Scoop is a perfect example of why these IDW-inspired Generations waves have been such a delight. He isn’t a character anyone was necessarily clamoring to get in the Generations line, and he hasn’t even been that major a player in the comics, though he does fill an oddly unique role in Starscream’s evolution. Up until now, much of the Autobots’ presence in the Generations line has been comprised of members of the Lost Light crew, so that’s why Scoop’s appearance is so cool — it makes it clear that Hasbro and IDW are willing to produce characters that may otherwise have been easily overlooked. Expanding the depth of the collection is something I hold in great value, so Scoop is a welcome addition to the growing IDW Autobot roster.
Scoop comes packed with Dark Cybertron #2, the issue in which his role in Starscream’s development is fleshed out a bit more. Scoop actually serves an important role in advancing the narrative; his concerns regarding Starscream’s role become our concerns as we try to piece the story together. Scoop is the closest thing to a religious zealot the Transformers have (currently, at least), and he believes Starscream is “the chosen one,” but he isn’t sure if that means Starscream is a messiah, or the one to bring about the end of times. It’s interesting stuff, and it’s cool to see a relatively obscure character like Scoop in the middle of it all.
The comic comes with an exclusive cover that features Scoop in a much more “heroic” capacity than the role he actually has in the comic, but it does a good job of promoting the figure packed within.
Robot Mode
Now, Scoop is a new character to me. His appearance in the IDW comics is the first contact I’ve ever had with the character since he was introduced in the G1 days after the animated movie, which was my exit from The Transformers. And I have to say I wasn’t immediately impressed with what I saw when this figure was first unveiled. I think it’s the colors. The orange and soft yellow combination, coupled with the fact that his alt mode is a construction vehicle, reminds me of something out of Bob the Builder. Not that the comparison makes him a lesser character or anything, but it does make him seem a bit incongruent with the line as a whole.
Also, something about him looks too soft to me; he looks too toy-like. That’s a weird complaint to make about, well, a toy, but he’s definitely missing that “grit” that figures like Springer and Skids come packing.
I think it really is just the colors that are throwing me off here. His sculpt is nicely detailed, and his posability is in line with any other deluxe figure released so far. His large feet give him a wonderful ability to balance and hold poses as well, so he is a fun figure to play around with.
His two Targetmasters, Caliburst and Holepunch, are nifty little pack-ins. They’re also a callback to the G1 Scoop, and I’m impressed to see that they’re not just simple repaints of one another. There’s a lot of unique sculpting going on here, and their colors, of course, further serve in differentiating each from the other. Unfortunately, there’s not much to them. Only their arms are articulated in ‘bot mode, and they’ve got the gun handles permanently fixed between their legs, which definitely compromises the effectiveness of their ‘bot modes. They still look cool, just don’t expect much from them. They can give each other high fives and wave at Scoop — that’s about it.
Scoop’s Autobot sigil bugged me because I’m not a fan of the plain red logo stamped on the figure, so the first thing I did was grab a Reprolabels Autobot sticker and slap it on over the factory logo. The white outline is something I absolutely need on my Autobot figures, and I think it looks much better.
Scoop’s ‘bot mode is certainly on the small side. He comes in at just a smidge smaller than Skids and a good deal smaller than Goldfire. He’s even smaller than Trailcutter, who has become the new gold standard for small Autobots. It’s disappointing to see the deluxe figures continually getting smaller while the price steadily climbs, but I guess that’s the world we’re living in now.
Alt Mode
The two Targetmasters transform into two not-at-all convincing blasters. Again, it may be the colors throwing me off, but to me they look like Nerf blasters or something. Usually “gritty realism” isn’t something I necessarily expect from my Transformers, but the opposite extreme, like what we’re seeing here, can be a bit off-putting for me.
They can combine to form one larger blaster that resembles a giant Supersoaker.
Scoop’s alt mode is immediately reminiscent of the Constructicon Scrapper’s alt mode, and I am pleased to see that the alt mode looks as good as it does. Hasbro did a nice job in engineering a convincing vehicle mode that doesn’t immediately look like a crouched-over robot. And that’s ironic to me since Scoop’s transformation is one of the simpler transformations we’ve seen in some time. Transformers have a tendency to be quite complicated these days, but Scoop definitely reverses that trend with having a transformation that’s made up of just a few simple steps.
The one thing that is unfortunate and compromises the alt mode’s effectiveness in a big way is Scoop’s head being plainly visible in the cab of the vehicle. The alt mode looks pretty great, but then there’s his giant head gaping at you from the cab. It just looks weird and reminds me of a Go-Bot.
His literal “scoop” is nicely articulated too, so you can have fun having him diligently move stuff from one spot to another spot. Again, since Scoop is new to me as a character, my first instinct was to load the shovel full of energon cubes because that’s what I always associate with the Constructicons. But since Scoop is supposed to be a bit of an altruist, I’m sure there are plenty other good deeds we can come up with for him to do.
I do enjoy the pairing of Scoop and Starscream. One of the IDW comics’ strengths is to establish unlikely alliances and make them work, and this is a nice example of that. To that end, it makes sense that Scoop would come packed in the wave with the new Armada Starscream, so I am enjoying the fact that these releases seem to be actually planned out to some extent and are not just an odd assemblage of characters tossed in a box together.
Scoop and his wavemates are hitting just about everywhere at the moment, and since each figure is packed two to a case (good on you, Hasbro!), I can’t imagine it being too tough to track him down. He does seem to be the bigger draw from the set, though, so be aware of that if all you’re seeing are Skywarps and Starscreams everywhere.