Barricade's police car mode is pretty good-looking all-around, particularly for a Fast Action Battler. The proportions are ALMOST realistic, being just slightly "chibi" to the point where you won't really notice it unless you look at him from a top-down angle, and he's got plenty of mold detailing, and paint detailing on much of those details-- his headlights and tailights are detailed, as well as his "POLICE" logos, his car number (643), his "Decepticon Police" badge on the sides, and the like. Using just metallic paint for the sirens does look a bit cheap compared to actual transparent plastic like on the mainline version, but it seems from looking at the rest of the line that Hasbro feels that transparent plastic isn't preferable for this age range because of its brittleness when compared to normal plastic, so I can see why this decision was made. What I DON'T understand, though, is why none of the windows are painted at all! They're all just the same black color as the rest of this mode, and it just looks really cheap. I would have gladly preferred a few less paint apps on the taillights or headlights if it meant painted windows. Also, due to Barricade's transformation, his left side white "POLICE" door has a rather noticeable black crack in it, which looks rather unsightly.
    Barricade's robot mode has some nice features, but some rather ungainly downsides, too. His right arm is fine, even molded completely on the inside of the side of his vehicle mode as it is, but his left arm, which ends in his "Blade Shield", is noticeably longer than the other arm, and that just looks really weird. He can't extend his left arm perfectly straight, which makes the comparison a little less noticeable, but not much. I'm also not fond on how far back from the front of his chest his waist and legs are-- it makes him a little off-balance, not to mention that there's no real sturdy "locking mechanism" for the waist when you bring it out from under the chest during the transformation. It locks in place slightly, but any real amount of pressure from your hand and it starts to swing up into the chest again, which is rather annoying. Barricade's articulation is also more limited than it could have been-- he can move at the shoulders, back-and-forth at the left elbow to a limited extent, the waist (though it has the same "snap-back action" when you let it go that most other FABs have), hip, and waist articulation. Many of these points are limited, though, more by the plastic around the joints being more bulky than they needed to be, especially when it comes to the knees. It's also dissapointing that Barricade has no elbow movement on his "normal" arm, either. Also, why the heck are Barricade's robot parts gray in this mode?! They certainly weren't gray in the movie, and although they certainly don't clash from the black and help to diversify Barricade's color some, it's certainly not movie-accurate. On the positive end, Barricade's robot mode parts have TONS of mold detailing on them, especially on the legs, and his face is extremely well-done, if a tad large proportionally. There's a pop-up flap on the top of his chest that closes up a lot of the unsightly gap between Barricade's head and chest, and was a nice feature to be included.I also like the inclusion of the windows above the sides of the chest even with the simplified transformation, as I always thought that looked cool. The hood of the police car also fits well behind Barricade's back and doesn't get in the way of movement at all, so Barricade doesn't have any pieces of kibble that aren't utilized as part of the robot mode or complement its look. His "Blade Shield" gimmick is also pretty cool, though the Blade Shield itself is pretty undersized-- if you push down on the lever on the back side of Barricade's left shoulder, the Blade Shield will rotate quickly, with centrifugal force forcing the sawblade pieces out during the spinning, sort of like it's transforming into a weapon only when it's activated, which is pretty darned cool.
    Blade Shield Barricade is about middle-of-the-road as Fast Action Battlers go, with some cool features (his spinning Blade Shield gimmick, the detailing in robot mode, the lack of real kibble in either mode) but some pretty big downsides as well (his unpainted windows in vehicle mode, his limited articulation, his uneven arm length). As such, considering that the deluxe mainline version of Barricade isn't particularly fragile or difficult to transform and it's better than this version, I'd recommend that toy over this one, even if you're buying it for a kid (unless he's REALLY little, in which case the Cyber Slammer is probably your best option).

Review by Beastbot

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