Leadfoot here was only released in Japan, by TakaraTOMY, though it was originally designed to be released by Hasbro in the United States and other countries as well, as a Target exclusive in a two-pack with a Topspin redeco. Unfortunately, that deal fell through (in a big way-- seriously, how does a retail company reject a brand new mold made for them with their company logo dead-center in both modes?!). Thus, even though I don't normally review TakaraTOMY toys and stick to toys released in the states on my website, I've made an exception for this guy since the DotM line seems to be missing a little something without a mainline Leadfoot toy.
    Leadfoot's vehicle mode is a Chevrolet Impala NASCAR car, but like Topspin, this version is all weaponized-- and boy, does Leadfoot have a lot of weapons! Beyond the most obvious bits sticking out of his vehicle mode-- his huge jet-like engines on the back end-- he's got two missile pods on the sides of the hood, a regular blaster, a machine gun, and a rotary gun-- and yes, all of these are removable and can stick in any Mechtech-compatible port on him, of which there a whopping seven, all reachable in both modes-- a TON for a deluxe. Leadfoot also comes with a "regular" Mechtech weapon with a gimmick, though it's a redeco of the original deluxe DotM Ratchet's chainsaw-gun weapon. (At least they picked one of the best Mechtech weapons to use again!) There's also exposed robot detailing all over the place, given that Leadfoot's in his "Stealth Force Mode" for vehicle mode on this toy, and it all comes together to form a rather busily-detailed toy, but in a good way. The back end is a bit hollow, but only because of an engine exhaust port deep in it-- there actually aren't any robot mode extras beyond what little you can see inside Leadfoot's front transparent window, which is quite impressive. The overall color scheme of red, black, and gray works well enough for a NASCAR toy, even if it's not a particularly eye-catching scheme-- though the bits of silver on the front grill, black-fade on the "burnt" back ends of the engines, and transparent dark blue headlights do give his color scheme at least a little bit of pop. The dull milky green tan-- what little is visible in this mode-- is just a plain ugly color, however. A straight tan would've worked considerably better-- I'm not sure why they chose a greenish, sickly shade of the color. The biggest downside about this mode, really, is that Leadfoot is bereft of his sponsor decals-- yep, TakaraTOMY apparently didn't get the rights to put them on the toy. As such, despite all the weaponry Leadfoot manages to look a bit "naked" in this mode, particularly on his front half. This can be fixed by buying yourself a wonderful set of Reprolabels stickers for this toy to deck him out in his logos-- this costs extra, of course, but I think it's more than worth it, particularly since you're buying an import toy anyways at this point. (This is also why I'm using official pictures on this review-- my own copy of Leadfoot is decked out in these stickers.)
    Leadfoot's robot mode isn't as good as his practically flawless vehicle mode, but it's better than I'd expect at a deluxe scale, and used a couple of ingenious transformation "cheats" to pull off an admirable amount of accuracy to the movie model. Be forewarned, though, that Leadfoot's transformation is rather complex for a deluxe; he has a few unexpected twists and turns, and the first few times you might be a bit confused. The end result is definitely Leadfoot, though, with his relatively stocky, short legs, wheel-front-hood-gut, and an extremely well-done, silver-painted headsculpt, complete with dark blue visor. The "gut" doesn't stick out nearly as much as on his movie model, but that's a bit understandable given how difficult it would be to make that happen, and it's still most definitely a gut, so it's no big deal to me. His arms are a bit skinny and two-dimensional, though, which is a bit of a put-off. Leadfoot does have several obvious panels from his vehicle mode here that hang off as unapologetic kibble, and it's here where he gets most of his points taken off on his rating-- long pieces on his upper arms, more compact pieces on his lower arms, a backpack that-- though it doesn't get in the way of movement much-- sticks out enough where it's rather noticeable, and bits of his front bumper also serve as heels in this mode. They do give him added stability, however, and the lower-arm panels have weapon posts (his hands aren't sculpted to hold any of his weapons), so those two obvious bits of kibble don't bug me that much. Despite those kibble pieces, though, most of them tuck fairly out-of-the-way for articulation, and the amount of ingenuity that went into incorporating as many of Leadfoot's actual vehicle bits into his robot mode as there are overshadows all this, for the most part. His rear two wheels are on long, independent pieces to allow them to hang below his front hood as his gut; his turbines serve, quite well and fairly accurately, as his shoulders; and two small bits near the bottom of his vehicle mode fold together on his upper chest to make fake car doors, which I think is the most ingenious move of all. Leadfoot's robot bits have plenty of mold detailing-- springs, shard-like edges, and the like-- though the increased use of that sickly tan on his legs and hands helps to wash a lot of this mold detailing out, unfortunately. For articulation, Leadfoot can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points), elbows, inwards at the wrists, the hips (at three points), the knees, and the ankles. Rotation at his knees and elbows are the only real points missing here, given how nearly impossible waist articulation would have been with this design-- and given that he's quite stable, this means that you can get him into a good number of poses (though his shoulder movement is a bit restrictive because of the vehicle panels behind it).
    It's a real crying shame that this mold never saw release outside of Japan, as it's one of the best molds in the DotM line and manages to make "another movieverse sportscar" design very intriguing, fresh, and innovative. Unfortunately, as I type this this toy is going for big $$$ on eBay-- multiple hundreds, usually-- so this is only for Transformers fans with deeper pockets at this point (I was lucky enough to get mine when it was being sold for only a bit over Japanese retail)-- but if you fit that description and like the character, by all means pick up this awesome mold.

Review by Beastbot

(Images from TakaraTOMY.)

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