Picked this toy up yesterday - a nice solid Deluxe figure. The lack of an insignia bugged me before I got the toy, but since getting the toy it bugs me even more! The reason for this is that the toy, by design allows for an insignia to be placed on the mid-chest panel (where the insignia appears on the package art) but this panel folds away and is completely concealed in robot mode and replaced by the two back "wings". In other words, the mid chest panel is "faux kibble," meaning that if Hasbro had placed an Autobot logo tampograph on that panel for robot mode, it's not visible in vehicle mode and therefore doesn't detract from the "robot in disguise" aesthetic of the vehicle mode.
In this sense it's a lot like Transformers Car Robot (e.g. Fire Convoy, Car Robo Bros etc.) where the faction logos were only on robot mode parts but not on any of the alt mode panels, which I think is such a simple but clever idea. Quite a few movie-verse toys do the same thing too (e.g. TF1 DLX Jazz, ROTF DLX Skids, DOTM DLX Quejack etc.). TFPrime Wheeljack's allows for the Autobot logo to be placed on the mid-chest panel which would, by virtue of design, be completely concealed and replaced with different alt mode panels. So I see no valid reason why Hasbro has omitted placing a logo on this toy!
In fact - and I mentioned this to some guys at the meet on Sunday - what I would have done is place a rub sign on the mid-chest panel (yes it's a small panel, but you can get small rub signs - look at the little rubs signs used on some Beast Wars figures). And make say 1 in every 10 or so Wheeljacks carry a Decepticon rub sign, i.e. making him Makeshift!There would be _nothing_ on the packaging to tell you which was which, the only way to find out would be to buy the toy! You'd be effectively blind-packing the character's allegiance (and thus who the character really is)! You could put a small blurb on the back of the card advertising this feature - saying something like "Hey kids, have you really purchased Wheeljack or is it the secret Decepticon spy Makeshift! Rub the seal of authenticity on his chest to find out!" <evil.grin>
Anyway, I stuck an Autobot logo sticker on the mid-chest panel of my Wheeljack. It's oversized but it was the smallest one I had. Better than having no logo at all. My only other gripe would be the sword handles, oh sorry, Battle Sword (as opposed to the kind of sword you don't use in battle?!? (o_O) I await to see Hasbro release a toy with Battle Bazookas) handles -- they're rather long which means that they kinda get in the way when you wanna quickly spin his hands around during play. On the plus side it allows for a double-handed grip, which I suspect is the intention. The ability to stow the swords away at the bottom is okay, but not as neat as say on Generations Drift. On the plus side they can be turned outward for his vehicle attack mode. But overall this is quite a nice and fun toy.
Photos!
Double-handed grip:
Single-handed grip, "Nito-ryu" (dual swords):
Fighting with two swords is really hard and a very highly advanced skill (very few fighters ever successfully master it). That's how hardcore Driftjack is!!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Tallestblue
(if you look again you can see the very obvious seam lines 
