's feared on the battlefield - by his own side). There's no denying that these hands are a bit weird, but for a line like CW where many of the weapons have 5mm pegs on the back as well as the bottom, they work reasonably. I'm hoping Hasbro move on to figures with weird legs soon, as we now have Megatron with weird shoulders, Optimus with weird elbows, and Rook with weird hands. The fact that he can use the combiner hands is a big plus, and while they're definitely big, they're not totally disproportionate - I like the idea of Rook improvising the Hulk hands combination in some situation to go totally on the rampage. The fact that his hands still have fists sculpted into the top of them is a nice touch, as is the fact that the ports aren't just 5mm holes but instead have some detailing on the inside that makes them look more like technical attachment sockets.

Like Alpha Bravo before him, Rook is a new member of his team, but that shouldn't cause old school fans to reject him, because like AB, Rook is a great figure. Where he differs from AB is in actually being the best member of his team, free from the tendency to get in his own way that the Stunticon moulds and their derivatives have, while AB just loses out to Firefly as best Aerialbot. Rook belongs in any modern TF collection, even if you're not trying to complete the Protectobots, just because he's a damn good figure.