General Information: As the "Dark of the Moon" toy line began to be revealed during the time frame of Toy Fair 2011, some interpreted the "Cyberverse" Commander series of figures as the heir apparent to the position held by the Scout Class figures, a major staple of the Transformers toy line since the days of "Beast Wars". However, Toy Fair 2011 revealed this to not be the case. Instead, the Scout Class is being enhanced and folded into the "Human Alliance" sub-line of Transformers figures. Originally this line focused on large scale "Alternators" style vehicles with human partners, all based on the movie universe. The concept has been expanded now to include new characters that work together on the battlefield. In some respects, this sub-line is a near realization of the "G.I. Joe and Transformers" toys fans have wanted for years.
Sgt. Noble is sculpted to look like he's wearing a jumpsuit with armor over it. The jumpsuit has plenty of wrinkled sections that give it the look of real fabric. The armor is more thin and angular. You'll find a large piece sculpted on the torso, covering the front and back. He also has panels on his forearms, elbows and knees. The head is sculpted with a helmet that looks like it has lights mounted onto the sides. His face is exposed and represents an average looking soldier. Sgt. Noble is cast in grey plastic. Paint applications are done in black, skin tone, white and dark green. The black is used for the helmet, gloves and boots. His face is painted in a light skin tone while his eyes are black and white. The eyes are painted rather wide so Sgt. Noble has this look of constant astonishment, which is a bit hilarious. The dark green color is used for the armor vest on the torso section, though the difference in color is a bit hard to see until you stare at it a bit. The paint job is good, if not a bit plain because of the grey color. Still, between the sculpt and paint job it's a fine looking Human Alliance human figure. There are eleven points of articulation on this figure. This includes three points on each leg and two on each arm. This includes the ability for his arms to swing out and up and down and his legs are able to bend at the hip joint to allow him to sit in Human Alliance vehicles.
The best way I can describe Pinpointer's design is that he appears inspired by a bat. His head sculpt is shaped like a bat's, with a snout in the front and two big ears that angle back on his head. Panels around his arms look like wings or a cape and his feet are sculpted with what look like toes (or angled claws) in the front. Now some details definitely set Pinpointer apart from the bat motif. First, he has two big honking machine guns attached to his back. Both barrels rest on the same hinge and can swing up over his head to fire up or forward. He also has gigantic fists for a 'bot his size. What's more interesting? He has two sets of fists. On one side are silver fists, which seem to be his "default" fists. However, if you swing the arms around and point the black panels on his arms forward, they have finger designs etched into him for even bigger fists. I love the idea that Pinpointer is a tough bruiser in his own right, making him less dependent on Tailpipe for any sort of protection. Heck, given the look of the two, I'd place Pinpointer as the bodyguard between the two! Pinpointer is cast in black and silver plastic. Black makes up the machine gun, torso, lower legs and the "wing/cape" panels on his arms. The other parts are silver. Blue, silver and red paint are used to provide detailing. The blue is used on his eyes. Silver paint is found on the torso and his "default" fists. The red paint is used on two circles on his legs. It's a simple paint job, but it's effective, providing some striking detail to the figure. Pinpointer has ten points of articulation, which is quite a bit for a small figure. Almost all these joints including the shoulders, hips and knees are ball joints, giving him a good range of motion. I'm also counting the two hinges on his machine gun section too. Overall, this little guy has a rather unique and cool looking robot mode. You can also attach C Clip weapons to his arms in this form, giving some added battle power! Transformation to Weapon Mode:
Weapon Mode: Pinpointer is designed to interact with Tailpipe in both robot and vehicle modes. In robot mode he can be held in Tailpipe's fists (or any Transformer with a 5mm peg hole). In vehicle mode, you can attach Pinpointer to the back of Tailpipe where he acts as a sotrage container/weapon. I think he looks plenty fierce just on his own as a weapon and he looks great behind held by any Transformer!
Tailpipe's body design is an interesting mixture of thin and bulkier parts. His legs and waist area are rather thin and lithe, but his chest and arms are pretty bulky, especially since parts of his vehicle mode including the wheels and handlebars wind up on his back. This combination works well since it looks like he has good strength on the upper body but his thinner lower half seems to indicate speed that goes with that strength. The design of this robot mode does have some elements of Movie Universe style designs including an atypical head design and clawed feet. At first glance, the head looks like a helmet section around a face with four scopes sticking out the front. However, if you push the scopes up, you'll see there is actually a small robot face on this figure. It's kind of a funny looking face with eyes set at an angle and a mouth that looks like a row of gritted teeth, definitely not your typical Transformers head design. Smaller details help complete the picture of this figure. The chest has hexagon in the center with mechanical details resembling engine parts inside. His legs have several angled sections on the thighs with tubes leading to hinges. A look behind his lower legs reveals several tubes wrapping around a circular detail. On either side of robot head are vents near the shoulders. Overall I really like the look of this figure. Like Pinpointer, Tailpipe is cast in black and silver plastic. The two colors alternate along the robot fro mtop to bottom. For instance, the head has a silver "helmet" section with a black face. The black chest piece leads to a silver waist piece and so on. The two colors balance out quite well and look very nice together. Paint details are done in black, blue, silver, red and gold. There aren't a lot of these paint details, but they are placed in areas that draw the most attention. The blue and silver for instance are used together on the hexagon on his chest, bringing out the sculpted details brilliantly. The red is right under that. The black paint is used to provide extra black armor details on parts like his shoulders and outer thighs while the gold is found on the front section of his thighs. Interestingly, the four "night vision" style scopes on his head are painted blue but not the eyes on his sculpted face making it seem like those four scopes are his "regular" eyes/face. There are seventeen points of articulation on this figure in robot mode. Several of these are ball joints including his shoulders, elbows and hips. Since he has to hold a somewhat heavy weapon, I was worried that the shoulder joints would not be able to hold the arm up with Pinpointer in his fists, but no worries, the arms are tight enough to hold up without any extra fiddling. Both his fists are sculpted to accomodate 5mm peg weapons and both arms can hold Pinpointer without a problem. I was especially happy to see that despite its unusual shape and design, his head is able to turn side to side, albeit at an angle. Like many of the Human Alliance figures Tailpipe has bars to attach "C Clip" weapons to. In his case these are on his lower legs off to the sides. That means potentially you could have this little guy armed with four different weapons! Transformation to Vehicle Mode
Vehicle Mode This mode allows us a look at some of the smaller details only partly hinted at by the robot mode. First, the front end of the vehicle has a nice bit of detail that offers continuity between the robot and vehicle modes, namely the headlights. Here the headlights have four bulbs, all sticking out slightly that look just like the goggles used by Tailpipe in robot mode. Behind that are handlebars attached to sideview mirrors and readout instruments. The sides offer some engine-line details thanks to the design of the robot hands. We also get a look at the wheels in this form, which have a nice, angled tread pattern sculpted into them while the sides of the wheels look like they have some armor on them. Tailpipe doesn't show a whole lot of new color in this form. The sides of the wheels are painted silver and on the front of the vehicle the headlights are painted blue and there is a silver Autobot symbol above them. The gold vent details from the robot chest now point forward so you can see them in the front of the motorcycle. This isn't a lot of detail, but truth be told he really doesn't need more. He looks great just the way he is. Both of Tailpipe's wheels can spin and he can stand by using the 5mm peg on his tailpipe as a kickstand of sorts. On the back section of the vehicle are openings that allow you to attach Pinpointer in his weapon mode, creating one scary looking motorcycle! If you need more weaponry, the "C Clips" from Tailpipe's robot legs are no on the back of the vehicle, allowing you to attach extra weaponry. Sgt. Noble can ride on the driver's seat but when you do so it quickly becomes apparent that he and Tailpipe are definitely not in scale with each other. Sgt. Noble looks a bit tiny compared to Tailpipe. He can still sit and hold the handlebars, but the size difference is very noticable. Transformation to Hover/Weapon Mode (from vehicle mode)
Hover/Weapon Mode Without changing anything, you can also make this vehicle into a weapon. I mentioned earlier there is a 5mm peg on the bottom of the tailpipe. Since that piece winds up at the bottom of this hover mode, you can have any larger figure with a 5mm connection point hold Tailpipe and use him as a combination blaster/melee weapon. It's a really well done design and I love its ability to be used in two ways without having to change anything.
Final Thoughts
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Sgt. Noble is the human member of this Autobot trio. The figure is about the same size as the other Human Alliance figures in this line, but in comparison to Pinpointer and Tailpipe he looks really tiny (and in vehicle mode, Tailpipe really looks out of proportion with him). That said, Sgt Noble is still a nicely sculpted figure that differs quite a bit from some of his fellow N.E.S.T. team members.
Pinpointer is Tailpipe's long time partner on the battlefield, serving as a fighter and a weapon. This isn't the first time the name "Pinpointer" has been associated with a weapon in Transformers history. In Generation One, Pinpointer 
Robot Mode