Transformers Reveal the Shield Lugnut review

Lugnut made his debut in Transformers Animated and has trickled his way into other universes, such as some G1 spinoff media, bits of the expanded media of the Movie and Aligned continuity, and has a gender-swapped version of himself named Clobber (who actually isn't too bad compared to her friend Lockdown, who sucks). Lugnut's sort of a gorilla-proportioned bot that remains very loyal to Megatron at all times. He may not look it with his appearance, but he's an example of why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Now, the original Lugnut Voyager was pretty decent looking, but it's not quite as big as it should be; Lugnut is supposed to be one of the largest Decepticons, and he ends up getting smaller than Blitzwing. Perhaps this Reveal the Shield figure can get a bit more attention for improving on the old toy?

Here is Lugnut in his WWII Bomber mode. It's a surprisingly nice altmode overall, what with the proportions capturing how a real WWII bomber would look. The turbines and wings look impressive along with the size of the windows in relation to the body. What also sells it for me are the shark tooth paint apps, the caution stripes on the turbines, and the LU-6 NU-7 tampographs. It's aggressive as it is massive, and I love it!

The wingspan for this figure is also nuts. Most jetformers have a respectable size for their wings, mainly to make their robot modes less drowned from the size of their wings. Here, the wings are not only made up of the arms, but they're also done up to make the design of the altmode feel like some vast, predatory bird.

It even looks great from the top. The wings also have the LU-6 NU-7 paint apps from the tailfin. Man, does this figure look so good!

You can deploy a small cannon from the fuselage if you want to give him a bit of an attack mode. It does look more like a dog's penis with the red tip of the missile, so you may not really want to use it from this mode because of how off it looks. Almost as bad as the stupid trigger crotch from G1 Megatron, and it kind of messes up the gloriousness of this jet mode.

Lugnut's transformation is pretty involved. The arms becoming the wings is pretty neat, the legs being made up from the bottom portion of the jet mode is kind of genius given how hidden they are as well as the approach in making them look beefy, and the chest transformation is one of the better head reveals found from a Transformer. It was also carried over from the Animated version, but the way it works is just awesome as the front of the jet mode explodes before tidying up into a beefy torso. The back of the jet mode does simply fit on the back, but at least the tail fil can be rotated 180 degrees.

The robot mode is certainly based on his appearance from Animated with a Movie/Generations influence. The design of the toy is already faithful to how Lugnut was seen in Animated, but the addition of a more realistic look to the robot makes him even better. The torso and legs are already good enough, and I like how the shoulders are made from the turbines, but the arms are surprisingly good, too. While they don't have the same smoothness as the arms do, they at least look like they're properly made as arms. The chest is pretty good, though I wish there is a bit more detail for the middle portion (like a Decepticon insignia).

The side and rear profiles look decent, and you can notice the rub-sign from the left hand looking less like the squares from the G1 line and more like a proper shape of an Autobot symbol (even if it's actually a Decepticon insignia he has).

The head sculpt looks pretty good, and it also has quite a nice red eye that makes it look quite like a jewel. I even like how the mouth opens up slightly.

Articulation is very good all around. Head is on a ball joint, shoulders move front and back (but moving them back isn't as possible), the biceps swivel, the elbows bend, and the fingers have a decent amount of movement for opening the three digits on each hand. Waist swivels, hips move front and back, in and out, and the thighs swivel while the knees bend. The feet have a good amount of movement thanks to the hinges and ball joints.

While not really the best play feature, you can press a button on the forearms to have his hands extend, referencing his POKE (Punch Of Kill Everything) attack from Animated. Some effect pieces would really add to a display.

This figure had only one reuse, that being for Takara's United line. I do not like the way this one looks, what with how the purple and dark green sadly clashes from all the beige. It didn't look good with MPM-4, and it doesn't look good here. What's with beige plastic ruining good toys? Also, the beige plastic doesn't really look good for the cannon because...yeah, no more dick jokes. Silver trim for the windows looks out of place, and the purple head? This is Lugnut, not Shockwave, people.

This mold is not just a great representation of the character (moreso than the original Animated Voyager), but he is also one of my favorite Voyagers of all time. Like Bludgeon, he's a nice mold made for a character that probably doesn't need too many new figures in the future because of how great he is overall. At least with Bludgeon, making him sleeker could be a way to improve him, but I think Lugnut's good enough as he is, and I suggest getting him if you see him online or at a shop!

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐