Here is my little review of the Autotrooper set that was a part of the 2011 Botcon attendee figures. Over the past 5 or so Botcons they have been pulling out various ‘clone’ type figures. Usually they give them different names, last years for examples were some Sharkticons as they were labelled A, B and C and had slightly different bios as far as I am aware. This year, they are exactly the same. As are the toys.
The character of the Auto Trooper was originally introduced in the Kissplayers series of toy (a Japan only spin off of Binaltech/Alternator figures), for the job of being essentially cannon fodder and providing a quick army without the need for new characters. They then featured briefly in the Animated cartoon as the police force of Cybertron. Now they have had a figure made. Huzzah! The body is based on the Cybertronian mode of Ironhide, which is based off of Ratchet, but with an extra tab on the knees. I Never realised this until reading up on this figure, as the lack of tab for Ratchet didn’t really affect it much.
I really like the body mode for this guy. The balance is pretty good and despite him not having a twistable waist, he can strut some funky poses. Just like Ratchet and Ironhide, he sports the boxing gloves which clip nicely onto the back of the vehicle mode to hide some robot kibble. He does sport a new head though, which I am told is the same as Fisitron’s head, but with different paint. I will compare when my Fisitron arrives.
I quite like the paint on the top of the ‘goggles’. Cleanly applied and it reminds me of Sonic’s Eggman.
The body is sturdy and chunky looking. There is a new style of Autobot symbol for the Autotroopers and a copy of the front of G1 Prowl’s bonnet. the black paint is modelled on the paint on Japanese police cars. There is another symbol on the side under his arms. Colours are simple, black and white which are appropriate for a police character with a bit of blue on his lights, windshield and shoulder guards.
Being a recolour of the Ratchet figure, he still has the port for the EMP Blaster, but here in the Tetsaverse this has become a communicator.
Legs have minimal paint on them and he still has the ‘power punch’ gimmick.
Punchy gloves are still pretty cool!
Vehicle mode is a Cybertron van style vehicle. It has four tracks on an angle for travelling and a big back. A pretty tough looking vehicle and one may not carry much presence, a group of them look pretty ace.
Colours work well, the paint is applied cleanly on all of mine. The Autobot symbol under his arm becomes his main one as the chest symbol slides underneath the windshield.
The roof rack is kind of plain. I wouldn’t have minded a red colouring on the lights, but I guess Optimus Prime had single coloured emergency lights.
One thing though, I am assuming this is die to budgetary constraints, the front tread isn’t painted all the way around. It’s the same on both treads and all figures.
Well, that’s about it for this guy. The mould itself is pretty solid and very fun to play with, easy to transform, cool posabillity and nice bright white plastic. If you are just a normal fan of Transformers, I recommend it as a single figure, if you love the Animated series as much as I do, then get the three. They look great as a force and are pretty cool taking orders from Sideswipe. Although he is separate. I guess the only real drawback is the price, they are limited to a certain number, of which I am going to have to find out. If you can spare the cash, then I say go for it! Otherwise settle for one, or even if you don’t get one of these guys then at least get yourself one of either Ratchet or Ironhide.
Play Time. I had them and my Sweeps have a little battle. Heh, heh, heh…
Finally, Inspection time.
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