Name: AT-AT Driver
Series: Star Wars Transformers
Allegiance: Galactic Empire
Alternate Mode: AT-AT Walker
AT-AT WALKER MODE
Height: 14cm Length: 15cm Width: 7cm
An off white Imperial AT-AT Walker with a dirty wash on the body but not on the legs, this toy has a very straightforward colour scheme since it's based on a very functional vehicle. There are varying shades of white here and some grey on the front window, but it's pretty drab, really. You have the option of loading the transparent red missile into the launcher underneath the cockpit, but it looks pretty wacky, so I'd recommend against doing so.
As with most Star Wars Transformers, there is a lot of detailing here, and the light colours really bring those details out. There are seams, panels, pistons and the like. There are four guns mounted underneath the cockpit, with grey on the barrel. The dirty wash looks really good, but is abruptly stops where the legs attach to the body - the legs are an unpainted off white plastic, and the sharp transition is quite noticeable.
This is a playable vehicle mode, since all four legs are hinged at the top and in the middle. The ankles are on restricted ball joints, which helps allow for a few walking poses. The "head" can rotate although the guns underneath are fixed. You can fire the red missile via a grey button underneath the gun assembly. It's about as versatile as a real AT-AT would be, so I can't complain. There is a hatch on top of the "head" which opens to reveal the white and grey AT-AT Driver minifigure.
A good vehicle mode with an excellent sculpt and impressive play value, marred by a complete lack of paint wash on the legs. I would have preferred a scant, cleaner, wash all over to a complete lack on half the toy. It still looks good, but it's hard to ignore that single, easily avoidable, flaw
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
This one's very much a shellformer, and hard to describe thanks to all the panel shifting, so I'll summarise. The hind legs become the robot legs, the rear of the vehicle becoming the groin. The "head" folds into the centre of the vehicle as the chest while the arms and head fold out from within this same section. There's quite a backpack, composed of various panels and the forelegs. Unusually for a SWTF, the minifigure can't stay inside the cockpit, since the neck contracts slightly, pushing him out. The underside of the "head" detaches to become a handheld weapon.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 16.5cm Width: 13cm
Again mainly off white, with pure white on the hands, shoulders and head. The arms and groin are grey and there's some black and red on the head, which is essentially a Stormtrooper. The gun is grey and off white. The colour scheme comes off a little awkward, mainly because the pure white feels a little out of place, but it works for the most part. It's also a relative minor issue compared with the proportion problems this toy has.
There's a lot of kibble here, which is made to look worse by the spindly limbs. The front legs and some rear panelling sit on the back, the larger side panels of the vehicle form ungainly shoulder panels while there are smaller side panels hanging off the hip panels. The arms are quite narrow, since they have to fit inside the relatively narrow body of the vehicle. The legs are very spindly, being the legs of the AT-AT walker. The feet are the circular pod feet of the vehicle, which only makes the narrow legs look worse. The Hasbro promo picture (which I've used above) mistransforms the groin, incidentally - making it look worse than it actually is. On the upside, the head of the vehicle does a great job of becoming the chest, the sculpt on the head is really well done and the gun is detailed and with four barrels, makes this a well armed mech.
The poseability here is fairly good, but the effective range of poses is very narrow, thanks to the backpack. The shoulders are ball jointed while the elbows are hinged with rotators above them. The wrists hinge inwards and there are rotators above them also. The waist rotates, but this is really just for transformation. The hips and ankles are both restricted ball joints while the knees are hinged. The four points on the edges of the feet look weird, but those at the back are heelspurs, of sorts. The backpack hinders this mech far more than I'd like, so the legs don't really get much range of motion, but the arms are very poseable. You again have the option of inserting - and firing - the missile, which makes a lot more sense this time.
An awkward robot mode with gimpish legs and a lot of kibble, although the arms are well designed and the head is very well done. The legs and a profusion of kibble make this the weaker mode by some distance. This was always going to be a robot mode with some kibble, but I'm not too impressed with how some of that kibble is dealt with.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
Yet another SWTF with a heavy design emphasis on the vehicle mode. The AT-AT mode is very nice, even if the clean legs don't really match the dirty paint wash on the body. The detailing and articulation are very good, so the vehicle mode is worthwhile overall. The transformation panelforms this one into a gimpish robot, that frankly isn't worth displaying. The robot mode does have some nice aspects, but there's enough wrong with it that you'll want to leave this one in vehicle mode. I can't quite recommend this one, but if you can get past the uneven paint job, the vehicle mode will please Star Wars fans - 5.5/10
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