Toy review - Studio Series Lockdown

[Bemblebuu]

Seems like a common 'feature' in the transformation process in some of these new figures is the use of force in order to get certain parts to tab/ fit properly.

[GoktimusPrime]

Never have my suspicions of a toy been so thoroughly proven wrong.

Aside from the fact that he doesn't have the Head Gun, the Studio Series toy is superior in every way. And I'm saying this as someone who really likes the AOE Deluxe figure - I still do, but boy does SS Lockdown seriously blow it out of the water! And looking at my two criticisms of the AOE Deluxe figure, I can see that both issues have been resolved on SS Lockdown. He has waist articulation and the door panels sit flush (although the shoulders can be tricky to tab in).

And for once the lack of an allegiance insignia works in this toy's favour. I don't like how Studio Series Brawl and Jazz have no insignias - I don't care how screen-accurate it is, I want my Autobots and Decepticons to have faction logos, damnit! But of course, Lockdown is unaligned so the lack of a logo makes perfect sense. I'm sure that this wasn't a deliberate intention of the designers - much like how Brawl and Jazz have no logos, they were likely just trying to be as slavishly screen-accurate as possible. But for Lockdown, even if by happy chance, it makes sense.



















Overall: I cannot recommend this toy highly enough.

Seems like a common 'feature' in the transformation process in some of these new figures is the use of force in order to get certain parts to tab/ fit properly.

I found the most difficult part was the shoulders when transforming to car mode. One trick is to ensure that you are tabbing them in at the correct angle. On either side of the grill panel are tabs and there are shallow slots for them inside each shoulder/headlight panel. You need to make sure that you hook those panels around the tabs first before swinging the arms into place to form the doors. But I personally didn't even find this part difficult. For me it was the two small black upper arm panels that swivel 100°. I didn't have them swung down to the base of the vehicle -- I thought that they were meant to hook over and into the driver's compartment. Yeah... don't do that. Make sure that these panels are sitting directly underneath the vehicle.

Because when I had them configured incorrectly, that was the only time that I found myself using excessive force (which proved futile ). Aside from that I found the rest of the toy fair intuitive and easy enough to transform.