Review: #848
Name: Rairyu
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Decepticon
Line: Generations - Legacy: United
Year of Release: 2024
Size Class: Core
Mold Status: retool of Legacy United Sludge
BEAST MODE:
Rairyu transforms into a gold, white and black robotic brontosaurus, which despite the color scheme, does work out okay.
Due to the small size, there are compromises made to the alt mode, but on the whole, at least he looks like what he is supposed to be without too many weird robot parts sticking out.
He is a retool of Sludge, and he comes with a pair of giant missile pods that plug onto his hind legs.
Unfortunately, he doesn't have any articulation at all in this morning. His legs are all solid pieces of plastic.
An okay alternate mode if you don't mind it being an unmoveable statue.
TRANSFORMATION:
Out of the set, Rairyu has the most compromises, as he forms the lower torso. The back splits into two to form the legs, but they are jointed weirdly, and you need to rotate them. The back also splits into two to form the arms, and you then fold the dinosaur head back to reveal the robot head.
ROBOT MODE:
At first glance, Rairyu's robot mode doesn't seem too bad, but it's once you start to try to play around with you that you start to discover his flaws.
He is a chunky robot, and has quite a bit of kibble all around the place, a result of the small size and being forced to be half of the torso of a combiner.
The head sculpt is new, and looks decent.
Again, despite looking chunky and bulky, at the end of the day, he's still a Core classed figure, and is quite small.
Articulation is limited to his head, elbows, some hip rotation and some knee joints.
He comes with a pair of giant missile pods (which are actually the combiner mode's feet).
They can be plugged into his hands and looks great there as a result.
The legs are the biggest compromise for combiner mode. His legs are actually attached to the giant grey pieces jutting out from his sides and attached to the waist. Similar, his knees are attached to the side. Trying to utilize the joints of both will create gaps in his legs, and it's just an awkward mess.
He may be able to pass at first glance, he the leg situation drags the robot mode down by a lot.
OVERALL:
Rairyu is the one that makes the most sacrifices to make the combiner mode work. The beast mode is actually fine, but the robot mode's legs are horrible and while it is admirable that it still manages to work as it is, it's not great.
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