Decepticon Berserker His Love for You Is Like a Truck Transformers The Last Knight Premier Edition Deluxe Item No.: Asst. C0887 No. C1322 Manufacturer: Hasbro Includes: Wrist blaster, pistol, nightstick Action Feature: Transforms from Robot to Chevy Suburban Retail: $19.99 Availability: April 24, 2017 Other: Just Say No
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I started pawing through my The Last Knight figures and intended on posting Barricade first since he really wowed me, but then I opened Decepticon Berserker and bumped back Barricade to next week. Why? I hate Berserker just that much. The Predator-ish SUV is a pain in the neck, and if you're short on funds I advise you to not buy him at full price or at all. I freely admit I could have a bum one, but consider the fact that I went out of my way to do extra work and redo a bunch of things just so I could get this up early to tell you how much I don't enjoy it.

The packaging is inspired by Hasbro's evolution in the $20 collector price point - that is, someone said "Transformers needs a Black Series or Marvel Legends." And here you go. Enjoy not getting your money's worth on this one.

Roughly 20 points of articulation deliver unto an unpleasant update of a toy that looks a lot like Dark of the Moon's Crankcase. Ankle spurs move and sort of add to the ability to keep him upright, and his dog-like legs make him look more interesting than your average robot. Wrists can pivot up or down, particularly if you remove the barely-tabbed-in-place forearm kibble - it comes right off, and in transforming it this goes from a nice feature to a nightmarish hassle. The figure has pretty good deco with orange and red on his body, plus multiple eyes and a head that looks like the Predator creature. Posing him properly to keep his center of gravity in a way that lets him stay upright takes a little doing, and he's just oh so grey. With a big red X on his chest, for some reason. There's a lot of great sculpted detail from dreadlocks that look almost like ammo belts to big nasty stalagmite teeth to a face that looks vaguely like a severely twisted Decepticon symbol. He's a nasty character, and as a toy, he's also particularly unpleasant. The robot mode is fiddly and parts fall off, and the feet could have been designed a lot better to allow for simpler standing.

The deco is good, but not spectacular - there's nothing here that's going to change your life, but it isn't bad either. There are white knee pads plus some gunmetal silver paint on the belly of this angel in a half shirt, but most of the paint was reserved for the car mode and that carries over here. For this reason, the more or lss bare arms and thighs aren't going to get a lot of attention with their flat sculpts and uncomplicated colors. I still dig 'em.

Transformation is Hell. It's a classic shellformer with panel-massaging and parts that seem to fall off by design. The panels over the rear truck wheels are also forearm kibble, and are barely held in with the least possible amount of friction. During transformation, they will pop off - and have to be similarly barely-connected to other parts, while other parts slide in and may cause them to pop out later on. At which point you need to back up a step or three and try again, repeatedly. I think I lost a grand total of 30-40 minutes of a night to getting it in the vehicle mode and I assure you, I almost chucked it against the wall several times. The only reason I didn't shatter this with a hammer was so I could snap some pictures of it, although I guess in hindsight my smashing it to pieces would have illustrated the point much more clearly than a shot of the black Chevrolet Suburban with some police and Decepticon markings.

The car mode looks acceptable, but may be a smidgen gappy with lots of obvious panels breaking it up. The vehicle mode wasn't cut up in a pleasing way, so there are weird and ugly cuts throughout instead of just using the natural door cuts. It's a lot like Universe Ironhide and Ratchet, which I remember nobody liking. The wheels are unpainted, and the vehicle has blue painted windows, red lights on the lightbar and rear, and some white lights and the contractually obligatory Chevrolet logo on the front. If Chevy's cars are as fun to drive as this one was to transform, I will never buy one and make sure to take up smoking to ruin a rental. Assuming you don't squeeze it a smidgen and the vehicle mode collapses upon itself, it's an acceptable vehicle mode with wheels that roll fairly well and undercarriage storage for his two spear weapons. I will compliment the designers on making unique, proprietary slots for the pegs on the spears so they store in place on the bottom. The rubbery spears are a trifle tough to get in there just-so, but it works, and there was sufficient room for it.

Since most stores were already charging $18-$20 for Generations deluxe-class toys, the $19.99ish price isn't much of a stretch. However if you like stretches, I noticed Kmart stores asking $22.99 while Walmarts were around $15.86. That's a significant range if you're a collector, because a couple of dollars on one figure may not break the bank but after a wave or two you're throwing money away at $23.

I've got a lot of toys, and precious few Transformers I would like to curse in print at length. This is one of them. Don't spend the $23-$26 Kmart/Meijer prices on it. I'd hesitate to say it's worth the $20. Even at Walmart's surprising sub-$16, I'd still say it wasn't worth the hassle. If I got it on deep clearance I'd probably chuck it in the bag and then off to Goodwill... but I didn't, so you're getting a review. I have to say the level of sculpted detail is good and the level of paint is better than Hasbro sometimes gives us, what with the painted logos and all the windows (and not just the front trio) are decorated. Hasbro clearly is making use of its extra dollars to give us a few pennies more worth of paint masks here. It's just a shame that the toy itself is unworthy of your toy budget - spend it on something, anything else. Go buy Barricade, or some more Generations stuff, or give the money to a less fortunate person standing on the median.

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