Toybox REVIEW: Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Ravage

"Bulleting down through the atmosphere at better than 15 times the speed of sound, RAVAGE considers the data he has already amassed on the small, soft creatures that inhabit this planet. They seem weak and fragile, yet they are the ones that destroyed MEGATRON. That is a fact he will keep in mind as he penetrates their most sensitive installation. Against such an unpredictable enemy, stealth will be his watchword. "

After what in reality was a fairly disappointing Soundwave toy (I know I said he was really good in an earlier blog, but I admit to being in ROTF hype mode and was just exciting that the toys were out), is his former cassette minion Ravage any better? We'll find out...

Like most Revenge of the Fallen toys its got some nice mechanical detailing, and a cool little "snapping jaws" gimmick. The spikes are made of that rubbery plastic so they aren't sharp and won't snap off that easily either. Articulation is fairly good (well, for a cat) - ball joints in the front legs and the end of the tail, then hinge joins everywhere else - knees, feet, guns etc. There's even a swivel joint in the torso. I'd have liked a bit of head articulation but the gimmick kinda prevents that, can't win them all I guess. The figure has a purple decepticon logo on the back just behind the snapping jaw lever - barely noticeable but pretty cool nonetheless. And despite being a tad inaccuare, the purple eye and light piping looks EXTREMELY good, blends much better with the figure than a red would, although I'd quite like to see how red would look. I guess some more pics of that mail away exclusive Ravage will answer that. All in all a very good beast mode worthy of Ravage.

But that's about all you're getting really, because the alt mode is a mess to say the least. Along with Scorponok (who, like Ravage, I thought had an exceptionally good beast/robot mode) from the first movie line, it's clearly an afterthought. Although there's a bit more going on than Scorponok, who was just move legs, move arms = useless excuse for a robot mode), Ravage's "entry" mode looks like nothing more than a cat laying on its stomach playing peek-a-boo. And considering Ravage is supposed to be menacing, this looks a little strange to say the least.

I don't really know how to go about rating this toy. If it had just one mode I'd be able to rate it higher, but then I'd have to bring it back down again because it technically wouldn't be a Transformer. So it's going to have to settle for an average 3/5. I'll leave you with this closing thought, the cat mode is extremely good, worthy of atleast 4/5, but the alt mode just kills it. So my recommendation....buy this toy, and don't transform it EVER.

Toybox REVIEW: Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Chromia

Or "the Blue Arcee bike" if you'd prefer. Yes, this character is only Chromia in toy form, as in the movie it was opted for the Arcee bikes to be a single entity (but since this isn't explicitly stated in the movie, I like to think otherwise). Her alt mode is obviously a blue motorcycle, with some pretty cool looking cybertronian (?) symbol decor. The bike even has a kick stand for those who prefer to display the figure in bike mode.

Onto the transformation. Well, given that I knew what her robot mode looked like I didn't expect there to be that much involvement in her transformation, but to be honest I was suprised as alot seems to move around and I found myself quite confused when it came to her torso.

The bot mode, unfortuntely, isn't alot home to shout home about. I really WANTED to like it, because after seeing her onscreen I thought they were really interesting and original designs, but I can't help but feel somewhat underwhelmed. Obviously, because she has no legs she is incapable of standing on her own, but not to worry...Hasbro have provided a "snap on cannon" that also doubles as a weapons stand! There's an alternate method to use the stand so that it cannot be seen from the front, but due to her humongous gun arm, this makes posing pretty much impossible so I'm not a fan of it.

In conclusion? Well out of the 5 proper ROTF toys I have so far she's certainly not the best. In fact, its a toss up between her and Soundwave for the worst. If you're not a completist or not looking to get the 3 Arcee bike bots for the apparent combined mode (which did not appear in the movie) then you can happily skip this one, you wont be missing alot.

Comparison with TF1 deluxe Arcee figure

And with pimp daddy Ironhide.