Like Ultra Magnus, Thundertron is another character in the Transformers Prime line that has not made an appearance on the TV show. He’s currently shipping to stores in the same assortment as Ultra Magnus, and I’ll tell you — between the two of them, that is a whole lot of blue. Lucky for me, I’m a sucker for all things blue, so I found myself hunting for this figure just as hard as I was for Ultra Magnus. Unlike Ultra Magnus, however, Thundertron is an all-new character that is making his debut here as a Transformers Prime Powerizer Voyager. I should also note that he transformers into a lion — a blue lion — so that immediately elevated him to the top of my want list. I am a huge fan of the Beast Wars series, and have been foaming at the mouth for new Beast toys and characters. Was he worth the wait and the trouble to hunt down? Let’s take a look.
Did you notice that? Take another look at his packaging. He’s not an Autobot, Dcepticon, Maximal, or Predacon — he’s a “Star Seeker.” He’s the first of a new Transformers faction that’s being rolled out.
He sounds like he’s got a major chip on his shoulder and a major score to settle with the Autobots and the Decepticons alike. So what are the Star Seekers all about? We know Thundertron has a ship, he has a crew, so that could only mean one thing — they must be PIRATES.
The new faction symbol looks like a bit like the Decepticon symbol, but more “pirate-y.” I guess those are swords of some sort forming the “x” beneath the robot face. Generally speaking, I’m not a big fan of pirates. Blame it on those Johnny Depp movies or whatever, but pirates have never really been my thing. Robotic space pirates, though? My curiosity and interest are piqued just enough to make me want to know more. I’m definitely curious as to how this all plays out and if we’ll see more Star Seekers in the upcoming Beast Hunters line.
Thundertron is a nice looking figure in ‘bot mode and has all the standard articulation one would expect, but he does have some kibble that gets in the way, like his shoulder pads and the tails of his “coat” that hang down at his sides and from his back. His head also has very little range of motion, and it seems like he is permanently looking slightly downward. I find that to be pretty annoying. He’s sporting what I can only refer to as a “blue beard,” but it’s hard to see unless you’re specifically looking for it because the lion head on his chest is exactly in the way.
And because he’s a pirate, you can display him with two feet, like in the above pic, or…
… with a peg leg! He actually has a peg leg! What more proof could he need to prove that he’s a pirate? I’m surprised he isn’t sporting an eye patch and a hook for a hand as well. I laughed at this feature at first, but it grew on me quickly. It’s definitely something that makes him unique among all Transformers. It doesn’t affect his balance much at all, either. I had no problem getting him to stand and I do think it looks pretty cool. It still makes me chuckle, though.
When the foot isn’t in use as… a foot… it becomes a weapon he can wear on his forearms that’s a little like Wolverine’s claws. Kind of a neat feature, but I can’t imagine why he would ever prefer this over just using it as a foot unless his leg isn’t giving him the scratching range he needs to most efficiently maim his enemies. And, fortunately for him, that’s not his only weapon.
He also has another set of claws he wears like Wolverine that has a long, blue energy sword type thing, as well as a blue box that sticks out obnoxiously from the side. This box houses the batteries that power the light-up feature and activates the action feature: when the box is pushed down a bit, the sword comes swinging down guillotine-style and a light shines from its base (we’ll see this in action later when we get to his alt mode).
To allow room for the sword to swing down, the whole contraption sits rather far from his arm, which ends up looking pretty bad, I think. I would have been happy with just another claw like his foot to give him a cleaner, smoother look, but Hasbro loves to equip their figures with action features, so this is what we got. I’m not the biggest fan of it, and it looks even sillier when attached to his alt mode. Speaking of alt modes…
He transforms into a pretty cool looking white and blue lion with what appear to be wings. Unfortunately, all he can really do in this mode is look cool since he has next to no articulation. That’s a bit of a disappointment. His head and jaw don’t move at all, and his front legs barely move. The back legs are capable of moving decently, but that’s because they’re just his regular ‘bot legs bent backwards. His leg transformation is similar to the original Beast Wars Cheetor, but they have a bit more articulation than that, thankfully. His tail is made of a rubber-like material and is bendy, but it can’t hold any poses. Despite all the shortcomings, I am a fan of the way this lion mode looks. I can’t help it.
The weapon attaches to his lion mode in just about the most obnoxious way possible: it pegs in directly into the middle of his back, creating a type of tower that just looks… bad.
He now has a fifth set of claws protruding from right behind his head on his back. And the action feature is put to use here, too.
I haven’t found a way for the sword to lock in place, so I resorted to tying it in place in order to demonstrate the effect. He’s a blue lion that has a huge, blue energy sword coming from his back as well as five sets of claws. Can anyone say “killing machine”?
It looks like the light is supposed to light up the sword, but it isn’t very effective, even in the dark. It just looks like there’s a red light shining from the base.
He’s a fun toy that should be more fun than he is, sadly. I really do like the look of him in both modes, but both modes have some pretty serious drawbacks. He does make a decent figure for display, though, and since that’s what I mainly do with my figures, I’m happy to have him. Anyone looking for a bit more than a display piece might be disappointed with him. If you can only pick up one from the assortment, I’d definitely recommend Ultra Magnus.
He’s popping up now at all the major retail stores, including Amazon, so he shouldn’t be too hard to track down if you’d like to add the first member of the Star Seekers to your Transformers ranks.
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