Toy Review - Studio Series Voyager Thundercracker
Series – Studio Series
Sub-line - ??
Size/class - Voyager
New/remould/redeco - Remould
Wave - 1
Released here – In the death throes of Toys R Us in June-ish 2018.
Approximate retail price: I'll need a hand with this one, I bought from another board member. No idea what TRU charged for the 15 minutes this was available at retail here.
Approximate Size - 18cm
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode – Fighter plane
Main Features/Gimmicks – Titan Master compatibility; multiple weapons
Main Colours – Thundercracker staples here - deep blue with silver and red accents, and a whole lot of black in robot mode.
Main Accessories – Missile pylons
Some of my favourite figures are the non-movie characters who got toys, especially in the TF07/ROTF era. This is a great throwback to that. Thundercracker is pegged on his box as being from the Chicago battle from DOTM so I guess maybe pretend he was one of the dozen or so Cons that Prime murdered with his jet/sword spinning manouver?
I never owned Nitro Zeus so this is all new to me.
- This is a large, hefty, well painted toy.
- Jet mode suffers badly from robot part obesity in the undercarriage, but otherwise looks great. It's a bloody big jet mode, for a voyager, and the shade of blue used is absolutely gorgeous. I'm happy to give a bit of leeway for the undercarriage if there is actual transformation happening, as opposed to a robot rolling up into a ball under a jet shell. Fortunately, the former is the case here.
- Transformation is fiddly, and not in a bad way. Essentially one arm points straight up out of the ribcage, and the other straight down, but getting there is a bit of a journey. Yes it is a bit finnicky, but it reminds me pleasantly of the movie figures from about a decade ago in that way. Once you've dealt with the locking tabs on the sides of the legs that Gok points out in his review of NZ, everything stays in place very solidly in alt-mode.
- Robot mode looks beefy and menacing. It's a solid figure too - everything holds in place and nothing is falling off, and the big feet help support various poses. No waist poseability due to transformation, and no ankle tilts either but otherwise everything else is there.
- Special attention for the headsculpt. It definitely looks Starscream-esque, but is not a direct copy. I love the slightly metallic scarlet used to pick out the eyes. The head reminds Titan Master compatible, but otherwise does not need to be removed for transforming.
- The other removable accessories are the missile pylons and the head. There is an integrated weapon on each forearm though, and the missile pylon backpacks are in quite broad ranging swivel/hinge joints and can point whatever way in robot mode.
- My main criticism is slightly petty - I feel like the parts budget in this figure was slightly misassigned. The shin armour has a hinge that allows it to stay flush with the thigh instead of poking out when you bend the figure at the knee. That's great, but I'd rather have had ankle tilts*.
This is a fun figure. I want a Skywarp now.
* There is a rather affordable upscaled KO of Nitro Zeus that does feature ankle tilts as well as a whole other plethora of upgrades, for those playing at home.
