Barricade's police car mode is pretty much flawless in regards to its accuracy to the Saleen Mustang-- other than the backs of his toes sticking out the bottom of the rear end of the vehicle mode, there's no robot mode extras in this mode at all. That's particularly impressive considering they had to make room in the interior for drivers seats, due to the Human Alliance gimmick. Of course, with this set, it's not really "Human Alliance" in the sense that Barricade's partner isn't human! Yes, he comes with his Movie 1 partner Frenzy, though this version of Frenzy can't transform (but is just as posable as the other Human Alliance figurines). Nice little idea there, given that in the first two movies the Decepticons had no human allies, but some of them were definitely deserving of the Human Alliance-sized treatment. As you'd expect at this scale, Barricade has all the necessary details you'd expect in this mode, both in terms of mold detailing and paint detailing-- headlights, tailights, his police "badge", "To Punish and Enslave", etc., are all there. Plus he's finally got a toy with transparnent rear windows! Hurrah! (The small rear side windows are unpainted plastic-- however, even at this scale they're so small it's not that big of a deal.) One final fun note is that Barricade's license plate is "2PN-SLV", which is of course an abbreviated version of his "motto". As with all Human Alliance figures, his car doors can open in this mode to let Frenzy (or another Human Alliance figurine) in and out.
    Barricade is one of the easier-to-transform Human Alliance figures-- in fact, his transformation is more or less a slightly more complex version of the way his deluxe toy transforms. At this scale the results are even more awesome, though, due to all the little extra details like flip-out pads on his feet for extra stability, the more reasonably proportioned "upper back spikes", and slightly meatier arms. (That said, however, the lower arms are rather skinny proportionally.) I particularly like the way the bits on the front of his chest can be arranged to get the "crunched-up" look it has on the movie model. The headlight pieces on the tips of his shoulders, some minor vehicle bits on the sides of his arms and knees, and part of the roof on his back are the only real vehicle mode extras that don't blend in well with his robot mode design. (Almost all of those vehicle mode bits stay out of the way regardless though, so they're not a huge deal. The paint apps continue to look fairly nice in this mode, with some nice light metallic purple and silver bits on his robot parts helping to keep him from being a completely dull black-and-dull-gray coloration. His robot mode parts are excellently sculpted, particularly his head, which looks REALLY danged evil. Even though it's not completely movie-accurate, the bit of black around his mouth makes it look like he has a goatee, which works quite well for his character. You can also make him "talk" by pulling back on the upper head, as he has jaw articulation. His other points of articulation are at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), at the wrist on each arm, and at the hips (at two points), knees (at three points), and ankles (at two points). So he's pretty posable-- with the odd exceptions being his hips. For some weird reason, his legs can't move directly forward at the hips, only forward at a slightly outward-bending angle. Plus his legs are a bit too close together, and you can't move them a bit further apart like you think you'd be able to. The bits of his taillights on his knees can also get in the way of some movement there, too. In addition, his waist doesn't quite connect to his stomach, but from most angles this isn't particularly obvious. His left arm becomes that cool spinny-wheel-sawblade thing he used in the first movie, but unfortunately, that arm can't change into a "normal" configuration. Given the scale and the unobtrusiveness of the gimmick, I don't think it would've been too much to ask to have Barricade have both normal and sawblade-hand configurations on both arms. As far as Human Alliance gimmicks go, Barricade has two. The major one is that you can slide Frenzy through Barricade's midsection so that his head pops out of Barricade's chest, and have him "man" two pop-out guns there. It kinda looks a bit weird, but it's still a neat gimmick. Also, by aiming Barricade's right arm forward at the shoulder, Frenzy can sit in the seat on that arm and "man" a small fold-out missile pod on the shoulder. (He can also sit in the seat on Barricade's left arm too, but there's nothing for him to do there.)
    Human Alliance Barricade is a great toy in both modes, though he does have a few minor oddities like some odd restrictions in articulation at his hips and knees, as well as the lack of a "real" left hand. Still, taken as a whole those aren't that big of a deal, and Barricade continues the general Human Alliance tradition of being excellent toys. If you're gonna get just one Barricade and price isn't an option, I'd definitely recommend this bad boy.

Review by Beastbot

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