Toy Review - DotM Deluxe Thundercracker

[griffin]

Toy Review - DotM Deluxe Thundercracker

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

Toy Review - Thundercracker
Series - Dark of the Moon
Sub-line - Mechtech
Size/class - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco - Redeco (Starscream)
Wave - 3
Released here - May 2011
Approximate Retail Price - $24-30
Approximate Size - 14cm
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - F-22 Raptor fighter jet
Main Features/Gimmicks - Convertible Mechtech weapon
Main Colours - Dark blue, grey, red
Main Accessories - Mechtech weapon

[Gutsman Heavy]

My first DOTM Figure, he's purdy looking with minimal hasbro grey and a very nice shade of blue, the way they have coloured his head gives him a vague Tentakil vibe. Mech Tech weapon is cool. I like the idea of a chainsaw wielding seeker and the gun mode has a neat null ray look to it. I wish he came with two though.

Recommended!

[Sky Shadow]

I bought this rather than Deluxe Starscream, and it's a great mould and everything locks in place. So far, the DOTM line has the best movie toys: this is the best cinematic Starscream-mould yet, and at a sensible scale:

[kaiden]

+its Thundercracker
+nice blue colouring
+good alt mode

-rubbish robot mode.
-starscream's head sculpt
-chicken legs
-mech tech weapon is a chainsaw and half of starscream's mechtech weapon which is useless and looks out of place.

[VERT]

While this figure does look nice. I ended up returning it before I opened it. Why? I have a Voyager Movie Thundercracker. Just could not justify getting a deluxe too. After all its just a movie figure.

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah, if I already had Voyager moofie Thundercracker, I wouldn't bother getting this Deluxe. But I don't, so the Deluxe works well for me. I wasn't impressed enough with the TF1 Voyager Starscream mould to buy repaints/retools of it as Thundercracker, Skywarp and Ramjet - but a cheaper Deluxe is fine by me. Now I hope they'll do Skywarp (Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge would be nice, but I can live without them)

edit: *facepalms.self* Of course I already have ROTF Dirge -- Duh!! And they probably should repaint that mould as Thrust and Ramjet (certainly would be more appealing that a random repaint like Jetblade IMHO )

[griffin]

I voted 'only if something else' because as much as this mould is one of the better Dlx movie moulds, I'd only recommend getting Thundercracker if you plan on getting all three Seeers (with JP Skywarp if Hasbro don't end up releasing one).

There was potential for the 2nd & 3rd Movie to have Starscream's minions included, especially since they included so many "clones" to save ILM money... and they didn't need to be talking roles either - just background troops to make up numbers and cannon-fodder. It would have guaranteed sales of the Starscream redecos, and make this a definite yes for being in the movie.

Don't get me wrong, this toy is good enough on its own to be worth buying, but with so many movie toys being release, and so many new cast character toys, I'm just being selective on which ones to recommend as a definite buy.

The colourings are nice on Thundercracker, making it a good tribute to the Gen1 character. But like the Starscream toy, this one suffers from the short-legged, stumpy look, thanks to the engineering that didn't want any robot kibble sticking out of the jet mode. (one mode always has to suffer I guess)

This figure has an undocumented bonus blade weapon. I don't know why it was included... unless they wanted the jet mode more balanced with its attached weapons after it was photographed for the packaging. I remember coming back from BotCon with a box full of toys and weapons, and having this blade weapon left over... it took me ages to work it out (probably with the help of someone revealing who it belonged to).