I finally got mine from TakTom, and I agree with Sutton's opinion on the Ark very closely.Originally Posted by Sutton
It's not terrible, but it certainly isn't on the same level as the other titans by a long shot. It certainly has some very odd choices made through design. As mentioned by others, these little panels when you need to open the "bridge" area always popping off, why where they designed to work they way they do? It's truly baffling. The cannons and the way they are moulded look kind of like they were initially going to have some kind of articulation to them, but they don't. The head being revealed in the second step of transformation and having to essentially transform the torso from ship to robot to access the bridge area. These little things make me think that the Ark was initially a much more exciting project, but was significantly scaled back somewhere along the lines.
Unprofessional design opinion time:
If I were to make an Ark and Last Autobot figure, I would make sure the pace ship mode allowed easy access to the cockpit area for inserting the teeny tiny figures that are obviously supposed to go there. I would add more playability to the ship mode as well, places to stash little figures, more ramps, heck the rear ramp doesn't even have the old base connection tabs on it. It looks like his legs have heaps of space in them and the calf panels (and under-forearm panels) all kind of auto move with the legs, which is nice and all, but a tad excessive when compared to the rest of the robot.
When it is in Ark mode, you have the same playability as a deluxe jet character. I.e, landing gear and swooshing it around. Compare that to Sky Lynx for example, who has ramps all over the place, you can shove a micromaster in the cat's reactor linkage, and he has a base mode. Admittedly the transformation is a lot simpler, buuut, the Ark is a Titan we be talking here, the creme de la creme.
Robot mode is fine. Looks ok, head sculpt is great and the crotch has a semi autobot symbol on it too. It does siffer from ugly hips though. I(m not a big fan of skinny waists with hip joints sticking out the side like this, but I taking into account the way it transforms, I can see why. The hands are pretty terrible though. Like, the box has him holding Megatron and the toy ha this ridiculously long thumb which just looks ugly, considering the simple nature of the whole package, some better articulation on his HUGE hands would've been nice.
I like Mainframe, Teletraan 1 and the accessories. In fact, I would go as far as saying, I would not have bought the ark if they were not included. I like the way the read outs on teletraan work for the Ark mode and looking at them through the windows, they become a very different colour.
I really think the Ark was designed to be a playset, space ship and robot before and was cut back somewhere. Probably in the design stage.
It's all right, but not as exciting as any of the either Titans by any means. Which irritates me, since as a Taktom mall exclusive, it meant no discount.
Don't pay full price
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