Review: #175
Name: Strafe
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Age of Extinction
Year of Release: 2014
Size Class: Deluxe (Wave 2)
Variations: none as of date
DINOSAUR MODE:
Strafe transforms into a two-headed Pteranodon (misspelled officially as "Pteranadon??". While the rest of the Dinobots have additions such as horns that aren't present on their inspired dinosaurs, for some reason, Strafe gets an extra head. Anyway, this is a robotic Pteranodon so please throw realism out the window.
It's hard to decide what's the official mode for Strafe. The card backing shows him flat while the instructions have him standing on two legs. Standing on two legs looks better and thus I will base my photos of Strafe like that. His stance reminds me a bit of Windrazor.
And now here's a shot of him lying on his body, to mimic when he is in flight. The wing space is impressive. Strafe is predominantly blue, black and silver. His wings are completely doused in paint on both sides, that's probably where all the paint budget left (to be fair, the amount of paint this guy has is impressive).
Another shot from another angle. The tails are made from soft plastic and while the package shots show it should be straight, the way it is packaged means that the tails are bent, you'll probably need a hairdryer or something to straighten it back again.
Each head is independently jointed, he can look up/down and side to side. Plus, his mouths can open. A downside is that if you have him standing on his legs, you have to take care of his balance as he can easily tip forward.
Unfortunately, the bad news doesn't end there. Flip him over and you can see effectively the whole robot, talk about undercarriage junk. You can tell that transformation is going to be a disappointment. The least they could do was make the hands fold in, especially since the forearms are hollow anyway.
In terms of size, the wingspan makes Strafe seem larger than he really is. The body itself isn't terribly large.
In Pteranodon mode, you can attach all of Strafe's weapons, the two swords underneath a wing each and the bow on top behind the heads.
It looks somewhat weird, you can also angle the swords in such a way that they follow the outline of the wings and not stick out as much.
The weakest dinosaur mode so far out of all the Dinobots. The only things Strafe has going for him in this mode is the unique two-headed look and the fact that is the only flying Dinobot so far.
TRANSFORMATION:
As you can tell from the above pictures, Strafe's transformation is exceedingly simple and you will be disappointed if you wanted to see any innovative or clever engineering. You unfold the legs, unclip the arms and fold down the two heads. That's it.
ROBOT MODE:
Strafe's robot mode is also very distinctive in the fact that he has the two Pteranodon heads on either side of his chest (or shoulder armor, whatever you prefer to call it) and he has a giant cape.
Apart from the wings and tail, Strafe has no other kibble to speak of. The sculpting on the robot parts look great, but it's more of a byproduct of the fact that it all hides underneath the wings in Pteranodon mode.
The head sculpt is another highlight. Keeping with the knight theme, Strafe's head looks like a helmet with a large crest. The head gives a heroic look and feel to the robot.
The official way to organize his wings/cape is to fold them in as far as possible. It minimizes the look but also looks too rounded. If you leave it like this, it feels as if this is a robot attached to the underside of a jet.
Another common way to display the wings is to have to fully out. He looks much more imposing but the downside is it takes up so much space. In the end, it is all down to personal preference.
Strafe has some wonderful sculpting, from the legs to the arms to the torso. The chest details are exquisite, further improved by the silver highlighting and the addition of the Pteranodon heads.
In terms of size, he is a bit shorter than your average Deluxe (and the on par with Slug and Scorn). He makes up for it with his width.
Strafe looks fantastic with his fellow Dinobots, particularly since they all share a common motif.
In terms of poseability, Strafe is decent, he has a waist joint. The legs are angled weirdly in that they are sculpted on an inward curve. He can fall forward easily.
On the weapons side of things, there are two swords (which doesn't look that great, they are thick sticks instead of sculpted sword blades) and a bow-like weapon.
Strafe can dual wield his swords. Unfortunately, this means that he can't store his bow weapon as the slot is now on his back, covered by his wings.
He can also hold the bow weapon, it would have been nicer if there was a port to plug the bow into on the outside of his forearms. Another unusual thing is that the way the fist holes are sculpted, he holds the bow weapon angled slightly downwards.
Once he's holding the bow, you can attach the swords back onto the wings.
In a weird design choice, Strafe has "gorilla" arms in that his elbows only bend inwards. While the wrists have swivels, they are limited and do not help much. This makes sword wielding poses extremely awkward and there is simply no reason why they couldn't have added another elbow joint or better wrist articulation.
On the positive side, you can combine the weapons together to form a compound bow which looks fantastic.
You can just manage to pose Strafe like he is pulling on the string, ready to fire his deadly weapon.
The tails are on a hinge joint which you can fold out of the way if need be. It's too bad the Pteranodon heads do not lock, neither does the wings, you will need to be careful not to move them out of place when posing (something that's easy to do thanks to the stiff joints).
There are no other gimmicks to speak off, Strafe focuses on articulation as the versatility of his weapons for play value and it works really well here.
Strafe's robot mode is not without his faults yet he looks fantastic as a display piece and is a lot of fun to fiddle around with. Some of the design elements make this a unique robot with some striking features.
OVERALL:
Mold-wise, he is definitely the weakest out of the four Dinobots in the first two waves (Grimlock, Slug and Scorn). However, Strafe has the distinction of being the only flying one and he looks fantastic when beside his brethren. The simplistic transformation is bordering on insulting but the robot mode looks so good that it's hard to hate this figure. There are a few minor flaws regarding articulation but otherwise, a solid figure.
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