Axor
(Autobot Alliance)
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Revenge of the Fallen Lockdown. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Revenge of the Fallen Lockdown here.)
Axor here is a bit of
a "movie-ized" update of the G1 Action Master of the same name. Unfortunately,
the vehicle mode is so... Lockdown that it's hard to see it as another
character. That aside, the color scheme-- though certainly accurate to
G1 Axor's-- is a bit dull in this mode, at best. It's mostly that same
bland light milky gray that's used on the "robot parts" of entirely too
many other TFs. The other colors and paint apps-- such as the bits of red,
black, light milky tan, and blue-- go together fairly well with the gray,
though given that the latter's a neutral color, it's pretty hard to come
up with something that outright clashes with it. The paint apps are spread
out enough where almost no area of his vehicle mode isn't broken up a bit
in terms of color, but he doesn't have anything like the dynamic green
racing stripes that RotF Lockdown has. On the positive side, one thing
Axor does have over Lockdown in vehicle mode is that his windows are opaque,
so you can't see the robot arms inside them. In Axor's robot mode, the
dark blue and light milky tan have a much larger presence, which makes
him look a fair bit more visually interesting in that mode.-- the blue
and the tan, in particular, contrast nicely with each other (that said,
he's still a long shot from looking as cool as Lockdown).
Axor has two mold changes,
both of which make themselves known in robot mode-- he has a new head that
looks like a movie-ized version of his G1 self, and his right hand has
been remolded into a (rubbery) axe. The axe-hand is a pretty nice touch
to help differentiate him a little from Lockdown. However, the head is
a bit big compared to the neck it's on, which knocks it down a peg in my
book-- even though the light piping through the eyes works wonderfully.
Autobot Alliance Axor
is a great mold, but unfortunately he's a dull redeco with a head that's
a bit too big. The mold also has so many details-- particularly in vehicle
mode-- that are so quintessentially Lockdown, that a repaint of it as anyone
else (without considerably more remolding done than this) makes Axor just
look like a "wanna-be" imitation of the "real thing". If you're a fan of
Axor for whatever reason, this is a rather easy pickup, but if you only
want one version of the mold, I'd EASILY recommend RotF Lockdown over this
guy.
Review by Beastbot