Transformers: Adventures Roadblock

Adventures is the Japanese name for the current Robots in Disguise line, and includes some of those figures alongside repaints of older toys. One such repaint is Roadblock, a repaint of Generations Scoop and a reference to the G2 toy of the same name.

Roadblock is a Constructicon green Decepticon repaint of the double Targetmaster Scoop, and comes with one unnamed Targetmaster partner. I’m not sure what the backstory on this guy is, and really, I’m not bothered by that. I thought the figure looked great, and the toy is a pretty good one as well, so if the chance to grab one ever presented itself I was going to take it. A few weeks back, said chance arose, and here is Roadblock. 

The legs are very posable, with the calf having a kind of double joint thanks to the way they transform. This gives the ability to take some pretty good stances and poses, although up top, the wheels on the shoulders often conflict with the shovel scoop, making the arms a bit limited in their motion. The legs have a thigh swivel, while the arms have a bicep swivel that is similarly inhibited by the wheels on the shoulders. This is not to say that are useless or anything, only impeded. The Targetmaster is a nicely sculpted little guy, but its movement is limited only to ball jointed shoulders, necessary for transformation. And what a long, long way this little guy has come, from the days of G1’s lay down and flip one piece over. To transform the modern Targetmaster, you have to move the arms behind the back and peg them together before you. . . flip the one piece over. Details on the Targetmaster humanoid mode is pretty sharp, and weapon mode is alright. It does what it’s supposed to do; how well honestly is a matter of personal opinion. 

 

Vehicle mode is some kind of construction vehicle, a Scrapper-esque earth mover. When this toy first began showing up as pictures on the Internet, the general thought was that it was going to be named  Scrapper, since that just made sense. The bucket is a little finicky, sitting at the end of a double jointed set of arms. The two moving parts here are needed to allow the shovel to fold up against the robot back, but they make it a little tricky to align them in a way that lets the bucket sit flat in front of the vehicle. The Targetmaster can plug into the holes on the sides or back end of the vehicle, and having additional Targetmasters, such as the two that came with Scoop, would let one arm the crap out of the vehicle mode. The robot head can be seen inside the cab, which makes me chuckle for some reason. Transformation is simple and logical, and the only issue with it is that the robot chest flips down and tabs on to the robot shoulders, leaving an open space behind the shovel that doesn’t make much sense. The space doesn’t make much sense, I mean, as it doesn’t do anything other than make the vehicle seem unfinished. On several occasions, I’ve felt as if I hadn’t completely transformed the toy due to this gap. 

Robot mode is nice and compact, one of those terrific instances where the alt mode just disappears, like Universe Cyclonus. This is not a robot wearing a vehicle shell, as is so often the case with Transformers. Most of the time, you can clearly see that a vehicle blew outward and a robot was hiding inside of it all along. I don’t have a problem with that, but it is so much the norm that when a toy like Roadblock comes along and doesn’t do that, I take notice. Some of the Age of Extinction toys accomplished this as well; I’m thinking of Galvatron and Hound and maybe, maybe helicopter Drift. Maybe. 

Roadblock can be found at online retailers for around $25, and whether or not he is worth that price depends entirely on you. The mold itself is so-so, but in the neon green and purple is much nicer looking than the original Scoop version. I’d almost have preferred he come with some standard weapon rather than one Targetmaster, not for the want of two of them, but just because. The Targetmaster weapon mode is slightly large, and not knowing if there’s any context for Roadblock to have one leaves me slightly indifferent to this one. Scoop at least has history with two Targetmasters; this guy could have had a regular weapon and it’d have been fine. This may be that kind of figure that you look for at a convention; it has that random sense to it, that goes so well with stories that begin “I was looking around this booth at x convention, and I saw. . ..” I like his look a lot better than the original version, and I would recommend him.