Dune Runner's alternate mode is a military dune buggy, very similar to miniature version of TF1 Landmine's. Whereas Landmine had one small mounted gun on his roof, though, Dune Runner has two (relatively) large triple-barreled guns that are definitely the main focal point of this toy. Each can move at three different points, so they can take a good number of vertical positions. The proportions to this mode are pretty good, and the mold detailing is great, where needed-- even details such as rivets and the like are visible on certain areas. His paint detailing is particularly good for a scout toy, with pretty much every necessary detail filled in. All the gunmetal gray, silver, and grayish-blue helps to break up the military green and keep it from being too prevalent, even though it is the main color. There is one robot mode extra in this mode, and sadly it's rather visible-- the lower arms, just inside the doors. There really isn't much of an attempt to hide them, as they don't look like seats or anything of the sort. Shame since it ruins a little the illusion of an otherwise solid vehicle mode.
    Dune Runner's transformation is pretty straightforward, and results in a pretty straightforward robot mode-- hardly kind of design you haven't seen before. The addition of black and light pale blue to his color scheme helps breaks up things even more, though, so even though it's not exactly an exciting color scheme, it's hardly a homogenous one. His proportions are pretty decent for the most part, though his arms are a tad flat and don't "stick out" from the side vehicle panels they're stuck to enough. Plus his chest-roof thingie doesn't really stick in place anywhere, so it kinda fluctuates between being either a chest that sticks out too much or a rather dumpy stomach, depending on how you'd rather position it. Even if stuff like his arm side-panels are stuck to the sides of his body, nothign sticks out as a blatant piece of "kibble" and everything conforms with his main body shape, though, which is a definite plus. His mold detailing continues to be quite good, with little pipes and gears molded into the right places, though I'm not fond of his head design. The combination of the depressions on the sides of his visor and his downward-turned faceplate make him look pretty depressed in a way that likely wasn't intentional, since it's not mentioned in his bio. Something about it just seems off. Dune Runner keeps his two big guns, which are now over his shoulders in this mode, though with the panels on either side of them they you can't get quite the movement out of them that you can in vehicle mode. As far as articulation goes, Dune Runner can move at the neck, shoulders, elbows (at two points), waist, hips, knees, and ankles. Most of these are at only one point though (and not a ball joint, except for the hips and neck). This makes nost of Dune Runner's movement merely front-to-back movement, rather limited the number of movements you can put him in (though the waist joint certainly helps in this respect). The gun assemblies on his shoulder also inhibit the already limited shoulder articulation some.
    Dune Runner isn't bad, he's just boring. He has a vehicle mode that's already been done in the movie aesthetic, an unremarkable color scheme, a straightforward transformation, and nothing about his robot mode design that really stands out as being original. His amount of paint detailing is really the only thing about him that's above-average. Not quite up to the standard of most of the other RotF scouts in my opinion, though you could certainly do worse.

Review by Beastbot

Back to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Index