Price: $40 U.S.
Difficulty of Transformation Between Vehicle or Mech Modes: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation from Vehicle to Mech: Medium
Color Scheme: Greyish off-white, dark dull maroon, black, and some dark brown, pale light yellow, moderately light bluish gray, clear plastic, light electric blue, pasty yellow, metallic copper, red, and orangish yellow
Rating: 6.4

    The third big-ticket Star Wars Transformers item gets not just three, but FOUR different modes-- namely, two vehicle and two mech modes, each basically representing an Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader mech, which can convert from the "light side" to the "dark side" or visa versa. It's a pretty cool idea. Instead of reviewing each character seperately, I'll tackle both of the vehicle modes and then switch to talking about the mech modes, since the two vehicle and the two mech modes are quite similar to each other.
    Representing the dark side, the Star Destroyer-- at LONG last-- finally gets an appearance in this line, and it's fittingly big-- you're definitely getting your $40 worth in terms of plastic weight, here. I don't really have much, comparatively, to say about the Star Destroyer mode-- it's a big triangular gray hunk of plastic. There's some gaps where the parts fit together, sure-- and the front half can come undone if you REALLY shake the toy hard-- but generally this is the most solid mode of the toy. There's pretty much no paint apps beyond the light blue paint on the engines, but that's certainly movie-accurate-- and also fittingly movie accurate, there's an impressive amount of little mech-like detailing all over this mode, culminating in the two-pronged "tower" near the rear. Pressing on the button in between the two clear plastic pieces will cause one of several sound effects to come out as the clear bits blink red-- a laser firing sound; an "star engine roaring" sound, and "You may fire when ready", in a clip from the movies. There's two big downsides to this mode, though-- the biggest is that you can't sit this mode flat on a surface. The underside of it is basically the Jedi Cruiser mode, so the "tower" that comes out of the back of that other mode prevents this. You have to lay the Destroyer on its side, a big bummer which makes it considerably less photogenic. Also, this toy comes with FIVE large accessories that cannot be stored in this mode-- two "normal" blue lightsabers, a flaring red "evil" lightsaber, and two missiles for the Republic Attack Cruiser mode. Theoretically you could store the missiles on the underside in this mode in their launchers, but the buttons that fire them can become accidentally triggered easily, given that they're right where the toy puts most of its weight. Eesh.
    Fortunately, in Republic Attack Cruiser mode the toy CAN sit flat on a surface, but it's got other problems. To summarize, this mode is basically the Star Destroyer mode flipped over, with removable chunks taken out of the back-middle of the figure and then relocated behind the engines. The shape is a bit more complex than the Star Destroyer and it keeps the same awesome amount of mold detailing, but adding some much-needed maroon paint along the center, top, and side "wings" of the Cruiser, which makes it catch the eye a little more. Unfortunately, there's a bit of mech mode extras this time, most obviously in the form of the mech arms being very visible in the middle of the figure, now that the side pieces have been taken out. Speaking of which, those side pieces don't fit in very well at the back end at all, and the "shells" of the Star Destroyer on each engine piece are pretty blatant. They're supposed to extend the back end of the ship and clip in via small pegs to a flip-out section, but the indentation in the back and the little pegs each tug on the engine pieces a little too much-- try to connect each engine piece to both, and they'll almost always come undone. This is REALLY annoying, as this is the only way to make the back look solid. I recommend connecting the pieces via the large indentation in the back, as it's more solid of a connection, even if it won't line up exactly with its surrounding parts this way. At least one cool feature that comes out of this is that the blue lightsabers can now be stored-- push them into an open slot on the back engine thrusters and they look like engine exhaust, which is a pretty neat effect, even if it's been often done on previous SWTFs. Pressing on the button on the relevant engine will fire the lightsaber out. Pressing either of the buttons behind the two spring-loaded missile launchers on the "tower" causes the relevant missile to fire, along with a blue light on the front of the tower coming on and a sound effect coming out-- either Anakin saying "We've got 'em right where we want 'em", a "missile firing" sound (this one activates the blue light on the bottom of the figure, oddly enough), Anakin saying "We're locked on! Transform!", Anakin saying "Engine thrusters, full power!" followed by engine noises, or Anakin saying "Stay on target!". The different-colored lights are cool, but they can be a bit temperamental, the red lights often coming on instead of the blue, at least in this mode.

    In Anakin Skywalker's mech mode, it's... well, honestly, it's a bit of a mess. The alt mode kibble is everywhere-- he's holding the entire front half of the Star Destroyer as a shield, for one, and it doesn't even stay clipped on to the port on his lower arm all that solidly. Most of the back halves of BOTH modes are folded behind his back, one on top of the other-- this makes him extremely back heavy, as you can imagine, and very odd from any kind of angle that isn't almost directly head-on. The removable engine pieces also just have to sit this mode out, as they have nowhere to plug into here-- and the missiles fire easily in their launchers again due to the back kibble pieces sitting on top of them, so they're out, too. On the plus side, the rear edges of the vehicle mode backsides make decent (if a bit overly buff) shoulder pads, and the front top of the Star Cruiser mode makes for a decent "armor skirt". The "core" mech mode proportions are good enough below the waist, but above he gets a little malproportioned, with arms that aren't long enough and a head that's too small for the very wide chest. That said, the mold detailing is still excellent in this mode, with Anakin sporting a version of his face that's more mechanized than on most SWTFs, and looks pretty cool with that scar on one eye. The colors also get a bit more varied, with dark brown and black serving as dark colors for the toy and silver and some yellow forming a nice contrast against those colors. The chest details look particularly good, in my opinion. As for articulation, Anakin can move at the shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), and at the wrists, hips (at two points), knees (at two points), and slightly at the ankles. However, this seems better than it actually is-- due to all the kibble and the back-heavyness of the toy, combined with the relatively small feet for a toy this size, and it's very difficult to get Anakin to stand on his own, much less in any great pose. Usually you have to aim the skirt back and use that as a third leg to get him to stand. As for sound effects, pressing in on the button on his waist causes a blue light to come on in his stomach as well as (more temporarily) his face, and one of several sound effects: a "lightsaber clashing" sound effect; Anakin saying "The Sith will never transform me", Anakin saying "We've got 'em right where we want 'em", or Anakin saying "You're no match for a Jedi master!".
    To go from Anakin Skywalker's mech mode to Darth Vader's, it's very simple; you extend the legs downwards a bit to make him a bit taller; you split the shield in half and attach it to the top of his back shoulder kibble; and then, in a rather cool effect, you pull down on the waist and flip the middle bits of the chest around as one. As you do this and click the waist back up, halves of Darth Vader's helmet-face flip up over Anakin's and the eyes and chest now glare red, as you hear Darth Vader's characteristic "breath" sound emanate from the toy. It's unquestionably the high point of the toy, and a very cool gimmick. Unfortunately, you're still stuck with, essentially, the same kibbly mech mode-- nearly all of my comments about Anakin's mech mode carry over to Darth Vader's, minus a few things. For one, the head now looks slightly more proportional to the chest, given that it's now Vader's head AROUND Anakin's. The leg extension doesn't fare nearly as well, as the middle bits now look too skinny in comparison to the upper and lower legs. Worst of all, the shield bits are supposed to be on the already substantial backpack, and although the red & black paint on the inside of said pieces looks pretty cool, they're utterly humongous proportionally and don't really look like anything-- they're just more kibble on a toy that desperately needs to get rid of some. As for sound effects, pressing the button on Vader's waist causes the red lights on his chest and head to light up as he says one of the following: "Join me on the Dark Side", "Impressive. Most impressive", "The Force is strong with you", "Release your anger and complete your transformation", "I find your lack of faith disturbing", "If you could be transformed, you would be a powerful ally", or a lightsaber sound or two Vader breaths. Best of all, the red light tends to "beat" on and off with Vader's sounds and breaths. (On a side note, transforming Vader back to Anakin causes the blue lights to flare up again as Anakin says, "I'm Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight".)
    Overall, the Class III Anakin/Vader transformer was a cool idea with a couple of cool gimmicks-- the way the toy switches between Anakin and Vader's mech modes is really cool, and there's an impressive number of electronic sounds. With the exception of not being able to sit flat on a surface, the Star Destroyer mode is also pretty solid, and there's a pretty large amount of mold detailing on the character. Unfortunately, that's about as far as the good points go-- the Jedi Cruiser mode is considerably less solid-looking, and the mech modes have an utterly ridiculous amount of kibble hanging off their backs (not to mention extras that can't store in some of the modes, either). Except for the Vader/Anakin change motion, there's nothing exceptionally cool here. Only recommended for the biggest SWTF diehards, and easily the worst big-ticket toy in the line.

Review by Beastbot

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