Last year, we covered a very shitty Deluxe in the already-mediocre Gamer Edition subline, and his name was Barricade. Being a fan of the High Moon Studios games AND getting a toy of a character we never had in the older Generations waves was exciting, yet the bad cop ended up being a sad flop. The poor kibble management, awkward design choices, flat as-hell feet, and the stupid approach of the weapon storage vs the arm storage were issues I had with a slightly nicer early-wave Warrior Class toy from RID15. So does making a heavy retool meant for a troop builder rather than a main character result in a better toy? Let's find out.
Here we have the Decepticon Soldier in vehicle mode. The design is mostly faithful to the brief moments the altmode was shown in the games, and the sculpted details do a decent enough job to represent the aesthetics of the Transformers in this game. However, while fairly present throughout the toy, the paintwork looks as if it was faintly applied onto the light gray plastic. I appreciate the green and the purple being metallic, but they almost come off as transparent paint apps you'd find that need a second coat or transfer to look consistent and easy to notice. If the gray plastic was darker to somewhat match the gritty detailing of the package art, it'd at least help matters out, especially with the purple being far less noticeable than the green unless you're in a low-light setting. I also have to criticize how incomplete the paint applications feel, notably with the purple detailing representing the Energon flowing through him (a common trait for Transformers in the games). Notice the purple detailing in the middle of the vehicle versus on the arms and you will see what I mean.
The sides of the vehicle mode just come off as looking more like an incomplete prototype, with the dull gray plastic gasping for more paint applications. Even the tires could use some added detailing because you could barely make out the purple trim around the rims. It's so faint you could barely notice they're there! Oh, and his gun can peg on the top.
For a vehicle mode comparison, I do appreciate Hasbro going all the way in retooling the figure to look a lot more distinct from Barricade, though Barry's alt mode looks nicer because of the color scheme not being as faint on him compared to the Decepticon Soldier. Barry's alt mode is the better of the two modes he has, while the Soldier could have been done better.
Transformation is nearly the same as we've seen for Barricade, though with a few differences worth mentioning, such as not being required to rotate the forearms nor having to bring up the front parts of the vehicle mode to the hips, instead leaving them on the sides of the lower legs. The resulting robot mode is significantly different from Barricade as we'll get to, which is another bit of praise I have to add. While the vehicle parts make the character design a lot clunkier than it normally is, the Soldier at least doesn't feel too held back in maintaining a comparable look to the character model compared to Barricade. Granted, he's hollow from the back because of one of the parts from the vehicle mode as well as the inner parts of the legs, but for the most part, there aren't as many aesthetic issues here as with Barry.
The head sculpt is the usual Genericon troop we'd expect from anyone who isn't a named character in Transformers. It's more generic than the Vehicons are in the Prime series, even! The green and orange may have people think this is comparable to Master Chief, but I doubt it. His articulation is the same as Barricade's, with ball joints for the necks, shoulders, wrists, and hips swivels for the biceps and thighs, and hinges for the elbows and knees. The right forearm can be swapped with the gun as always.
The forearm CAN be pegged on the back this time, an issue that I had with most Deluxes where there'd be storage for one accessory but not the other. You can use the slot on the back for either part, which I greatly appreciate. The tabs on the forearms aren't the same dimensions as the ones on the gun, but it's still helpful. And next to Barricade, you can tell just how different both robot modes are despite using the same base mold. Only the hands, waist, hip, and elbow joints, and the back part screwed or bolted onto the chest look the same as each other, only colored differently from each other, as is the case with the guns. Overall, the Decepticon soldier manages to be a better toy than Barricade. Some will say it's because one would expect less from a no-name than a main character, but I prefer how the forearms are designed on the soldier this time, in addition to the front wheels staying near the ankles instead. That being said, the mold is still one of the weakest out of the subline, and the score isn't going to be a drastic bump-up from what Barricade received.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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