General Information: Images:
The base sculpt for Autotrooper is based on the Toys R Us exclusive Ratchet and Ironhide figures released over the past couple of years. Check out those reviews for a detailed look at the sculpt. This review will focus on the changes made to the figure for this release.
Vehicle Mode: Autotrooper is cast in white, black and translucent blue plastic. This sounds terribly plain, but when you take his paint scheme into account he winds up looking fantastic. To understand the paint scheme, you have to back track to the inspiration for this figure. Binaltech Autotrooper's deco was based on a Japanese police car, which has many distinguishing features, among them a black design on the hood that comes to a point in the middle. This design was also seen on Generation One Prowl. Following that tradition, Autotrooper is a Cybertronian police vehicle that takes design cues from Binaltech Autotrooper. With the plastic alone, the translucent blue looks fantastic against the white, and the black pieces in the back also contrast very nicely. The most prominent of these design elements is found on the front of the vehicle, which is painted partly in black, coming to a point in the center. Black paint is used for several other details as well. This includes the panels that stick out a bit on the sides of the vehicle as well as smaller details such as three vertical lines on the sides of the vehicle and the circles on the sides of his tread section. In a very uncommon and impressive use of black paint, the line designs on the sides of the legs are filled in with black paint, adding some distinct detail. Silver paint is found on the top of the vehicle where it paints the rack that leads to the row of sculpted lights. A bold blue color is used for the headlights and panels on the side. This is a very strong, bold blue color and looks fantastic. The blue on the sides in particular look almost like windows on the side of his vehicle form for a section in the back that you can imagine containing unruly Cybertronians. Red is the final color used in this form. Here it is used to paint (or stamp considering how well it's done) an Autobot symbol with lines around it preresenting the Cybertronian security forces. It looks very striking against the white plastic and is a wonderful design. All four of the tread sections are nice and tight in this mode, which is good since it has to stand on them. The rear tread sections are held in place by pegs, but not the front, so the stability of the vehicle mode is good to see. Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode: Autotrooper once again primarily features white plastic in robot mode. He also has translucent blue plastic on his chest from the "windshield" piece in vehicle mode. A bit more black plastic shows as well on his feet. Most of the paint details that you see in this form were visible in vehicle mode including the side panels now on his shoulders (painted black and blue), the chest detailing and the black tread sections now found on his lower legs. Newly revealed details include an Autobot symbol (complete with the extra shapes around it) is found in the center of his chest. His head has black details painted on the goggles and on the sides of his mouth plate. Blue paint is used for his eyes and the lenses of the goggles. A bit of extra black paint is found on his shoulders in the form of two stripes on each. All of Autotrooper's joints are tight and he has no problem standing or being posed. The right arm gimmick that allows the arm to extend and retract functions just fine and the hand attachments clip on without a problem. Given that this is the third time this sculpt has been release, it's good to see the tooling is still nice and intact.
Final Thoughts:
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