This time around, Perceptor has a more practical alt mode (at least for him) when compared to his G1 toy. He's now a half-track, with three rather large headlights on top to at least give a BIT of a nod to his G1 alt mode. The proportions in this mode are spot-on, other than the small quibble of the headlights sitting a bit higher than the actual roof because of the transformation. You can see the bits of Perceptor's arms poking out from underneath the front bumper and side doors, but other than that (and the parts you can see through his transparent windows), there's no robot extras in this mode. His base color scheme of dull red and black is decent enough in this mode, but I like that they varied it up a bit more with both the transparent amber plastic and the many paint apps. The metallic gunmetal gray on the treads is great, as is the off-white windows (which really help with the contrast on the back half of this mode). The mold detailing varies quite a bit-- some parts like the top back half are rather sparse (likely because of all the hinges there), while other parts like the treads are exquisitely detailed with insanely small little sculpted bits in there.
    Perceptor's transformation is a bit overly complex for a deluxe, but that would've been easily forgiveable if he had a really cool robot mode-- unfortunately, he doesn't. It's certainly decent, but it suffers from some problems, so let's tackle those first. Least obviously from pictures-- but MOST obviously from those who have had the toy in hand-- is that his shoulders don't click into place at all. They're supposed to-- there's a tab near his back that's supposed to keep his whole backpack and shoulders and arms connected securely to his back-- but it's far too shallow, and some people have even had theirs break off. Given how much rides on that one tab, it's extremely annoying that it isn't a secure connection-- I mean, this is half of Perceptor's upper body swinging on that thing, here. I'm also not fond of how skinny Perceptor's upper legs are compared to his lower legs, which also look a bit hollow and hapazardly put together-- indeed, the pieces of his vehicle mode that fold into the back of his lower legs don't fold in at a seemless angle, and just don't look that great. On a lesser note, Perceptor's face is a little funny (and not in the good way)-- his lips are in a "gulp!" expression, but not in so obvious a way that it looks intentional. Bad lip sculpting, I suppose. On the other hand, Perceptor's arms themselves are very well-proportioned, and I love the chrome bits that hearken back to his G1 toy. The way his headlights convert into a shoulder-scope with a targeting reticle is also ingenious and looks wonderful, too. The dull teal helps break up Perceptor's colors some more, and in that respect he looks considerably more interesting here than in vehicle mode. As for articulation, Perceptor can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), wrists, hips (at two points), knees, and ankles. His wobbling backpack can put him slightly off-balance now and again, but generally you can get some decent poses out of him. Because Perceptor is in the "Reveal the Shield" subline, if you open up the chrome panel on his chest, there's an allegiance rub symbol-- rub it to reveal that he's an Autobot.
    Perceptor is an okay toy all-around-- by no means bad-- and a rather inventive update of the character, what the new vehicle mode, but still hearkening back in major ways to his G1 toy. That said, the difficulty of his transformation (particularly to vehicle mode) is a bit annoying, as is the refusal of his shoulders and backpack to stay in place in robot mode for long. Along with a few other minor kibble/proportional issues, I think this is overall the weakest new-mold deluxe in the Reveal the Shield subline.

Review by Beastbot

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