Toy Review - Studio Series Dropkick

[GoktimusPrime]

It's a relatively small helicopter IRL. As you can see in the image link, the width of the main fuselage isn't much wider than the pilot's shoulders. Contrast this with these real life photos of the MH53 Pave Low. I've deliberately chosen photos of the with people as a size reference.
https://www.globalsecurity.org/milit...fst8909541.jpg
http://www.airport-data.com/images/a...204/204257.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...5b0NnGV6_VBfhM

More images of the SuperCobra with people for further comparison
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Owf0wdjpJJ4/maxresdefault.jpg
https://www.militaryfactory.com/airc...ercobra_14.jpg
https://www.militaryfactory.com/airc...ercobra_15.jpg

Numbers

* SuperCobra
Length: 13.6m
Height: 4.1m
Width: 2.2m

* Pave Low
Length: 28m
Height: 7.6m
Width: 21.9m

[Paulbot]

Inspired by the comments here I bought Dropkick. As Studio Series figures go, it's disappointing.

The 180 swivel is something I like in the transformation and about the only thing I did like. The robot mode is pretty poor match for the animation model and has too many things in the way for good poseability.

The helicopter mode relies on a few pegs that aren't very strong. Joints on mine are either too tight or too loose (and sometimes the this differs on the same join depending on what side the body) to the point I was worried about breaking some or some parts would never pegged stay together.

[shockNwave]

Inspired by the comments here I bought Dropkick. As Studio Series figures go, it's disappointing.

The 180 swivel is something I like in the transformation and about the only thing I did like. The robot mode is pretty poor match for the animation model and has too many things in the way for good poseability.

The helicopter mode relies on a few pegs that aren't very strong. Joints on mine are either too tight or too loose (and sometimes the this differs on the same join depending on what side the body) to the point I was worried about breaking some or some parts would never pegged stay together.

Crappiest TF of the movie line that I've ever bought. The pegs and tabs don't stay together in alt. mode and the result is the copter doesn't stay together properly. There's always a split down the middle somewhere along it's length. I'll be giving this turd away for sure.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

It's a relatively small helicopter IRL. As you can see in the image link, the width of the main fuselage isn't much wider than the pilot's shoulders. Contrast this with these real life photos of the MH53 Pave Low. I've deliberately chosen photos of the with people as a size reference.
https://www.globalsecurity.org/milit...fst8909541.jpg
http://www.airport-data.com/images/a...204/204257.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...5b0NnGV6_VBfhM

More images of the SuperCobra with people for further comparison
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Owf0wdjpJJ4/maxresdefault.jpg
https://www.militaryfactory.com/airc...ercobra_14.jpg
https://www.militaryfactory.com/airc...ercobra_15.jpg

Numbers

* SuperCobra
Length: 13.6m
Height: 4.1m
Width: 2.2m

* Pave Low
Length: 28m
Height: 7.6m
Width: 21.9m

Cheers Goki, I was actually curious about this but hadn't gotten round to looking it up.

[SMHFConvoy]

The joints on mine were tight out of the box and loosened up a little through use. The vents on all the Dropkick's seem to be loose though.

I just put another Dropkick on lay-by to make into Whirl and I may need another for an Obsidian

[klystron]

Beat me to it, Gok.

Leader Blackout comes in at approx 1:77
SS Dropkick is approx 1:72

So pretty close.

[ComradeRenko]

Picked this guy up today and was pleasantly surprised. My biggest annoyance with the figure is the lack of any visible Decepticon badge. The back of the box clearly shows one on the nose of the helicopter, which becomes the robot's chest. It was the same with SS18 Bumblebee, no Autobot badge. In both cases I remedied the situation with the heaps of badges toyhax has supplied over the years. In Dropkick's case I put one where the box showed, and another one on each side of the engine cowling.

Is there some concern that labeling factions will interfere with creative play, or is it just Hasbro cheaping out on another paint application?

[GoktimusPrime]

My biggest annoyance with the figure is the lack of any visible Decepticon badge. The back of the box clearly shows one on the nose of the helicopter, which becomes the robot's chest. It was the same with SS18 Bumblebee, no Autobot badge. In both cases I remedied the situation with the heaps of badges toyhax has supplied over the years. In Dropkick's case I put one where the box showed, and another one on each side of the engine cowling.

Is there some concern that labeling factions will interfere with creative play, or is it just Hasbro cheaping out on another paint application?

Mate... this is my beef with Studio Series in general. Most of the SS toys don't have faction logos. Why?!? Sadly I don't have spare logo stickers lying around, but it really irritates me that most SS TFs don't have logos.

I don't care if it's more screen accurate -- just sneak a logo in somewhere on the toy. It has made me go back and look at a lot of the Bayformer screen models, and yeah... most of them don't have insignias!

[Raptormesh]

Picked this up for the vehicle mode and am pleasantly surprised how faithful it tries to be to the real thing.

[Sutton]

I'm really not sure who/what this toy is here for.

On one hand, on it's own merits, it's not bad. Give me a repaint as a Movieverse 'Vortex' etc and I'd be pretty excited. It transforms well and in an interesting way. Poseability is not bad but a little kibble-hampered.

But - as a Studio Series figure, it misses the mark on most of what's supposed to be important in this series. The robot mode bears little-to-no resemblence to the movie design (at least based on what we've seen so far), and scale wise it's a bit weird. Yeah, the copter mode is close to Blackout, but bot-mode scale is off to just about everything else. When they made Jazz, Ratchet and Bee at different sizes I thought 'fair enough, because scale etc'. But this just feels small because they're being cheap. It feels like it should have maybe been a voyager sized figure really (even if on the smaller end, like the SS Optimus).

I wonder if the massive variance in bot mode is due to a later design change in the movie itself - Bee appears to have had some changes made so it's not impossible. Bee's changes were fairly subtle though, whereas this is more like a different design with Dropkicks head (very firmly) attached on top.

Add to this, the odd fact that Shatter is getting a car mode for her Studio Series figure, and the line looks further confused. It's like DOTM all over again, where it was impossible to get all 3 Wreckers in the same scale, with their car modes aligned as either clean or weaponised. Will we get a second Dropkick and Shatter later on that features the other alt modes? Will that version have a more accurate robot mode? Shatter's bot mode seens to be a bit more accurate (in colour at least).

So....yeah. What is this thing?