More stomping reviews of Animated figs. This time it's Atomic Lugnut & Wreck-Gar.

Atomic Lugnut

Apparently exposed to way too much nuclear energy and has become the biggest threat to the world. Oozing nuclear energy in every crevice. He can blow up anytime and decimate a big chunk of the planet.



A more realistic recolouring of the original eggplant like colours. Surprisingly it works really well. A blue-green and black scheme offset by some yellow-green portions and some red trimmings. Some people may actually prefer this repaint over the original unless you are going for show accuracy. Most noteworthy are the larger decepticon symbols on the wings and the shark teeth paintjob that runs along the side of the cockpit. Also some red trimmings along the wing-tips and on the thrusters (?) on the rear. Definately a marked increase in paint detail fromt he original mould.



Bot mode is as sparse as the original's in terms of paintjob but the larger decepticon logo on his chest and a larger presence of the yellow-green paint for the cockpit and face, plus the more prominent red eye really makes his bot mode stand out more than the original. The spear/mace has a radiation symbol and some great red trimming. Overall a well done colour scheme taht works extremely well.

No QC issues this time round except for one. The cockpit holds together well when placed properly so that was a huge sigh of relief from me. Although the mace/spear doesn't close up as well as the original one I had (see the alt mode and notice its open). Most likely just my individual figure. Otherwise no big QC issues at all.


Wreck-Gar

My favorite novelty character in the tv show comes and does what he does best... GARBAGE! Ok he is actually far from garbage. Although there are a few things that bug me just a tiny bit from an otherwise great figure.



The alt mode was a lot smaller than I expected. Pictured with voyager Bulkhead above. The angle it was taken doesn't really show how much bigger Bulkheads alt mode is. Bulkhead is about 1.5 cm longer and about 2cm higher. Not counting the dumper lift. As with most Animated figures, there isn't really much sculpt detail. It still has the stylized fisher-price look as with most from the line. the paint job is limited to the windscreens, grille, headlights, brake lights and the stripes on the truck body. There is some nifty play value. The dumper lift swivels to a 90 degree angle backwards and there is a small spring loaded switch on each that when pushed back makes the lift swing forward parallel horizontally. Also notice the split on the top of the truck and the small protruding lump. Pushing it towards to the back allows for the stored "blade" weapons to come out for access. A great alt mode with some play value although a somewhat basic looking truck.



Wreck-Gar's botmode definately shows a lot of homages to the original G1 bot. Mainly the face with his trademark facial hair and a lot more of his trademark orange. He has huge chunky arms and a rather large head. The top wheel on his arms have sockets for his blades (not pictured, I forgot about it) to peg onto. The head only swivels left to right and not up or down. He is about the same size as Voyager Optimus Prime in both height and girth. His chest is not fake kibble and is actually the front of the truck. Articulation great, especially for the arms except when bending the elbows his large wheels bump his shoulder pads and prevent his arms from further flding up. The knees, like with most figures in the line, are quite high up the leg and can prevent from particular poses. Something that brings his bot mode down is his rather HUGE backpack...



Unfortunately, they are huge AND affects poseability as balancing favours the backpack. A big dissapointment. I know he has one in the show and the engineers did their best but it is still quite large.

Another dissapointment is finding out that Wreck-Gar is a shellformer. I have just put links to the pictures for those who do not want the conversion spoiled:

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...ellformer1.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...ellformer2.jpg

It brought me a little bit of Universe Silverbolt flashbacks, as you can see. Certainly a little dissapointed in that regard. But definately still a very simple but interesting conversion for the main robot parts.

Overall I still love the overall build and feel of the figure, but my excitement was let down by its size, shellformer issue, backpack and poseability balance issues.