The Transformers movies haven’t exactly suffered from a lack of villains, but they have suffered from a lack of interesting, quality villains. Fortunately, Lockdown breaks that streak in Michael Bay’s Age of Extinction as a bounty hunter-type who’s tasked with the capture of Optimus Prime in order to return him to his “creators.” Lockdown was compelling in terms of both visual design and characterization, and this was something the Transformers films sorely needed.
Lockdown was recently released in Takara’s Movie Advanced line as a deluxe class figure, and I find it curious that, of all the villains in the movie, he was not released during the line’s launch. Hasbro’s version has yet to be released, so I jumped on this Takara release because, well, I couldn’t wait any longer for the Hasbro figure, and, frankly, I was worried about my chances of finding the Hasbro release because it’s looking as though he may be a one-per-case headache to find. Couple that with the fact that distribution of waves beyond the initial flood has been scattershot, so I decided to hedge my bets and pay the extra for the Takara import.
Was he worth the bother? Let’s take a look!
Check out the below video for a transformation demonstration and some additional thoughts:
Takara’s movie packaging is almost identical to Hasbro’s. Since it isn’t anything particularly fancy, there’s no temptation to hold on to it. I do like the character-specific artwork on the card, though, and his bio is just vague enough to make the character interesting even if you haven’t seen the movie.
He doesn’t look nearly as intimidating as he does in the movie, and from the back he sort of looks as though he’s wearing a car as a backpack… which he pretty much is. I’m almost tempted to call him a shell-former since very little of his ‘bot mode actually transforms into meaningful parts of his Lambo mode. It’s kind of like his ‘bot mode folds in half and the car shell forms around him.
What I do like about him, however, is his head sculpt. It’s as intricately detailed as anything we’ve come to expect from the movie lines, and the black and silver with those green eyes staring out is really doing it for me. I do wish the paint on his eyes was centered a little better, however, because as it is, his “intimidation factor” is compromised a little bit with his eyes staring off in different directions. The result is a little goofy when it should be intense.
His only accessory is his gun, which is basically a huge rifle. It looks a little ridiculous when he’s holding it in his hands because it’s so darn long and slender, but in the movie we see his head transform into this very gun, and, as luck would have it, the gun can be mounted to his head. Given its shape, his face is fairly well concealed (from the front, anyway), so it decently replicates that transformation ability in the movie. I love this gimmick — this is how I keep him displayed on my shelf.
Because he’s a deluxe, he is a little small, which is disappointing. The previous Lockdown figure was also a deluxe, but due to how it was designed and engineered, he’s larger than most voyagers, so it’s unfortunate a similar gimmick couldn’t have been implemented here. Galvatron is so much larger that the two figures almost look as though they come from two different lines.
Lockdown’s alt mode looks pretty cool. The lines are clean and smooth, and he avoids any kind of “jigsaw puzzle” effect. His wheels are those cheap-feeling clip-ons, so that makes the overall figure feel a bit cheap as well, and I can’t help but think a little paint on the rims or something would have helped in this area. They definitely need something.
Overall, this is not the greatest figure from the Age of Extinction line, but it should have been since Lockdown is probably the best part of the movie. I’m glad I have him just because I really wanted a movie Lockdown, but I’m hard-pressed to find anything overwhelmingly positive to say about the figure. If you’re going to buy it, it’s probably because you’re fond of the character like I am, so it’s worth owning for that reason, but you’re probably better off waiting for the Hasbro release to roll out, which could be any time now.
