The Prime-universe version of Kup has an alt mode of a heavy-duty pickup truck-- and one that looks quite familiar! Yep, Kup's design is basically a larger version of Prime Ironhide's, though in this mode at least, I don't have any problem with that; I prefer different-colored variants of a mold as different characters than the same exact colors and paint job applied to two differently-sized versions of the same character. Regardless, the proportions of this mode are quite solid, taking into allowance the slightly stylized Prime aesthetic. (The windows-- and how much the roof pokes up above the front hood and truck bed-- are a tad short, but otherwise I have no complaints about the truck mode in this respect.) There are a few robot extras, however. You can't see much inside of Kup's transparent blue windows, but the middle section of his truck bed is completely hollow-- and, if you don't have his weapons plugged into the back there, what truck bed there is is just obviously his robot feet-- it's definitely the weak point of this mode. As for Kup's color scheme, it's a bit different than usual, edging towards the "green" edge of a 'bot that's traditionally been blue. (I imagine this was so that he didn't have near-identical colors as his casemate, Rumble.) Still, the dull bluish green makes for a nice main color for the old timer, and the light green paint apps on the front section and the stripes along the side help to both complement and contrast against the main color. The silvery-gold paint on Kup's front grill and rooflights is also a nice shade of the color and adds some much-needed metallic paint to the toy. Pretty much all the rest of the toy is either black or a bluish shade of black. I guess I appreciate putting a little more color variation in there, but I think making all of the black a "pure" black would've looked a little better. As with most Prime toys, Kup's mold detailing varies quite a bit-- there's large, relatively undetailed spaces like his roof front hood, and places of rather intricate detailing like his wheels, front bumper, and weapons. And speaking of weapons, he's got two long hollow cannons-- obviously modeled after Movieverse Ironhide's weapons, another of this toy's many obvious connections to Ironhide. You can store them on the side doors in this mode or on the truck bed-- I highly recommend the latter, as they help to hide how unpleasant Kup's truck bed looks and-- because of the balljoints on the pieces where they mount-- the weapons can be posed slightly upwards there, so that they aren't, y'know, firing right at Kup's rear windshield. Both cannons can also be plugged into each other to create one single, longer cannon weapon.
    Kup has some interesting variations in his transformation compared to commander class Ironhide, with his arms forming from the car doors rather nicely, and his whole waist assembly sliding up and exposing his robot head at the same time. However, this mode does have some kibble issues-- the most obvious one being the front of the truck that comes over his head. It makes it pretty much impossible for Kup to have any real peripheral vision, and a large segment of the front hood just hangs off his upper back ceremoniously, and is a bit of an eyesore. His wheels also stick out in a rather unpleasing manner from the sides of his lower legs (along with small sections of his truck mode on the sides of said lower legs, as well). I do like how parts of his front bumper pieces slide out to form "shoulder pads", though, and the segment of truck hood & windows on his back pegs in securely and doesn't stick out from his sides that much-- it's a minor additional piece of kibble, at most. Kup's head is detailed quite well, and fits the Prime aesthetic, but there's just one problem-- it's very obviously Ironhide's head! Given that both Kup and Ironhide are distinctive enough characters with distinctive enough heads, I don't think it would've been too much to have given this mold a different head sculpt. His chest and waist are excellently detailed both in terms of mold and paint detailing, however, and he's fairly well-balanced. His articulation is at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows, hips (at two points), knees, and ankles (at two points). This is pretty good, particularly considering that most of them are ball joints-- however, the pieces of his truck grill and wheels on the back of his upper arms/shoulders do get in the way of articulation there, a bit. Waist articulation is also annoyingly missing, as there's no reason it couldn't be there due to Kup's transformation. Kup can hold his cannon weapons or other 5mm-compatible weapons on either the sides of his lower arms or in his fist holes proper.
    Prime Kup is a decent re-do of the Ironhide mold at a larger scale, and gets some things better than the Ironhide toy (the arms, in particular). However, not enough was done to really make him "Kup", and so he comes across as "Jungle Attack Ironhide" or somesuch themed redeco. In addition, his head is really hidden too far back into his chest/front bumper/shoulder assembly, and his truck bed in vehicle mode is rather ugly. Thus, overall, I think he's a bit of a step downwards from Prime Cyberverse Ironhide, despite actually being a larger toy.

Review by Beastbot

Back to Transformers: Prime Index