Transformers Titans Return Sentinel Prime review

Sentinel Prime may have been a recurring TF element in the 21st century, but the 80s didn't really have any version of him to begin with. The cartoon retconned the "U-Haul Robot" as a version of him via Ask Vector Prime, and Marvel Comics would share the first proper G1 iteration. You already know him best for being a jerk store Tick in Animated as well as the time Spock went nuts in Dark of the Moon, but when IDW used to do its version of G1, they initially had him as somewhat of an anti-hero with beliefs that were closer to what would eventually be refined by Optimus, only to be killed by Megatron during the Megatron Origin comics. Turns out he wasn't actually dead, nor was he Sentinel, but instead Infinitus. From there, we go from turning Sentinel into a flawed yet well-intentioned Autobot leader into someone who was totally not written in response to the toxicity of 2016 politics, right? Seriously, it's almost like the IDW crew went "Y'know, we don't really wanna give credit to DOTM or Animated for this Sentinel concept, so how do we make this feel interesting?" while writing Titans Return. I think IDW 2.0 treated him a bit better, but then again, who even bothered reading it? Anyways, Titans Return is now a decade old, and we're revisiting a figure that may still be better than Studio Series Astrotrain. Let's see how Sentinel Prime holds up!

Here we have Sentinel Prime in his train mode. This is meant to be one of those massive Cybertronian transports that would almost take up the entire station. You look at the ladders near each end, as well as some of the windows, and if they're meant to be human-scaled like the ones on Combiner Wars Long Haul and Ultra Magnus, this could almost be the size of a warship! Seriously, this looks like something you'd see as a boat or a flagship in the skies instead of a train! Not saying trains can be this big, but it's wild to imagine how huge this would be in real life. That said, while the front and backs are similarly proportioned, the middle section is always swept back thanks to those pieces representing the rear stabilizers. Then the scale is ruined by the scale of Titan Master Infinitus, who sits in the cockpit like Omega the Headmaster would in the Energon Omega Supreme set. 

Transforming him into his shuttle mode is fairly straightforward, as you're folding the ends together once the wings and the rear assembly can attach behind the legs, with their panels now folded in place once the train ends are replaced with the giant nose cone. Generally speaking, shuttle mode is very Cybertronian, and I could see less of an Astrotrain look in this mode thanks to the radically different proportions (though the arms being under the wings could be reminiscent of the train halves on top of the wings on the Classics version. That said, the details are still washed out all throughout thanks to the neon orange and red combo, and it doesn't help that there are very few paint apps present beyond the few bits of yellow and silver. On the flipside, the front section feels kind of like Scourge's altmode. The weapons can be combined together so any other Titan Masters can man a double-cannon wherever you peg it, which is one of the common playset features of the line as a whole.

Transformation is very simple, mostly relying on the panels folding away to reveal the thighs while the wing assembly with the backpack can be attached to the back, not to mention requiring that the hands are brought out as well as doing the Headmaster trick. Very basic yet at least the robot mode feels appropriately heroic for a design usually associated with a Decepticon. Sentinel's design is meant to match the way he appeared in the IDW comics, yet the colors are prominently orange instead of yellow, likely because the designers misinterpreted the dramatic lighting in one of his more accessible comic panel photos as the definitive source for reference art. As a result, he doesn't match the concept art from the days of Megatron Origin, deco-wise. Kind of says a lot too when the yellow bits on him would have been more suitable instead of orange, but I also have to complain about the grey plastic used. I know those are for structural support, but it ends up clashing with the colors on the rest of him. It'd be like if you have a modern Nemesis Prime repaint with metallic black and teal, yet any silver is replaced with beige. Maybe the grey plastic would look better if the orange was yellow. That said, he does remind me of the Sentinel Knight from Operation Overdrive; if you recall, there was a knight who turned into a sword for that season of Power Rangers. Hell, between the colors, the vaguely similar transformation, and the use of the name Sentinel, someone at Hasbro must have been a PR fan before they owned the franchise. Also, one cool thing I like is that the backs of the lower legs have their wheels in different elevations so they wouldn't clash with each other during transformation.

Head sculpt is very reminiscent of the more dynamic comic style of the IDW comics at the time, though once again, without any paint to break it up, he ends up looking more like a prototype in this state than if he had a more refined deco. That, or the plastic color shouldn't make the sculpted details so hard to look at without going very up close. Articulation is standard for the time period, with ball-jointed necks, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, single-jointed elbows, hips with ratchets implemented throughout, thigh swivels, and hinged knees. This was before the WFC trilogy made waist rotation, wrist swivels, and ankle rockers generally common, but he does a fine job at posing.

One of the features Titans Return Voyagers had to make their heads appear proportionate was using spring-loaded components surrounding them. These bulk up okay, though the ones here are meant to represent the toy-detailing on Astrotrain. It's nothing to write home about, but they blend in better than the ears on the Voyager Optimus mold as well as Alpha Trion, though every figure does this better than Galvatron's lousy mask.

As far as reuses are concerned, this is the Titan Force version of Sentinel with far more red and orange throughout this thing. Part of him is cast in clear plastic, and he came with Security Force logos instead of Autobot insignias. He was included in a 3-pack with special repaints of Brainstorm and Windblade.

As for the mold this figure was mostly intended for, this is Astrotrain in toy-accurate colors. Back in the day, Hasbro mostly homaged the old toys rather than the Sunbow cartoon, unlike what Takara would do. In this case, he matched the colors of his original toy, though it still fits him decently. That said, he looks like he has fake Nikes on his feet, and while the color breakup is more effective, you still get the effect of color blocking thanks to the prominent use of purple for most of the altmodes. Also, his partner is named Darkmoon, though we don't know if he has siblings known as Revengefallen, Ageextinction, Lastknight, and Risebeasts.

The Takara Astrotrain comes from the Legends line. While it may look nier than the Hasbro version, even to the point of painting the friggin windows, I heard Thew mention the tolerances have been worse for his copy at least. That's mostly in the zestless hip ratchets on the already cheap ones we got before as well as the knees being looser than on Six Shot. Still, then again, it may ring true for all copies since mold degradation can affect cheaper molds like this. Unlike what Hasbro does, all Takara Titan Masters are instead Headmaster stages of their respective bodies. That didn't stop Thew from naming him Extinctionrevenge!

For a size comparison, here he is with Siege Astrotrain and Studio Series 86 Optimus Prime. I don't mind that he's taller than the guy whose design he borrowed from if we remember he is meant to be a Prime, and he surprisingly scaled well with Optimus. Admittedly, budgets and size differences have affected many a toyline over the years, but at least this works. Still, he is lighter than Optimus.

Overall, Sentinel Prime is an okay figure to own if you've never had a version of him yet want to expand your G1 roster. He doesn't entirely match what I'd want from THE look he had in G1 media, be it in colors or design, but at least he looks mostly cool and can prove Hasbro used to make triple changers work well as Voyagers, whereas they would only do that for new Leaders. And hey, paying this figure for cheap beats paying nearly $70 for the AOTP version. Now to wonder if I can get someone to make his colors match the comics...

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