Scorponok's first alt mode is that of a construction/destruction vehicle that is meant to look remarkably like a mechanical scorpion. And hot DANG, does this mode look cool. His large tail has a hook hanging from it that looks both like a crane arm and a stinger at the same time, which is ingenious. He has HUGE claws which can open to make them even HUGER and reveal a large missile which you can fire at unsuspecting Autobots (or Decepticons, if there's a traitor in their midst). The front of the claws also have a nice "dirt" paint wash on them. Instead of insect legs, this scorpion has treads with shovels on the front to scoop up anything that gets in his way. He also has a see-through cockpit, complete with guns on the sides, in the middle of the mode, and the "scorpion head" looks like some kind of scrapper on the front of the vehicle. The mandibles can move up and down, to, if you want to emulate him shredding something apart. Simply awesome. But then we get to the electronic sounds. Egads, the SOUNDS. Most of the sounds are good; if you push back on the tail cockpit, you get a machine gun noise (because the hyper mode guns swing forward); if you hold the button at the base of his tail and then do the same thing, a deeper, "moving machinery" sound will be emitted; and if press the button on the back of the tail, an "rumbling engine" sound is emitted. However, there is one sound that completely ruins all of the others. Basically, if you much as LOOK at Scorponok the wrong way, a "machinery moving" sound will emit from the speaker, and it gets INCREDIBLY annoying after half a minute or so of playing with him. Scorponok has been the first Transformer I've ever had where I've actually taken the batteries out of him. It's a shame. As for the colors, they seem to mesh fairly well; the red-orange, black, and blue go together very well, and the transparent yellow is used sparingly enough where it looks alright. He also has plenty of paint and mold detailing, so no problem there. The green is the only color of his I'm not entirely fond with; it's a bit too light. A darker forest green would have been much better.
    Scorponok's other alt mode, a "sand hoverjet" is... actually pretty good for a third mode. It's not realistic at all, to be sure, and the scorpion hands are painfully obvious, but other than that it's a serviceable aircraft. It has a nice long nosecone made out of the scorpion tail, with some appropriate cockpit windows where needed. He also has small turbines near the rear of the vehicle, made out of part of the legs. The rear wings are too small- but really, it's a third mode, it's essentially an extra. I'm not going to be TOO critical of it. It's good enough where I consider Scorponok to be a true triple-changer, let's just say that.

    Scorponok's robot mode also looks very, very cool. His huge claws still give him a "monsterish" appearance, as does his big ol' scorpion tail coming out his backside. He's pretty short for an Ultra, but he makes up for it with his stockiness. His legs stick out sideways from his body trunk, which I'm not entirely fond of, but at least it adds to his inhuman appearance a little more. Still, legs that come out from the bottom of the body trunk would have been better. The legs look nice and bulky as well- I especially like the shovel feet, with "worn metal" paint apps on the tips. The claws on his knees serve no real purpose, but at least they look cool. His face also is very well-sculpted- it makes him look evil as well as stern, battle-hardened, and intelligent. The hyper mode mask that flips down over it looks a bit stupid, though- it magnifies his eyes to the point where they look silly. He's completely sturdy in this mode, so no problems standing him up ever occur. His articulation is fairly good- he can move at the hips, knees, head, tail, and shoulders. His shoulder movement is rather restricted, though, as he has no elbow articulation whatsoever. So you have to turn his whole arm to aim his missile launcher, and his shoulder plates don't move while in this mode either. Other than that, you can get him into a fair number of poses. Scorponok has quite a few hyper mode weapons, although they're all fairly obvious- guns pop out of his tail; knifes extend slightly from the backside of his hands; his claws open to reveal missiles; and his visor flips down over his head. He also has hip-mounted guns, although they don't fire anything and aren't made out of the transparent "energon" plastic like the other weapons. Still, he's certainly ready for a battle.
    Scorponok is an excellent transformer, and looks like a hardened killing machine in all of his modes. Definitely worth adding to any Transfan's collection- just make sure you take out the batteries first...

Review by Beastbot

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