Review - Generations Scourge

[GoktimusPrime]

Can't wait to get this toy. I've got United Fracas standing all by his lonesome on my Classicsverse Decepticons shelf... just waiting for the day his PrinceScourge will come. <cue.romantic.interlude.music>

[Sutton]

This guy arrived in the post today. Here's my quick thoughts.


First of all, I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of the alt-mode chosen for this guy. Althought the G1 toy's original vehicle mode was a little (a lot) obscure (space hovercraft???), the new mode chosen doesn't really fit the character that well in my opinion. For starters, if not for mass-shrinking, Scourge would be a huge robot - easily able to go toe-to-toe with Broadside this time around, without needing to eat a Matrix first. An army of sweeps of this size would mean the war just got a lot more one-sided. Having said that, it is an interesting aircraft to use, and does manage to maintain a few of the more important cues from the original hovercraft mode, mainly the little telescope thing on his head at the back, as well as the overall colour scheme. I guess this is the biggest sticking point with the altmode for me, because it is a ridiculous colour scheme for a supposed stealth bomber. But it's nice and tight, holds together well, reveals very little robot and stores the gun halves ingeniously.

Transformation to robot mode is overly complex, particularly in reference to the arms - they go through approximately 143 twists, turns, slides and pulls to eventually end up in pretty much the same place they started. The only reason I can see for this is to retain the round barrel/thruster placement on his shoulders like the G1 figure had. Except, those rounded shoulders were never that pronounced, and were not considered an 'essential' part of the robot design. Looking at the various renditions of Scourge here proves this. Certainly not as ubiquitous as Prime's windscreen chest or Megatron's arm mounted cannon. So a lot of hard work for little reward. The rest of the transformation is pretty straight forward and logical, with a neat design for the back, chest and neck.

He certainly sells Scourge well in robot mode, there's no mistaking who this is meant to be. Hasbro has to be absolutely applauded for having the balls to keep his fingernails painted - it's a really neat detail that helps to portray just how creepy this 'tracker' is supposed to be, and hints at the slightly perverse creation and history of the character. The wings make a great cape and add to the 'evil villain' motif. Poseability overall is fantastic and the large Dorito feet give good stability.

The gun(s) included are good, it's nice that they included the ability to separate them, and the use of a 3mm clip to do this adds flexibility with the other RTS and Generations deluxes. What's disappoiting is that they decided not to go ahead and include Fracas. Very little extra plastic would have been needed to do it, and the gun looks very similar to Fracas' gun mode, so not going this way is a little confusing. For now, it looks like Cyclonus is the only Classics toy that will feature a reference to the 'Master' line of toys, which is odd and disappointing. Unless the 'Hardhead' repaint of Warpath takes the brave step of including Duros (very doubtful).

Definitely recommend getting this guy, despite my reservations with the altmode. He certainly displays better alongside Galvatron and Cyclonus, than Kup does alongside Blur and Hot Rod. Go get him.