Cliffbee.com DOTM Legion Leadfoot Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Leadfoot
Series: Movie Tie-ins
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Chevy Impala Stock Car



CAR MODE
Height: 2.5cm Length: 8cm Width: 3.5cm

   A dark grey stock car with some red painted on his roof, hood and rear, Leadfoot has silver headlights and a silver windshield. There's a whole bunch of sculpt weaponry - all grey - on this car, which detracts from the realism here - he's actually based on a real NASCAR vehicle. There's a small white Chevrolet logo on the front, along with the number 42 on either door, a white Autobot logo on the left rear fender and small logos on the doors - all in white. It's a good colour scheme - red & grey always work well together - but the plethora of guns kinda kills the realism.

   The only play value here is the wheels - he rolls okay. None of the weaponry is functional, not I'd expect that at the Legion scale. While the weaponry is detailed, many of those details are ill-defined. There's a gatling gun on the roof and three missiles on either side of the hood, but much of the rest is hard to identify.

   The guns all over are a polarising sort of feature. Personally, I hate the look since it ruins any realism, but I can also see that it makes this toy movie-accurate (something others will value). At a larger scale the weapons could have been detachable, but that sort of thing is unrealistic for a Legions toy. Aside from the weapons, the colours work and the level of detailing is impressive, so this is an impressive vehicle mode for such a small toy.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Pull the doors out to the sides. Unfold the rear to form legs, split the boots. Swing the hood down to form his torso & reveal the head. Rotate the doors to form arms & fold his hands out. Lift the arms into position, so the shoulder struts are flush and you're done.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 7cm Width: 5.5cm

   A grey robot with red on his shoulders, belly and feet. Leadfoot's head is silver with blue eyes and a sort of beard. The thighs and hands are black while there's some additional silver on his belly in the form of the headlights & Chevrolet logo. The stamped Autobot logo is now rather obscure on the left ankle.

   Leadfoot has a short wide shape, short legs and a distinct potbelly - the hood hangs forming his entire torso. While this doesn't look all that great it's not a shortcoming of the toy's design rather it's movie-accurate. It's a rather ugly look in truth, with the potbelly and beard combined, but I appreciate the accuracy all the same. His poseability ends up fairly good despite this awkward shape - his shoulders and hips are ball jointed while the knees are hinged and the wrist are hinged inwards. The legs have a slight tendency to splay, but this only happens while you're posing him, not all on its own, thankfully. The right hand is a c-clip, allowing Leadfoot to hold weapons (although he doesn't come with any other than the array of sculpted weapons so prominent in vehicle mode).

   A decent if ugly robot mode, Leadfoot is movie accurate and as a result works fairly well despite odd design choices. The weapons aren't anywhere near as prominent here - the shape dominates but his sculpt remains excellent and the colours again work.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of.

OVERALL

   A well designed Legion toy that has the misfortune of being inspired by a car covered in weapons that turns into the Transformer equivalent of an Oompa Loompa. His colours work well and his sculpt is excellent, and while his movie accuracy is also good it makes for a somewhat ugly robot mode and an overdone vehicle mode. The toy itself is good, but the concept in the film is just a little too tenuous. Still, at this cheap pricepoint he's still fun - 7/10

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