From Newsgroup: alt.toys.transformers

Dave's Transforming Robot Toy Rant: Metal Cardbots wave 1

Pirate Battle Galleon Steel Hook (pirate ship...metal cardboat)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/misc/Cardbot5

http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/misc/Cardbot1 has details about the line
in general, trade dress, etc.

This is also technically the Power Class like Mech Tackle, but the box
is not the same size. I figure Agabyss just made up the classes for the familiarity US audiences have with the idea, not because the original toys tried for consistency of sizes.


CAPSULE

$35 singly at Agabyss.com, I got it as part of an entire-wave set for
$213 that included some bonus stickers.

Steel Hook: If you're the sort who like pirate ship Transformers, and don't already have this, you should get it. It's not great in ship mode, but it's pretty good and well-arrticulated in robot mode. Recommended.


RANT

Called Black Hook in the original, he was the leader of one of the first season antagonist groups. My second pirate ship transforming robot, the
first being Garyuun/Galle-on from Webdiver. I will probably be getting Cyberworld Scourge as well, yarrr.
I will note that Garyuun cheats a lot by having the entire lower hull become a shield, plus a spindly dragon-man robot mode allows for some getting around the likely difficulties in getting a good robot to sailing ship transformation. https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/WebDiver1 for my
very old and somewhat terse review (also, most of the names were wrong in the body of the review).

Packaging: This box is 10.25" (26cm) tall, 8.75" (22cm) wide, and 5.25" (13.5cm) deep, but otherwise follows the same trade dress as the rest of the wave.
Something I haven't really been making clear, the number of
transformation steps is not the number of steps listed in the instructions, because the instructions tend to have step 1 being how it looks before you do anything, and the final step being "and now you're done!"


PIRATE BATTLE GALLEON: STEEL HOOK
Altmode: Pirate Ship
Transformation Difficulty: 15 steps (Steel Hook), 6 steps (card gear)
Card Gear: Captain Cannon
Motto: "Asking for something is already admitting defeat. Just take what
you want, and then see if they fight you to get it back."

When a US release of Metal Cardbots was announced, this one probably generated the most excitement. Yeah, there were lots of official
Transformers space pirates (especially with the Walmart "capsule" about it), but none of them yet turned into pirate SHIPS.

Packaging: The usual taped clamshell. The robot doesn't require such a deep box, but the anchor gun in the upper right does take up most of the
depth (not necessary there either, as it can be folded up). The card gear is face-out in the lower right.
Technically it's not ready to go straight out of the box, you need to
pull the heel spurs back a tiny bit.
The box render differences with the toy will mostly be discussed under each mode, a big difference is that the box render has one shade of gold used consistently throughout the toy, but the gold plastic and gold paint of the
toy aren't remotely similar. In fact, one bit of design depends on the gold paint standing out against the "gold" plastic.

Robot Mode: The head is topped by a vaguely nautical hat design, the
right eye is covered with an armored eyepatch, there's bib front coat button designs on the chest as well as a sort of mecha-cravat with a big red
gemstone set in the middle. Obvious sailing ship elements are found on the shoulderpads and boots, although the fact that the ship's sail split across
the shins is blue rather than white does make it a little less obvious.
Anchors are molded onto the forearms (painted gold against dull gold plastic, the bit I mentioned above), and the non-card weapon is basically a giant anchor. A pair of missile pods are molded onto the top of the backpack (8 warheads per side) for launching an Itano Circus barrage.
8.25" (21cm) tall in a mix of blue, gold, "gold," red, white, and black, so a pretty garish set of colors. The blue plastic is mostly faintly metalflake, so I guess "starry sky" colors for a Space Pirate. It's used for the head, torso except for the collar and cravat, shoulderpads except for the dull gold trim, coat cuffs, outer and rear faces of the boots, shin front sails, toes, heel spurs, most of the backpack, and the hooks of the anchor weapon (which is all gold in the renders, no idea why they changed that).
Dull gold plastic is the trim on the shoulderpads and backpack, the coat collar, flares on the forearms, the belt buckle, the axe haft, and the spats over the toes. Red plastic is used for the upper forearms, a hinge holding
the backpack, and the panels behind the toes in the boots. Black is mostly used for joints wich as the neck, shoulder struts, elbows, and hips, but is also the biceps, the inner faces of the boots, and the backing of the lower sails (which is slightly visible with them folded up). And no, we're not
done yet, there's white plastic for the cravat, thighs, fists, and the panel
on top of the backpack.
There's red paint (a little brighter than the plastic) on the eyepatch, chinstrap, missile pod fronts, cravat gem, and some details on the boot/boat bits. A light shiny gold paint is used for trim all over the place,
including the "white" of the non-patched eye and the molded anchors on the forearms. The center of the hat front is white with a gold star, the
faceplate is white, and the eyes on the sides of the boots are white with printed red eyeballs (more on those in vehicle mode).
The neck is a ball joint with the socket in the raised black plastic collar center, not prone to popping off. No waist articulation. The
shoulders are 30 degree soft ratchet swivels, while the upper arms are on smooth lifting hinges where they connect to the shoulderpads. There's bicep swivels, hinge elbows, and the wrists just have transformation joints that
fold down stiffly. Hips are swivel and hinge ratchets, 18 degrees at a time forwards/backwards, 10 degrees at a time lifting to the sides. There's
smooth thigh swivels (a joint neglected in the previous ones I've reviewed), ratchet hinge knees that go 10 degrees at a time from one click backwards to
8 clicks the correct way. The toes fold down for transformation, no useful articulation there, but the heels have two positions a few millimeters apart which lets you have a sort-of ankle joint effect.
The hands are too loose for 5mm pegs (the axe has a tapered peg so you just keep going until it's wide enough), and there's a snap-in socket on the right shoulderpad for the Card Gear. Most of the transformation connections are rod-in-snap deals as well, so no repurposable connectors.
Steel Hook's anchor weapon has a dull gold plastic haft and sparkly blue plastic hooks, 4.25" (11cm) long and 4" (10cm) wide. The bottom of the haft
is slightly tapered, starting at around 4.5mm diameter so it could be held by
a figure with 5mm socket fists. The blue hooks fold together for vehicle
mode, making it a single hook.

Card Gear: The faceplate is sparkly blue plastic and only fits on the front in one orientation. Removing it renders the card underneath kinda floppy. The card gear itself is made of dark clear green plastic except for the sight piece which is a lighter clear green plastic. Lots of pale gold paint and some regular gold.
To transform, first fold out the shoulder-attachment point, then fold
the rest of the card in half and snap it together. The barrel slides out thanks to some peg grips on the sides, and then the sighting piece folds
out.
The general impression is a shoulder cannon that's a rectangular block with the corners shaved off, while the barrel is a slightly more octagonal shape in cross-section. Details like a combination of decorative and structural banding are picked out in pale gold, and the strut that attaches
to the robot's right shoulder has some round things that might be intended as searchlights or something. The round bit at the base of the targeting
eyepiece strut is painted a more yellowy gold, and the eyepiece is a clear oblong hexagon...that goes in front of Steel Hook's eyepatch. Oops. I do wonder if the cartoon plays this up for laughs. Anyway, while it looks like
a pistol with a grip, the "grip" can't be held or attached anywhere but the front of the right shoulder, using one of the snap-clips endemic to this
line.

Transformation: The box pictures are deliberately angled to hide most of the differences between the cartoon model and the toy, but they do reveal
that the robot chest is supposed to be at the root of the sails in the animation model...and really nothing is done with the torso at all here. It just hides behind the sails. They don't even stow the head, it just gets turned around.
Anyway, make the robot sit down with legs in front, fold the toes down
and snap the legs together with the hook-form weapon in between the toes to become bowsprit. Fold the fists in and then bend the arms around so that the fists tuck up into the shoulderpads, and swing the arms together in back for form the tall aftcastle. Unfold the sails from the shins and turn the head around to pretend it's hidden, and you're done.

Vehicle Mode: Well, it's kind of a galleon, albeit with only a single
mast and a big robot torso where there would otherwise be an aft mast (just a blank space in front where a foremast and jib might be. Basically it looks like he lost a fight and is limping home on a single mast. They could've
given him a shield that turned into one more mast and plugged into that blank in front, or even made that his Card Gear instead? Ah well. The sails have gold framing details and four pointed stars on the top and bottom sails, plus
a shark with a scarred left eye rising over a scrollwork banner on the middle sail, all in pale gold. There's details on the sides that I guess are
supposed to be cannons poking out of ports (three to a side, only two of
which are painted), and there's eyes on the right and left bow. The
starboard side eye has a scar crossing it. (The sticker sheet offers an
option to put an eye patch on the scarred eye, as well as two different "monitor screen" style eyes.) Unlike most Metal Cardbots, the eyes are not
on clear plastic, because they're not windows.
There's a molded symbol on the back of the lowest sails that's not
visible in robot mode, and appears to be the space pirate symbol? It's not
the Machina symbol on the box, nor is it the shark from the front of the
sail. No paint on it either. It looks kind of like a smiling robot face
with a bandana on top or something.
Beyond the "it can't really transform that way" differences, the painted eyes are white with red iris/pupil combos and no attempt at a glow effect, unlike the show model (the bonus sticker sheet tries to approximate the box
art eyes). The anchor axe blades being sparkly blue instead of gold results
in another difference in color, and the gold paint along the front gunwales doesn't match the gold plastic even a little. Interestingly, the toy adds
some red paint not present on the show model, most of the differences have
been the toys lacking some colors.
11.75" (30cm) from tip of bowsprit to the back of the poop deck, and
about 5.75" (14cm) tall, in mostly sparkly blue and various golds, plus some red and white. Most of the white is hidden or at least in "don't look here" sections. The only new plastic in this mode is seen on the black panels on
the backs of the bottom sails, although the red plastic behind the toes is
now a lot more visible on the foredeck. The front pair of Probably Cannons
on the front half of each side are painted gloss red, but the one molded in
the dull gold plastic in the rear half is unpainted. None of them is an intentional connection socket, and they're all bigger than 5mm in interior diameter. The only connection point left in this mode is the Captain Cannon clip on the starboard side of the aftcastle, but the forearm gold bit blocks the Captain Cannon from connecting, so it can't join the starboard
broadside. It'd have been nice if they put a slot in the mounting piece of
the Captain Cannon so it could attach to one of the spikes on the bowsprit,
but as usual there's no real place for the Card Gear in vehicle mode. Other than, you know, just setting the card mode on the deck.
Does it float? I mean, it's plastic, so yeah. But there's a big hole
in the hull under the robot butt, and no keel, so it'll probably just fall
over sideways if placed in the water.


Overall: One of the better-articulated robot modes in this wave. It's hard to get a good boat mode, and this does not get a good boat mode, but I suppose it has recognizable boat elements.


Dave Van Domelen, figures the bowsprit probably fires energy blasts as chase weaponry.
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