Transformers DOTM hits retail in the U.S. - A Look @ Human Alliance Thunderhead

...and I didn't exert the same will power as my buddy over at Mostly Transformers Redux.  Yup, I caved and picked up one of the new Mech Tech Human Alliance Triple Changer figures today from Target - Thunderhead w/ Major Tungston.  Was it worth it?  Perhaps.  Read on...

I guess one of the reasons that I wanted to give one of these Human Alliance toys a try was the fact that I grew up w/ G.I. Joe toys before Transformers burst onto the scene in 1984.  Thanks in part to the old Transformers vs. G.I. Joe Marvel comic and the subsequent mini-series by Devil's Due and Image comics I've always dreamed of meshing Transformers and G.I. Joe together.

Granted the included human figure isn't a 3 3/4" figure I can see what Takara Tomy / Hasbro was trying to do here.  The execution is a mixed bag in my opinion, but more on that later.

At least his bio is interesting and his tech spec rankings are pretty high.  And speaking of the rankings they aren't printed on the back of the blister card!  They are printed on the side of the blister's paper insert.  Lame.  Come on Hasbro...this is just plain lazy.  On to the toy.

First thing I noticed when I picked up Thunderhead off the peg and veered through his blister bubble was his head looked a lot like this guy...

 Beast Wars Rampage

Am I right?  Do you see the resemblance?  The orange handle bars on the back of the head stick out just far enough that they look like Rampage's horns.  Well at least to me they sorta look alike.

One of the nice things about some of the new DOTM toys that I've seen online is the inclusion of guns!  It seems like Transformers got away from including weapons inside the packaging so I was pleased when I found out the large black gun was removable and able to be wielded in robot mode.

Thunderhead's robot mode may look nice, but you won't be able to do much with it.  What I mean is that for starters he has a backpack of sorts.  It's basically part of his weapons mode that just hangs there.  He has decent articulation in his hips, knees and ankles so you can pull of some poses with the lower half.  It's the upper half that seems to suffer from lack of articulation.  This shoulders are your standard ball and socket joints with a good range of motion...it's the elbows that suffer.  Thunderhead's arms are basically locked into position sideways.  What I mean by that is the peg holes in his hands are always positioned out to the sides.  There is no rotating his arms or the hands inward.

His weapons mode is a quad gun platform.  At least in this mode all four limbs are very articulated so you can position the gun platform in many different positions.

 

The small action figure surprisingly sits well in the seat and can grasp both of the orange handles.  This mode doesn't do much more than sit there, but it's still pretty cool.  The top half of the platform does rotate a full 360 degrees.

The third mode is a mech suit.  It's basically the robot mode just altered to allow the figure to stand in the front.  At first I thought the seat would double as a stand for the figure, but it just hangs behind the figure.  I guess it does cradle the figure a little bit, but not enough as the figure appears to just be hanging there.  Again the figure can grasp the roll bar thing, but he is just left way too open for this mode to be very convincing.  I wouldn't want to take this mech suit into battle being left that vulnerable.

Sorry for the flash white washing some of the figure...don't know what the camera was doing this evening.  The figure is quite detailed - more so than I expected.  I never bought any of the Alternator scaled Human Alliance figures from the ROTF line so I don't know of these figures are built the same as those.  There are plenty of points of articulation which again surprised me.  Both shoulders have a rounded joint that allows the arms to rotate 360 degrees in addition to up and down.  The hips and knees are basic swivel joints only allowing motion up and down.  The legs do fold out enough to allow the figure to sit without any additional support.  The feet are so tiny however that I couldn't get the figure to stand without additional support.  There are small peg holes in both the heels and on the back.  I noticed the gun platform's seat had a peg on the back to help support / stabilize the figure while in the seat.

Overall this isn't a bad figure, but it didn't live up to my expectations either.  Those said expectations weren't very high to begin with!  I like the ideas here, but the execution is hit and miss.  The robot mode and the overall colors are nice, but the lack of articulation in the upper half of the body limits really cool poses.  The mobile gun platform is a nice touch, but the mech suit mode is a failure in my eyes.  I guess one of the things I like best about the figure overall is the design doesn't scream movie figure.  For me that is huge as I'm not a fan of the movie toys for the most part.  I can say that you won't be seeing many DOTM toys featured here for many many different reasons, but I am excited to see new Transformers product on the shelves again...even if I don't plan on buying much.