Smokescreen (Prime; Cyberverse) [Solo Release]
Vehicle ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Autobot
Size: Legion
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Moderately light milky gray, charcoal black, dark blue, and some dark red, dark metallic silvery blue, and light milky bluish gray
Rating: 7.2

    Smokescreen's alternate mode is a racing car, complete with "38" numbers on his sides, in an homage to the G1 character of the same name. Other than the general alt mode, the 38s, and a few other minor details, though, Prime Smokescreen is largely his own guy. For one, his main plastic color is a moderately light milky gray-- a pretty dull color honestly, though not as bad as a lighter shade of the same color. What's odd about this is that this is inaccurate to how Smokescreen appears in the show; he's clearly white on the show in the places where he's gray here, which definitely removes something from this toy. White would've contrasted better with the nice blue stripes that go from the center of Smokescreen's front and splits into two different lines on his hood, along with blue paint surrounding his rear wheels. There's a bit of red checkering on the sides to add a bit more color variety, and the silver headlights and dark metallic silvery blue paint used for the windows look decently good, too; again, it's just that they'd look even better against white. The wheels-- and some small robot mode parts that aren't particularly visible in either mode-- are also an "impure" charcoal black, which doesn't look as good as a straight black-- it looks a bit "dirty", and not in a good way. The proportions on this mode are great, though, looking about as close as you can get to a real-life car without running into licensing issues (and in keeping with Prime's slightly stylized aesthetic). He also has no robot mode extras in this mode whatsoever, always a plus. Smokescreen's mold detailing is fairly sparse in this mode, being the sleek racing car that he is. There's some pretty cool mold detailing on his front and back bumpers, and some nice unique design elements there-- it's a shame that neither are painted (the only complaints I have about the lack of paint in this mode.) Smokescreen comes with a sort of bayonet weapon with a chainsaw in place of a regular blade on the bottom-- it's a pretty cool weapon, though he does share it with several other Beast Hunters legion toys. In addition to having a port on the top of this mode to store his weapon or other Cyberverse-compatible weapons, Smokescreen also has a port in front of both of his rear wheels for additional weapon storage.
    I have mixed feelings about Smokescreen's robot mode. On the one hand, the doors-behind-the-shoulders look is replicated very well here for a Legion-class toy, his upper legs and knees are well-proportioned and well-detailed, and the way his chest splits apart is also fairly show-accurate for such a small toy, even if when compared proportionally to his headsculpt, it's a bit large. His roof also folds behind his back and out of the way quite well. However, Smokescreen's arms really bug me-- not only are they rather puny proportionally, but they're supposed to connect via a very shallow tab to the wheels on the sides of his main body, and the connection is weak at best, non-existent at worst. Given that his only place of articulation on the arms is at the shoulders right next to those very tabs, this means that his arms come unpegged ALL THE TIME, and it's quite annoying and my biggest beef with this design. His feet are also way too big and floppy, with fairly big chunks of the rear of his car mode on the side of said feet and noticeable gaps in between his ankles and feet. Granted, this does help with his stability, but it looks pretty bad, especially compared to his relatively skinny legs. Smokescreen's headsculpt-- while well-painted with silvery blue eyes and a silver face-- is also a bit off, with the headcrest not as pronounced as it should be and his face just looking a tad "off", particularly in the eyes. At least most of his car paint carries over to this mode, so that Smokescreen doesn't look bereft of paint here, either. For articulation, Smokescreen can move at the shoulders, hips, and back-and-forth at the ankles. Some elbow and/or knee articulation would've been appreciated, but then again this is pretty much par-for-the-course for a Legion class toy. As you'd expect, Smokescreen can hold his own weapon or any other Cyberverse-scale weapons in either of his hands in this mode.
    Prime Cyberverse Smokescreen has a pretty nicely-proportioned vehicle mode and a good amount of paint, but he has some major issues with his shoulders/upper arms in robot mode, along with an "off" headsculpt and big doofy feet. Add to that that he's gray as opposed to the show-accurate white, and I'd recommend getting the deluxe version of Smokescreen over this version, unless you or the person you're buying it for absolutely can't deal with a transformation that's any more complex than basic.



Smokescreen Bio:
FUNCTION: Stealth Fighter
If he can't confuse the Decepticons with a burst of magnetic smoke, he'll blast them with his Chain Bolter!
Strength: 5.0
Intelligence: 8.0
Speed: 8.0
Endurance: 6.0
Rank: 7.0
Courage: 9.0
Fireblast: 7.0
Skill: 8.0

Review by Beastbot

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