Hound (1-Step Turbo Changer) [The Last Knight]
Vehicle ModeCyberfire Paint AppsRobot Mode
Allegiance: Autobot
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Light pale military green, milky glittery pale tan, black, and some light blue, white, and dull brownish orange
Rating: 7.2

    Hound's alternate mode for The Last Knight has been changed to a bit "lighter" of a vehicle, though still a fairly heavy military one-- he's still a large truck, but now instead of more of a transport he's a mobile anti-aircraft missile launcher. In vehicle mode, his overall proportions are fairly solid on first look, though when comparing it to his other toys, the part behind the front driver's seat/cockpit is a bit longer than it should be. And, although the back two-thirds fit into the general shape that they should, a closer look reveals a lot of robot details back there, "hidden" partially by the black strip of plastic on top of it all in this mode-- you can see the side details of a lot of Hound's robot mode there, since the back two-thirds IS a lot of the main body and legs of the robot mode. The back end is particularly weak, sticking out more than it should and just being an almost-undetailed block that definitely looks out of place (there are some small taillights molded back there, but that's it). The most obvious robot extras are definitely the incredibly obvious robot arms on the inside of the dual missile launchers; despite my complaints, the other extras are generally acceptable given the 1-step gimmick, methinks. There's some fairly intricate mold detailing up on the front, with the ladders molded into the grill as well as several headlights and a vent on the front hood, plus some more headlights on the roof and armor panels on the sides. The tires are also pretty well-detailed, with lots of bumps around the treads. The missile launchers and rest of the sides have fairly simplistic, hollow mold detailing, though, likely because they're de-emphasized where they appear in the robot mode. The color scheme for Hound is pretty basic, with some pale military green making up most of the front half, while a pale milky tan with some glitter in it makes up the back half and the missile launchers. It's honestly a pretty boring color scheme, one that really needed some paint apps or other colors to break it up, and this toy does NOT have that. The black plastic on the wheels and a strip down the center does provide some contrast, but there's almost no paint of any other colors, here. There's a small white block on the right side under the windows with an Autobot symbol on it-- due to copyright issues, Hound can't have the Red Cross-ish medic symbols on him-- and a bit of dull brownish orange paint on the arms inside his missile launchers, but that's it. Otherwise, he's all just those three colors-- and he REALLY needs some paint, particularly on the sides of the missile launchers, his windows, and his front grill/headlights. He does have the Cyberfire UV paint on his front hood, though-- it's an Autobot symbol surrounded by flames, the usual.
    To transform Hound to robot mode, you just pull back on the front section, turning it all the way around the back end and then plugging it into the back of the robot mode. The rest auto-transforms. The end result is actually a pretty darned good robot mode for a one-step changer; the only real extras are the missile launchers on the back of his hands, and then the front section of the vehicle mode is on his lower back/butt, but given how he's posed and how his arms cover up that back section from the usual frontal view, the latter extra only becomes visible if you view the toy from the side. The robot parts are remarkably well-detailed in terms of the mold itself, with movie-accurate details everywhere-- the ammo belt along one shoulder, the missile launchers and faux headlights on the arms, the ammo belt-like lower arms, all the pouches and grenades on the stomach, the wheel fragment-feet, and lots of more angular armor bits on the legs. His head also has an accurate rounded helmet and face, complete with beard, although minus his cigar for obvious reasons. Really, the only thing inaccurate about his robot mode from a proportional point of view is that his stomach isn't as big as it should be, but that would definitely cause some more issues with the vehicle mode, so it's easily overlooked. Unfortunately, where Hound really falls flat-- again-- is with the paint apps. He's still mostly the same two colors, though his wheel-feet are painted black. But though some of his waist and hat are painted some more of that light pale military green, it's still the same color as the plastic. Beyond the blue eyes, you've got no new colors in this mode, just a SLIGHTLY better breakup of them than in vehicle mode. No detailed paint on the lower arms or hands, headlights, all that stuff on his chest, not even his head and face are painted! Ugh. For articulation, Hound can move back-and-forth at the shoulders in this mode.
    The TLK version of 1-step Turbo Changer Hound has a pretty awesome-looking robot mode, all things considered, given the gimmick. Just a couple of extras. However, his vehicle mode has some more obvious extra issues, and the lack of paint to bring out all these awesome molded-in details all over the place on him is practically criminal. He's one of the better 1-step changer movie molds out there, but man, that lack of paint is a real shame.
 

Review by Beastbot

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