Scorponok (RID 2015)
Beast ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Decepticon
Size: Warrior
Difficulty of Transformation: Medium
Color Scheme: Dark milky chocolate bornw, moderately light semi-metallic brown, dark gray, light milky gray, and some dark dull red, silver, and dark metallic charcoal gray
Rating: 8.4

    As opposed to many of the more animalistic RID2015 Decepticons, Scorponok's a more "traditional" beastformer, with an alt mode of a robotic scorpion. His proportions are pretty spot-on-- the claws aren't ridiculously oversized for once! The legs may be a titch small, but that's about it. He's very nearly kibble-free, too-- his robot legs stick out just a tad underneath his scorpion body, though near the feet they stick out more obviously. From a side view they're definitely more apparent than from the front. It should also be worth noting that, due to his transformation, his claws wiggle ever-so-slightly on his arms when you move said arms around, as they can't lock in place completely, though they don't move much-- a minor complaint, really. As for the mold detailing, Scorponok has plenty of the RID2015 typical duo/trio of angular divots, such as on his tail, claws, and his shoulders. There's some really nifty detailing that looks like armor plating on his back and especially his tail-- the latter has angled armor detailing to make it look more robotic. His legs are pretty angular and thus have some basic angular details on them, as well. I love his head, which is a slightly humanized scorpion head, with two sets of eyes and a simplified set of mandibles that can open and close like a human jaw. (As for his other articulation in this mode, he can move at the shoulders (at two points), where the legs meet the body (all three as one piece on each side), and at the tail (at three points). For his color scheme, Scorponok's actually the color of a lot of scorpions (no green and purple here!)-- that is, brown, mostly. He's got a nice shade of darker brown that's pretty much the exact shade of milk chocolate, and then a lighter shade of brown that has a bit of glitter in it to make it look semi-metallic. The two different shades both contrast and complement each other quite well, and make for a pretty decent main color scheme. There's also two shades of gray on Scorponok. He's got that blah light milky gray, unfortunately-- though it's mostly relegated to minor parts in this mode-- and some darker gray. They work decently as neutral colors so he isn't ALL brown, but otherwise I'm not a huge fan. He DOES have a really nice shade of metallic charcoal gray on his head, which looks great, though. He's also got some red paint on his eyes and the rectangular details on his claws and tail. There's also some light brown paint on the stinger to help vary up that dark gray.
    For once, Scorponok DOESN'T transform in the traditional manner where his scorpion claws become his robot claws. No, this one takes a rather interesting approach-- his scorpion claws actually open up and slide up his arms to plug into his shoulders, revealing three-fingered hook-like hands; his heads essentially trade places; his robot body, which is on the underside of his scorpion body, moves up a bit; and the robot legs unfold from the bottom and form very skinny, chicken-walker-like legs. I love the originality in the robot mode. To be fair, there is some kibble; the sides of the scorpion body stick out pretty obviously from his skinny robot body (he's got a positively anorexic waist), and the scorpion legs stick out even more from the sides. I mean, the legs fold back some, but not nearly enough. The scorpion tail just kinda hangs behind his back, but he uses it in robot mode (and it's articulated so he can use it from the sides of his body), so I just count it as part of the robot mode and not just an extra. The claw "shells" look great on the shoulders, and help accentuate his silhouette and bulk up the toy in one area, given that it's not really bulky anywhere else. His skinny, backwards-bending knees are a really neat idea, and I love the "hooves" on the bottom, but the sheer skinny-ness of them makes him a bit difficult to pose, despite his otherwise pretty decent articulation. (He can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows, hips (at two points), knees (at two points), and forward-and-back at the ankles.) Scorponok's color scheme trends a bit more toward the gray end in this mode, with all of his limbs being primarily gray, so he doesn't look quite as exciting to me, though certainly not bad. For paint, he's got some silver on his face and stomach; light brown on the sides of his lower arms; and red on some divot-like details on his forehead, chest, and the outsides of his arms, with red eyes ars well. I do love that headsculpt, which looks sort of like a scorpion head on the top and sides, but with a humanoid face poking out of it with a long, strong jaw. For weaponry, Scorponok's sword can come off the end of his stinger and plug into one of his hands. It's a ridged, curved sword, calling to mind his armor plating detailing, and is fairly unique-- a cool accessory.
    RID2015 Scorponok is a really unique take on your usual scorpion-former, with a unique transformation for his claws and legs, in particular. Some of it doesn't always work-- his legs are too skinny, and he does have some minor kibble issues on his body in both modes-- but he's still a pretty good Warrior toy overall, and I'm glad to see more unique Decepticons like him. Mildly recommended.
 

Review by Beastbot

Back to Robots in Disguise (2015) Index