General Information: Images:
*Images from Hasbrotoyshop.com.
Text from Hasbrotoyshop.com: In Plane Mode, this fierce-looking figure converts to either transport plane mode or tough tanker truck mode, both ready to help you take on the AUTOBOTS team! The truck’s top becomes a melee blade in robot mode. Combine blasters to form a quad laser for the weapon-wielding robot figure and prepare to take on enemy forces! With Astrotrain having been introduced in Classics wave one and Blitzwing sitting pretty in the "Animated" line, only one triple-changer Decepticon from G1 remained to be reimagined: Octane. Originally not introduced until the show's third, post-movie season, Octane was a greedy, self serving Decepticon who enjoyed even the suffering of his fellow Decepticons. Largely ignored in Transformers history, he now returns with a new name (thanks to trademark issues) as Tankor in Transformers Universe. While the name "Tankor" previously belonged to a Transformer who actually became a tank (and later a Micromaster train), the name is still apt since one of his modes is a tanker truck.
Cargo Plane Mode: All that said, there is quite a bit of cool detail in this mode that helps add to its visual appeal. Running all over the body of the plane are small square and rectangular shapes indicating everything from windows to armor panels. Other cool details include piping towards the rear and small vertical rectangles on either side under the cockpit area resembling doors with a tiny window. The wings have really nice detailing as well, indicating more panels of armor. Each wing has two propellers mounted on it. What's nice is that each propeller has small notches sculpted into them, giving a level of detail that is not often seen for such a small piece. The parts which betray Tankor's other forms are the underbelly, formed from the piece that becomes the "tank" for his truck mode and blue pieces on the back end that become the front of the truck mode. They hardly draw your eye thanks to the plane's wings and detail level, but it's worth noting that this form is not as seamless as one would hope. I do credit the designers for trying to work some functionality into the bottom piece however. The bottom piece has three wheels to act as landing gear for the plane. Tankor is cast in light grey, black, silver and blue plastic. A bulk of the figure is light grey, with black making up smaller part such as the propellers and the joints at the base of the wings. Dark blue is seen at the end on the parts that form the front of the truck as well as the rudder. The piece on the bottom is cast in silver. Tankor's paint deco seems to draw its primary inspiration from G1 Octane's cartoon and comic book appearances rather than the original figure. His main colors are black, purple and dark blue. The dark blue is used for parts like the cockpit windows. Purple and black make up the designs on his wings and rudders. No sign of light blue appears, which was a color used on G1 Octane's wings (among other parts). Unlike G1 Octane, Tankor seems perfectly capable of defending himself in this form thanks to twin dual barreled guns that mount under his wings in this form. The propellers can also spin around if you flick them. Overall, this is a cool plane mode and it's nice to see Tankor get some weapons in vehicle form. I know I have gone on and on about its large size or truck parts, but in truth after staring at the thing and poking at it for a while, the effect diminishes and you just adjust to this being a rather large, thick plane. Tastes will vary on this, but fortunately you can see this form right in package before deciding to buy/not buy. Transformation to Tanker Truck Mode:
Tanker Truck Mode: Since this mode opens up the figure a bit more than the plane mode, a bit of robot mode detail peeks through, but fortunately it is designed to blend in well with the Plane Mode's details. Among the nicer details on the Plane Mode are vent lines in the front, a large looking front grille, piping on the sides and raised handle like details on the tank itself. In keeping with the sleek, sweeping look of the front end of the truck, the back end of the tank slopes down and has some nice circlular and line detailing sculpted into it. The illusion is broke a bit when you look directly at the figure from the back since it's just an open area showing the two halves of the plane cockpit, but it's a forgivable design necesity of having three forms and keeping within cost constraints. All the previously mentioned colors are present, but distributed quite differently, and here's where the illusion of the alternate Plane Mode works well. The front end of the vehicle is dark blue plastic, with the middle and the back end showing the light grey of the plane mode (meaning it's largely obsucred). The silver tank piece makes up a huge chunk of the vehicle's rear section and black makes up the rest of it such as the center and wheels. Silver and purple paint make up most of the detailing in this form, with the silver coloring the windows, the side of the vehicle and the top end of the tank cover piece. Purple shows through towards the back where the lower robot arms are rather conspicuous. While the instructions say to mount Tankor's guns onto the peg holes towards the front of the vehicle (where they can serve as guns or smokestacks if placed vertically), I've found I prefer mounting them towards the back where the robot hand holes are facing out to the sides. Not only does this make him look less "front heavy" but it also obscures some of the robot mode detail that is best left hidden in this form. Either way it works fine and it's nice to have options on weapon placement! In many ways, I find the truck mode a bit more successful than the plane mode in terms of proportions and not looking overly large or small in any way. However, there are still big open areas that kill the illusion of an extra Plane Mode a bit, so in a way both Plane Modes have some positive and negative elements to consider, but for the most part I think the positives outweigh the negatives. Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode:
Most of Tankor's other parts are more original to this version. His arms are formed from the cockpit halves, so they are much more tube like in shape and he has high rising shoulder armor (whereas G1 Octane's arms were more normal in size and shape for a Transformer). His legs look a bit long thanks to the lower Tankor has a lot of nice detail. His shoulder armor has nice thin, horizontal line details, his lower arms have tubes and other lines while his center body has several raised rectangles and trapezoid type shipes sculpted into it. The armor paneling and line details from the plane and truck modes carry over into his legs, giving them a nice, detailed appearance as well. In this form we see a lot more black color than the previous two forms. Black forms most of the central body piece and his thighs as well as his elbows. This contrast works very well, especially with silver and white paint used against it for detailing. A Decepticon symbol is tampographed right in the center of his chest, exactly where it would have been in the G1 animation model. His robot head is painted purple and silver. While he was designed with translucent blue light piping (go figure), the eyes are painted red to match the "Decepticons have red eyes and Autobots have blue" theme carried over from the G1 television show. Tankor has thirteen points of articulation in this form. This cinludes ball joints on his elbows and legs. His arm articulation is interesting since part of his arms are made up from two of the tires from the truck mode, so they can't turn all the way outwards on that joint, but rather rely on a hinge joint on the shoulders. The claw weapon's claws are ratcheted, allowing you to position them independent of each other. His guns can combine into one or fit into his fists or even the holes on the sides of his legs (though the practicality of that seems suspect).
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