The Robots in Disguise Warrior figure of this character was present on shelves for more than 3 years, and I never got to buy it. Why did I not, you might ask? I don't know, I just never got to it. Especially with Siege and Studio Series getting so much attention. But the Evolution line should do this character justice, right? Being a retool of Legacy's Elita-One might seem a bit unusual, but I am interested in seeing how faithful this new figure is, and see if it is a better version of the character than the original Warrior toy. Today's review is the third most popular Autocop in the history of the brand, that being Strongarm!
Here we have Strongarm in her vehicle mode, representing the pickup truck decked out in police detailing that made her stand out from the more traditional likes of Prowl in G1 or Animated. Off-road police vehicles are real, and they make sense given how off-terrain Strongarm tends to be in the series' setting of Crown City. This figure is a heavy retool of last year's Elita-One, which I thought was a surprising choice for a figure to reuse. It manages to be faithful to the altmode she had in the show, though compared to the Warrior figure which better matched the character model, this alt mode looks somewhat squished. It's not a dealbreaker since I do value the effort Hasbro put in making this look like an entirely new toy, but it is something worth mentioning. Regardless, I like that the paint apps are accurate to the cartoon unlike the Hasbro version of the Warrior Class toy (Takara's Adventure version is colored accurately).
Still, I have to commend Hasbro for the effort put in retooling this figure. The feet being the same as Elita's is annoying, though. The gun can peg on the back and act like some sort of harpoon gun.
For a vehicle mode comparison with the figure she took the engineering from, here she is next to last year's Elita-1. Just about everything is brand new, with only the wheels and the feet being the same between both toys. Elita does have her rims painted, but Strongarm looks fine with hers unpainted.
Because I wanted to add some spotlight to a figure whose tooling should be colored Green at some point, here she is next to Detritus. Who definitely looks a but funky with the Earth mode retooling compared to Siege Hound. Still waiting for Buzzworthy Hound, Hasbro.
And for a series-appropriate comparison, here she is with the only RID15 toy I own, that being Soundwave. I guess the squatter proportions make her smaller than Soundwave in a way.
Transformation is the mostly the same as Elita-One, but the shoulder pauldrons now hinge down rather than remain part of the backpack, with a new ability to hinge out for shoulder movement. The wings are new to this figure. The robot mode is definitely closer to the cartoon Strongarm originated moreso than the Prime characters did. The chunkier aesthetics make this figure feel closer to what it previously looked like, no doubt thanks to Strongarm being appropriately bulky for a fembot. I already love the slender, more feminine proportions on Arcee or Airachnid, but Strongarm is still a great design regardless. I remember when my co-worker called her mommy, but more importantly, the main discrepancies on her are how high the shoulders are, the wings not being prominent, and the missing light bar halves on the forearms.
Head sculpt is very faithful to the cartoon, even if her eyes don't have pupils and her eyelashes are missing. Still better than how Legacy Arcee turned out. With her articulation being the same as Elita's, the main points worth mentioning are that ankles feel more refined here than with my copy of Elita while the arms may have a bit of interference with the windows at times.
Here we have her in-between Detritus, aka beige Hound, and Elita-One as everyone is in bot mode. The entire legs are definitely the same between both figures, which is expected from retools like this.
And here we have RID15 Soundwave, being a taller character than the new toy we have here. I think the scale works enough in my opinion. I wonder how she'll scale with Bumblebee, Sideswipe, and the rest of the Autobots given the different plastic distribution and whatnot. This is a pretty solid retool, and one that I do recommend if you are interested in getting this character and prefer the engineering of the Legacy figures over the RID15 Warriors.
Here is the original RID15 Warrior for reference, which is the Takara Adventure version that has the more accurate deco compared to Hasbro's. The chunkier proportions likely owe to this either being closer to the cartoon or being a more kid-friendly toy.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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