"Darkmount", as he's called on the box, is actually meant to be Straxus, a Decepticon warlord from the Marvel G1 comics. Straxus was unavailable for some reason, though, so instead they went with the name of the fortress he commanded-- Darkmount. Anyways, Darkmount here is a halftrack tank, and generally this mode is pretty solid. His proportions are pretty nice, though the turret looks a TAD large compared to the main body of the tank-- but this a rather small issue. His robot mode extras are generally covered up, though there's a couple of telltale gaps in his form, like in front of the turret and on the rear of the turret, that keep him from being 100% convincing. He's got a bunch of "fiddly bits", but this helps his asymmetrical, "cobbled together" look of this mode. Ther'es wonderful armor plating details and the like everywhere, though unfortunately Darkmount doesn't have all that many paint apps in this mode to break them up-- the dark blue is a bit TOO prevalent in this mode, though the copper and silver do a decent job of serving as accent colors. The gray used as the other main color in this mode is... okay, but it's gray. It's not exactly the most exciting color in the world. I do love the "M17" military-esque identification markings on this mode, though-- it's a bit of an obscure code to Marvel issue #17, which is where Darkmount/Straxus made his first appearance. What is probably the most stand-out feature of this mode are the myriad weapons-- not only does he have some guns positioned right around his main gun (which can move up and down, as well as rotate with the turret, by the way), but he has THREE C-clip weapons-- a rocket launcher and two different guns, which can be attached to any of the six compatible bars on the toy. (They can also be used with other C-clip-compatible Transformers, of course.)
    Darkmount's "turret" mode is hardly worth mentioning. It's one of those mid-transformation "modes" that someone seemed to just come up with to put on the box as an extra feature for the toy-- it's the tank turret, with the main body of the tank split apart to form a "stand" for said turret. There's no features or parts that are unique to this mode. The robot arms are pretty blatantly obvious in this mode, and generally it looks exactly like what it is-- an unfinished "third" mode.
    Darkmount's robot mode-- as opposed to his tank mode, which was pretty much made up for this toy-- goes to great lengths to give some big callbacks to his Marvel comic G1 design. His head sculpt is SPOT on, and looks appropriately fearsome-- I particularly love the skull-like "mouth" without a chin. I love how his turret forms his legs-- a nice departure from the norm for tank-formers, there. Oh, and he's got A SCYTHE. Made from his tank turret, of all things! That's simply ingenious, right there, and it's a DARN cool weapon-- the highlight of the entire toy, in my opinion. The dark blue is broken up a bit more with the color red-- which goes quite well with the other colors-- as well as a larger amount of paint apps apparently reserved for this mode. Straxus has his trademark "red triangle" bits on his chest, upper legs, feet, and forehead, along iwth a nice copper chest plate that all goes quite well together. Most of the vehicle mode extras fit away quite nicely in this mode-- the tires rotate under his chest to look like "abs", parts of the front of the tank mode become shoulder armor, and his tread pieces, though they make a bit of a backpack, hide behind his back fairly well. That said, there isn't a set "slot" for them, so them tend to move around a little bit when you don't necessarily want them to. Some other-- fairly minor-- downsides to this mode are the somewhat overly blocky legs, the noticeable gap in between the lower legs and the ankles, and knee tabs, which can come undone a little easily during transformation. Given the otherwise general awesomeness of this mode, though, those are fairly small beans. His articulation is good, too-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points), elbows, at the base of the four fingers of each hand (as one piece), and at the waist, hips, knees (at two points), and ankles-- the latter of which is actually on a ball joint, so he's pretty stable.
    Darkmount's tank mode may look a TAD cobbled-together in a few minor aspects, but he's an incredibly inventive design to a fairly obscure character and has a fantastic, unique look to his robot mode with some great weaponry. Ignore the "turret mode" and get this excellent mold-- highly recommended.

Review by Beastbot

Back to Transformers Generations Index