Dave's TF Studio Series Rant: Deluxe wave 23

#107 Predacon Scorponok (scorpion mech)
#108 Wheeljack (microbus)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Studio/Deluxe23

Y'know, for a design (I hesitate to call it a "character") that had no
lines, was basically a drone, appeared for maybe one scene and if it
transformed at all I blinked and missed it, Scorpy has gotten a lot of Rise
of the Beasts toys. It's particularly weird that he's a Predacon rather than
a Terrorcon, since he sure seemed to be working as a Terrorcon. The fact
Scourge has some Predacon symbols in his trophy collection could suggest he
beat up a planet of Predacons and turned the survivors into cannon fodder, as
indicated by TFWiki.

CAPSULES

$25 price point.

#107 Predacon Scorponok: It has a few flaws (too few legs, some weird
joint situations) but it otherwise a pretty solid mecha scorpion bot, and a
better toy than a lot of the characters that actually got lines in the
movie. Recommended.

#108 Wheeljack: Good robot mode, surprisingly compact vehicle mode, and
a transformation that seems to require some 4-dimensional rotations if you
want to follow the instructions (massive part-popping if you don't). Mildly
recommended, and only that high because I am open to the possibility I missed
something despite intense scrutiny of the instructions.

RANTS

Packaging: Same open-face window box as other recent Studio Deluxes,
with the Rise of the Beasts logo but otherwise standard Studio Series trade
dress. The outer boxes are rather more robust thin corrugated cardboard now,
so I guess complaints about the open-window boxes tearing from light handling
were heard and responded to.

PREDACON: PREDACON SCORPONOK
Assortment: #107
Altmode: Scorpion
Transformation Difficulty: 20 steps
Previous Name Use: RotB (other usages lacked "Predacon" in the name)
Previous Mold Use: None
Movie: RotB
Scene: Rainforest Fight

SCORPONOK faces off against his enemies, the MAXIMALS.

Packaging: Five plastic ties hold the robot to the inner tray, which is
reinforced by a second cardboard piece folded around the legs sticking out in
the back of the tray. The whole thing feels a lot more robust than the box
of the Voyager Studio'86 Ratchet I reviewed recently. The tail is held
separately by three ties.
While there's live-action (more spiky) Predacon bug-head faction symbols
on the nameplates, the cut-out window symbol on the right side is an Autobot
symbol. The backdrop is the same "mountain creek through the forest" one
seen on a few Maximals. The box renders pick the angle VERY carefully to
minimize how dumb the tail looks when used as a melee weapon.
The instructions use Mini-Con blue as the accent color, and have a
slightly different Predacon symbol than either the box or the toy (but closer
to the toy's).

Robot Mode: A slightly hunchbacked figure with big blades atop its
shoulders, scorpion legs just kinda shoved behind the back (better than
having them all stuck to the arms or legs, at least), and big claw hands.
The tail can either be left on the butt, or used (badly) as a melee weapon.
According to TFWiki's sources (designer Eddie Del Rio's portfolio, in this
case), a robot mode was planned if never seen, as was a sort of "pile of
bots" pseudo-combiner mode that didn't make the cut. I look forwards to
someone dropping a couple hundred bucks on copies of this toy (not me!) and
trying to fake the combiner mode. The main aesthetic is shard-former, but
parts that are mostly meant to be more visible in beast mode have the sort of
lumpy armor texture seen on the 1990s Beast Wars Scorponok.
4.75" (12cm) tall at the head, a few millimeters higher at the tops of
the shoulderpad blades, mostly in cool gray and somewhat metallic light
purple, with some accents in gunmetal and gold. A faintly metalflaked light
purple plastic is used for the hands, feet, thighs, biceps, elbows, just the
ball parts of the shoulder joints, and some stuff inside the torso that will
be visible in beast mode. Everything else is a cool medium-dark gray plastic
that has a lot of surfaces roughened in a way to make it look more metallic.
The purple plastic has a faint UV glow, the gray has none. So, not like a
real scorpion in that way either. ;)
There's gunmetal paint on the blades and turbines atop the shoulders,
the centerlines of the shins, on the tail stinger, the horns on the head, and
the mouthparts. Slightly metallic light purple paint is kind of airbrushed
onto the face, chest, most of the last segment of the tail, and the non-
centerline parts of the shins. The optic-cluster eyes are painted red, and
scute-like plates on the belly are painted gold.
The head is on a somewhat restricted ball and socket joint (it can't
turn upside down or even really look much side to side) which is at the end
of a hinged transformation strut that lets it lift up. The shoulders are
ball and socket joints, but with the uncommon method of putting the sockets
in the torso rather than in the arms. There's very stiff bicep swivels,
double-hinge elbows that can let the arm bend double (needed for
transformation), and ball joint wrists. There is a somewhat restricted
swivel between the belt and lower pelvis, very stiff ball joint hips,
mid-thigh swivels, hinge knees, and the front parts of the feet are attached
with moderately loose ball joints (the heels are immovable and part of the
shin piece). The tail weapon has a single hinge at its root that can only
bend one way ("backwards" in beast mode), and then two hinges along the
length. The hinge farthest from the peg is a snap-in that will pop if you
try to hyperextend the joint, the other two hinges in the tail are pinned.
The claw-hands aren't really meant to hold anything, but testing with a
sufficiently long peg shows that they're not 5mm-compatible. Instead,
there's 5mm sockets on the inner face of each forearm. There's a mostly
blocked 3mm socket on the back of the pelvis, so they also put a 3mm socket
on the butt-covering part of the backplate. The bottom of the backplate has
a 5mm socket intended for the tail weapon.
At its straightest, the tail weapon is about 4.5-5" (11-12cm) long,
connecting via a 5mm peg. The limitations on the hinges mean that when held
by the inner forearm as intended, it's very hard to make this look
non-stupid.

Alternate whip-holding suggestion: fold the wielding arm up into beast
claw mode (hand interlaced with shoulderpad blades), then attach the tail
with the peg bent down all the way, so it looks like the arm has simply
transformed into the tail.
http://www.dvandom.com/images/ScorponokWhiparm.JPG

Transformation: It took a bit for me to get the torso opened up (hint:
tilt the torso back at the waist, this unlocks the bottom of the torso front
plate), but once I did most of the rest was obvious. It's rather clever how
extra sections of the beast claw limbs are tucked inside the torso, and the
entire length of each robot arm bends double so that the fingers fit in
between the blades on the shoulderpads to form a more complete claw. (I do
not recommend trying to pull the arms out before lifting the torso front,
because they're partly secured with tabs and you're more likely to just pull
the robot arms off entirely.) The head simply lifts up on its strut to
become the beast head, and the backpack legs fold down. The thighs tuck
inside the torso and the the shins open up to form the two segments of each
hindmost leg. The instructions and package agree that the shin pieces rotate
around on the knee so that the robot toes can become the feet pads, but I
like the look better if you just fold them down simply and let the knee
spikes become the rear feet. This does leave the robot feet just kinda
sitting on the knees, but it's no worse than the sort of bullpup look the
claws have.

Beast Mode: Okay, not enough limbs for a proper scorpion, but if they'd
tried for more it would've messed up the robot mode pretty badly, so I'll
accept it. Plus, it's not even from Earth, so the fact it's vaguely
scorpion-shaped is sufficient. It's also pretty close to the shape of the
beast mode in the movie, but more colorful...which is to say it isn't all
gray and green or red tinges. The general aesthetic is a decent blend of
Beast Wars and Bayformer, and the turbine molding in the claws gives the
impression of jet-powered claw strikes. The head sticks out a little too far
from the body on its neck strut, but it's not too bad in terms of overall
look. The default stable pose has the body lifting up in back, preparing for
a tail strike...although like most Scorponoks the figure isn't flexible
enough to stab anything but itself.
It's always hard to give sizes for something like this. But in the
reasonably stable "resting" pose, it'd fit inside a box about 6" (15cm) long,
5" (12.5cm) wide, and 4.25" (12cm) tall. On the big side for a real
scorpion, but not so big it can't be mistaken for one if you leave it on your
desk and someone walks in and sees it out of the corner of their eye. The
colors are basically the same as robot mode, but without any gold on the top
side. The claw arms are new bits, purple plastic for the "upper arms" and
gray for the "forearms". There's extensive purple paint on the armor plate
details on the back, but no paint on the middle sets of legs. The only other
new paint, in fact, is a small silver Predacon symbol on the back (which
technically is visible in robot mode, just not obvious).
Head and tail articulation remains about the same, but the root joint of
the tail doesn't have much room to move. The claw arms have hinges at
shoulder and elbow points, and the robot shoulder ball joints become the
wrist-like joints. The strut connects at the middle of the claw, so the
effect is a bit weird. Technically the middle legs have hinges where they
connect to the shared root piece, which is itself hinged to the body, but
these aren't really posing joints, just transformation. The front set of
legs has a knee swivel which can make it look a little more like walking
action. The rear legs are tabbed in place at the hips, so only the knees
(restricted ball joints) and ankles (robot toes) move.
The 3mm socket from the buttplate is now on top just ahead of where the
tail attaches, and if you happen to have any 3mm peg guns they can mount on
the back there. The 5mm sockets from the arms are on the undersides of the
claws now, and the pelvis is entirely inside the body. No other connection
points, although there's holes in the sides of the stinger which I suppose
could hold 2mm pegs?