Transformers Studio Series TFOne Sentinel Prime review

Sentinel Prime felt like one of the most predictable parts of Transformers One that I have ever seen. He came off more like he had to be an actor in the corniest way possible as some good-doer with no substance, nor were his true colors particularly as shocking as the characters made it out to be. Maybe if there were characters that were protesting Sentinel's rule while others realized how tyrannical he truly is after seeing what the miners experienced. At least Animated was a jerk from the start, so we know what to expect from him being depicted as such; Bayverse Sentinel's betrayal, meanwhile, came off like a genuine surprise because of how noble and wise he was before revealing he collaborated with Megatron to being back Cybertron. This Sentinel is as comparable to a Disney villain plot twist as you can get on a beginner level, but maybe the figure is better than what we got for the character? As Classic Thew once said, screen-suck ≠ toy suck.

Here we have Sentinel Prime in his non-existent jet mode. I say nonexistent since even after seeing the movie once (with no plans to revisit it anytime soon), he never transformed in the movie. He spent most of the time flying in robot mode, which was something similar to what TFP Optimus did in Season 3 (except he did turn into an alt mode that existed in the show at times). In merch, it's either tweaked from Starscream's or it's made up entirely. The Studio Series figure is a little more on the latter side, though with how fast-paced things are in the movie (even moreso than the live-action films despite what clowns would say), it's hard to say. You can put the shield and weapons on the back and fuselage, though. 

That being said, the entire robot mode is almost visible from the bottom of the jet mode. Y

The legs barely changes, the arms are hanging from underneath the wings, and the head is just rotated to the side. I don't mind if you have undercarriage for the jet mode, given that Transformers need somewhere for the limbs to go, but this is comparable to Silverbolt levels of laziness. In Silverbolt's defense, he transformed into a jet as well as Silverbolt's torso, but this almost feels like an afterthought.

For an alternate mode comparison, he is a little smaller in some dimensions than Earthrise Dirge, who Sentinel looks eerily similar to. I know they had similar color schemes to begin with, but it's even more apparent when both are jets. Maybe Dirge's hatred towards the lame ass False Prime and helped form the High Guard. 

Transformation is pretty straight forward as you simply hinge the shoulders and pecs in place, shift the wings and fuselage in their spots, rotate the head, and flip the feet down. Nothing too adventurous, but the robot mode is at least accurate...for the most part. The wings are entirely different from the movie, looking more like Hot Rod's spoiler than a regal cape a la DOTM Sentinel, while the proportions look slightly off (mostly the arms). This design has been compared to Homelander plenty of times in the fandom, though this Sentinel isn't as entertaining by comparison. The gold on the knees makes me wish the wings were also painted a similar color, but I am more annoyed by the torso not staying in place. The friction of the hinges themselves isn't that strong either, so you'll have to tighten the screws. Even still, it's not a design trait as well thought out as it should be. On a side note, the heels are tiny as hell, so you will have to slightly mistransform him.

His head sculpt is tiny but nicely detailed and painted, with eyes that are more "Generationized" than the ones in the movie. With his guns in his hands, his articulation consists of a rare neck swivel and hinge combo, ball joints at the shoulders for moving front and back, hinges for outward arm movement, bicep rotation, hinged elbows, waist rotation, universal hips, swivels above the knees, hinged knees, and slightly-higher ankle pivots.

His battle mode has you flip out a mouthplate from the chest (sort of like Titans Return Galvatron's mask), shift the pecs to the upper sides, revealing shoulder cannons, combining the guns on the shield, shifting the forearms down to make arm cannons, revealing the cannons from the lower legs, and flipping the boosters down. Pretty cool gimmick that doesn't entirely intrude the rest of the figure, though he is missing his dual blade. Allegedly, this was due to concept art not being available at the time, but then it makes me wonder about how the transformation and alt mode went through. Reminds me of Studio Series Airazor, only even less accurate as a whole.

For a size comparison with the former miners that looked up to him, he ends up being close to their Deluxe heights. While Optimus and Megatron did grow taller in the movie via the Megatronus cog and the Matrix, respectively, we end up having a shorter Voyager than normal. Almost fits for a False Prime. Overall, Sentinel may be lame in the movie outside of a few parts, but I think this figure is great on paper. If he had better quality control and engineering combined with wings and weapons to match his CG model, he would have worked fine enough. As it stands, the battle mode and general bot mode accuracy is fine, but he falls short in more ways than one.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐