Death's Head
22-08-11, 07:36 AM
'Dark'. I'm really beginning to loathe that word. It's become everyone's lazy byword for anything that deals with grown-up or harrowing issues. Or stuff that makes you think for more than five seconds or challenges your preconceptions. That makes things 'Dark' does it? No. It doesn't. Having the lights off in the house makes things 'dark'. A discussion of complex emotive issues isn't 'dark'. And neither is Scorponok here. He's a toy, one that could quite easily have been called Black Zarak, too. A bit of a head scratcher as to why Hasbro thought Dark Scorponok would be better, when the toy's blacks and golds instantly bring to mind that item of fool's gold, the Japanese Headmaster Black Zarak (a sexy looking repaint/ retool of the earlier Headmaster Scorponok that costs a silly amount of money and crumbles in your hand thanks to an overuse of weak gold plastics that fall to bits if you so much as look at them which someone thought would be alright for liberal use on a raft of late 1980s Transformers.). It is the same character as appeared in Energon, but the whole Unicron franchise revolved around repeated upgrades and new paint jobs for the core cast, so I would have gone for it myself. Plus, it would have got fandom in a tizzy, which is always good for a laugh.
Scorponok (Black Zarak). He's a fantastically chunky brick of a toy, designed to be played with and bashed about. One of the best Energon toys, Hasbro thought he'd be worthy of a second outing as part of the Cybertron line. The differences are largely cosmetic. Only the flip out tail gun mechanism has been altered to include the 'Cyber Planet Key' weapons activation feature. Aside from the radically different colour scheme, it's the same toy. And what a colour scheme it is too! A rich mix of gold, translucent red, grey and deep blue and black. It looks killer and makes Scorponok (Black Zarak) look pretty deadly - even against his Energon namesake (who cribbed his colours from the original 1987 Scorponok toy as a cute nod and a wink to any older fans out there still paying attention).
His alt mode is a fearsome scorpion themed construction vehicle. It looks like something out of Mad Max. Huge treads, those massive buckety shovel claw things, that excellent heavy-plant vehicle themed cab and engine block and then a ruddy great tail for shooty stuff. Brilliant. It makes no sense and yet at the same time is so absolutely right. I love it. As with the original Scorponok, this version is also a tripple changer. with a few quick twists, you've got a chunky looking jet/ space craft thing. Again, this shouldn't work but it does. A simple and effective conversion that convinces this huge great vehicle could actually function as an airborne fighter craft.
The robot mode is achieved with a few quick twists of the front scoop/arms and a straightening out of the vehicle mode treads (by virtue of some sturdy ratchet joints! They make awesome clicky-crunchy noises!). The head flips out of a compartment in the chest and thats it. Job done. A simple, effective sequence so you can get on with business of play. In robot mode, Scorponok (Black Zarak) is a tough looking hombre. He has short, compact torso with quite long chunky arms and legs. He does look a bit off, but its part of his charm and looks every bit as stocky and brutal as his primary vehicle mode. The arms do have a fair range of movement, as do the legs, but he can't really stike any dynamic poses without looking really silly, so its best just to pose him looking like he's plotting a variety of ways to dispose of his enemies. Which he does anyway, as his face sculpt has him looking royally p*ssed off.
In terms of play features in robot, he has two missile launchers housed in those huge claws which are great fun. Plugging in the Cyber Planet Key causes two laser cannons to flip around out of the tip of his tail, so he's not short on fire power. Although why these cannons have been solid cast in red, I don't know - all his other red bits are beautiful translucent plastics. He undoubtedly could take out most of his opponents with just one swing of those claws of his too!
Scorponok (Black Zarak - is this irritating yet?) is a cracking toy from a slightly simpler time in Transformers design, when it was all about play value and giving the kids something fun to have adventures with (I can't really see the current crop of Movie toys being played with for lengthy periods - more likely discarded in frustration having pulled parts off or knackered the auto-morphing trying to get things together...) and really, for a toy, you couldn't ask for more. If you're not sold on the Unicron Trilogy's colourful, brick like designs, then he -like a lot of the other UT toys - will be of little interest, but I think he's one of the very best figures that entire span of toys gave us. Fantastic.
274275276
Scorponok (Black Zarak). He's a fantastically chunky brick of a toy, designed to be played with and bashed about. One of the best Energon toys, Hasbro thought he'd be worthy of a second outing as part of the Cybertron line. The differences are largely cosmetic. Only the flip out tail gun mechanism has been altered to include the 'Cyber Planet Key' weapons activation feature. Aside from the radically different colour scheme, it's the same toy. And what a colour scheme it is too! A rich mix of gold, translucent red, grey and deep blue and black. It looks killer and makes Scorponok (Black Zarak) look pretty deadly - even against his Energon namesake (who cribbed his colours from the original 1987 Scorponok toy as a cute nod and a wink to any older fans out there still paying attention).
His alt mode is a fearsome scorpion themed construction vehicle. It looks like something out of Mad Max. Huge treads, those massive buckety shovel claw things, that excellent heavy-plant vehicle themed cab and engine block and then a ruddy great tail for shooty stuff. Brilliant. It makes no sense and yet at the same time is so absolutely right. I love it. As with the original Scorponok, this version is also a tripple changer. with a few quick twists, you've got a chunky looking jet/ space craft thing. Again, this shouldn't work but it does. A simple and effective conversion that convinces this huge great vehicle could actually function as an airborne fighter craft.
The robot mode is achieved with a few quick twists of the front scoop/arms and a straightening out of the vehicle mode treads (by virtue of some sturdy ratchet joints! They make awesome clicky-crunchy noises!). The head flips out of a compartment in the chest and thats it. Job done. A simple, effective sequence so you can get on with business of play. In robot mode, Scorponok (Black Zarak) is a tough looking hombre. He has short, compact torso with quite long chunky arms and legs. He does look a bit off, but its part of his charm and looks every bit as stocky and brutal as his primary vehicle mode. The arms do have a fair range of movement, as do the legs, but he can't really stike any dynamic poses without looking really silly, so its best just to pose him looking like he's plotting a variety of ways to dispose of his enemies. Which he does anyway, as his face sculpt has him looking royally p*ssed off.
In terms of play features in robot, he has two missile launchers housed in those huge claws which are great fun. Plugging in the Cyber Planet Key causes two laser cannons to flip around out of the tip of his tail, so he's not short on fire power. Although why these cannons have been solid cast in red, I don't know - all his other red bits are beautiful translucent plastics. He undoubtedly could take out most of his opponents with just one swing of those claws of his too!
Scorponok (Black Zarak - is this irritating yet?) is a cracking toy from a slightly simpler time in Transformers design, when it was all about play value and giving the kids something fun to have adventures with (I can't really see the current crop of Movie toys being played with for lengthy periods - more likely discarded in frustration having pulled parts off or knackered the auto-morphing trying to get things together...) and really, for a toy, you couldn't ask for more. If you're not sold on the Unicron Trilogy's colourful, brick like designs, then he -like a lot of the other UT toys - will be of little interest, but I think he's one of the very best figures that entire span of toys gave us. Fantastic.
274275276