Toy Review - DOTM Voyager Sentinel Prime

[griffin]

Sentinel Prime
Series - Dark of the Moon
Sub-line - Mechtech
Size/class - Voyager
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 3
Released here - Could be July 2011 (released globally June)
Approximate Retail Price - $50
Approximate Size - 18cm
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode - Fire Rescue truck
Main Features/Gimmicks - Convertible Mechtech weapon
Main Colours - "Red", black, grey
Main Accessories - Mechtech weapon

[griffin]

Now that this figure has just been released here (FINALLY) five months after the rest of the world, I thought it would be fitting to finally have a look over this one I imported a couple months ago.

I think shellformers are cheating, for a designer at least.... and this one is just a robot *completely* encased in a shell, that folds out and open. Not one bit of the vehicle panelling is used on the robot mode. The arms, legs and abdomen are all separate to the shell. Oh wait, the feet are used to form part of the rear of the vehicle mode, but that's the only robot bit used to create the fire truck mode. (it kinda defeats the purpose of a transformers toy if you don't end up using any of the robot mode to make the vehicle mode)
And all that panel kibble sticks out the back, making the robot mode 3 times as wide as it should when looking at it side-on.

The "automorph" head sucked, but I've always been totally against that gimmick (when it comes to TFs... transformation good - gimmick bad). And the front wheels are REALLY frustrating to align in either mode.

The cannon is the only good thing of this toy... if it wasn't easily broken. Be careful when converting it between the gun and fire-hose modes, as the gears can be mis-aligned if forced without unlocking the black knob at the back first... preventing it from forming the cannon ever again (I can't seem to fix mine).
So if you get this toy, don't try to transform the cannon without looking at the instructions first.

I recommend against getting this figure, unless you are only buying smaller versions of the Leader Class characters. (after all, Megatron's largest version is Voyager, so could be a preferred size class of cast collectors)
I haven't played with the Leader class version of Sentinel Prime, but have heard that it is a nightmare to convert, so maybe this is the better large-size version. Of any size version of this character, I'd recommend the Commander class version.