Shard A New Character! Transformers Legacy United Deluxe Item No.: Asst. F2990 No. F8529 Manufacturer: Hasbro Includes: 4 swords, 2 blasters Action Feature: Transforms from robot to gem helicopter, can come apart to be accessories for other figures Retail: $24.99 Availability: April 2024 Other: No faction symbol on this one
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A new character! Infernac Universe Shard is a lot of things - sort of a weaponizer, maybe adjacent to Inhumanoids or Rock Lords, sort of Spring-esque in colors, and sort of rocky... but also gem-like. It's weird to say that you don't have anything like her, and yet, you also may have a few things like her - it's such an odd design that it surprises me that it came out of Hasbro for a mass market release. This is more of what I'd expect from a more experimental toy offering, and as such it's the kind of thing that may appeal to those seeking something new and unusual.

The toy can convert from rocky robot to gem copter without having to remove too many parts - just the accessories - which is certainly very nice. You can pull her apart and use her legs as a blade and mash the blasters and swords together as a bow, and also pull off her arms if you're a psycho.

I initially wasn't planning on buying this one, but you know how it goes - sometimes something comes up and you just grab an item. It's pretty cool, with lots of little gem bits rather than sculpted panels or tech detail. I'm worried some of the spinier parts on Shard may snap off and become actual shards later, so take care with this one and be glad she wasn't cast in clear plastic. Not mostly, anyway, they gave her clear cockpit glass for some reason. I doubt this is meant to be an actual vehicle so I wouldn't have mind if they fudged it but it looks good on her chest and light-piped eyes. The head, perhaps due to the shoulder pylons and position of the face, seems to look darker than it should for being a nice green plastic. The silver face mask faces down a bit, which generally means it's going to be in the shadows of most places in my house. With a yellow-green crest, horns, and some tusk-like things on the side of the mask, it's a distinctive head that doesn't necessarily read as "rocky" and could probably be transplanted on any other Autobot or Decepticon body and not look out of place.

The body has hands, forearms, and thighs that look pretty standard with shins in between both worlds. You can "armor up" the legs with removable rocky plates, making her legs look mostly rock-like and giving her a little bulk. Articulation is good, with mostly great joints and an above average range of motion for someone where you can rip off the arms and legs. The gem rock motif carries through the design, going from yellowish green to greenish green. It's a figure that I think customizers are going to have a blast with, maybe putting in traces of geodes in the blasters or casting elements in clear to give her an even more distinctive look. She even looks like she has a tail thanks to the helicopter parts hanging off her back, which is a mixed bag - it probably could have been a removable accessory piece.

The accessories are pretty great, as the chopper blades can be handheld weapons. Or reconfigured to a bow. Or stored on the back! The blasters can be easily stored on the forearms or in the fists, with the gem plating going great on her shins. There's a lot to like here, although my imagination tends to read the gem texture as "Godzilla skin" more than "rocky formations." That's arguably just as cool.

Transformation is fairly simple, with a few folding panels tucking away to a fairly compact little flying vehicle. All parts can stay on board with no problems, and it can sit on a flat surface just fine. While I would love landing skids or some sort of feet, I vastly prefer the four bladed weapons and yellow tips in the deco department as where the budget went. It's a satisfying conversion and it's not annoying in the slightest.

The colorful copter looks great for what it is - and it's kind of wild to think Hasbro hasn't done much with this for Transformers before. In the 1980s, Tonka (BanDai) played with rocks through the Rock Lords, and Mattel (actually also BanDai) did egg-shaped rocks in Masters of the Universe through Meteorbs (also Tamagoras.) This one gives you a helicopter-flavored vehicle covered in rocks, and as such, it looks good - it can't be off-model because nothing like it exists. As a vehicle, you can spin the blade or swoosh it around - there isn't much else you can do thanks to a lack of exposed 5mm ports or other moving elements, but at least it looks cool.

I didn't think much of the Weaponizer modes, but generally speaking these things are stronger as a whole than as a pile of parts. Maybe you'll want to use the blasters or armor on your other figures, but for now I'd rather just keep her all together. It's more fun as a complete unit.

I assume most people are going to skip this one, mostly because (as I write this) this is a non-character. If she showed up in a comic or a cartoon I assume she'd be an instant fan favorite, particularly if Hasbro seeded her in a story first to create demand. Since it's a toy first, it has to sell on its own merits - and it's really cool! It doesn't really belong as a proper Autobot or Decepticon, which pushes it completely outside the built-in narrative of the franchise, but it's the kind of thing toy collectors will dig so they can pull it out later as some forgotten oddity. If it's ever on sale, get one - and if you have $25 to burn she's more interesting than an update of another toy you've bought three or four times.

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