Thursday 4 February 2016

A Concise Review of Energon Strongarm In 500 Words Or Less

Pricepoint/Vintage: Basic, 2004.
Modes: Robot and Cybertronian Jeep.
Transformation Style: Basic carformer.
Play Patterns: Robot and car. 5mm weapons. Energon weapons and chip.
Points of Interest: Has no relationship to RID Strongarm, nor has an obvious homage. You can mount a gun on his head.




The Good
Strongarm has a solid balance between robot mode, vehicle mode, and accessories. The jeep mode looks nice, with bright colours, extensive paint, and even an interior. His robot mode is classically an Autobot, and its top heavy build makes him live up to the name. Both modes benefit from the energon weapon pieces, which variously form an articulated crane/gun, a battle axe, and some decorative bits. The engineering is also appropriate for the size, with above average articulation for the line, including “toes” and a waist swivel, which all makes for a toy with good play value.




The Bad
Strongarm's accessories are ageing badly on my example, with cracks showing around a 5mm port, in the manner common to translucent plastic. His vehicle mode suffers from Visible Head Syndrome, requiring his energon parts to obscure. 





The Mediocre
While better than some Unicron Trilogy toys, Strongarm's articulation is dictated by the transformation, and then hampered by the sculpt. The hips for example are balljointed, but as he has car seats for buttocks, there's no backwards movement. He has 12 points of articulation, but its very limited considering where its placed. The robot mode proportions are slightly off, in my eyes, the shoulders being too far back.




The Alternatives
Strongarm got reused a total of six times, depending how you count, meaning that if you don't like the colours, options are there. Most notably, it got used for a Botcon exclusive version of Outback, while the Japanese version has a slightly different head sculpt. Car-themed Autobots are also very easily found, but if all you want is a good Energon basic, look at Battle Ravage.




The Verdict
Strongarm is an unassuming but nicely functional toy. Compared to more modern transformers of similar size, and the Cybertron line that followed immediately after, he is simple and unrefined, but that's a fair distance from saying he's bad. He is something of the metaphorical rough diamond, there's legitimate flaws to take issue with, but there are also merits. That axe, for example. The toy is also quite cheap, so if you like what you see here, I doubt you'll have a bad time with the guy. Just be mindful for that translucent plastic.

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