Toy Review - Generations Darkmount

(Please post comments, photos or even a fully comprehensive review - these are just brief details to start you off)

Toy Review - Darkmount


Series - Generations
Sub-line - (Generation 1)
Size/class - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 2
Released here - Sept 2010
Approximate Retail Price - $25-30
Approximate Size - 15cm
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Half-track, (weapons unit)
Main Features/Gimmicks - Straxus homage
Main Colours - Blue, grey, red, gold.
Main Accessories - Axe, 3 gun-pods.


http://www.toycollectors.com.au/tftoys/gen06.jpg

(haven't got it yet - just played with Justowen's)

Love the homage, and eagerly await the Skullgrin version as well.

Better than I expected. Involved transfromation and good articulation in 'bot mode, and of course the homage wins the hearts of many fans.

The blue is very unrealistic, the half-track/tank alt mode is very disproportionate and it has a generally cheap feel to it. I hope that Henkei revives and includes this toy.

Looking at the comic version of Straxus... it seems that there were quite a bit of variance in his brief appearances, which the toy had to accomodate (with the red and gold). But I think it would look nicer in a real dark blue though.
Obscure guide
tfwiki

Is the head easily removable? It'd be cool to put it in one of those Gachapon capsules to recreate head-in-a-bubble Straxus! :)

I haven't even transformed him yet and I'm blown away. Loving his alt-mode, and I'm honestly thinking he's one of my favourite CHUG figures.

EDIT:

Transformed him. Turret mode is meh, a little more gangly than it looked in photos, but would still go great with human figures from the HA series. Robot mode.......where's the drooling smiley?:D

This is one impressive figure. The alt mode is alright, the battlestation alt mode is ok but obviously forced, but the robot mode is the winner here. Conversion I completely didn't expect, especially what previous tank figures conversions have been like. This breaks the trend and was blown away on what part of the tank became the legs and how everything folds and shuffles around to make a pretty bulky robot mode. The pick-axe is an awesome weapon and allows me to forgive the back pack kibble. JUST. This is a must have.

Excellent toy with a great transformation as Stompy mentioned. Good weapons, poseability & looks quite a bit like Straxus. It's just a shame the name got lost in translation.

Different vehicle mode. Very cool robot mode and a cool weapon plus he can reach across his chest. Instructions are crap, how do I mount his hook for storage? The picture is useless.

So... this is available locally now?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 5FDP

So... this is available locally now?

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Yep, I picked mine up with WFC Megs from a Toyworld.

great toy except for his ankles! they are so weak and awkward...

5FDP: dirge found this toy in Sydney on the weekend and he grabbed one for me which I'll be opening up on this Saturday's meet. So if you're coming you can have a looksie at mine. :)

I must confess that I'm gonna have a lot of G1 fanboy bias toward this toy - so I should probably wait a few days or weeks or months or however long it takes me to get over fapping over this toy just because it's Straxus - before trying to appraise this toy. Cos otherwise all you're gonna here from me is "zOMG! This toy is the ultimate 1337 r0xXORz FTW ell-oh-ell-one-one-one-tilde!" :p

Cheers Tetsuwan and Gok.

I'm assuming then that Uncle Pete's in NSW should have it too. Might have to go hunting :)

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

5FDP: dirge found this toy in Sydney on the weekend and he grabbed one for me which I'll be opening up on this Saturday's meet. So if you're coming you can have a looksie at mine. :)

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Would love to but the wifey is about to pop any day now so I need to stay local.

I should be right for HD's cinema day though if you're coming to that...

Oooh A good toy hunt ei? LMK if you do find one in UP will yah 5FDP...:D and advance congrats on the little bub soon to come...:D

Will do liege! Didn't go this afternoon - crappy weather and just wanted to get home.

I went to Uncle Pete's Roselands on Thursday last week and there wasn't any Generation figures.

Decided I really like this figure, despite not knowing much about him from the comics. Robot mode has lots of joints and it's cool to get him into an 'about to be violent/I rule' pose. Or even a just "yes?' kind of thing! Love the way he can reach across his chest and the articulated fingers. The head is good and reminds me of generic bots from the comics of the day.:D

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...o/IMG_2084.jpg

Plus I think I worked out how to store his pick, but it's pretty loose, so a slight touch will knock it out. I have a feeling its the same place that the pick is mounted on for the vehicle mode.


http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...o/IMG_2085.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tetsuwan Convoy

Plus I think I worked out how to store his pick, but it's pretty loose, so a slight touch will knock it out. I have a feeling its the same place that the pick is mounted on for the vehicle mode.

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I tried putting the pick on the tab on his back and mine fits tightly.

here are some photos I took

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6329892_n.jpg

The hands are great for gripping...

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2302137_n.jpg

Berserk!

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._5698132_n.jpg

Don't mess with this guy...

really like this figure in vehicle and robot mode though i must admit i havent been able to do his turret mode properly... either way really cool figure looks nice and menacing.

Put me in the camp of people who don't know Straxus... When i first saw the online pics i didn't really get it.. didn't think much of his head (doesn't look very robotic to me) and I thought the ball-jointed ankles with gap would seriously bug me. But... decided to get him after watching some HD vid reviews... showing off the colours nicely. I think the colours are one of his strong points, nice primarys with highlights here and there.. unobtrusive hasbro grey. The head has grown on me and is fitting with the rest of the robot design. Pick-axe is cool and a first in my collection which is always welcome! Ankles are fine really and gaps don't bother me at all! He has good proportions and just looks cool. Shame they didn't do more with the backpack, when so much attention was clearly put into the rest of the figure.

Alt mode is nicely done, no obvious seams and holds together well. A bit more paint on the treads would have been nice though. I'm not a fan of the clippy-weapons which pop off too easily and don't think so many pieces to lose is a good idea! Would have preferred more solid, traditional mounting points.

Overall highly recommended!

Great figure. Thought the ankles would have bugged me, but it turned out not as bad as the pictures showed.

Buy on sight.

I'm loving this toy -- but I'm probably seeing this toy through G1-biased rose-tainted glasses. :D

I'm planning on making a "Famous Cover" toy recreation of US#18 ;) It's gonna be a challenge getting G1 Blaster into approximating that pose... haven't decided if I wanna cheat the scale or just have Blaster tower over Darkmount. :p

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

I'm loving this toy -- but I'm probably seeing this toy through G1-biased rose-tainted glasses. :D

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You are not, knowing next to nothing about Straxus, I freakin love this guy!

I picked him up from Big W and played with him in the car for the 30 minutes I had to wait so as to not turn up to a party too early. (turned out I was early anyway but oh well)

The half track howitzer mode is excellent. I love the clip on points for his three attachable weapons (rocket pod, machine gun and.... thing) the turret rotates 360 degrees but the standout for me is that the pitch of the cannon can be raised up about 45 degrees which is awesome considering he's an artillerypiece.

The extent of the paint apps are totally satisfactory for me which is one of the highlights of this generations line. I found the transformation very original. It reminded me of why I like transformers in the first place. I'm not a fan of the back kibble though, it's much easier to pop them off and reattach them after you're done as they are huge and get in the way too much during the transformation process.

Darkmount's robot mode is awesome as well. While I initially wanted to give the not-ankles a fair go I found that they restricted Darkmount's posing to 'precariously standing balanced and upwards'. However after I got home I found that he is more than capable of standing easily on a flat level surface (there were no such surfaces in my car) and I also discovered that he had heels which made all forgiven. He still can't really stand on carpet WITH heels which hampers child playability but this is no problem for the collectors market.

The other two things I like about his robot mode is closeable palm hands and the grand pick axe! I would like to see this hand design on more TFs, they are tight enough grip a typical gun/rifle accessory and also allow insertion of polearm type weapons. Additionally an open palm pose gives extra menace like "I want your neck!"
The pick axe is awesome and so novel and can be wielded in so many menacing ways. My only complaint is that Darkmount himself can't quite pull off an attacking pose with it but its a shared problem with most TF's that have axe type weapons.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

I'm loving this toy -- but I'm probably seeing this toy through G1-biased rose-tainted glasses. :D

I'm planning on making a "Famous Cover" toy recreation of US#18 ;) It's gonna be a challenge getting G1 Blaster into approximating that pose... haven't decided if I wanna cheat the scale or just have Blaster tower over Darkmount. :p

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No need to cheat...
Get Device Label Blaster - which can even hold Gen1 Blaster's gun.

Man I want that Blaster :(

Unfortunately Straxus is too small for all the other Blasters (specially G1) to display properly together with the exception of Action Master Blaster. However that AM toy looks a bit too happy for the comic character.

Another Generation toy where my feelings seem to go against the love the rest of the board is feeling.

I've known who Straxus is since I was 8 years old, and that familarity with the character is why I'm keeping this one. It's a nice version of the character that looks like Straxus. Not that keen on an earth mode for such a character, but the way it hides the ax is interesting. Transformation of the legs and shoulders could be better, I dislike the way both end up in robot mode. I find the little add on guns annoying and like that they can be taken off and discarded. The Ax weapon is cool.

I'd hoped to really like the figure to justify getting the Skullgrin repaint (Skullgriin being one of the Pretenders I got as a kid) but I can't. One of this toy is enough. I would say if you don't know who Straxus is, avoid or only buy if cheap.

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Originally Posted by Paulbot

Another Generation toy where my feelings seem to go against the love the rest of the board is feeling.

I've known who Straxus is since I was 8 years old, and that familarity with the character is why I'm keeping this one. It's a nice version of the character that looks like Straxus. Not that keen on an earth mode for such a character, but the way it hides the ax is interesting. Transformation of the legs and shoulders could be better, I dislike the way both end up in robot mode. I find the little add on guns annoying and like that they can be taken off and discarded. The Ax weapon is cool.

I'd hoped to really like the figure to justify getting the Skullgrin repaint (Skullgriin being one of the Pretenders I got as a kid) but I can't. One of this toy is enough. I would say if you don't know who Straxus is, avoid or only buy if cheap.

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lol...your one hard person to please :p ;)

Here is my take on the Space gun mode:
http://kupscigar.com/fun/straxus.JPG

I have mine still it it's plastic prison. I will be releasing it tomorrow after this assignment has been dispatched.

Blaster battling Straxus:

http://kupscigar.com/fun/straxus2.JPG

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

No need to cheat...
Get Device Label Blaster - which can even hold Gen1 Blaster's gun.

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I prefer to use G1 toys wherever possible just because I like to think about how these covers would look like using toys from that era. I didn't know Device Label Broadcast could hold G1 Blaster's gun though... that's pretty neat. :) But yeah, for that same reason I wouldn't use Action Master Blaster either. Straxus was already dead long before Blaster was ressurected by Nucleon.

But that's just me... nice to see other people having a crack at it. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

I prefer to use G1 toys wherever possible just because I like to think about how these covers would look like using toys from that era. I didn't know Device Label Broadcast could hold G1 Blaster's gun though... that's pretty neat. :) But yeah, for that same reason I wouldn't use Action Master Blaster either. Straxus was already dead long before Blaster was ressurected by Nucleon.

But that's just me... nice to see other people having a crack at it. :)

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I use my imagination in those situations and don't restrict myself to line assignation or release year as it may not be workable and limits what you can do. The Blaster in my pic doesn't have to be post Nucleon Blaster, he is just representing Blaster the character from the Marvel comic. G1 Blaster for me is impractical as he is almost as large as a Gestalt.

I believe that Griffin was not thinking about the line or year Device Label Blaster came out but more about Blaster the character battling Straxus in that classic confrontation.

There are now so many toy releases for several G1 characters that one has the freedom to pick and choose the toy they feel is best for the current scenario.

Yeah, I know what you mean, but for me I like to make the poses according to - where possible - the toys that were available at the time... just to give it that vintage play feel as it harkens back to the toys that I played with at the time those comics came out. I often enjoyed (still enjoy) recreating adventures from the comics and cartoons with my toys. I also enjoy the challenge of trying to recreate dynamic poses with static G1 figures. :)

You could try the lack of depth perception trick for adjusting the size I guess, angling and framing would be the main issue. Oh, that would work if Blaster was behind Staxus, but not the other way around.

I look forward to seeing your attempts especially as G1 blaster has limited knees and elbows...:D

Since the Straxus toy isn't a Gen1 toy, why not use another non-Gen1 toy (which is closer chronologically to Gen1) than Darkmount is anyway...

I've got this sitting around unopened. I'm not an MISB man at all but at this particular point in time I'm not very compelled to open it.

Should I wait until I'm in the mood or should I dash off to liberate it from its packaging now?

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Originally Posted by SharkyMcShark

I've got this sitting around unopened. I'm not an MISB man at all but at this particular point in time I'm not very compelled to open it.

Should I wait until I'm in the mood or should I dash off to liberate it from its packaging now?

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As a chronic toy liberator, I would say open him up post haste :D He is such a cool figure that he should cheer you up if need be :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

Since the Straxus toy isn't a Gen1 toy, why not use another non-Gen1 toy (which is closer chronologically to Gen1) than Darkmount is anyway...

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I debated if I should bring that point up but I didn't want to disrupt Gok's way of playing by adding logic :p