Ever since I downloaded the FedEx app, I get notifications several times a week, sometimes several times a day, that an expected delivery has been rescheduled. It ends up obfuscating things rather than clarifying them. At this point, I knew that I *might* have a delivery today (unless they changed it), so I was honestly a bit surprised when I saw a package from Hasbro Pulse on my porch today.

Perceptor comes in a box that's arguably much too big, as he's tied to the cardboard tray in robot mode, facing upright, and yet there's enough horizontal space for a whole 'nother Perceptor right next to him. He's strapped to the inner tray by the body and legs, because Autobots are into bondage, and there's also a rolled-up piece of cardboard jammed into the hole in the back of his neck, whose singular purpose seems to be to keep his head from falling into his chest cavity. I can see how this might be important if he were in a window box, because presentation can be important, but did somebody forget that they don't do window packaging any longer...? His shoulder cannon is packaged as a separate piece, and the rest of his loot is wrapped in tissue and hidden behind the cardboard insert.

Amusingly, his tech specs have been rewritten to reflect his characterization in the movie itself: "Perceptor is often the first to observe distinct tactical deficiencies in the face of danger. However, his complicatedvocabulary often requires translation." There's not much room for more, since it's repeated in five languages.

So, Perceptor, as he was originally designed for the Microchange assortment, was black with silver parts, so he did kinda-sorta look like an actual microscope when he was transformed. Hasbro eschewed this look entirely, giving him more traditional Autobot colors. The original Hasbro release was a deep blood red, almost maroon, with a greenish-blue teal as a secondary color. Rather than attempt to reproduce these subtle shades, for the G1 cartoon this translated to a standard red-and-blue complement, making him look more or less the same as Ultra Magnus.

So, the retro re-release is an attempt to copy the look of the animated version of Perceptor, rather than adhering to his original 1985 colors. He's a very bright and cheery red color, complemented by a light sky blue used for his forearms and upper legs. His black parts have shifted to a dark charcoal grey, and the parts that were originally vac-metal chrome (the border of the chest, the microscope lens, the focusing dials) are now made of light grey plastic. The microscope stage and "mirror" (see below) are also painted metallic silver.

They also altered the color mapping to more closely conform to Perceptor's look in the cartoon. The toy's body was half red plastic (back) and half black die-cast (front), but they switched it around so the die-cast is red, to match the rest of the body, but the pelvis is painted black on both the front and the back sides. They also painted the elbow connector joints blue. He has no factory stickers at all, which means the screws on either shoulder are now plainly visible. There are some tampographed panel lines on the front of his upper legs, a simplification of the design for the factory stickers that made it into his animation model. Rather than the large Autobot symbol on the top of his shoulder cannon, he's got a tiny silver outline of one on the clear part of his chest.

His eyes are painted a turquoise color, but what he's really missing is his cartoon face. At this point, the toy is clearly not masquerading as a reissue of the 1985 toy, so why not take it a step further and make the mold changes to make him look even more like the cartoon design? Oh, well. Maybe we'll have to wait for the Missing Link version of Perceptor for Takara to make little updates like that.

He's still got his original rifle (the same red color as the rest of him) as well as his missile launcher. The launcher has been gutted completely, and will hold projectiles but not launch them (there's no spring, and the fit of the missiles into the launcher is much too tight to allow a clean launch). You can still pop off the adjustment dials from his arms and plug them into the sides of the missile launcher, which I'm pretty sure was the original design intention.

The shoulder cannon can be positioned on either shoulder, though the nominal placement on the left shoulder may actually be incorrect, since there's a raised panel on that side that interferes somewhat with the cannon placement. The cannon can only point downwards, not slightly upwards as Perceptor was often drawn in the show.

Transformation is about what you'd expect, if you have an familiarity with the toy. His functionality as a role-play toy is inhibited by the lack of a mirror sticker, which means that the flip-down mirror piece no longer serves any function or purpose whatsoever now. I can't see anything through the microscope lens, which makes me wonder if there was perhaps originally a second internal mirror sticker to make the light bounce the way it was supposed to. He definitely is no longer a "real working microscope" the way he was advertised to be during the G1 days.

No instructions for the infamous tank mode, or what Hasbro had originally labeled a "mobile laboratory," a holdover from the Microman days. The toy is fully capable of assuming this transformation, of course (and it's arguably the only reason he's got visible treads in his legs). The Walmart web site as well as Hasbro Pulse still showcase this transformation, though, so they were obviously thinking about it.

You can see some evidence of mold degradation, especially in the die-cast parts. The etched detail on the sides of his pelvis is not as clean as it was during the G1 days, and he probably could have benefited from some retooling prior to release. But, it's likely Hasbro isn't wanting to invest a ton of money into the restoration of the G1 molds at this stage. This was probably a quick cash grab and nothing more.

Well, looking at this through the lens (heh) of G1 toys who appeared in The Transformers: the Movie, Perceptor is arguably a natural choice. The toy looks great in these brighter colors, and something tells me that if these retro reissues continue to sell well, we might even see an Ultra Magnus in cartoon colors at some point in the future.

Zob (every once in a while I do paint touch-ups throughout the house, and I always forget that it somehow usually turns into an hour-long project)