Death's Head
19-08-11, 09:09 AM
The Universe line has become a strange old beast in recent years. Initially, it was sub-line designed to keep product on the shelves dring the unprecedented success of the Armada toy line. As such, it was a straight repaint line that recycled Beast-era, RiD and European moulds. The line continued to run alongside the main toy lines until around 2006, when it was retired with occasional reuse as a store exclusive line for the likes of K-Mart and Wallmart, mostly comprising at this time of rebranding of existing toys with no paint application or name changes. In 2008, Hasbro brought the popular Classics line under the Universe banner. An odd move, but perhaps one geared to encouraging purchases of retro-themed product from the target audience as well as being a cost effective way of expanding the Classics range. A few of the better moulds from the Cybertron line, such as Dropshot here, were repainted and repurposed as 'homage' characters. Some, like Blades, were a succesful effort. Others like Blaster, weren't.
Dropshot is the kind of toy that Transformers has shied away from in the last two or three years. He's big, colourful, simple and driven by the sort of gimmickry that came to characterise mainline Transformers toys in the early twenty first century. A recolour of Cybertron Defense Scattorshot from 2006's Cybertron line, Dropshot is an homage to the Micromaster character of the same name (from 1990's Micromaster Military Squad). He also had a suprising appearance in All Hail Megatron - being finally revealed as the reason the Decepticons were so easily able to undermine the human resistance - before being unceremoniously killed off by Kup and Spike in the usual 'hi-then-die' fashion of most Decepticon characters these days.
The toy is a lemon yellow missile launcher tank type thing. It's a pretty fearsome looking thing (and probably a better for fit for the Autobot Micromaster Flak whom utilised this very alt mode way back when...) covered in rivets and panels. The treads are static and have the usual small plastic wheels to aid movement. The choice of yellow isn't an immediate favourite of mine (not much good in a combat situation when surely camouflage is the order of the day..?), particularly as it is quite anemic looking, the level of impressive detail elsewhere mean its easily overlooked. The only obvious failing with the alt mode is readily apparent from the pictures - the highly visible robot arms (a necessity given that the spring loaded attack features are hidden in the missile silos) and the huge gaping hole directly beneath the missile silo and the front half of the tank. A couple of folding panels would have been nice to conceal the folded up robot parts and to give the tank mode the finished look it lacks.
Transforming Dropshot is a quick and intuitive process, with no faffing about. Whatever the other failings of the Unicron Triligoy toys (Armada, Energon & Cybertron), their simplicity and pureness of purpose is something that's lacking in the complexity of today's intricate live action movie-themed Transformers. He's all simple twists and turns with the minimum of fuss to get you a robot out a tank. It's a great sequence and doesn't get boring with repeated play.
The robot is a suitably hefty looking fellow, all armour plating and weaponry and makes for a good, if slightly generic Decepticon trooper. Best of all though, is that in common with a lot of toys of the Unicron Trilogy, he has those excellent and hardy ratchet and enclosed swivel joints. This means he makes excellent clicky-clacky noises when you move his limbs. It also means that these points of articulation are extremely hardy and durable, which really is what you want from toys like this. I'm still puzzled as to why, from Animated onwards, Hasbro switched to those irritating half enclosed swivel joints which invariably just fall off the socket when you twist parts apart - a necessity in a toy that switches between forms. My Animated Lockdown has a leg that routinely falls off because some berk in R&D decided that these were more suitable than either the earlier (and superior) balljoint or the enclosed swivel joint. It was probably a cost - based decision, but it was still a poor one. I just want to play with my toys, not to forever to be reattaching parts that constantly fall off!
Dropshot's robot mode reveals a nice mix of brown, olive and silvers. Again, some nice etched panels and details carry over the armoured look. The mine sweepers make good (if slightly flat) feet. The bulk in the lower legs is counterbalanced by the two huge missile launchers hanging off the forearms. The headsculpt is a suitably stoic looking effort, with some googles (!) to add a touch of character. Plugging the Cyber Planet Key into the back of either of the missile launcher sections activates some decent additional weapons features - a missile launcher and large cannon thing. As a bonus (and to make up for the lack of panelling to cover up the robot parts in vehicle mode), Dropshot also comes with an additional hand held rifle - which can also be stored on the vehicle mode, thanks to those Mini-Con ports.
Dropshot is unlikely to find favour amongst those who like the detail and sophistication of the Alternators or Live Action Movie toys, but for those of us who just like something that's a solid bit of kit that can withstand being transformed without 20 minutes of careful eaking out of various parts, he's a good choice. A good, if not quite great, proper action figure with some sturdy engineering. Boxed examples of this guy, like a lot of the 2008-9 Universe Voyager scaled toys can be picked up with relative ease, but frankly, I'd hold out for a loose example as Dropshot isn't worth splurging £30 on ( I got mine for well under £10 loose with all his accessories and instructions) - and the box isn't anything worth keeping anyway, coming from a period when the character art rendered all the characters as drooling lobotomy paitents and reduced the tech specs to nothing more than a line or two.
252253254
Dropshot is the kind of toy that Transformers has shied away from in the last two or three years. He's big, colourful, simple and driven by the sort of gimmickry that came to characterise mainline Transformers toys in the early twenty first century. A recolour of Cybertron Defense Scattorshot from 2006's Cybertron line, Dropshot is an homage to the Micromaster character of the same name (from 1990's Micromaster Military Squad). He also had a suprising appearance in All Hail Megatron - being finally revealed as the reason the Decepticons were so easily able to undermine the human resistance - before being unceremoniously killed off by Kup and Spike in the usual 'hi-then-die' fashion of most Decepticon characters these days.
The toy is a lemon yellow missile launcher tank type thing. It's a pretty fearsome looking thing (and probably a better for fit for the Autobot Micromaster Flak whom utilised this very alt mode way back when...) covered in rivets and panels. The treads are static and have the usual small plastic wheels to aid movement. The choice of yellow isn't an immediate favourite of mine (not much good in a combat situation when surely camouflage is the order of the day..?), particularly as it is quite anemic looking, the level of impressive detail elsewhere mean its easily overlooked. The only obvious failing with the alt mode is readily apparent from the pictures - the highly visible robot arms (a necessity given that the spring loaded attack features are hidden in the missile silos) and the huge gaping hole directly beneath the missile silo and the front half of the tank. A couple of folding panels would have been nice to conceal the folded up robot parts and to give the tank mode the finished look it lacks.
Transforming Dropshot is a quick and intuitive process, with no faffing about. Whatever the other failings of the Unicron Triligoy toys (Armada, Energon & Cybertron), their simplicity and pureness of purpose is something that's lacking in the complexity of today's intricate live action movie-themed Transformers. He's all simple twists and turns with the minimum of fuss to get you a robot out a tank. It's a great sequence and doesn't get boring with repeated play.
The robot is a suitably hefty looking fellow, all armour plating and weaponry and makes for a good, if slightly generic Decepticon trooper. Best of all though, is that in common with a lot of toys of the Unicron Trilogy, he has those excellent and hardy ratchet and enclosed swivel joints. This means he makes excellent clicky-clacky noises when you move his limbs. It also means that these points of articulation are extremely hardy and durable, which really is what you want from toys like this. I'm still puzzled as to why, from Animated onwards, Hasbro switched to those irritating half enclosed swivel joints which invariably just fall off the socket when you twist parts apart - a necessity in a toy that switches between forms. My Animated Lockdown has a leg that routinely falls off because some berk in R&D decided that these were more suitable than either the earlier (and superior) balljoint or the enclosed swivel joint. It was probably a cost - based decision, but it was still a poor one. I just want to play with my toys, not to forever to be reattaching parts that constantly fall off!
Dropshot's robot mode reveals a nice mix of brown, olive and silvers. Again, some nice etched panels and details carry over the armoured look. The mine sweepers make good (if slightly flat) feet. The bulk in the lower legs is counterbalanced by the two huge missile launchers hanging off the forearms. The headsculpt is a suitably stoic looking effort, with some googles (!) to add a touch of character. Plugging the Cyber Planet Key into the back of either of the missile launcher sections activates some decent additional weapons features - a missile launcher and large cannon thing. As a bonus (and to make up for the lack of panelling to cover up the robot parts in vehicle mode), Dropshot also comes with an additional hand held rifle - which can also be stored on the vehicle mode, thanks to those Mini-Con ports.
Dropshot is unlikely to find favour amongst those who like the detail and sophistication of the Alternators or Live Action Movie toys, but for those of us who just like something that's a solid bit of kit that can withstand being transformed without 20 minutes of careful eaking out of various parts, he's a good choice. A good, if not quite great, proper action figure with some sturdy engineering. Boxed examples of this guy, like a lot of the 2008-9 Universe Voyager scaled toys can be picked up with relative ease, but frankly, I'd hold out for a loose example as Dropshot isn't worth splurging £30 on ( I got mine for well under £10 loose with all his accessories and instructions) - and the box isn't anything worth keeping anyway, coming from a period when the character art rendered all the characters as drooling lobotomy paitents and reduced the tech specs to nothing more than a line or two.
252253254