Armada Smokescreen - Comprised primarily of suck?
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:57 am
Mmkay, so. Today I received one of the last Armada moulds I lacked. And I counted its place amongst my collection anyway, since I already own Liftor on his lonesome. Yes, I speak of the jolly orange dwarf himself, Armada Smokescreen.
Armada is a lot better in retrospect than it was at the time. While the designs are solid on paper, and the detailing is fantastic, much of the engineering falls flat in practice. The toys were intentionally simple to transform after the complexity of the Japanese Car Robots designs proved too challenging for the average tyke. This left more room for gimmicking and the like, to be sure. Sometimes it worked (Megatron), sometimes it didn't (Scavenger).
Smokescreen is a toy almost universally despised - I believe Prowl was the notable exception, heh. Character is remembered mostly for his rather brutal death at Megatron's hands in the cartoon, and his ridiculously cheap resurrection in the following episode. Opinion seemed to be that the package was only worth getting for Liftor. True enough, Liftor's pretty neat, though I found his alt. mode lame. Missed a few dirt cheap auctions for Smokescreens in times past, so when the most recent one popped up, by gum, I had to have him. Why? Well, just to see for myself.. I do masquerade as a completist by day, after all.
So! What's he like? Well, I have to admit, he is pretty weak. Vehicle mode is the most bizarre combo of a crane truck and some kind of sports car, it really doesn't look a lot like a construction vehicle. The transformation is not satisfying, and the soft slider joints annoy me. Detailing's nice, as is the enormous gun. I especially dig the winch gimmick, which has a slider switch to retract the line when rolling him along, or to have the wheels simply spin. That and the pointless flippy hatch. Why does it open? No reason at all!
Articulation's poor, fists are covered and look terrible, colour is eye-searing and detail-swallowing, and he doesn't feel as solid as he should in either mode. Doesn't help that mine has a busted neck gimmick, so his head doesn't turn when you rotate the crane, as I was looking forward to that. Opening him up did impress at the complexity of the winch, so there's that. No heel spurs, argh, unstable as can be.
Still, more than anything else, I've gotten a good chuckle out of him. He can sort of hold the winch if you stick it in the screwholes on his forearms, and more than anything else, it looks like he's holding a detonator. A detonater with a cable leading to his chest. Yes, it's Suicide Bomber Smokescreen!
With that in mind, I'm almost fond of the thing,
Oh, Armada, such grand aspirations.
Armada is a lot better in retrospect than it was at the time. While the designs are solid on paper, and the detailing is fantastic, much of the engineering falls flat in practice. The toys were intentionally simple to transform after the complexity of the Japanese Car Robots designs proved too challenging for the average tyke. This left more room for gimmicking and the like, to be sure. Sometimes it worked (Megatron), sometimes it didn't (Scavenger).
Smokescreen is a toy almost universally despised - I believe Prowl was the notable exception, heh. Character is remembered mostly for his rather brutal death at Megatron's hands in the cartoon, and his ridiculously cheap resurrection in the following episode. Opinion seemed to be that the package was only worth getting for Liftor. True enough, Liftor's pretty neat, though I found his alt. mode lame. Missed a few dirt cheap auctions for Smokescreens in times past, so when the most recent one popped up, by gum, I had to have him. Why? Well, just to see for myself.. I do masquerade as a completist by day, after all.
So! What's he like? Well, I have to admit, he is pretty weak. Vehicle mode is the most bizarre combo of a crane truck and some kind of sports car, it really doesn't look a lot like a construction vehicle. The transformation is not satisfying, and the soft slider joints annoy me. Detailing's nice, as is the enormous gun. I especially dig the winch gimmick, which has a slider switch to retract the line when rolling him along, or to have the wheels simply spin. That and the pointless flippy hatch. Why does it open? No reason at all!
Articulation's poor, fists are covered and look terrible, colour is eye-searing and detail-swallowing, and he doesn't feel as solid as he should in either mode. Doesn't help that mine has a busted neck gimmick, so his head doesn't turn when you rotate the crane, as I was looking forward to that. Opening him up did impress at the complexity of the winch, so there's that. No heel spurs, argh, unstable as can be.
Still, more than anything else, I've gotten a good chuckle out of him. He can sort of hold the winch if you stick it in the screwholes on his forearms, and more than anything else, it looks like he's holding a detonator. A detonater with a cable leading to his chest. Yes, it's Suicide Bomber Smokescreen!
With that in mind, I'm almost fond of the thing,
Oh, Armada, such grand aspirations.
). The opening hatch is a nice detail that doesn't have to be there, but was included anyway. The winch and hook are a nice extra touch, adding some play value to the vehicle. 
