Transformers: Titans Return Astrotrain

 

 

Now that the semester is finally over, I can get caught up on some toys. I have had things sitting around for months now, and just had never had the opportunity to take pictures of them. Every review posted between the start of November and the Star Wars figures yesterday were all done from pictures I took one day in October, when my wife and I called off sick from work. I spent an entire day taking pictures, and still didn’t finish everything I had at the time; and then, as happens, new toys were added, and my list was really starting to get out of control. I took some new pictures earlier this week, and now have new old things I can finally write on. And oh man, do I have some brand new stuff, which will all be old by the time I finally get it on here.

The first of these old new toys is Voyager class Astrotrain. This is only my second dip into the Titans Return Voyager class, as I passed on the “original” use of this mold, the blazing orange Sentinel Prime, and laughed my way right past that hideous Alpha Trion. Astrotrain is a good figure that has some real strengths and some real weaknesses.

Strength #1: robot mode. The robot mode is absolutely Astrotrain, very G1ish but with some modern touches. The robot mode has a god mix of cartoon and comic depictions of the character, including the strange earmuff headbox thing. There have been some upgrades, such as the cannon turrets on both arms, but those are more to beef up the train mode, and just happen to be on the arms. The face sculpt on Titanmaster Darkmoon is really strong, as have been a true hallmark of the line to this point. For such tiny figures, the Titanmasters really do have great robot mode faces. Darkmoon’s enhancement is that he grants greater stealth capabilities to whatever robot is using him as a head, by the way. Astrotrain comes, as is the norm, with two weapons that combine into something approximating a gun turret for the Titanmaster to man, and surprisingly, neither of these weapons is bad on its own. The one blaster is clearly intended to be the G1 Astrotrain toy rifle, and the other is burdened with the broad, flat seat for the tiny guy. Again, not as bad as Chromedome or Scourge, but not as great as Hardhead or Highbrow, but it does seem like this gimmick is getting better as the line progresses. 

Strength #2: shuttle mode. This is a character that was attempted ten years ago in the original “Classics” line, and was generally a success. But the shuttle mode is perhaps the easiest thing about the character to do right. Astrotrains’ space shuttle mode is really thin, from top to bottom, being wide and long instead of tall. The vehicle looks more like a large space ship, like a capital ship, than it does a shuttle, but I find it nice that it’s not the same old space shuttle design. My apologies for all of that being so vague. But it's kind of an issue borne from the vagueness of the shuttle. While it is not the real world space shuttle we all know, it is kind of hard for me to describe. Maybe somewhat along the lines of the old G.I. Joe Defiant, if anyone remembers that behemoth of a vehicle. The vehicle is obviously a space ship, that sorta hearkens to the classic NASA-employed shuttle, but is not that one. I guess.

Based on these two things alone, I have to say that I would count Astrotrain as a win, but the toy does have some problems.

Weakness #1: train mode. The more things you ask a Transformer to do, the fewer things it is going to do well. If you want an advanced transformation scheme, something else has to give. If you want a triple changer, some mode is going to suffer so that the others may succeed. Astrotrain’s train mode is really weak.  The intent here is for some kind of armored, battle train thing, and so it’s all gunned up and everything. It could also pass as a space battleship, like Macross-style, if that’s what you want. As a train, it’s really only as successful as your imagination allows it to be, and for me, it’s not very. 

But, I get it. G1 Astrotrain is still the undisputed Astrotrain train mode champion; the “Classics” figure went for a sleeker bullet train look and did alright. But this thing is not a very convincing train. The robot feet flip around to reveal cow catchers for both front and back ends, or they can be kept in robot foot mode and give a slightly more bullet train profile here. The train mode is really nicely detailed, as there are all manner of doors and things sculpted onto the train parts, including wheels on the panels that basically account for much of the transformation. The turrets don’t move, so they’re stuck pointing eternally forward or backward, which I have no problem with but may have been a small touch that could have salvaged the train mode. The Titanmaster rides atop a large control tower, which is probably not all that aerodynamic or safe, honestly. If this things was tearing around the tracks and banked into a turn, or tried to go through a tunnel, look out. Oh, the train does roll, which is fun.

Yeah, that's about as good as I can do.

Weakness #2: the crotch. The transformation scheme for Astrotrain basically turns on splitting the figure at the crotch, which means there is a pretty limited number of posing options. Trains are generally difficult alt modes because they require the robot mode to elongate, and this figure elongates by doing the splits all the way up to his chest. Posing options are them restricted because there is no waist joint, and most leg movements cause the crotch to split apart. Sure, this transformation joint is a necessary evil, but when you stop and think that it’s a necessary evil in order to achieve the necessary evil of a bad train mode, it’s a slightly compounded letdown. And there’s something about Astrotrain being less complex than most of the lines’ Deluxes that makes this block torso even more ungood. Astrotrain poses like an old man with joint pain: kind of a little bit, but nothing too extensive. No deep knee bends or bending over at the waist for this guy, no sir.

Weakness #3: the panels. Along with the splitting crotch, most of Astrotrain’s transformation is achieved through the flipping around of sculpted panels. There are panels that show train parts; there are panels that show shuttle parts. The shuttle wings themselves just fold over the back of the train mode. The figure essentially has two arm configurations and two leg configurations, and then what the vehicle looks like depends on which panels you’re moving around. It’s kind of a bummer. But, even the G1 toy did this, and when you try to combine such unrelated vehicle modes, something like this is bound to happen. The “Classics” Astrotrain from 2006 managed to not do this, and wound up with a train mode that was heavily dependent on the way you looked at it to be a convincing or quality train.as a result of the transformation being so panel dependent, the look of the alt modes also depends a lot on how well the panels line up. In train mode, this is not an issue; but in shuttle mode, the panels peg in to holes on the robot body, so if the parts don’t align perfectly, the panels sit unevenly and disrupt the look of the vehicle. 

And the wings. They are on an arm that just swings them over the top of what are the robot shoulders to curl around the train mode, giving the appearance of a large, tall control tower in the center of the vehicle. 

Again, like I haven’t repeated this idea a hundred times by the time I got to this review, the more things you ask a Transformer to do, the worse it will do all those things. Ideally, a Transformer is a robot that turns in to one thing, but we know that even that doesn’t always work out as well as it should. The more things a Transformer attempts, the cooler it sometimes is, and so toys like combiners and triple changers and such are interesting departures from the norm, and that’s how they should be treated. Titans Return is trying to make everything a triple changer and a Headmaster, and the Headmaster gimmick is working out surprisingly well to this point. Astrotrain does not suffer at all for the integration of the gimmick, and as I turn my head to look at him, he’s just a Voyager Astrotrain standing on my shelf. I can’t even tell that the head is removable. 

But the triple changer gimmick still needs some work. Just as it always does. Aside from the fantastic pair of Generations Springer and Sandstorm from two or three years ago and the original G1 triple changers, the gimmick has never really found much success. What we often end up with is a robot that turns into one good, recognizable alt mode and then, through a few flips of parts, an alt mode thatrequires a healthy imagination in order to work. I won’t say that Astrotrain’s train mode is that bad, mainly because it requires a healthy imagination right off the bat to see the other mode as a train. Space battle trains are not all that common here on Earth. Still Astrotrain is possessed of far more understandable alt modes than his hideous wave mate Alpha Trion, but I do have to wonder: if you bought this mold as Sentinel Prime, in its terrible orange on orange color scheme, can you even see any thing at all? Do the alt modes make any kind of sense totally washed out in that safety orange? I don’t know, and never plan to know. 

In the long run, Titans Return Astrotrain has a great robot mode, a workable shuttle mode and a train mode. While we don’t ‘officially’ know this yet, every man, woman and child on the planet is counting on the fairly pointless Optimus Prime and Megatron figures that are coming will be repainted into Octane and Blitzwing respectively, so we’ll get a full set of Voyager sized Headmaster Decepticon G1 triple changers in the same line, so they should all look pretty good together. This Astrotrain should satisfy that need for collectors, and is a pretty fun figure as well. His simple transformation makes him ideal for inattentive fiddling, like when you’re watching TV and just need to keep your hands busy.