Barricade's police car alternate mode is slightly longer than it should be, but otherwise the proportions for this mode are generally good. There are some very obvious extras on the back end, though-- namely, Barricade's feet stick right out of the back end, while the details that form his robot chest are right in front of said feet. There isn't really a back end to this mode, because of this-- just the two bottoms of the feet with an empty void in between them, sadly. The mold detailing on most of this mode is pretty basic, consisting of some simple lines for the sirens, windows and doors, and some basic swooshes on the front end. However, the mold detailing can get intricate where need be-- what with some pretty intricate detailing on the front hood, grill, and headlights, and his tires are well-detailed too. Surprisingly, there's some basic details on the underside of the car mode as well-- a couple of transmission lines and the like that you'd expect to see on the underside of a car. Sadly, as is the case with far too many The Last Knight toys (especially the simplified toys), Barricade is BADLY in need of some more paint. He's almost all a very dark navy blue plastic-- in BOTH modes, though at least this plastic is peppered with glitter, making it semi-metallic in appearance. Given that the tires are also black plastic, he needs some contrast-- and unfortunately, he doesn't get much of it. There's some off-white basic stripes on his car doors and in the middle of his siren, along with red and a moderately light blue used on each end of his siren. There's also a small silver Decepticon symbol on top of the front hood. Aaand that's it, at least as far as easily visible paint apps. (Since this is a mass-release 1-step changer, if you shine a UV light like that in 1-step Dragonstorm's mouth onto the front hood, you'll see a large "Cyberfire flame" paint app with a larger Decepticon symbol in the middle of it.) Still, he REALLY needed some more white or something in this mode. Where's his "To Punish and Enslave" emblems? Heck, where's something as basic as a "POLICE" emblem on his car doors? His windows also really needed some paint, too, along with his front bumper. So many details, left completely unpainted. Meh.
    To transform Barricade, take the middle section of his grill and flip it-- and the attached sections of the car-- downwards, and the rest of the toy will automatically re-arrange into robot mode. The end result is, more or less, what you'd expect from a 1-step changer-- some decent "core robot" proportions, but some definite obvious pieces of kibble. The biggest is the roof section hanging behind and partially above his back, kinda ruining Barricade's silhouette with such a large flat piece so far above his head. The aforementioned piece you use to transform Barricade also just sits jutting diagonally downards from his butt to the floor, behind his legs-- it's really obvious and pretty awkward-looking. On a lesser note, there's some small bits of the side of his vehicle mode behind his shoulders as well, but these are relatively small and minor compared to the previous two honkin' panels. Proportionally, Barricade's head and chest are fairly accurate, though his arms are a bit puny and skinny. His legs look good, but they're slightly further back than they should be. The mold detailing continues to be exceedingly well-done when it needs to be-- the legs have several sharp-looking armor panels around the lower legs, with solid feet, some exposed "wires" in the knees, and some pistons visible in his abs/waist. His chest is made up of a faux, undersized version of his car front, with some added robotic details in the center and a Decepticon symbol. His head is pretty well-detailed as well, having a V-shaped crest on the otherwise round head and with an insectoid mouth and eyes. His arms, due to their size, are pretty underdetailed, though. There IS a nifty little rotary machine gun around his left wrist, emulating his blaster on the Premier Edition figure, though of course it's smaller. It can rotate around the wrist without coming off for some firepower action, though beyond that Barricade can only move back-and-forth at the shoulders-- it's 1-step changer, articulation isn't the point of these. As with the vehicle mode, Barricade has very little paint-- only some off-white on his shoulders and red on his eyes. This is especially a shame given just HOW MUCH mold detailing he has in this mode.
    TLK 1-step changer Barricade is about par-for-the-course when it comes to toys in this class, perhaps slightly below-average. He's got a nice vehicle mode (except for the back end), and the "main" portion of his robot mode has a lot of nifty details molded in, though it has some proportional maladies (skinny arms) and some obvious kibble (huge panels behind his back and legs). He also has waaay too little paint detailing, which is especially apparent because of all the excellent mold detailing in robot mode and the fact that he's almost entirely just one color. If you're looking for something simple to transform AND larger than a teeny tiny figure, I'd honestly recommend the Allspark Tech figure more-- unless the simpler details on that figure also turn you off.
 

Review by Beastbot

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