Review: #774
Name: Barricade
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Decepticon
Line: Generations - Studio Series: Gamer Edition
Year of Release: 2023
Size Class: Deluxe (Wave 20)
Mold Status: new
VEHICLE MODE:
Gamer Edition Barricade is based upon his War for Cybertron game appearance, and he transforms into a Cybertronian car.
It's black and grey and definitely looks Cybertronian. An impressive feat is that the vehicle mode doesn't have any exposed robot parts, even the back which has a large thruster instead.
Barricade is surprisingly big for a Deluxe, although he is still a bit light when you pick him up compared to his size.
This is an oddly proportioned car, since the back juts up so much. The wheels roll and that's all you get for play value.
The robot gun can peg onto the roof in this mode for storage.
This is a good vehicle mode but it really depends if you like the design or not.
TRANSFORMATION:
The front splits into two to form the legs, with the panels that act as the feet flipping down and then you can flip the wheels up. The back, including the giant thrusters, are one piece that ends up folding to the back of the robot mode, while the arms are formed from the side. There isn't anything noteworthy about this transformation scheme, but it is functional.
ROBOT MODE:
Barricade's robot mode is nice, but there are some weird design choices that hold him back.
He has quite a bit of kibble, the main ones being the pieces on his back, and the wheels on the outside of his hips.
The head sculpt is fine, although with the way the eyes are sculpted, can make it seem as if he has clown eyes or is crying.
Just like in vehicle mode, the robot mode is surprisingly bigger than expected. He does have hollow parts but it isn't too bad, the nice plastic quality more than makes up for any hollowness.
As part of the Studio Series line, he comes with a cardboard stand, depicting a scene from the game.
He is quite poseable as one would expect, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips and knees.
His weapon is a gun, but the gun isn't held in his hand, rather you remove the right arm and replace it with the gun. It's not a great look given that the gun is so skinny compared to the rest of the robot.
While the gun itself can store on his back, the instructions doesn't show anywhere that you can store the detached arm if you're using the gun.
The wheels, and the panels its on, that are on either side of the hips get in the way of the arms. You can sort of see what the designer is aiming for when comparing the toy to the character model, but it's just a terrible way to do it and not worth the compromise.
This is an okay robot mode, let down by the kibble, and also the flat feet which just looks weird every single time it is tried on a toy.
OVERALL:
Barricade is an okay toy. There's nothing REALLY bad about him, but there are a few questionable choices like the flat feet, the hip kibble, and the trend towards detaching and reattaching pieces for weaponry.
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