From Newsgroup: alt.toys.transformers

Dave's Transformers Studio Series Rant: Deluxe wave 31

Kranix (Lithonian spaceship)
Sunstreaker (repackaged Generations Selects, not reviewed)
Wheeljack (repackated Generations Selects, not reviewed)
Thundercracker (TFOne, Starscream redeco, not reviewed)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Studio/Deluxe31

Yeah, only one new mold, and while I don't have those exact color runs
for Sunstreaker and Wheeljack I don't think I need 'em either. I wasn't impressed enough by the Starscream mold to want any more versions of it. But I'm listing them all here for completeness. I did see them all on the pegs
the day after my Kranix arrived, so I got a second chance to say nah to the others.

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeE3 - Original Sunstreaker version.
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeE1 - Original Wheeljack
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Studio/Deluxe29 - Starscream


CAPSULE

$28 at Hasbro Pulse. Mine survived being stomped on a few times in shipping.

Kranix: Surprisingly good robot mode, good transformation, and an
altmode that had a very hard job to do and managed to do it adequately. Strongly recommended.


RANT

Packaging: Well, it WAS a standard 2026 Studio Series Deluxe box, mind
was somewhat crumpled, if not as badly used as the shipping box. It's a good thing they switched to plastic windows again, because I'm pretty sure if they still used open windows the pistol would've been lost somewhere between the warehouse and my house.
The packaging gives him Autobot symbols, even though he's not even Cybertronian.


AUTOBOT: KRANIX
Assortment: G2195
Altmode: Lithonian spaceship
Transformation Difficulty: 20 steps
Previous Name Use: None
Previous Mold Use: None
Movie: TFtM
Scene: Mockery of Justice

KRANIX encounters HOT ROD and KUP after they are captured by the Quintessons.

Packaging: Five plastic ties hold the robot to the inner tray. The gun (more of a vehicle mode accessory than a proper pistol) is theoretically held in the upper left corner by a folded out corner bit, but that was the corner that got the most crushed on mine, popping the gun out. However, others with non-squished boxes have reported theirs had a gun that was loose, so it may just take a little flexing. While the actual figure was undamaged, the chin needed to be pulled out to get the face in proper shape.
The screenshot is Kranix's face through the bars of his cell as he
briefly talks to Hot Rod and Kup.

Robot Mode: Okay, they did an impressive job with this mode, it barely even looks like it transforms, or at most it's like an Action Master Elite.
On closer examination you can see the folded down wing and tail fin panels, bits that can open up or slide around to allow transformation, and of course, the whole jaw folding out of the way thing was obvious on mine when I opened the box. With some minor retooling options (like no mustache and beard... okay, it's not quite a mustache but it could still be removed) and different color runs they could easily make a crowd-builder set of Lithonians from this mold. I don't really *expect* them to, at most we might get Arblus. An
alien mechanical lifeform that may or may not be related to Cybertronians,
for whom the altmode is not disguise but rather pure utility. The
wedge-shaped head does have an unpainted goatee as well as molded and painted thin triangles on either side of the nose that feel like a mustache but are
too high up, since they're not between nose and mouth. Mind you, if the chin gets folded in a little, the gap looks like a Muppet-y mouth and the faint molding of the actual mouth kind of fades into the background. The major joints are vaguely like tapered cylinders, and the feet have three triangular toes with the long one in the middle and two shorter identical ones on either side, for an alien-but-stable sort of podiatry. I suppose the dearth of 5mm
or 3mm connectors contributes to the "these aren't warlike Cybertronians" motif, but I am a little irritated that there's nowhere to store the gun
other than in one of the hands. (The vehicle mode attachment point is
covered up by the back panel in this mode.)
5.5" (14cm) tall and mostly light taupe (a sort of grayish light brown) and dark magenta. Light gray plastic is used for the chin, the neck, the pieces that are the toes and soles of the feet (these are almost entirely painted over), the ankle struts, some panels barely visible inside the forearms, and the gun. The rest of the head is dark magenta plastic, as are the elbow joints, hands, abdomen cover, a bit of lower thigh, most of each boot, and the feet other than the toes. There's a few bits purely inside the torso that are also dark magenta. The rest is light taupe plastic.
Lots of dark magenta paint, including on the biceps, pelvis (front,
back, and bottom), and lower back. Brighter magenta (almost pink) paint is
on the front half of the head, around the eyes, and the not-mustache. The triangular eyes themselves are painted a slightly greenish yellow that looks like it should be glow in the dark (it isn't), and the face front is
otherwise painted light gray in a so-so match to the chin plastic (the
plastic is lighter, but it helps that most of the boundary is not-mustache so the two grays barely touch). There's a red rectangle at the top of the sternum. A dark brownish purple paint covers the abdominal slats, toes, and the soles of the feet. Two thruster vents on the back are painted dark gunmetal. There is no faction symbol, because the packaging to the contrary, Lithonians were their own thing and not Autobots. There is a flat space on
the chest if you want to add a symbol on the assumption Kranix miraculously survived his execution and later joined up. (Now picturing a deleted scene right after the Autobots leave in the Quintesson ship, a battered Kranix at
the bottom of the pool surrounded by dead Sharkticons, saying, "Er, hello?
Is anyone left up there? I could use a hand....")
There's a hinge where the neck meets the head and a swivel where it
meets the torso, the hinge being needed for transformation. Technically the chin joint is just for transformation, but it can let you do the muppet mouth thing. The waist is a smooth if stiff swivel. The shoulders are hinged to raise outwards, and the shoulders themselves have swivels built in where the outer 2/3 rotates with respect to the inner 1/3, the shapes of the
shoulderpads effectively hiding the joint. There's swivels just above the hinge elbows, and the shape of the elbow joint lets the arm bend double. The wrists are transformation hinges but have a little range of up and down movement without needing to open up the forearms. The thighs are swivels
where they meet the torso and hinges at the tops of the hips, so not quite as subtle as the shoulders, but still pretty good at not making the joints obvious. Swivels just above the hinge knees, the joining of the pieces makes it look like there might be a double hinge, but it's just the one. The
ankles are ball joints with a little wiggle room for keeping the feet flat,
but mostly they rotate for transformation (the heels turn towards each
other). Overall, really good articulation in this mode.
As noted, the hands are the only places for 5mm pegs, with semi-open
poses that have 3/4-circle sockets that only really work with round pegs (and not for the rounded-rectangle or D-shaped ones we sometimes see).
The gun is...well, it's the vehicle mode cannon, and sticks to that
design without worrying about whether it looks good as a hand-held weapon.
It has a retro-raygun sort of appearance that definitely fits a "not very
well armed, but they try" security force or private self-defense zapgun, a
bit of a Star Wars feel to it in some ways. A single piece of light gray plastic 1.25" (33mm) long with a 5mm peg grip and a barrel that does not end
in a 3mm stud. The main barrel itself is slightly more than 3mm in diameter (and also more than 1/8") with some evenly spaced segmentation bands. I can imagine them lighting up in sequence as the gun charges up to fire, but as it stands there's no paint on this.

Transformation: Fold out the panels on the forearms and the backs of the boots, which lets you collapse the knees into the boots. Fold panels out
from the sides of the boots as tail fin bits (the backs of the boots will combine to make the main top fin in back). Open the light gray panels
revealed on the forearms, and the hands can be stowed. Bend the elbows all
the way and point them upwards. Pull down the back panel and put the tabs on the sides into slots inside the thighs to connect the back end together.
Rotate the feet so that the toes point outwards. The shoulders unsnap from
the torso and fold down on struts to around the waist. Tilt the head all the way back, collapse the chin down, and open up the abdomen to let the chest unfold into the nose of the spaceship. Close the abdomen, and you're done other than putting the gun into the socket revealed on the back. About the only tricky part is that you need to wait to peg the boots together until
after they can wrap around the backplate.
Getting back to robot mode is quick and easy as long as you remember a
few of the steps that lock or unlock panel movement.

Vehicle Mode: While not exactly the vehicle designed for the movie but then abandoned except in the Marvel comics adaptation (here's the picture
from TF Universe #4: https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:TFU_Movie_Kranix.jpg), it's not too bad. They even copied the panel lines where possible. The animation design cheated by having the feet and most of the lower legs just vanish and doing a lot of morphing and stretching, plus the animation design is kinda pointy in a "might not pass safety tests" way, but this toy gets reasonably close. So, it's a robot twisted into a spaceship shape, with the boots
acting as the main thrusters. The side fins on the boots stay horizontal instead of bending down in a sort of F-4 Phantom manner like in the animation design, but they still help give a sort of space jet fighter motif.
5" (12.5cm) long with a wingspan of 4.5" (11cm) in pretty much the same colors as robot mode, if a little less of the dark magenta-brown. The
sternum panel with its red paint ends up in front of the lower face as the
nose of the vehicle mode, and there's a dark magenta strut on the underside,
as well as a visible dark magenta strut on the back (although it gets mostly covered by the gun). The hidden gray panels in the forearms are now the
intake vents on the fronts of the wings. Technically there's no new paint,
nor any need to provide faction symbole on the wings in this mode.
No articulation to speak of. In addition to the 5mm socket revealed on the back, the tail fins folding down on the boots each reveal a 5mm socket,
and technically the hands are accessible on the sides of the wings for something with a long enough 5mm peg. There's nothing on the underside for
use with a flight base, though.
Anyway, given that this was designed for a scene that got deleted, in an era when they didn't worry about making the transformations physically
possible (so, most eras of TF history) and the goal was to look alien...it's
a decent altmode.

Overall: Really good robot mode, involved but not frustrating transformation, and a vehicle mode that does the job it was assigned. Definitely worth picking up, and I'll definitely be getting at least some redecos if they sell any (leaving aside any that are super hard to get, like convention exclusives without an online option).


Dave Van Domelen, should probably do Astrotrain next.


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