It says a lot about the current state of the action figure hobby that when I need to give a less-than-stellar review of a product, I find myself having a hard time doing so. I mention this because I’m about to get critical of an apparently mostly-liked 3rd party product, and it’s good to keep some perspective when doing so. The truth is, the quality of today’s offerings is so damn good for the most part, it’s getting harder and harder to forgive the stuff that doesn’t live up to the competition. Like certain 6-inch superhero figures. Ahem…
I’m thinking maybe a story will help. Let’s go back to the magical land of the ’80s. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, those of you born after about 1990 probably have little concept of the pre-Internet world. In those days, if you weren’t on the ball and missed the release of a certain toy, your only hope were classified ads, garage sales, and the occasional swap meet. Comic-cons and that kinda thing were just starting to gain traction, but if you lived in a large but sleepy mid-west town, you weren’t getting any of that action for a long time. Under these circumstances, I got my first G1 Optimus Prime second-hand a year or so after the last of them had shipped. I know it sounds crazy, but there was a time, even after the movie, where there wasn’t an Optimus on the shelf. For two entire years. Right in the middle of G1. Think about that for a minute.
So I fondly remember, and will to the end of days, being at my Grandma and Grandads’ house, sitting by the fireplace on Christmas in 1988. Seeing that familiar red and black box underneath the wrapping paper was a good thing on it’s own, but nothing compared to seeing the box art of that classic brick-sh*t-house Optimus Prime with his rifle at the ready. So much so, I have a hard time remembering anything else from that Christmas. Or 1988 in general, for that matter.
So it was with a sense of inevitability that I’ve been eying the Xovergen Trailerforce figure for the last year or so. There has been some pretty solid reviews done since its release (Ben’s Collectibles comes to mind), and they range from being mostly positive to maybe lukewarm. After deciding I could always use this beast for a custom project if I wasn’t satisfied, I went ahead and ordered.
So I think my expectations, which I thought were reserved, were probably higher than they should’ve been, just based on the character alone. He certainly has the imposing mass of a Powermaster Prime, clocking in over a foot tall. He also is faithful to the style and look, with a lot of Hasbro-worthy sculpt and detail, and some really nice paint and vac-metal touches. And the Prime head sculpt is one of the best out there found outside of the Masterpiece line.
But while the paint and sculpt work is solid, the quality is less so. There’s a surprising amount of scuffs and scratches in the plastic for a $200 new-out-of-the-box figure, and they range from minor to distracting. The plastic itself seems to be a pretty solid material, and I haven’t noticed any stress marks, but the joints… well, the joints scare the hell out of me. And I ain’t afraid of sh*t. I’d read enough ahead to know to loosen the hip screws a little before moving him, but detents in the joints don’t just “click,” they CRACK like rotten timber. There’s been no breakage yet, but like I said, it’s scaring the hell out of me. The pins in his elbows are suuuuper tight, like squeaky tight, but they function, and they hold pose pretty well.
In contrast, though, the ball-jointed hands and ankles are not nearly friction-ed enough. Prime glock-wrists his cannons, and even just for standing, between super tight hips and wobbly ankles, you could almost long for the original’s fixed legs.
The shoulder cannons placement feels… well, just off to me. They sit high and out from the shoulder plates, making them not really jive with the rest of the classic-style armament. You can use the “main” pegs in the middle of the shoulder, but then it’s impossible to rotate them into their standard “pipes” position and keep the forearm pieces. I like the forearm guard dual blasters, but the pegs on them are no match for the tight elbows, and so they pop off constantly when posing. And I should point out, posing is the best you’re getting here — he’s too damn uneven to play with.
The shin armament and wheels are no better. Granted, the shin rocket launchers are on pegs, so you can move them around, but in their intended spots, they just flop around. The wheels don’t seem comfortable or fixed wherever you put them, and they do little to bulk up the shins to match the rest of the body.
The biggest irk for me is in his intended role. Trailerforce is armor for the now grade-school age eligible Classics Optimus. Despite all the awesomeness that MP-10 slammed in our faces, I still have a soft spot for this rough-and-tumble voyager-class leader, and he’s still certainly worth a City Commander-like upgrade.
But when you set him in place, using a backing plate, threading the feet though the back of the armor, and closing the cab section around it, he’s not nearly as locked in as you would expect. Mine “jumps” around in the cab just when posing his head. It also doesn’t balance out the weight of the ‘bot mode as much as I had anticipated either.
Am I being a little bitchy here? Yeah, I suppose I am, but I think too much was sacrificed to add the “feature” of being able to use the original G1 cabs to consider this primary configuration as good as it should be. It actually feels like very little of this design was intended for just for Classics Prime, despite that being the primary selling point.
Being as this is a Transformer and all, he does have his alt modes. I actually think the trailer and battle station modes do a decent job reflecting the original, but it’s hard to consider that a major accomplishment, since the original ones consisted of the ‘bot mode laying on it’s belly with the side panels unfolded and doing the splits, respectively. I do dislike the “throwaway” panel section that hides some of the bot mode in trailer mode, since it has no function in the main mode. The classic version only has the head as a removable piece, so even it cheats less.
I’ve tried out both these modes, but for sake of brevity, I’m just referencing stock photos for this review — there’s nothing to them that you haven’t seen in the press pics.
Frankly, with as straightforward as this design is, there was plenty of room for innovation. City Commander did a nice job of integrating all parts in both modes, and Protector was even better, and they both did so as complete “parts-formers.” Likewise, I’ve seen plenty of customs. Hell, I one did over a decade ago using the original trailer to build a more articulated bot while staying self contained. Here, it seems the decision was made to straddle that fence without a real clear benefit in doing so. Removable guns and such make total sense. Removable shells, not so much.
I honestly struggle a bit for recommendations for this figure. I think his look and style make him a nice fit for a classics Autobot collection, but his uneven joints and finicky parts make him a pose-once-and-display figure, rather than the hand candy he should’ve been. The biggest strike against him is the fact that there are other 3rd party Transformers that brutally outclass it in quality and playability, and some of them can do it at nearly half the price. Now I’m left contemplating that custom project I mentioned, and it’s always hard to start a custom when you’re already over-budget.
And while I’ll never get to go back to 1988, I’m afraid Trailerforce just made me miss it that much more.
