Crankcase's vehicle mode is a black Chevy Suburban police SUV, which as we all know is automatically evil. Proportionally this vehicle mode is fairly well-done-- as most licensed vehicle modes tend to be-- but the suspension is a bit too high, i.e. there's a bit too much space in between the bottom of the SUV and the wheels. This is almost certainly because of Crankcase's robot mode extras which do stick out a little from the underside, including his scissor-like claws from the front end and, to a lesser extent, some of his "dreads" and parts of his feet sticking out from the center and more towards the rear. For the most part these can only be seen from a side-on angle, however, so they aren't that big of a deal. Crankcase's color scheme is almost entirely black in this mode (excepting for a few gray hinges which stick out), which fits how he looks in the movie, but I wish at least a LITTLE more color beyond the headlights, taillights, and sirens had been applied here-- on the wheels, grill, and/or windows, perhaps? That said, the front headlights are done particularly well, having just a tinge of bronze paint to make it look like they're yellow on the edges while also having paint apps to make it look like there's two lights proper inside each headlight. The police bars are decent enough with transparent red on the end, but it would've looked better if the sirens had been half blue and half red with a little bit of solid or painted plastic in the middle. Crankcase's Mechtech weapon is simple, but fairly cool for the line-- normally it's a gun, but if you press back on the brown buttom, it extends out into a claw (like all Mechtech weapons though, it can't "lock" into its extended mode). Crankcase has two Mechtech ports in this mode-- both right behind his front lightbar.
    Crankcase's transformation is fairly straightforward for a deluxe movie figure, with the arms coming from the car doors and most of the hood and top folding up behind his main body. The back ends of the vehicle fold around in a pretty crazy/creative manner to become his feet while actually having his wheels in the middle of the soles of said feet (it doesn't throw off his balance, don't worry). Parts of the back end do stick out a little too far behind the lower legs, but this is a small price to pay for such a cool part of the transformation, in my opinion. The car doors unfortunately just hang off of the arms without pegging in anywhere, though the arms-- and the rest of the body-- are quite proportional overall, with the only exception being that the chest is a little square. The mold detailing on Crankcase is exquisite, particularly on the chest and head-- ridges and claw-like detailing can be seen everywhere in his robot mode, a definite departure from his somewhat sparsely-detailed vehicle mode. Like his vehicle mode though, I wish he had a bit more paint detailing, as his base color scheme of light gray and black is pretty boring-- nearly all of the paint for his robot mode is concentrated on his chest and head. Speaking of the head, though, MAN does Crankcase look evil. His four red eyes have VERY good light-piping, and his horns and "dreadlocks" have him looking very Predator-ish. Also framing his silouhette behind his head are two cool pincer-like claws, which can move inwards and outwards. (You can also extend these claws out below the front end in vehicle mode for some "capture claw" action.) That said, over time his rubbery bits-- namely his hands, back-pincers, and dreads-- can deform, particularly if you keep him in vehicle mode for a while, which is a rather big downside, even if I see safety-wise why this had to be done. (Speaking of safety issues, only the first-run Crankcases have the oddly long middle finger on their hands like seen above-- for the later runs, the rest of the finger was clipped down quite a bit, likely also because it looks like he's...well... giving you the finger otherwise.) He has one hole on each of his lower arms for a Mechtech weapon, since his hands themselves are too stretchy and rubbery to adequately hold the weapon themselves. When it comes to articulation, Crankcase has you covered in most instances-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points), elbows, wrists, hips (at two points), knees (at two points), and slight ankle articulation (mostly due to his transformation). He's quite well-balanced, so you can get some decent poses out of him, but the ball joints on mine are a little loose, so he may not get quite as much of a range of motion as you'd think.
    Crankcase is a pretty solid addition to the Decepticon ranks for the Dark of the Moon line, and looks incredibly evil and unique with his headsculpt and "dreadlocks". His proportions and articulation are also quite good, though he does have a few issues that keep him from quite reaching a "must-buy" rating of 9.0 and above-- namely some minor kibble issues in both modes, his overly monotonous color scheme, and the tendency of his soft parts to warp over time. Still, a recommended purchase if you like Movie Decepticons.

Review by Beastbot

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