DROPKICK

TRANSFORMERS: STUDIO SERIES (HASBRO)

While Siege has so far been my primary focus of my Transformers collecting, the thing that actually broke me into this whole Transformers scene was 2018’s Bumblebee, a really enjoyable soft reboot of the movie incarnation of the franchise.  I kicked off my collecting with the film’s version of its main character, and over the summer I picked up the movie’s updated version of Optimus Prime, and now, another seven months later, I picked up a third figure.  This time, it’s one of the film’s two primary antagonists, Dropkick!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dropkick is a Deluxe Class-sized Studio Series offering, and is figure 46 in the line-up.  In the film, Dropkick and his fellow antagonist Shatter are triple-changers.  That’s all well and good for the film, which uses multiple models for the characters, or even the more cartoon-based toy lines, where they can fudge some details.  However, for the Studio Series, which prides itself on the accuracy of the alt-modes, that’s a more than slightly tricky prospect.  In that regard, the line splits Dropkick into two distinct figure, one that turns into his car mode, and one that turns into his helicopter mode.  This one is the car mode version, which is actually technically screen accurate, since Dropkick is just a car for a brief portion of the film, before he acquires the helicopter mode.  In his robot mode, the figure is just shy of 5 inches tall and he has 15 workable points of articulation.  He’s a little more restricted in terms of poseability than some of the other ‘formers I’ve looked at, but he’s still got enough to get some decent poses out of him.  Dropkick’s robot mode is a pretty decent recreation of his pre-triple-changer form. It’s not accurate to how he looks for most of the movie, but it’s certainly a lot closer than the Helicopter Dropkick figure was.  Dropkick’s alt-mode is a 1973 AMC Javelin muscle car, and the transformation into it is actually a pretty smooth process, honestly the smoothest of the Studio Series figures I’ve picked up so far.  Typically my Studio Series figures only get transformed into their vehicle modes so that I can get the photos and then go back to their robot modes essentially permanently, but I’ve been swapping Dropkick back and forth since getting him, which is a pretty good sign of the alt mode’s strengths.  Dropkick is packed with his liquifying cannon, which his hand folds out of the way for, allowing it to be arm-mounted like it is in the movie.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since I did really like Bumblebee, I’ve been slowly picking up some of its toys, which, I know is a crazy concept for me.  I saw Helicopter Dropkick many times, but I didn’t really care for the changes they made to his robot mode, so I always passed on him.  When this one was announced, I was interested, but I never ended up seeing one in person.  Fortunately for me, one got traded in at All Time, making picking him up quite an easy feat.  I like this figure quite a bit, and it’s probably the most I’ve enjoyed a Studio Series figure, which is certainly not a bad thing.

As I noted above,  I got this guy from my friends at All Time Toys, and while he wasn’t part of it, they’ve recently acquired a pretty decently sized Transformers collection and a lot of it’s still available here.  If you’re looking for other cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.