So my post cancellation pre prices going batshit crazy order for this arrived today. What a figure. One of the last movie figures we're getting, and the only Human Alliance designed specifically for DOTM, and thankfully it is basically one of the movie figures that shows what movie figures should be all about in execution.

The way the arms transform is amazing - they're essentially the sides of the care (think like Movie 1 Barricade), but the way that they deform and have panels shift makes it look a lot more dynamic than other bots that have used this kind of transformation. The torso is great - I love the way that the chest grill deforms from car mode into being the squashed chest grill seen on the CG model without cheating like the deluxe. The legs are a slight bit on the stubby side and they are also jointed quite oddly. However when you see how tightly the legs folding up into the back quarter of the car it is entirely excusable.

Car mode is decent - everything snaps together nicely, the gullwing doors are great. The car mode feels smaller than other HAs by a smidgeon, but like the legs everything is very tightly packed in (not in a bad way, but in a wow you're hiding a lot of mass way).

I have only two criticisms, both related to the paint work on the figure. The first is that I feel that the head could have done with finer paint apps - if you have a close look there is quite a lot of detail there. He has individual molded eyes with the robot pupils and eyelids characteristic of the movie designs incorporated, but this detail is all lost as everything is just painted as a red visor. Likewise the face has a lot of detail on it that could have done with some kind of paint wash. Second complaint: Insert bog standard spiel about flat grey alt mode. A sliver finish like HA Jazz had would make this thing pop. That's it really as far as criticisms.

As for the packed in figures... Laserbeak is decent. I'm kind of annoyed that this nice faded paintwash when Soundwave's face was left so unpainted. His gun/bike mode is a bit phoned in but the way I view these figures is anything that isn't the actual main figure is gravy and shouldn't be that harshly judged.

Mini Patrick Dempsey went in the bin with the packaging.

This is as good as HA Jazz. These two are the best in the line - on par with the best of the Alternators (which I like to compare the HAs to because they're roughly the same size and both sport licensed alt modes).



EDIT:

Just to emphasise what I was saying about the face, all of the detail seen on his face in this picture and this one as well is present, but the fact that he has two eyes was ignored at the painting stage and he has a smear of paint emulating the G1 visor look.

This pic of a prototype suggests that earlier in the production process there may have been an intent for the painted eyes to be more distinguished than those in the final product.