Bulkhead (Bumper Battler) [Animated]
Vehicle ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Autobot
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Moderately light military green and some yellow, black, light electric blue, silver, dark metallic bronze, dull white, red, light milky gray, and light orange
Rating: 4.0

    Bulkhead's vehicle mode is less "kiddie-fied" than most of other Bumper Battlers when compared to his other toys, since he already has such rounded, "kid-friendly" proportions in the first place. As is the case with most Bumper Battlers, Bulkhead's vehicle mode is very solid-- all the mold necessary detailing is there (though with the Animated aesthetic and all, it's still relatively sparse mold detailing). I like the small details like the rivets on some of the panels and the intricately detailed wheels, though (only the front and back wheels actually turn, however-- the middle ones are "fake"). Bulkhead also has a ton of paint detailing, covering not only the necessary details, but adding a few new ones as well, such as the orange detailing on the bumper and the yellow military-esque star & stripes and his name on the top of his vehicle mode and on the front sides. I think the aforementioned orange paint looks particularly good against Bulkhead's military green, but they all fit in very well with the overall color scheme and complement each other very well. Also like all Bumper Battlers, pressing down on the Autobot symbol on the front of Bulkhead will activate anywhere from 1-4 sequential sound effects which are played out in a semi-randomized manner. There's a ton of different ordered sound effects you can get out of the toy, and they're never played in a manner that doesn't make any sense-- and the show voice actor does Bulkhead's voice on the toy. Pressing in on the front bumper of his vehicle mode will automatically transform him to robot mode and also play some of these random sound effects. Here's a list of all the different sound effects I got out of Bumper Battler Bulkhead after a couple dozen button presses (though again, with the vast number of different random ordering of sound effects he has, I may have missed a few):
-Transform sound
-Smashing sound
-Grunting sound
-Crashing sound
-Engine revving sound
-Tires screeching sound
-Wrecking ball zip line firing sound
-Emergency siren sound
-"Oops."
-"My bad."
-"Hey!"
-"My name's Bulkhead."
-"Smashing stuff IS fun!"
-"So what are we waiting for!?"
-"Let's get this party started!"
    As is the gimmick of Bumper Battlers, Bulkhead's "robot mode" is just the top half of the vehicle mode folded back to reveal robot mold detailing, with the bottom half of the vehicle mode remaining the same. In fact, a relatively small bit of the vehicle mode flips up to reveal's Bulkhead's robot mode-- considering how bulky he actually is, I think it would've been more appropriate to have a more substantial part of his vehicle mode flip out, to give it a bit more "meat", for lack of a better word. Although the inside hollowed-out portion of his vehicle mode is pretty bland and completely lacking paint detailing, it does have a few intricate circuitry details. However, the focus, of course, is on the robot molded on the inside of Bulkhead's vehicle mode roof. It's done fairly well, given the dimension limitations-- his arms and main body should be a bit bulkier, but eh, whatcha gonna do, given the subline gimmick's inherent limitations. His left arm is "normal", though the molding on that particular part is odd-- it looks more like a nozzle than his normal three claws. His right arm is molded so that it has his wrecking ball weapon partially sticking out of it, though I'm not sure why electric blue detailing is on it-- it's never appeared that way on the show or any of Bulkhead's other toys. His face is molded with a bit of a goofy expression, though nothing that looks out-of-the-ordinary for Bulkhead. The rest of the robot mode detailng is pretty standard, given the dimensions-- nothing in particularly worth bringing up there.
    Overall, Bulkhead's vehicle mode is excellent, but his robot mode is sub-par even for a Bumper Battler-- too little of his vehicle mode folds up into his robot mode, and his bulky proportions are squished, making him look a bit more deformed than most of the other Bumper Battlers' robot modes. If you're a huge fan of Bulkhead or know a little kid who likes the character, this might be worth a pick-up, but otherwise skip.



Bumper Battler Bulkhead Character Bio:
WRECKER ROBOT
Bulkhead misses Cybertron, but Earth is full of new stuff to check out. He especially loves the art on Earth, since there's no such thing on Cybertron, and all the humans have made him feel really welcome here, even though he keeps accidentally smashing their stuff.

Review by Beastbot

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