RotF Ravage review

[SynjoDeonecros]

Now, I'm pretty sure everyone here has gotten it drilled into their heads that I love Ravage. The bot is just so extremely cool, in my eyes, especially given his Beast Wars representation. However, even I have to admit that I was less than enthused when I saw the initial designs for Michael Bay's take on the Decepticon saboteur; much like the rest of the cast, it looked ugly to me, like a 50-car pileup got sent through an industrial-sized metal shredder, then press-molded into a vaguely robotic shape. Ravage, in particular, looked mega-ugly; I hated the all-silver color scheme, I hated the monocular "mechanical love child of Alien and Zuul from Ghostbusters" look to it, and I hated that it turned into a generic comet form like the rest. It really felt like Bay was going to leak oil all over the legacy of Ravage like he did with every other character in the franchise.

Then I saw the toy.

Now, I admit, it looked somewhat better, enough for me to be intrigued by it, but not by much; it had a better color scheme, and it included the hip gun/rocket/grenade/jetpack things that was trademark Ravage, but of course Bay chose not to include in his vision of the character. It wasn't a total sale, but I did become interested enough to at least give it a shot. Well, my mate, spoiling me as usual, has gotten me the figure, and after playing with it for a few minutes, I've got to say I'm really disappointed by it.

First off, the robot mode: This is what the toy comes in as, probably because they felt they couldn't sell the figure in its "robotic space log" form. Right off the bat, I can tell you that the coloring is much better than his movie counterpart; the silver is thankfully restricted to an accent color, with a good, solid black permeating most of the robot. As more of a compliment, various shades of cobalt blue are dotted around the robot, mostly on "ribs" and "spine" of the figure. It's a nice touch, and gives the figure some contrast and detail-popping without being overpoweringly neon. The eye is a translucent purple for light-piping, which is okay, but it kinda breaks the pattern of the colors. At least the faction symbol (bizarrely located on Ravage's ass) is the classic purple, so those of you who are sick of silver faction symbols rejoice.

Out of the box, I found a stark dichotomy with the figure's joints; some are way too lose (like the waist, which is on a weird ball joint, making the front half of the body flop around whenever I try to transform it), while others are too stiff (the legs especially are a nightmare to pose, given the amount of sharp edges located there). The tail, in a most egregious example, popped clean off at one of its pivot joints when I tried taking it out of the package, and it still likes to come loose from that same joint whenever I fiddle with it. Not very good design there, guys.

In fact, there's joints that are oddly placed; for instance, there's this odd joint at the elbows of the figure that look like you can bend the forearms out at a 90 degree angle away from the rest of the arm, were it not for a little bit of plastic stopping it from doing so. I'm not sure why they're there (and I know they were put there purposefully, since the corners of the elbow joint were rounded off to allow that kind of movement, the little block of plastic I mentioned being the only thing keeping it from doing so), but it just seems like a pointless waste of a joint. Similarly, the tail has two pivot points, the one that I mentioned keeps on breaking on me, and one near the tip. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with them, as the instructions don't mention doing anything with them during transformation, but whatever.

As someone else on here mentioned, the head has no joints on it, except for the one on the jaw, which is really loose, in my opinion. Instead, they took a page from Universe Cheetor and put a switch on its back that allows its head to spring forward in a sort of biting motion. It really serves no purpose, especially since the mouth doesn't close all the way in its "rest" position, and frankly, I would've preferred they had stuck with a normal solidly-hinged neck and jaw joint (for the record, I hated the gimmick in Universe Cheetor, too).

The guns don't fire, which is kinda disappointing, as they're big enough to allow such a mechanism to be built in them. Still, it's good that Hasbro, at least, remembered to put them in; it just wouldn't be Ravage without them, in my opinion.

Transforming Ravage into his "reentry" mode is simple, but really awkward given the inconsistency with his joint stiffness. The end result isn't that aesthetically pleasing; as someone once said in regards to the toy, it looks like they just slapped together an alt mode at the last second, making him look half-transformed at best. The tail, especially, is a problem; there's no good way of positioning it to make it look good and keep it from interfering with the rest of the figure in this mode. Maybe that's why those pivot points are there; to twist around the tail for a better fit. Wish the instructions had told us that. Hell, the joints are so finicky, it's a pain to keep all of the parts locked down as they should be in this mode, as only minor pressure will shift everything out of alignment.

For laughs, I tried transforming the figure into its "Killer Chicken" custom mode that we all saw, a while back, and I must say, it looks MUCH better in this mode than it does in its official alt mode. True, it's just the "reentry" mode with the back legs down and the front legs slung over the figure's back instead of attached to its head, but at least it looks like SOMETHING, instead of the lump of scrap metal the official alt mode looks like. If they found a way to extend the wings out further, and recolored them red, I can easily see this mode as being Laserbeak.

All in all, this figure looks better than the movie model, but it's not that great of a toy to have. If you DO buy it, I suggest keeping it in either robot or "killer chicken" form. It's Ravage, so I'm going to keep him, but frankly, if you're as big of a fan of the character as I am, there are far, far better figures of him you can get.

[onslaught86]

Just moving this into the reviews section.

I messed thoroughly with a ROTF Ravage last night - saw him for the first time along with his totally undesirable wave-mates Barricade, Cannon Bumblebee, and Mudflap. Didn't want him myself, but my girlfriend was super-enthusiastic for him and loves her some Ravage (Probably not as much as you do, though!). She was feeling sick, so I nabbed him for to cheer her up, and got to fiddle once she was finished with him. It's a passable action figure, if underarticulated and underpainted. Awful Transformer, however, and given it's marketed and priced as one, it's just not something I can recommend to anyone.

They 'tried', to be fair, it's vastly better than the worlds of failure that Deluxe Movie Scorponok embodies. At least Ravage has 'one' good mode, and there are actual transformation steps involved in getting to the other. It's just not worth getting to the other at all, and the biting gimmick means he has no neck articulation.

On the plus side, it'd be relatively easy to customise him to have a legit robot mode and hold the guns as pistols, but that's not much of a plus side. Recommendation To Avoid.

[JediTricks]

The look of this robot mode reminded me a lot of something from Heavy Metal magazine from the '70s. But it doesn't realize Ravage that well, just someone wanting to make an homage to something else.

"robotic space log" awesome!

I keep looking at this figure and hearing unfavorable reviews of the toy, I keep thinking back to my initial trepidation at M1 Scorponok and how I didn't think it'd work but it really did, and I keep thinking maybe Ravage might work for me on that level. Yet between the poor reviews and my limited time with it at Botcon, I just keep waiting to figure out what I'll do. I passed it up at the Target $9 sale recently, but I think under that I'd probably buy it.

I do wonder why they didn't put in a movable head or proper tail joints though.

[Onslaught Six]

Moveable head is a gimmick thing. I don't *agree* with it, but it's there.

The longer the line goes on, the more I realize I want more of the toys for reasons I can't understand. Wheelie and Ravage are definite wants now. And Sideswipe, at this point.

[JediTricks]

Moveable head is a gimmick thing. I don't *agree* with it, but it's there.

IMO, when you have no alt mode to worry about and you've been using this gimmick to complaints for years, it's time to figure out a way to make the jaw do its gimmick thing without sacrificing actual head/neck articulation.

[Onslaught Six]

I agree. I think Hasbro/Takara are seriously undercutting their abilities lately. Devastator is a great example of this--"We couldn't figure out a way to do it." Bogus, you guys could have. You're 'HasTak.' You've done a lot of great stuff before. (Although, having seen the movie and seeing that the Dev Constructicons don't, er, actually ever have robot modes, I now understand their decision more.)

[onslaught86]

I keep looking at this figure and hearing unfavorable reviews of the toy, I keep thinking back to my initial trepidation at M1 Scorponok and how I didn't think it'd work but it really did, and I keep thinking maybe Ravage might work for me on that level. Yet between the poor reviews and my limited time with it at Botcon, I just keep waiting to figure out what I'll do. I passed it up at the Target $9 sale recently, but I think under that I'd probably buy it.

You..liked Scorponok? I dig the character, he has a sort of niche appeal, and I like the design, but that toy is just trash. Good looking scorpion mode ruined by pathetic non-articulation, robot mode's there just to sell it as a Transformer, gimmicks get old very quickly and the whole toy's geared around them. Really didn't strike me as one you'd like, JT. I snapped him up thanks to his resemblence to a facehugger on card, triggered nostalgia for the Aliens toyline, regretted it swiftly though.

Ravage is definitely better than Scorponok. They tried, there're actual steps to the transformation and dedicated alt. mode parts. It doesn't look like anything, mind you, and the cat mode's still underarticulated. Given the amount of stuff you 'are' skipping, there're really better things in the line to devote your money to, this one will probably bore you in ten minutes and end up shelved. I'm glad I didn't end up getting one myself.

[138 Scourge]

You..liked Scorponok? I dig the character, he has a sort of niche appeal, and I like the design, but that toy is just trash.

I liked him, too. Of course, I fall right into that niche of "Fools that will happily toss away money at a crazy robot scorpion".

You know what else that goes for? Robot Kitties. Not so much "robots that turn into cats" (suck it, Universe Cheetor toy I didn't get), but other things that turn into robot cats. So yeah, I finally tossed away money on Ravage. I can't decide if it's ironic or not that I got that money by selling Movie Bumblebees.

Kitty!: Not half bad, kinda reminds me of BW Jawbreaker. Highly stylized pointy black and blue kitty with one eye. Actually, a lot about this design says "Transmetal 2" to me. The jaggedy spines everywhere, the pointy barbed tail, the weird claws, and...well, that's 'bout all, but that's enough. The snapping jaw gimmick I could do without, especially if it had led to some head articulation, but I do like the fact that the ears move around when you're activating it. The fact that hip-cannons got worked into this design also appeals.

Transformation: Of sorts. Not a whole lot to it, but everything seems to lock down fairly well, at least. I dunno, it's hard to figure out how to transform something when it's not really turning into anything.

"Alt. Mode" So this one time, Ravage decided to impress the other Decepticons at a pool party and did a cannonball? I suppose if you stretch the imagination, it sorta works as a pointy spaceship. I guess. I made a few "flying" passes around with him and went "whoosh" and it sorta worked, but there's not enough about this thing to really write a lot about. Surprisingly, there are a few steps to doing this for a transformation that's pretty much nothing.

Overall: As I mentioned in the Hauls thread, Ravage showing up was pretty much my favorite part in the movie. So I had to get the toy. He didn't turn into anything in the movie, either, so the lack of convincing alt. mode doesn't hurt that bad, the half-assed alt. mode isn't that bad for a half-assed alt. mode. I like him, your mileage may vary.

[JediTricks]

You..liked Scorponok? I dig the character, he has a sort of niche appeal, and I like the design, but that toy is just trash. Good looking scorpion mode ruined by pathetic non-articulation, robot mode's there just to sell it as a Transformer, gimmicks get old very quickly and the whole toy's geared around them. Really didn't strike me as one you'd like, JT. I snapped him up thanks to his resemblence to a facehugger on card, triggered nostalgia for the Aliens toyline, regretted it swiftly though.

Yes, I like Scorponok. I like the design aesthetic and the play features on it, it looks and plays well, it integrates in a fun way with Blackout, it has a nice deco, and you get a sense of what it came from. Yeah, the legs aren't as articulated but sometimes too much articulation can get in the way of play anyway, and I think it'd be the case here. Robot mode is pretty shabby, but reverse-robot mode (feet as hands) looks fairly decent actually. I think I'm most impressed by the fact that it's got a few fun gimmicks but still has great sculpting and a nice deco, yet doesn't turn into a sloppy mess when played with the way a lot of movie TFs do.


I guess on Ravage, the reviews I've seen nobody seems particularly blown away by his cat mode. He looks like a robo cat but I don't hear "wow, great paint and sculpting, and his gimmicks are fun!" Without that, I think Ravage is never going to be a toy I own.