[Transformers] Revenge of the Fallen Lockdown and Decepticon Bludgeon

I didn't particularly love the Michael Bay Transformer movies. Sure the first one was a bit of an achievement on its own that had us geeking over finally seeing the Transformers in a live-action movie. But as the movie franchised progressed, it just got worse and worse.

And thus I've had little to no love for the latter movies and generally exerted little to no effort in purchasing any of the toys.

Despite my lack of interest, a few of the toys managed to find their way into my collection starting with the toyline created to support the Revenge of the Fallen sequel. And naturally the toys that I did purchase did not at all appear in the movie.


So the only Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen toys that I own are the Deluxe-class figure Lockdown and the Voyager-class figure Bludgeon. Let me explain the reasons why in just a bit.

Lockdownis actually a character from the Transformers: Animated series, and ironically one of the Animated toys that I do not own. But one thing led to another and I ended up purchasing Lockdown given (1) images online went a long way to sell the toy. Plus he was on sale at our regular grocery and so it conveniently managed to sneak into my grocery budget for that particular month.

To be fair, he's a pretty wicked-looking call. He has all these random spikes and stuff sticking out of him that just scream badass car. And the paint scheme was pretty cool too - a nice balance of the black with the not-so-flat green. Why this character made the transition from the cartoon universe to the live-action universe is beyond me, but he's cool either way.

In his robot mode, he is one of the tallest Deluxe-class figures that I own. In fact, he actually ends up being taller than some of my Voyager-class toys. He's not very thick - and by that he is rather skinny, but it sort of works and this gives him a rather skeletal appearance. Add in his rather wicked-looking arms (made of rubber) and he's quite the fearsome little bounty hunter.

The engine from his vehicle mode becomes his little gun on his arm, which clearly homages his appearance in Animated. But the detailing just gives him a different degree of menage - one of ther are times that the "Bayformer" aesthetic rather works in terms of the depiction of the toy.

He has his little "Capture Hook" weapon on his right arm which features some interesting range of motion options. But it's also made of rubber, so it's only menacing to look at but not so much when you try to actually capture something with the hook. Ah well, I guess he has a bit of a career as an odd dentist of sorts.

The other figure that I have is the Voyager-class version of Decepticon Bludgeon. And no, supposedly he is not the same Bludgeon from the G1 era who was part of the Pretenders line. He is somehow a completely different character.

I'm a big fan of Decepticons that turn into tanks. Let's face it, it;s actually the most logical vehicle for any Cybertronian to take on. Why copy boring cars when you can emulate a tank with a massive cannon? And Bludgeon even has little missile launchers to boot.

So yes, I'm happy to have a Voyager-class tank sitting on my shelf among my other Decepticons.

In robot mode, he's downright gorgeous. I mean come on, he's a robotic samurai! He's a concept that made little to know sense in the 90's and it makes even less sense now! But despite that, he has all the necessary gimmicks of being a robotic samurai with a skull for a face.

First, the detailing on his is pretty impressive. He actually looks like he's in samurai armor. His transformation sequence is a wee bit complicated but in the end it all comes together with a few odd bits. I think my main issues are his skinny arms (especially around the elbows) and his feet (stylistically evil but a bit tricky to balance). But hey, you can't have everything.

He comes with two weapons - a katana that is actually hidden in his main cannon and a shorter dagger, meant to represent his wakizashi. You can store both swords in little sheathe provisions that appear at this hip when you move the pieces just right. But the resulting angle isn't all that samurai-authentic and they mainly stick out horizontally. The blades are still rather cool accessories, although the weaker material means that they have a tendency to bend over time. Keeping them into their tank-cannon sheathes helps to keep their shape, but it's not always ideal.

Both toys are still pretty interesting additions to any Transformers collection and part of the reasons why I seem to have so many Decepticons at the house. Lockdown is pretty respectable and gets 4/5 as being a wicked-looking Deluxe-class figure and Bludgeon also gets 4/5 for his balance between the coolness factor and some pretty decent Mech Alive gimmicks too.