TAV Lockdown (hereby referred to as Lockdown or LD), was one that really took my eye. I think I have made it known that I like the Animated toy line and this version, he has a really nice paint job for robot mode. I really am a sucker for an insignia used in clever ways, like Dion and Dropkick.
Sadly though, this goes against the wishes of Derrick J Wyatt, who has stated he was unhappy with the paint job because of SPOILER reasons. Can that be a spoiler? Can there really be spoilers on a dead line now? Moving on.
Despite the objections, I think the paint job looks rather nice. He is packaged in robot mode and now that I think about it, this is the 6th version of this toy that I own. It’s quite nice (obviously) and rather clever. Remember folks, that this guy is still a deluxe figure and yet he stand in robot mode as tall as other voyagers!
Also in a telling tale of the times, this first time I saw him in the shops, he was next to a TAV Ultra Magnus (initially from Prime) and he was looking VERY much like a voyager, but a lot cheaper.
The box is nice enough with artwork and whatnot, as well as the return of robot points! To be honest, I haven’t checked out any paperwork to see if they mention them. I doubt it as the Masterpieces had robot points as well with now way to use them.
The robot mode is pretty great, sadly they haven’t fixed the the annoyance with hands not folding out, but I guess I am used to it now. Still it does suck to see it again. One positive thing with mine at the very least is that his thighs don’t pop off at the drop of a hat like some of the other LDs I’ve gotten my hands on.
They’ve managed to lessen the asymmetrical nature of the original by giving him the same colours on each leg. I guess it works ok. There also seems to be less of a focus on his hook hand as the box art has him with two hands. Actually, it has his hand under the hook. Oh ho ho ho! That’s a surprise!
Limp Wristed issues still unsolved.
The head is also very nice, but I’m not 100% sold on the colours for the face. He either reminds me of a mime, or some Transformers version of Harley Quinn.
The real zinger to this figure is the chest insignia. It’s bright and bold and in ya face! On top of that, it’s also nicely matched up to fit with the slim design of the toy. Interesting.
Articulation is pretty good, although his knees are rather high up being about halfway through his thighs, Luckily though he can stand rather well in a wide variety of poses with his incredibly adaptable feet.
He can also win the challenge of the Animated toys, by happily taking on anyone who wishes to fight him in the Groin Thrusting Hero Pose Competition™.
Unlike his Line jumping buddy Swoop, Lockdown manages to make the jump with all his accessories. Yup, his EMP blaster (or should that be Ratchet’s EMP blaster?) is included. Well, of course it has to be included, otherwise the vehicle mode would look a tad naff. You can still leave it plugged into his back for a more formal coat tails effect as well!
It’s interesting to compare these older figures with the “deluxe” equivalent now. I don’t think they are called deluxes anymore, but hey, they are close enough. Lockdown is quite a bit chunkier looking. I also think that they managed to make him look so beefy in the first place kind of goes to show how good the engineering is on this toy.
Here is a shot with him next to Springer, a real voyager sized toy and his ROTF counterpart.
トランスフォーム!
I still love this vehicle. It still reminds of Bender from the were-car episode of Futurama, Madmax and general awesome muscle cars.
Muscle cars of DEATH that is.
As you can see the windows and lights are green with the same moulded details on it, that I covered on Wildrider’s review so most of my comments are the same, except the green wind-shield combined with his white face makes it really noticeable this time. The lights and front grill just looks so angry and it’s just so low to the ground with the prominent engine poking out the bonnet just showing you how much power Lockdown has at his disposal.
The bright TAV sticker that you scan for the TAV Japanese App is on the roof, which brings about my one complaint. The lack of paint details on the car. Yeah, sure it works well and kind of fits for the death car thing and makes the purple in the air intake stand out a bit more, but I wouldn’t have minded seeing a few black stripes or details on the body somewhere, just to add a little bit of ‘something’ to the guy. As it stands, the only paint is on the front grill area and rear bumper.
The engine block is large and chunky and really is needed for the vehicle to make it menacing. Detail on it is good enough and I do rather like the fact that you can still have the engine in EMP mode on the bonnet.
The underside of the vehicle also manages to cover up a lot of the robot parts quite nicely and the tyres also have slight treads on them.
Taking the engine block out really messes with the vehicle mode. Obviously Lockdown wouldn’t be able to drive anywhere without it though, so that’s a bit of a shame. Also if you thought you can swap over the engine block from the movie lockdown, you can’t. Sorry. It’s way too small and looks rather silly.
Still the vehicle mode looks awesome regardless.
Even though vehicle scale in Transformers is… How shall I say it? Flexible…. Here are some shots of his deluxe class vehcile next to Voyager Spinger, deluxe ROTF Lockdown, CW Off-Road and my favourite recent Prime, WFC Optimus.
The end result is like Swoop, Lockdown here is well worth a look if you are interested in the character. I feel that the paintjob is different enough to buy him again, of course it helps if you like the original toy like I do and it is a good toy from the get-go. The only shame I have to state is that the hands haven’t been fixed and that the vehicle mode is a tad plain without any paint additions. Luckily the muscle car looks complete with wheel spikes and grill spikes and general all over meanness manages to make up for the shortcomings that I mentioned, allowing me to enjoy LD as much as I did before (and for the 6th time too!)
In case you haven’t notices, I really like taking photos of Lockdown’s vehicle mode. Well, here's one more!
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