Death's Head
17-08-11, 05:46 PM
I had high hopes for the Hunt For The Decepticons line. There looked to be a good bunch of toys lurking amongst the range. Sadly, most of the first two waves (which is all we’re getting in the UK now) are comprised of recolours of ROTF toys and yet another two versions of Ratchet and Ironhide just in case UK consumers decide they haven’t had enough of these two and decide that, actually, they do need another version of these figures to the five or so they’ve already got. Cheers Hasbro, you really know how to spoil us.
Banzaitron is an homage to the Action Master figure released in 1990. These were Transformers that couldn’t transform, thanks to sourcing a new form of fuel in the form of Nucleon which, to borrow Beast Wars parlance, mutated their superstructures. Banzaitron was unique amongst these toys as unlike the others, he wasn’t designed to look like he transformed into anything else (most of the others retained some vehicle/aircraft/animal parts to make it look as if they did at one point turn into something). Instead, he was given a vague Japanese warrior look which is neatly carried over to this Voyager class beastie. Which it would do, as he’s a straight repaint of the mould used for ROTF Bludgeon, another martial arts/ Japanese themed warrior.
Packaged in robot mode, Banzaitron has instantly surpassed Bludgeon in one key area: his rubbery sword is kept straight! As excellent as the Bludgeon mould is, it was spoilt somewhat by being packed in tank mode with the turret turned at an angle and the barrel overzealously tied onto the packaging bubble, thus bending the barrel and giving Bludgeon a something akin to brewer’s droop. The packaging for Banzaitron is great, really nice and colourful and with two pieces of character art adorning it. Although I’m not keen on Transformers being packed in robot mode, you can’t deny the impact these things have when you see them on the shelves. I hope brighter boxes will be retained for the third film’s tie in merchandise.
Out of the box, the impact of Banzaitron’s colours really hit you. A great mix of complimentary deep blues, purples and black accented with bronze and silver paint apps and that glorious blood red face. Flashes of neon green against all that darkness really make the mould sing. Transforming Banzaitron remains as fiddly as it did for Bludgeon, but a moderate improvement with the head/waist section seems to have been made. It feels a lot smoother on Banzaitron than it did on Bludgeon and less likely to feel that you’re going to break him - although this may be due to my familiarity with the mould and knowing where to apply pressure, rather than any improvement in the tooling. The resultant tank mode also looks that bit sharper than Bludgeon’s. The more muted tones seem to suit the tank better, and there are no obvious robot parts signposted due to the lack of bright orange that Bludgeon has. The neon green parts add some nice highlights to a quite fierce looking machine. Even the grey treads work well, black would have made him too dark looking and spoilt the look.
Despite the fantastic paint job, Banzaitron really doesn’t do enough to convince you that he’s not Bludgeon. The true test of a repaint for me is whether the toy can carry off being a character in his own right, and unfortunately, Banzaitron just doesn’t do that. The design of this mould was done very much with Bludgeon in mind, and there are too many idiosyncratic touches associated with that character (most obviously the skull head and helmet) to make you think that this is anything other than a ‘stealth’ mode Bludgeon. He really needed a new head sculpt at the very least, but as a filler line, clearly Hasbro didn’t feel he was worth spending the money on, unlike Lockdown retool Axor.
216217218
Banzaitron is an homage to the Action Master figure released in 1990. These were Transformers that couldn’t transform, thanks to sourcing a new form of fuel in the form of Nucleon which, to borrow Beast Wars parlance, mutated their superstructures. Banzaitron was unique amongst these toys as unlike the others, he wasn’t designed to look like he transformed into anything else (most of the others retained some vehicle/aircraft/animal parts to make it look as if they did at one point turn into something). Instead, he was given a vague Japanese warrior look which is neatly carried over to this Voyager class beastie. Which it would do, as he’s a straight repaint of the mould used for ROTF Bludgeon, another martial arts/ Japanese themed warrior.
Packaged in robot mode, Banzaitron has instantly surpassed Bludgeon in one key area: his rubbery sword is kept straight! As excellent as the Bludgeon mould is, it was spoilt somewhat by being packed in tank mode with the turret turned at an angle and the barrel overzealously tied onto the packaging bubble, thus bending the barrel and giving Bludgeon a something akin to brewer’s droop. The packaging for Banzaitron is great, really nice and colourful and with two pieces of character art adorning it. Although I’m not keen on Transformers being packed in robot mode, you can’t deny the impact these things have when you see them on the shelves. I hope brighter boxes will be retained for the third film’s tie in merchandise.
Out of the box, the impact of Banzaitron’s colours really hit you. A great mix of complimentary deep blues, purples and black accented with bronze and silver paint apps and that glorious blood red face. Flashes of neon green against all that darkness really make the mould sing. Transforming Banzaitron remains as fiddly as it did for Bludgeon, but a moderate improvement with the head/waist section seems to have been made. It feels a lot smoother on Banzaitron than it did on Bludgeon and less likely to feel that you’re going to break him - although this may be due to my familiarity with the mould and knowing where to apply pressure, rather than any improvement in the tooling. The resultant tank mode also looks that bit sharper than Bludgeon’s. The more muted tones seem to suit the tank better, and there are no obvious robot parts signposted due to the lack of bright orange that Bludgeon has. The neon green parts add some nice highlights to a quite fierce looking machine. Even the grey treads work well, black would have made him too dark looking and spoilt the look.
Despite the fantastic paint job, Banzaitron really doesn’t do enough to convince you that he’s not Bludgeon. The true test of a repaint for me is whether the toy can carry off being a character in his own right, and unfortunately, Banzaitron just doesn’t do that. The design of this mould was done very much with Bludgeon in mind, and there are too many idiosyncratic touches associated with that character (most obviously the skull head and helmet) to make you think that this is anything other than a ‘stealth’ mode Bludgeon. He really needed a new head sculpt at the very least, but as a filler line, clearly Hasbro didn’t feel he was worth spending the money on, unlike Lockdown retool Axor.
216217218