Barricade's back, and this time his alt mode is a bit rounder a model of Mustang police car, and with a very dark navy blue actually being his primary color now, compared to black. Overall, if you forget about the robot parts you can see inside the tinted windows, this mode is robot kibble-free, and quite proportional-- very few complaints about this mode in that respect. The mold detailing is a bit sparse on the top of the car-- as you'd expect from most police cars-- but where it is needed, it's quite intricate, such as the many detailed bits on his wheels or his incredibly complex, well-fortified front bumper, with lots of ridges, multiple sets of angular headlights, and an extra protective grill on the front so he can smash ya extra good. The back bumper also has some details on it, but they're relatively basic-- taillights, exhaust pipe, place for the license plate that unfortunately isn't painted, etc. The color scheme is almost entirely that dark navy blue, but this shade is SO dark it's almost indistinguishable from black in most lights, which is unfortunate as there's a stripe of black plastic down the middle that isn't easy to make out. Much of the front grill is also black, as are, obviously, the tires. His windows are all tinted plastic, as is his light bar, with the appropriate sides either transparent red or transparent blue. He's got his usual stripes of white on the sides, though they don't reach all the way down on this version of Barricade, stopping about 2/3rds of the way down the side of the car. There's some generic "POLICE" font on each stripe with a Decepticon symbol-- not at all as iconic as the font and insignia on his original movie version. He still has that lovely "to punish and enslave" logo over each rear wheel, though. The main headlights are also white, and there's two red and two blue siren-lights on the front as well. The taillights are also painted red. He could've used some more paint on the front, though, to accentuate all those details, like the extra headlights. In a neat feat, Barricade's hand-mounted rotary gun from robot mode can be effectively split in two and mounted on the back end above the rear window, giving him some firepower in this mode. It looks pretty cool, helping to distinguish him a bit more from first movie design in this mode.
    Barricade's transformation is rather similar to those of his first movie design, with the arms coming out of the front area and sides, the front of the car becoming the chest and revealing the head, and the back section becoming his legs while the car roof and windshield become his back. There are a few kibble issues with this mode, the aforementioned windshield being the biggest one-- I mean, the entire top portion of the car is just hanging there behind his back. The side car doors are folded in and out of the way, but otherwise it's not scrunched up/minimized at all, hanging down almost to his knees. The fact that it's mostly transparent plastic helps some, but still. There's also the hood panel behind his head, which isn't there on the movie model and really should've folded out of the way some more. Some police car parts are on the back of his lower legs, but these are relatively minor and fit in with his general silhouette pretty well. He does have the front wheel/side pieces hanging off his upper arms, but that helps give his arms a bit more length and hearkens back to his TF1 design, so I don't mind the visual nod there. His arms and feet are a bit more humanoid and "normal" for this version, with his arms less angly and dangly and his feet and knees less pointed. Honestly I prefer the jagged asethetic of his original look a little more, but that's just personal preference. There's still a lot of great robotic detailing of various bits 'n bobs on his arms, lower legs, pelvis, and feet, though his hips are oddly pretty smooth. His hands have more normal-looking fingers, but I LOVE the new additions-- knuckle dusters on each fist that have "PROTECT" on one and "SERVE" on the other, but backwards-- so he's punching them into whoever he's wailing on. However, part of the "cool factor" of this is diminished since it's not movie-accurate-- in the movie his knuckle dusters are clearly shown as having "PUNISH" and "ENSLAVE" on them, and not backwards. Still, both are neat ideas, I wish they had just stuck with one or the other. Barricade's face is a bit more rounded this time around, with an almost completely round dome and subdued mandibles around an insectoid mouth. He always had multiple eyes on each side, but they're more obvious on this version, with two sets of red eyes and a small Decepticon symbol on his helmet in between the eyes. One of the best features of this toy is the accessories, though. Barricade comes with a small pistol and baton, both of which can be wielded in either of his hands OR slotted in quite securely into either of his hips. It's a really neat idea and helps play up his "bad cop" persona. As mentioned earlier, his large rotary machine-gun piece can be folded around either of his arms and slotted in securely to provide him with some firepower while still keeping his actual hand free. He's still predominantly dark blue in this mode color-wise, though the black comes out a bit more on his main body and feet, and much of his upper legs and arms are either a somewhat dark, milky gray plastic or tan. The tan looks a bit odd with the dark blue on Barricade and I find to be a marginally ugly color, but the gray fits in pretty well and is dark enough where it's not too bland. Regardless, adding in these extra colors-- with the extra paint on the head and white on the knees-- helps make his color breakup definitely more interesting in this mode. For articulation, Barricade can move at the neck, shoulders, elbows (at two points), wrist rotation, hips (at two points), knees, and ankles (at two points). I wish he had some waist rotation, but otherwise he's pretty poseable and stable.
    TLK Premier Barricade may not re-invent the wheel when it comes to transformation originality, he has some back kibble issues in robot mode, and I do admittedly like the jagged look of TF1 Barricade a bit more, but the nice proportions in both modes and especially the fun extras and weaponry really make this a toy worth buying if you at all like the character. One of the winners of the TLK line; highly recommended.
 

Review by Beastbot

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