So, this is a sequel of sorts to a previous article, where I tangented briefly about why the "Prime Universe" toys looked like they did. That is, in a toy line where things were suffering for their fidelity to old cartoons, Bulkhead & co. were reinventions, and this made little sense. We currently don't have a complete answer to this, so I expect this post to age poorly, but we have enough to put together a plausible theory. Either Hasbro has gotten so G1 fixated that all toys need to match that style, something all too easy to believe, and/or these are moulds intended to pull double duty, and pushing for the Prime style would undermine that. Knockout is a retool of Studio Series Jazz, Prime Arcee is suspected to be a pretool of an obscure G2 dude called Road Rocket, but the jury is still out on Bulkhead, today's subject matter. There's a minor detail that hints at something, but I'll come back to that later. For now lets talk about the big lug. Oh, and this is going to be slightly more of a review than usual, due to the subject being so new.
The original 2008 vintage Animated Bulkhead toy.
Bulkhead is one of
those rare characters that isn't a G1 original, and still made a big
mark on the franchise. Created for Transformers Animated, Bulkhead
was typical of the high quality characterisation and voice acting of
the show. Big, clumsy, good-natured, naive, but smarter than he
looked, Bulkhead was dwarfed only by the size of his heart. People
loved him, and he looked like an excellent hugger. When Transformers:
Prime rolled around, the writers ended up recreating the same
archetype, and thus Bulkhead came back. Here he was more of a
professional soldier, rather than a civilian in over his head, but
the lovable oaf dynamic remained. There were of course, many toys of
each, and then nothing. Kinda. Something rather curious happened with
the live action films. They looked to be doing the same again,
creating a big fat green transformer for Age Of Extinction, a soft
reboot for the bayverse. But that ended being named Hound, after a
similarly green, non-threatening Autobot with a jeep altmode whom was
the original "big brother" character in Transformers. As it
stands, Bulkhead probably dodged a bullet, as AOE Hound was a hateful
murderbot like many of the bayformers, and people would not have been
accepting of that. Maybe somebody vetoed the idea in time? Or maybe
they just wanted to secure the trademark, who can tell. One thread running through all three characters is to be a big green voyager-sized toy favouring fun, and I'll even give AOE Hound credit for his excessive level of dakka.
The 2011, "First Edition" Prime Bulkhead toy
The 2014 Generations Age of Extinction Hound toy
Regardless, if we look at Legacy Bulkhead's vehicle mode, we are reminded of that Hound, not Prime Universe Bulkhead, or indeed the original Bulkie. Even the the removable tarp/shield section that will dominate so much in this article seems to have been drawn from the “Movie The Best” version of that Hound. It probably should have been some-kind of heavy duty off-roader, rather than a military truck. This sets the tone for the entire toy TBH, making things angular and blocky where they should be friend-shaped. Of course, I should mention that a military motif is not totally out of character for Animated Bulkhead, he turned into a wheeled APC that was sherman green, but, and it feels somehow hypocritical to make this comment, but that's not the name on the box is it? Further confusing matters is the thing which actually drew me to the toy: mini-con functionality. This made everyone go "hang on, are we getting some actual goddamn Unicorn Trilogy in Generations?“, which turned out to be true in a big way with the titan class Cybertron Metroplex. Whom, most unexpectedly, doesn’t have mini-con functionality due to it being cut on cost grounds. So, what’s going off? I would like to present a theory. Japan did something quite unusual back in day, when they did Prime. They changed the play patterns, introducing a model kit like feel, with little partner robots that you built. These were called Mini-c..... No, Arms Microns. Micron is the Japanese term for mini-con, and Arms Microns are a very similar but mechanically different thing. Is that why those posts are there? Someone confused terms? Another thing all too easy to believe. I would really like to know, what, if anything, this toy shares parts with. That tarp section and exposed feet make me wonder.
Idle speculation
aside, its a perfectly serviceable truck form, if one that doesn't
roll that well due to the wheels using mushroom pegs. Ground clearance isn't great either, but its not
unattractive by any stretch. Its also noteworthy for having full weapon storage, where
things integrate but are not mandatory. This is unlike a lot of
recent toys, where accessories either don’t store, or are vital to
the altmode. You can completely conceal the weapons in the back end,
where they act as another securing tab, or just leave them off, and
enjoy the flatbed. The transformation is however where start
questioning things again. Said tarp does not need to be removed, but
it can be, and it obscures the whole leg assembly that honestly feels
a bit of a throwback. Its not bad, its actually more involved than it
looks, just weirdly basic after several years of growing complexity. Also, lots of translucent plastic.
The resulting robot prompts a similar feeling. A sense that it is an actual toy, not a simpified masterpiece-alike. Something from the before times, like maybe when Generations when it was happy to mix things up in the name of fun. That said, its fundamentally a good and attractive robot mode. Bulkhead inherits the welcome innovations of the past few years, without falling into dumbass self-sabotage in the name of show accuracy. It is perhaps not the Bulkhead, but is a valid Bulkhead. He's got ankle tilts, and all the articulation you'd want in an absolute unit like this. His wrecking ball is as beautiful as a blunt instrument can be. The chaingun and tarp/shield are welcome additions, which have a modular weapon thing going on along with the ball. Depending how you count, there's a substantial 16 ports in play, including strange places like the wheels. There's a lot of functionality here. This toy wants you to play with it.
My point? Only that Legacy Bulkhead is something that exists. And he's not bad, just a toy of a kind we haven't had in a while.
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