Saturday 3 September 2016

Sweep(s) the Leg, A Legends Scourge review

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Scourge, the leader of the Sweeps and tracker of um, things across the galaxy.  Working for Galvatron he is a nasty fellow.  NOW he is a headmaster.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Scourge’s weird vehicle mode. 
He’s a boat.

That flies. 

Through space. 

Riiiight, about as much sense as Rodimus’ space camper van.

He is also standing on my  desk?  How does he rate after the wonders of Hardhead and Skullcruncher?

Read on to find out…  oooohhhh Mystical!

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The box is naturally nice.  A  bit smaller than HH and SC. you can plainly see the robot mode and vehicle mode on the back.  Scourge’s vehicle is a spaceship  Groan.  Oh hang on a sec, he’s actually more like a spaceboat!  Yay, how very G1.  The box just describes him as a “Vehicle mode.”


Back of the box

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The Decepticon staff Office Scourge is now a Headmaster.
The new headmaster concept is expanded so all can experience the fun.



I see that the only the original Headmaster characters (Hardhead, Skull, Mindwipe, Weirdwolf etc) seem to come with the drone characters.  That’s interesting, Scourge and Blurr don’t.  I am a little relieved at this.

Opening the box, he has the usual comic instruction piece and bio bit.  I discovered work has a nice scanner there, so while I am still there, I will make use of it.



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Bio

Function:  Staff Officer
Scourge is the ruthless, cruel leader of his platoon of Sweeps.He relishes any chance to slaughter and has a deep rooted ambition, which he would coolly betray Galvatron if the  situation came up. But he lacks the skills and popularity as well as the respect from his underling Sweeps.

STR  8
INT  8
SPD  9
END  7.5
RNK  8
CRG  8.5
FPR  8
SKL  8

Poor guy.  He does have decent stats and yet is a bit of a fool.

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The comic for Scourge is actually pretty funny and

OH WOW, A TRANSLATION!
Who put that there?
(me)

ScourgeHM (75)Scourge is the leader of he sweeps, who are Galvatron's personal bodyguards.
But when they lost their bodies, he was demoted and now everyone calls them the janitors.

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Pterosaur Says the sweeps can use the Nightbird factory line to make their own body, for a favour.




SCENE CHANGE! Babi da di baa baaaaaa

ScourgeHM (75)Alpha Trion has been kidnapped and AI is on the case.  The suspect is a character with an old man beard.


ScourgeHM (75)AI thought there was only one sweep, but in fact, there are 7!!
The sweeps are bickering about who is the original, except for #6, who is just saying "Six, Six"
#7 Can't breathe...


ScourgeHM (75)Suddenly #1 Confesses, he is Scourge and now he has what he was after, he has no need to hide.




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Scourge will use Alpha Trion's "Oldman Matrix" which will increase his power 1 million times (oh my, nice G1 reference there!) AT is trapped in Scourge's body. On top of that, Scourge is not an old man like AT, he just has long facial hair. THAT'S IT!! (obviously a point of contention.  I guess, Scourge would be one of the younger transformers, being created by Unicron and all). He escapes.

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HEAD ON! Galvatron, Weirdwolf, are of no concern! Scourge will become the new leader and all who oppose him will perish!



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Pterasor is trying to remind him of his promise, but Scourge doesn't need anybody  ~~~meanie~~~~~!


ScourgeHM (75)All the other Sweeps are annoyed that #1 grabbed the body and power for himself, when it should be all theirs and they combine and force Scourge to Transform!   But the Matrix energy is too much,



ScourgeHM (75)BOOM! Summer Fireworks for Cancer and Shockwave to watch. How cute.>





ScourgeHM (75)Alpha Trion is freed from Scourge's chest, #1 is surprised that he's the only one that's fine, #6 is say "Six....." #7 can't breathe, poor guy.



LATER

ScourgeHM (75)Now the sweeps must clean up the city.
#5 is resigned to being a cleaner. #6 is, well "six"
#1 is eager, he has heard of a more powerful energy than the Matrix,


ScourgeHM (75)“It’s called Zodiac!  I will find it!”
To be continued….?




Interesting points.  Once again, this appears to be taking place during summer, with Shockwave and Cancer being at a Japanese festival with their Yukata (light kimono), fans and fireworks.  Matching with their release in Japan.
Each sweep has the same facial expressions throughout.
#1 is determined and probably the smartest by the looks of things and the one that comes with your Scourge toy. (maybe…. Probably)
#2  Always has a tear in his eye
#3 Gritted teeth = Angry
#4 is not there (probably to do with 4 being an unlucky number [related to death] in Japan.
#5 has expressive eyebrows
#6 is an idiot
#7 Can’t breathe
It has been confirmed that Alpha Trion has a matrix, although it is the Jijimatrix (old man Matrix), essentially making Ultra Magnus an official Matrix bearer.

So after reading through that many many times, I REALLY want a little pack of Headmaster Sweeps with 2,3,5,6,7 scribbled on them somewhere.  Preferably with minor paint changes to show the very slight changes to their faces.  Currently, my tweet to people who could make it happen is ignored…

Now the toy, starting in vehicle mode.

Spaceboooat
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A rather nice Spaceboat I must say too, well at least from the top.  From the bottom, it looks like a robot chest.   I do like that they sculpted in some fake guns into the panels that form his legs.

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Details are nice enough and you’d expect them to  be, after all, the top is all paneling, so he has some nice metal sheet sculpting going on, as well as fins, vents and jet booster things on the top.


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The bottom is as I stated before a mix of robot chest and leg panels, so we’ll cover that in robot mode.  The gun panels have a couple of holes that can be used for action figure stands, which I appreciate a lot! From the back he does look a lot more like a spaceship than voyager Brainstorm does, so that’s nice.  There’s a couple of circle things in the side at the rear which can have weapons mounted in them, as well as a weapon port on the top of the cockpit and one just before.

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For HM interaction, he has a standing point on either side towards the front and room for one in the cockpit.  If you mount the gun in front of the cockpit, there’s no way anyone there would be able to see out…


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HM Scourge, hereby referred to as “#1” fits rather nicely in the cockpit and at the right angles can be seen reasonably well.  Oh and also, you can have a head in the hole in the top of the cockpit for the old, “Do you want me to gut Ultra Magnus” movie scene.  A nice touch that one, that I very much approve of.  If you don’t have a head in there, you can put Weapon A in there to simulate the pointy thing the G1 toy had. 

That’s about it for Vehicle mode. 

Let’s have a look at #1.

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I love the sculpting on this guy although I’m not too sure on how he looks compared to G1 Fracas.  Like Scourge, all his colours are shades of blue.

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Mine seems to have suffered a bit of damage to one side of his face.  It looks like a bit of pressure has been applied to the cheek part of the helmet.  While his face is painted, mine isn’t the best job.  I think a mouth is sculpted there, but can’t quite tell.

Y’know, between Blurr and Scourge coming at the same time, TT must have saved a LOT of money on plastic colours!

Headmode!
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#1 Transforms into a very nice Scourge noggin!  With a little extra step though.  Pull up the pointy thing on the top.  I love the sculpting as it’s very nice.  You can clearly see his cheeks, frowny forehead, mouth and facial hair.    The colouration is also great, with red eyes, light blue face and slightly darker (but still really light) hair.  It’s just brilliant!

HEADON! Which also mean Transform!

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Scourge is pretty much a shellformer.  No Surprises there at all, in fact it is usually expected, as Scourge’s all important wings must be accounted for in some way or another.  It does have a clever compacting thing with a leg twist that I am not entirely sure is necessary, but since these toys are generally made to make a couple of figures, maybe it will be important for his Body-buddy (™).


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What I found rather interesting is this extension, which I can see why it’s there,  and that it fills up the cockpit.  It’s interesting in that the twisting around of the legs could  have made for a waist joint, but since the extension piece hides completely in the body, Scourge is without one.

Speaking of bodies.

Scourge looks very cartoony.  At first I thought he was a bit too cartoony and chunky for my liking, but after a while, I began to like it more and more.

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That’s a bit of a theme with Scourge, my first impression of him was not that great, but as I’ve been playing with him over the past few days or so, he kind of grew on me and the things I disliked such as cartoony look, proportions, and stuff lessened a bit and so now, while not being a brilliant toy, he isn’t as bad as I initially thought.

Colours are still various shades of blue.

Articulation isn’t bad.

  • Wibbly head.
  • Hinged and ball jointed shoulders (great movement)
  • Bicep swivel
  • Hinged elbows
  • Hinged wrists for transformation (mine are a bit loose)
  • Hinged hips, but they have a full range of motion.
  • Swivel thigh.
  • Hinged knees
  • Hinged toes and heels due to transformation.

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Sometimes the sculpting of the body gets in the way of movement,  but you can pull off a number of cool poses as long as you don’t want too much that is dynamic.  I would’ve preferred a bit more articulation on his wings to allow them as bit more play, in his robot mode, but there ya go.  Can’t have it all I guess.  His feet though are pretty solid, with a bit of messing about, he can be incredibly stable.


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His gun is a double barreled blaster, which you can make triple barreled blaster using his pointy “Weapon A” part.  I like to twist it around though, because if you don’t you have a BIIIIG seat in Scourge’s gun for a Headmaster to sit in.  The turning around of the pointy bit manages to cover up the seat by just a touch!

HED SWAPSIES

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Swapping #1 around with other heads is fun, although his colours do stand out a lot.  Scourge does also look rather nice with Galvatron.

To finish this off, Scourge is a nice enough toy.  His vehicle mode is nice.  His robot mode is nice.  His articulation is nice.  Nothing about him is exceptional, except for Scourge’s face sculpting in my opinion. 

He’s not bad, but not really good either

Not a priority figure.

If you have the previous Generations Scourge that Transforms into a stealth bomber thing, I think that is just as good a  Scourge as this guy is.  It essentially comes down to whether or not you want a SPACEBOAT.

BASE MODE

Did I do this?  I think so, but it wasn’t that great, but here ya go.


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He needed some accessories help.

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