Barricade
(Gravity Bot)
Boy, for a character
who didn't even appear in this movie, Barricade is sure getting a lot of
toys for it, isn't he? Anyways, the Gravity Bot version of this character
looks as you'd expect in vehicle mode-- he has considerably "chubbier"
proportions than the actual Ford Mustang police car he's based on, along
with much larger wheels and a smaller roof and windows. He doesn't have
any robot mode extras at all, though. Most of the necessary mold details
are there, such as his tail/headlights, the front bumper, and all that,
but his paint detailing is lacking in a few areas-- for example, said front
bumper-- which is supposed to be silver-- is completely unpainted, with
only the headlights and the "643" marker on his front end. His windows,
sirens, and doors are painted, and go quite well with Barricade's black
color scheme, but his rear window is missing any sort of paint, and his
rear bumper also has no paint whatsoever. At least he has his signature
"To punish and enslave..." emblem on the rear half of his vehicle mode.
I mean, it just ain't Barricade without that.
Barricade's auto-transformation
to robot mode is the standard Gravity Bot fare, but a small piece of his
car hood also flips around to become his face, which is pretty cool in
addition to the normal "sides of the car become shoulders/arms, windows
become chest, back end becomes legs" transformation. Like on most Gravity
Bots, though, his arms are almost completely hidden in the car halves that
form his shoulders, he has one big uni-leg, and basically has no articulation
in this mode. The addition of purple on the robot parts really adds to
the color scheme, though, and gives it that extra bit of "punch" needed
that the police car mode was missing a bit of. The mold detailing on his
robot parts is also excellent, being a bit more curved and "evil-looking"
than most other Gravity Bots, due to the fact that he's a Decepticon. Even
the backside (or underside of the car mode) is excellent detailed, even
if that part isn't actually painted. His face is also very well-detailed
both in terms of mold and paint detailing-- those light red eyes just BLARE
out of their sockets. Honestly, it looks so evil it's a bit off-putting
considering the "chubbiness" of the rest of this toy-- a problem most of
the other Decepticons in the sublines aimed at little kids tend to have.
Gravity Bot Barricade
is my favorite mold of the subline. Granted, that's not saying much given
how similar all of them are, but the really nice mold detailing in both
modes, plus the addition of a nice purple in robot mode, puts him over
the top. So if you only get one Gravity Bot, I'd recommend this one.
Review by Beastbot