Foreword:
Hey boardies, I'm fairly new to the boards and so being my first review I will try my best to cover as much detail and try and answer the questions and concerns you guys are thinking. Please bear with my newbishness and hope you all enjoy the review!
Alright guys, I'm going to spare you the details of the box and etc. which can be seen on TFW's hands on of Assaulter. So I'm going to cover the articulation, transformation, alternate modes, comparisons, and the negatives.
ARTICULATION/ROBOT MODE
Assaulter does a fantastic job of capturing Broadside's likeness of whom he's meant to homage.
Despite having bulky shoulders and thick arms he can still pull off a variety of poses:
Such as holding his rifle with two hands. The wrists are on balljoints and his shoulders can go up and down like a shrugging motion and go in and out.
http://s16.postimage.org/idbcgieud/IMG_0383.jpg
His legs are very articulated as well. His hip/leg joints involve forward/backward and side to side movement and along with his ball jointed ankles he can go for some really wide legged poses. As for the knees, they are double jointed (for the transformation) and can get in the way.
http://s6.postimage.org/vtzchl8i9/IMG_0384.jpg
His head is on a ball joint as well, but his armor is a little obtrusive so he'd be looking at his collar plate things.. Because of his big helmet (it's on a hinge and can open upwards, plus his big chin) he can't really look down.
http://s6.postimage.org/55ldoqu6p/IMG_0385.jpg
TRANSFORMATION/ALTERNATE MODES
Assaulter's Transformation isn't as complicated (I find) as Defender's, but it's still pretty complex. He's not much of a panel former as one might think but he does rely severely on pegs. Almost to the point where it gets frustrating.
*** A special thing to note is that his weapons are essential to completing his transformation in that they form the bow of the carrier and extend the wings of the jet.
***
From robot mode he can transform to either mode so it's not like you have to go from one mode to the next, much like Defender. The arms and legs pretty much compact together towards his torso. leaving a very kibble free but chunky jet mode. The transformation to jet mode is slightly more complex as it involves swiveling the waist, and bending it.
http://s6.postimage.org/p1hd4ab81/IMG_0387.jpg
The carrier mode.. does not appeal to me. To put it simply, from robot mode, Assaulter's shoulders need to be pushed up and his arms placed to his side. His legs don't really do anything except you pull the panels on his thighs upwards to form the carrier's wings. It's really simple once you have it all figured out, basically he's flying Rocket-Man.
http://s6.postimage.org/5kwnhrg41/IMG_0386.jpg
NEGATIVES/NITPICKS
Everything isn't perfect. Neither is Assaulter. I find that his reliance on pegs to hold together are troublesome as some of them are too big to fit in some holes or need excessive force.
The tabs that connect the nose cone to the rest of the cockpit don't fit well as they're too big and leave a little gap which can be a little unsightly.
http://s6.postimage.org/fw90af7td/IMG_0388.jpg
The tabs on his shoulder blocks that connect together are also a little too big to fit together. I had to shave them down a little and with a little excessive force was able to push them together during the jet transformation.
* elburrito pointed a trick or method to getting the shoulder pauldrons to clamp together.
"if one carefully lines up the appropriate peg to the relevant slot, gently pushes the two together and rocks the connection back and forth about a millimetre, the peg just pops right in with a satisfying click."
http://s6.postimage.org/qkcr99hsh/IMG_0389.jpg
There are panels on his forearm that swing out and need to "clamp" on over his legs during the carrier transformation. Unfortunately.. It doesn't do a good job of clamping into the socket as the slat on mine are a little to big to fit into the slit.
http://s6.postimage.org/7tffcuclt/IMG_0390.jpg
Lastly and most importantly, are the ratchet joints on his hips that control forward/backward leg movement.. They are very, very, very tight. Like Heavy Labor tight. They make a loud clicking noise and I'm deathly afraid of moving them.. Might be just my figure, but it's just something I want to point out.
COMPARISONS/GRATUITOUS PICTURES
Assaulter is very large, which suits his Broadside homage. On most Voyager figures he has at most an inch on them and dwarfs many deluxe figures.
I didn't get a chance to compare him with some voyager figures but when I have the time I will post more comparison pictures.
http://s6.postimage.org/wb7j0qf69/IMG_0394.jpg
http://s6.postimage.org/fbyklh3yp/IMG_0395.jpg
FINAL THOUGHTS
The price is definitely worth it for Assaulter. You're paying for a lot here. He's loaded with plastic and has a decent amount of die cast which doesn't get in the way. Unlike his G1 predecessor he's far from being a brick despite weighing like one. There are a little issues I have but hopefully it's because I got a particularly bad one during production.
Well, I hope you all thought this was a helpful enough review, I'll be sure to edit in more pictures soon but these should suffice for now.
http://s6.postimage.org/eaybwcmz5/IMG_0393.jpg
Shake out.
