Lockdown

I really liked the Animated version of Lockdown, but I had no idea they made a version in the Movie line until I saw it on the shelves. I thought it was an interesting (and excellent) idea to take one of the great Animated designs and translate it’s aesthetic to the more detailed ROTF line. This bore further investigation.

For starters, this new Lockdown is more angular and mechanical, and has a much more complicated transformation. It’s not quite “bayformers” but it’s a far cry from the smooth lines of animated.

In vehicle mode, visual cues are the same. This is a mean muscle car with no excuses. It feels like something out of Death Race 2000. The wheels have giant spikes on them, there’s a cattle-pusher front grill and exhaust pipes emerge from the sides. I also really dig the orange translucent windows.

Transformation is radically different from its predecessor with intricate twists and turns.

When done, the bad-assery goes away a little bit, and it looks sort of like a old-man transformer. It’s yelling at other transformers to get off his lawn.

The multi-jointed head and neck allow for a fantastic range of motion, but the head seems too small. The furrowed brow and frown add to the look of age for the character. The light piping is nicely done though.

The arms are not symmetrical which is a big turn-off to me. The left arm features the engine on the forearm with a limp, flexible plastic hand at the end. It might be good for bitch-slapping, but otherwise, not so much.

The other arm has a giant hook at the end, but again it’s made out of that floppy plastic. Unlike the animated version this is not removable – this is what he has for a hand. It’s got a cool piston action though.

The legs are where it really goes wrong for me. Look at those tiny, multi segmented legs? They bend in places they don’t have to, giving him goat-legs or something.

I like the idea of taking designs that originated in the Animated line, but I feel that they lost some of the coolness that made the Animated version great. This one is too spindly and aged looking for my tastes.