Scourge's vehicle mode
is a nice homage to the futuristic, wide "saucer-like" spaceship of his
original version, but updated to something more approaching a real vehicle.
For this Generations update, he's a space shuttle prototype, and looks
quite good in terms of proportions. The wings are nice and wide (as well
as long), with the cockpit is, appropriately, relatively small proportionally.
There are a few minor robot extras, such as the top of his head (which
has a gun sticking out of it to help it blend in in this mode), and the
tips of his painted robot claws can be seen in the intakes for his engines
in this mode. Both are fairly minor, however, and the whole thing with
the head was on his G1 toy too, so this seems to be a way of homaging that,
and it's hidden a little better on this version at the least. Scourge's
biggest problem has to do with his general blandness in this mode-- yes,
the dark blue contrasts quite well against the grayish off-white, but those
are the only two colors that get any real "show time" in this mode. Plus,
the wings don't have any paint apps on them AT ALL--even the blue stripes
down the sides of the front of this mode abruptly stop at the wing pieces,
which is a little disconcerting. Even adding those stripes--along with
perhaps some stripes on the rear wings-- would REALLY have made this mode
look more eye-catching. The mold detailing is great, though, with little
panels and vents everywhere it seems reasonable to put them on this figure.
Oh, and as a minor bonus, Scourge has two little flip-out landing gear
on the bottom of this mode.
Scourge's transformation
is a bit more complicated than you'd expect from a casual glance at the
pictures, but it's just that right mix between being interesting and unique,
without being too difficult. (The arms transform in a particularly ingenious
manner-- it's not simply a "extend/pull them out" type of transformation.)
In robot mode, Scourge bares a stronger resemblance to his G1 toy, only
with (much) better proportions and articulation. As far as his "core" robot
parts go, I really don't have any complaints-- the arms and legs are sufficiently
beefy but not overly so, and his chest details match fairly well with his
G1 self. His head sculpt is also extremely well-done, giving him a rather
grim look, and doesn't make his head-gun too overly large. (The light piping
for his eyes simply doesn't work on this toy, though-- too small of an
area for the light to feed through, methinks.) Scourge has always been
a fairly sleek character, so although the amount of mold detailing in this
mode is less-than-average, it's still enough, and fits him. THe paint detailing
is still overwhelmingly dark blue and off-white, but the bits of red help
to spice his color scheme up a bit (though it's still a far cry from exciting).
I love that they remembered to color Scourge's fingernails red, that's
always been one of this defining features. The main problems I have with
Scourge in this mode are his wings, and I'm still of a mixed opinion on
them. On the one hand, Scourge having widespread wings--like a kind of
cape-- is part of his "look", and the wings hanging off his back help with
this. (Some people have even unfolded the wings more to make it look even
more like a cape.) However, they're a bit TOO far back from his main
body, causing him to be overly backheavy and thus not the stablest TF around
(though it's certainly not THAT hard to get him to stand up by himself).
On a lesser note, some of the connector panels behind his main body-- such
as the panel sticking up behind his head and behind his waist-- are a slight
eyesore. For Scourge's weapon, they're stored in his two wings, which you
can open up like a clam shell to take them out-- one wing holds the core
gun, while another holds a double-barreled add-on. It's a pretty neat idea,
though unless you transform them JUST right the halves of the wings can
pop off, and they're fairly annoying to get back on. As for articulation,
Scourge has got ya covered-- he can move at the neck (at two points), shoulders
(at two points), elbows (at two points), wrists, waist, hips (at two points),
knees (at two points), and ankles (at two points)-- the latter of which
really helps in the stability department. Taking into account the back-heavyness
of the design you can still get him into a decent amount of cool poses
because of all those joints.
Generations Scourge
is a solid update to the G1 character, and a no-brainer pickup for fans
of the character. His overly cumbersome wings in robot mode and general
blandness in vehicle mode keep him from earning a "must-buy" rating of
9.0+, but he's still a pretty nice addition to the line.
Review by Beastbot