General Information:
Release Year: July 2007
Retailer: Target Exclusive
Price: $7.99
Accessories: Engine/Gun, Cyber Key, Exhaust pipes x 2
Difficulty Level: 2

Images:

• On Card (Front)
• On Card (Back)
• Vehicle Mode
• Vehicle Mode (Side)
• Vehicle Mode (Back)
• Vehicle Mode (Weapon activated)
• With Cybertron Clocker and Swerve (Vehicle Modes)
• Robot Mode
• Robot Mode (Side)
• Robot Mode (Close up)
• Robot Mode (Posed with weapon)
• With Cybertron Clocker and Swerve (Robot Modes)

Tech Specs:
Before the war for the Allspark began, Clocker was a professional racer on Cybertron. His speed and skill dazzled millions of fans, and for a while, he seemd unbeatable. He was on top of the world. Then the war came, and there wer suddenly no more races to run. He turned his skills to finding the Allspark, stopping the Decepticons, and bringing peace to Cybertron. He dreams of the day when the war ends, and he can race alongside his Autobot friends with no limits on how far or fast he can go.

Clocker is a direct carry over from the Cybertron toy line. The base sculpt for this figure has already been reviewed multiple times on this site. You can take a look at Galaxy Force Skids, Cybertron Clocker, Cybertron Swerve and Timelines Cheetor. This review will be brief and focuses on the changes made to the figure for this release.

Packaging:
The size of the card used in this wave of Target exclusives is the same as the first wave. These smaller cards were also used for the Real Gear Robots line. The figure itself is in vehicle mode on its side, with the weapons and Energon Star over it. On the bottom are the familiar graphics with beveled metal plate designs in red and Clocker's name in the same font used for the movie logo. An "Only at Target" sticker is placed over the bubble. The back pictures the figure in both modes. The Key is only referred to as a "Key" and not a "Planet Key" or "Cyber Key". The packaging also makes it a point to note that the exhaust pipes are removable. On the lower right hand corner of the packaging are Clocker's cosells, Strongarm and Skyblast. Unlike wave one, this wave does not have any information to decode, so the graphic of Optimus Prime's head and the obscured text are no longer present.

Vehicle Mode:
Clocker's vehicle mode is not a particularly realistic one, but if one were to try to squeeze him into the "real world" of the movie-verse, I would say he resembles a custom job with a high priced sports car at the base. Clearly this is a vehicle people would take notice of if they saw it roaring down the streets, but perhaps no more than a Ferrari or Viper since custom cars are rather prevelant in today's world (thank you, "Fast and the Furious", heh).

Clocker's color scheme is much darker than previous incarnations of this figure. Those all leaned towards white, silver or even yellow as base colors. Here Clocker is cast in black, silver and translucent black plastic. Black makes up most of the mainb ody of the vehicle including the engine section in the back. The translucent black plastic is used for sections like the front end of the vehicle, the wheels and the exhaust pipes on the sides. Silver plastic can be found on smaller parts such as the seats while grey plastic can be found on the rear section. This dark color palette continues with the paint apps which are done primarily in silver and metallic blue. The metallic blue covers a majority of the vehicle mode, from the front end of the car to the sides all the way to the sides of the engine section in the back. It's the silver and metallic red paint on the vehicle that help add a splash of welcome color. The hood has a small Autobot symbol painted in silver while the exhaust pipes are painted silver all the way. The metallic red can be found on the rear lights. The metallic blue color here is really nice and deep, and it looks very similar to shades of dark, metallic blue I have seen on real life vehicles such as Corvette someone in my neighborhood owns. This adds a dash of realism by not having the vehicle just be flat, dark blue (which would have looked "okay" but not great).

Like the front section and the wheels, the Cyber Key is cast in translucent black plastic. The outer edges are painted in silver but the actual Speed Planet symbol itself is not painted. The Key mechanism works great and I am happy to see the problems with the cannon barrels I mentioned in the Cybertron Clocker review are not present here. They point forward and swing out without any problems at all.

Robot Mode:
The various plastic colors that form this figure come together nicely here because few of them get monotonous. For instance the upper arms are grey while the lower arms are black. the chest piece is grey, but has paint apps that give it a variety of colors. The lower body is all black, but again, paint applications come into play to keep the figure from looking boring.

Interestingly enough, the color patterns used on Clocker are somewhat simpler than those used on previous incarnations of the figure. For instance, the circles on his chest are painted silver, with the small vertical line inside painted red. This is different than say, Cybertron Clocker or Swerve, who both had those circles colored in a solid color. however, the tubes on his mid-body section are painted all silver, instead of being a separate color from the section behind them. A simpler pattern is also found on the legs. On ech leg is a section in the middle with a piston like design running from the knees to the feet. On Cybertron Clocker and Swerve these were painted two different colors. Here they are just painted silver, but an Autobot symbol has been added to the side on the left leg. These small color variances may be simple, but they embody one of the things I look for in a redeco - a different paint pattern on top of different colors.

Final Thoughts:
While the original Cybertron Clocker was a huge disappointment to me, mostly due to quality control issues, this one is awesome. I really dig how the designers went a different (read: darker) direction with the color scheme to complement the previous versions of the figure. If you're into redecos or a movie-verse completist, definitely pick this one up!