Kup
(Botcon 2009 Exclusive)
(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 Cybertron deluxe Red Alert. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Cybertron deluxe Red Alert here.)
Kup is one of the oddest
mold choices used in recent Botcon years for an homage. His alt mode isn't
a truck. It's not even truck-ish, it's just a van with four doors. Granted,
I'm sure Fun Publications had in mind molds before this one-- which apparently
didn't pan out-- but still. Kup... isn't any sort of pickup. Yeeeah. Still
the color scheme is quite good-- the duller sky blue is the absolute PERFECT
shade of color to match his G1 toy, as is the lighter sky blue-- and despite
them both being shades of blue, there's enough contrast between the two
to really make the toy look good. (It should be noted, however, that the
painted pale blue and plastic pale blue look virtually indistinguable from
each other-- the obvious difference between the two above is only from
the camera picture lighting.) Black gives some nice dark contrast to the
toy, though, and the dark transparent blue used for the windows looks very
nice in this respect, too. My favorite paint apps on Kup have to be the
nice orange stripes, which really just make the toy pop in vehicle mode.
I love how the come down to triangles at the ends, too-- a very nice touch.
The bits of copper and silver help to round off an all-around stellar color
scheme. I don't like quite everything about Kup's colors, though-- the
Elite Guard symbols on his doors are oddly partially transparent, and given
that part of the orange stripe goes through them it kind ruins the look
of those symbols. He also could use some taillight paint apps.
Kup has a new head mold--
pretty G1-accurate, but given that this is supposed to be a young version
of Kup, he doesn't have any wrinkles and looks quite youthful. Unfortunately,
it goes even further than that-- many of the details, particularly on the
face, are a little "fat" and indistinct and make Kup look kinda baby-ish
and chubby. Given that, due to the transformation, the top of Kup's head
pokes out of the vehicle mode, it also REALLY sticks out. At least with
Red Alert he had a smooth forehead and "siren"-ears to help it blend, but
not with Kup. It really sticks out. The Cyber Key is also a standard Autobot
Cyber Key, but with the Elite Guard "wings" added to the Autobot symbol,
which is pretty nice.
Botcon 2009 Kup has
a GREAT color scheme, great paint apps-- but unfortunately it's just a
poor homage to Kup. The mold doesn't fit him at all in either mode, and
his head goes beyond young to looking chubby and overly smooth. If you're
gonna drop a mint on him, get him for the color scheme, not the homage.
Review by Beastbot