Roadblock
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Energon Inferno. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Energon Inferno here.)
Roadblock is, for the
most part, a repaint of Inferno, but enough parts have been altered to
make his vehicle mode different-- now he's a futuristic crane instead of
a fire truck. He's also a pretty heavy nod to Generation
1 Grapple, as that toy, too, was a remold of that generation's Inferno,
had a similar color scheme, and a somewhat similar transformation. Though,
unfortunately, the new crane vehicle mode is still a bit of a stretch.
The crane arm is pitifully small when compared to the rest of the vehicle
mode, and it can't even reach to the ground to actually, you know, PICK
UP something. Plus, when you compare the crane arm to the size of the driver's
seat, you couldn't see this thing picking up more than a couple of cinder
blocks if it was life-sized anyways. And the size difference between the
front driver's seat and the rear one next to the crane arm is really out-of-scale
to the point of being ridiculous. A few other parts have been remolded,
too-- namely, the front bumper into a more sturdy "construction-esque"
theme; the upper legs, with some pretty cool screw-like molding on them;
the connector plates hanging off his upper legs, with a more rough-n-tumble
molding to them; and, last but not least, the robot head. Some parts of
the new head design share a lot in common with Inferno, like the face structure
and the crests on the sides of his face. However, Roadblock now has a flip-down
hat...visor... thing that you cover his head with when he's in vehicle
mode. In robot mode, he just has a big forehead now. I think I like this
design a bit more than Inferno's, though, since it at least does a marginally
better job of covering up the head in vehicle mode, whereas you just had
to little plates fit over Inferno's eyes on that toy. On the other hand,
when it comes to the color scheme, I think I prefer Inferno's a bit over
Roadblock's. Even though it's appropriate for the vehicle mode, I just
don't think yellow, brown, and blue look as good on this mold as Inferno's
red, blue, and gray did. Plus, Roadblock has those gaudy red windows, which
just look far too Playskoolish. Though on the plus side, Roadblock does
have a bit more paint detailing than Inferno; he's got plenty of the stuff
on his chest, head, and arms.
Roadblock is a slight
step down from Inferno-- even though Roadblock has a few improvements,
such as the head and more paint detailing, overall Inferno comes out a
little ahead. And since Inferno was already one of the worst molds of Energon
to begin with, I can't possibly recommend Roadblock unless you're a completists,
especially now that Inferno is on such a big discount at stores anyways.
Review by Beastbot