Star Raider Lockdown Walmart Exclusive Retool of Scraphook, Axlegrease, and Tow-Line Transformers Legacy United Walmart Exclusive Star Raider Capsule Item No.: Asst. G0200 No. G0233 Manufacturer: Hasbro Includes: 2 pipes, 2 engine blasters, 1 hook, 2 thrusters Action Feature: Transforms from robot to car Retail: $24.96 Availability: September 2024 Other: Animated guy to fake Movie guy to G1 pirate guy
PREVIOUS	RSS	NEXT

I've been wanting a new G1 Lockdown for years - technically, depending on where you start measuring, this is the first one. A Revenge of the Fallen Lockdown [FOTD #351] from 2010 was later repurposed in the comics as a G1 version, and so far, he's it - and he's the inspiration for this figure. It's as good of a choice as any, although it is worth noting some drastic design changes. The Animated and ROTF Lockdown toys were Deluxe-class cars that were pretty nicely sized, but they unfolded into utter giants, towering over other more expensive size classes. They were huge for the time, utterly absurdly sized, and that made them incredibly impressive toys. They were much skinnier, shifting their mass to height and making them a little more skeletal. This take on Lockdown is a standard modern Deluxe with a new head, because of course it is. There isn't a car toy that makes an unusually large robot from the last few years that they could repurpose.

If he looks familiar, he reuses the Axelgrease/Scraphook molds. It's a pretty neat toy, but retails the frustrations of previous releases. I had a hard time shoving the back of the car into a proper car shape, but it also has a lot of accessories which is a perfect gimmick and fun play feature for a bounty hunter obsessed with upgrades. Given that pirates in pop culture frequently have hooks for hands, it makes since that Lockdown - a character also famous for this particular enhancement - would fit right in here.

Due to the past decade's attempts to align packaging (and packaging copy) to a singular global expression, there's no story for these guys other than their name. The packaging looks just like the other United toys, with the only hint to the average buyer that these are in any way special is the fine print. "Star Raider" appears above the name, which may lead you to TF Wiki page for the Star Seekers. They're pirates from novels you didn't read, descended from a really cool Cybertron-era toy named Cannonball. Much like Ferak, Lockdown builds out a faction you didn't know you wanted so any lore, or story, any of that has to be brought with you. It's a shame, I would love to read more about pirate robots.

Click here to check availability at eBay.

Click here to check availability at Amazon.

Click here to check availability at Walmart.

Once you get beyond the size of the toy*, which is shorter than other Lockdown toys that are black robots with silver, yellow, green, and red on them, it's good. It's also strange to see a character design from Animated, reimagined through the Revenge of the Fallen design aesthetic, and somehow slapped on a Junkion body and the result is "yeah, that works." This isn't to say he's perfect - he's excellent for what he is. You can pull off his limbs and swap them with other Junkions and recent figures with this gimmick, although you will be pretty limited in which ones can still transform. One of his boosters looks like his yellow arm with a hook on it, his engine blaster looks pretty cool, and he's covered in spikes. The head is a simplified, compressed version of the Revenge of the Fallen toy version, with coloring to match. If you got this at BotCon, you'd pay $80 for it and be blown away by it - instead it's $25 at Walmart, and you're going to find that it's pretty good.

Thanks to the gimmicks, articulation is somewhat limited. The shoulders don't have a full range of movement, but you do get excellent leg movement plus rocker ankles. He can hold his blasters nicely, and there are plenty of 5mm ports to slap his stuff. The deco is sensible, better than expected with painted silver spikes and two shares of green on his person. I think they got almost everything right, as the colors give him a lot of personality. I assume because they were inspired by the aforementioned Revenge toy, but he has a Decepticon logo on his chest and not a Star Seeker/Star Raider one. It would be nice if he was marked as a part of the team, or not marked at all given his origins as a gun-for-hire. Maybe the character found a Decepticon chest plate at some point and said "eh, good enough?"

Coincidentally, "good enough" is how I see this robot. I've always wanted a made-for-Classics/Generations/etc. Lockdown, and as a first real attempt it's fine. I would buy a bigger one, with more gimmicks and upgrades, in a heartbeat - but this one captures the look in all ways except face and maybe height. If you live in the future where a better version exists, this may be redundant. Today, though, he fits in well with the other Star Raiders and is certainly the cheapest Lockdown option at your fingertips.

* - Of course, you can make him taller. Star Raider Road Pig's arms work as leg extensions, and fit in swimmingly. I might buy a second one down the road on sale to keep there permanently.

The conversion is kind of weird, but generally not too much of a hassle other than massaging the back half of the figure. Due to his pull-apart gimmick, you may find chunks falling off during transformation. Such is life. It's a neat toy, but the manual is necessarily and unless I'm doing it wrong, some of the angles that you need to find aren't intuitive. You get a good car, but it isn't as clear-cut as you might like.

The car is pretty much perfect. Most of Lockdown's incarnations are some sort of black par with red windows, green paint, and silver spikes. It's sort of punk rock, it's a little Frankenstein's Monster, and it's a muscle car that you don't want to corner you in an alley. It's got a good heft to it, and you can load it up with all of his gear - everything fits in place, and I love the added gold on the thruster that recalls the original toy's mismatched arms. I wish it fit together more easily, because it's such a great car mode that I'd like to see it more often. As it is, it may stay in robot mode for a very long time after I finish writing this review. The hook is a nice bonus, so he can tow other cars.

I really love the deco, the red windows are good and the silver painted spikes really helps sell the character. If you showed this to me and said that this car was always intended to be a Lockdown toy, it's hard to argue with it. They really captured the personality of the car, down to the lack of faction markings. Sometimes a repaint makes good sense, and this one makes very good sense.

I hope Hasbro tries again - not because this isn't a nice toy, but because the character could probably sell well as a bigger, more tricked-out robot. This one will always have a place on my shelf as "Star Raider Lockdown," but I would like to see a G1-ier redesign with a not-movieverse head and an even zanier car mode some day.

Additional Images

Click here to see more Hasbro figures in Figure of the Day.

Click here to see more Transformers figures in Figure of the Day.

Want to buy this figure? Check Transformers availability at our sponsors:
Entertainment Earth

Featured Toy Video