Transformers Age of the Primes Targetmaster Sureshot review

The later G1 characters have very little to speak about compared to the 1986 cast, and that rings true for the Targetmasters. He has an ego, one that fits a name like his, though I wonder if he was also a partial inspiration for AOE Crosshairs along with the other Targetmasters. Granted, he has appeared in some other versions of G1, but I always felt that the Headmasters got more attention than the Targetmasters. After all, both Toei and Marvel made spinoff titles based on the HMs, and there is more appeal with having a smaller robot ride a Transtector than having a gun that turns into a robot aside from Megatron and Shockwave. But we now have Sureshot to complete the Targetmaster trio that began with Siege Crosshairs before we got Legacy Pointblank. Let's see if this figure is worth it.

Here we have Sureshot in his vehicle mode. It is a Cybertronic dune buggy that looks as Lego-like as you can get. It matches the old toy fine enough, and it has all the three warm colors of the rainbow with an almost white blue windshield. Is it really hard to say the altmode sucks in spite of being accurate to the source material? Granted, we have seen this trend where some 1986-onwards G1 characters had good altmodes (Hot Rod and Cyclonus) while others had some lousy garbage (this guy and either Kup or Broadside). Hell, even Sandstorm was better and he had to be a Triple Changer!

The Targetmaster partner can ride in front of the altmode, but let's hope Sureshot won't be blinded by something larger than Hot Rod's engine!

Here he is with Siege Crosshairs and Legacy Pointblank. Yes, the former is a retool of Siege Ironhide, though to be honest, I would rather get some upgrade parts to fix him than wait half a decade for a new Crosshairs to be made. I guess on the bright side, that would mean the Siege Ironhide mold would finally be retired so we can get a bit of symmetry for the trio, including Pinpointer not being a Battlemaster.

Transformation is pretty close to the G1 version, from the flip down legs to the arms unfolding from the back, it's almost close to what many would say we a pseudo Missing Link type of figure. With how there is no other version of the character past the old toy, this only makes sense with what they have. The robot mode is also a spitting image of his only other toy, though slightly more refined when it comes to the proportions. He kind of reminds me a bit of the physique we got with the Robo Racer from Power Rangers Turbo. The red for the entire legs almost looks like sweatpants, but with how basic the palette is, he really does feel about as standard as we can get. Nothing all that interesting, and in fact, he kind of resembles more like a knockoff genericon.

Head sculpt is pretty generic with a rounder Starscream helmet and a blue visor; not much else to say about it beyond it matching his Rebirth appearance. His articulation consists of a ball jointed neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, hinged elbows, waist rotation, universal hips (with slits more visible than the holes on RID15 Warrior Bumblebee), thigh rotation, hinged knees, and ankle pivots.

And here he is once again with his teammates, the Autobot Targetmasters. I guess it's neat to have all 3 of them together, but how long did we have to take to complete them, 5-6 years? It also doesn't help that they each have some pretty annoying flaws more than any other subgroup we got since Siege began; Crosshairs is stuck with an old mold and is mostly a recolor with a new head, Pointblank has his hips sticking out far more as well as having no bicep rotation, and a Sureshot that is so faithful to his old toy he ends up looking unimaginative and nowhere near as visually interesting as his partners. I know many want to get him since he finally fills in the gap for an under-represented subgroup, but at the end of the day, he simply is a gap filler and a real epitome of a glup shitto (accept it, Geewunners).

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐