Barricade's police car
mode is excellent, definitely the best-looking alt mode out of all the
movie toys released of him. The proportions are PERFECT, and he's got ALL
the details he has in the movie-- the "POLICE" logos, the "To punish and
enslave..." logo, the Decepticon police emblem, the works. His headlights
and tail lights are appropriately detailed as well, and his sirens look
pretty cool, being transparent plastic around a metallic silver base. His
front and side windows are transparent, though there isn't any real car
interior-- you just see the back side of his robot parts inside, though
at least they aren't crammed in there to the point where it's really obvious
they're robot parts. The only thing that irks me about this mode is that
the rear windows aren't transparent, or even PAINTED. After taking the
time to put all those details on the rest of this mode, why the heck would
they skimp on paint apps for the windows, of all things?
Barricade's robot mode
is also pretty darned cool, though it does admittedly suffer from a few
problems. As is the case with all the transforming Barricade toys, the
arms are way too skinny, since they're just made up from the sides of the
vehicl emode. His claws look very cool, though (even if they're not painted),
and the addition of two joints on the palms to allow the thumbs and the
four fingers to seperate slightly from the rear bumper piece to look more
like hands is much appreciated. Barricade's waist also connects to his
chest in a slightly diagonal manner, which looks rather odd, as he's permanently
looking slightly downwards if you keep him standing straight. Barricade's
gimmick is a "punching action" on his left hand-- if you push in a tab
his fist will extend out a few inches, though the extendo-fist looks rather
goofy. Plus, it activates too easily-- you'll undoubtedly trigger it while
transforming the toy at least once or twice. Other than that, though, this
is a very solid mode. The mold detailing on the robot parts is GREAT, and
the bits of silver, bluish purple, and gold really contrast great with
all of the black, making Barricade look less dull than he otherwise would
have. The detailing on the head is especially impressive-- Barricade looks
like the robot devil himself, I'm tellin' ya. The couple of obvious vehicle
parts-- on the outside of the arms and the side windows behind the shoulders--
complement the look of the mode well and don't get in the way of movement
at all, so I don't mind them. (As far as articulation, Barricade can move
at the shoulders, elbows, thumb, fingers [as a set of four on each hand],
his hips, ankles, and his knees [at two points].) The way the knee joints
are situated, though, Barricade can't straighten his legs completely. So
in short, his articulation is adequate, but not particularly extraordinary.
Just like in a certain scene in the movie, a miniature toy of Frenzy can
pop out of Barricade's chest by opening up the front chest grill, taking
him out, and unfolding him. The Frenzy toy itself isn't too spectacular,
just more of a bonus little extra, really-- his only paint apps are his
eyes (which are the wrong color, natch), and he can only move back-and-forth
at the shoulders, neck, and the knees (with both legs having to move as
one piece). So it's not like you can do a whole lot with him, but it's
nice that Barricade comes with a little sidekick.
Barricade is one of
the nicer Movie deluxes, with a great vehicle mode (though no painted rear
windows!) and a fairly nice robot mode as well. He does suffer from a few
problems in robot mode that keep him from reaching the "must buy" rating
of 9.0 or above, but none of his problems are particularly major and he's
still a pretty nice toy overall. Recommended.
Barricade (Allspark Power) Bio:
Barricade uses his supercharged ability
to disguise himself to cause havoc among the humans helping the Autobots.
Thanks to the AllSpark, he’s almost impossible to detect among similar
human vehicles.
Barricade (Premium) Bio:
Repaired and rested after the long struggle
against the Autobots, Barricade is at a loss for what to do. Megatron has
been destroyed, and most of the other Decepticons have disappeared. It’s
more and more difficult to catch an Autobot alone, and tormenting humans
isn’t as enjoyable as he thought it would be. For the time being, he fades
into the background. He keeps his armor polished and his vehicle mode looking
sharp in the hope that Megatron will return again, and lead the Decepticons
to glory.
Strength: 8.0
Intelligence: 5.0
Speed: 8.0
Endurance: 6.0
Rank: 5.0
Courage: 5.0
Fireblast: 5.0
Skill: 4.0
Review by Beastbot
*In addition to the normal release, a Target-Exclusive release of Barricade in "Allspark Power" packaging, with some Allspark blue paint and a red Frenzy, was released. I think it looks a little nicer than the original, as it adds contract. Also, Barricade was released as part of the "Final Encounter" "Screen Battlers" pack, but his hinge to let Frenzy out actually had a piece added to prevent him from ejecting Frenzy, due to there being an additional Frenzy miniature in the set. Although "Final Encounter" Barricade is unchanged from the original, the Frenzy figure that's inside of him isn't-- it's colored black now. There was also a Premium version released with painted windows and a silver instead of gold face, among other minor changes-- it looks slightly better, but not enough to warrant a second purchase, methinks.