Cliffbee.com Dunerunner Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Dunerunner
Series: Movie Tie-ins
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Dune Buggy



DUNE BUGGY MODE
Height: 5cm Length: 10cm Width: 4.5cm

   An army green combat dune buggy with black plastic tyres, twin gunmetal gatling guns on his roof, matched by gunmetal on the rear bumper. There's some teal at the base of the guns and visible inside his cabin, while there's extensive silver paint here on the headlight rack, roof, engine protrusions on the front and the frame of his windshield, itself painted metallic cobalt blue. There's a silver Autobot logo stamped on the roof, the headlights and floodlights on his roof are yellow, the taillights red and the sides feature "0318" in black stencil lettering accompanied by a black and silver badge featuring an Autobot logo. It's a very complex paint job for a basic, and the mix of army green, silver and gunmetal looks really good and suits the vehicle well.

   There's quite a bit of detail here, aside from the paint job. The gatling guns, headlights, taillights and floodlights are well sculpted and there's a little moulded steering wheel inside the cabin. There's some suspension-like sculpting in the rear wheel bays, complex grip on the tyres and rivets on the windshield frame.

   The play value is simple but well executed. The tyres roll very well - Dunerunner will happily roll off along the table if pushed, despite a lack of axles. The gatling guns can fold out to the sides or lift up, and they have a double hinge at the base, allowing them to target overhead independently. My only complaint about this vehicle is that the guns point inwards ever so slightly.

   A great little combat dune buggy, Dunerunner has an amazing paint job for a basic, with nothing like the sparseness seen in years as Hasbro reduced paint budgets to ridiculous levels. The detailing is good, the colours work well and the play value is better than most scouts.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Fold the front down, fold down the sides as arms. Flip back the rear of the vehicle to reveal his head, rotate the waist and pivot the roof back as a chestplate. Split the boots, flip up the headlights to form feet and fold out the heelspurs. Pivot the sides up to form his arms, straighten the elbows and pivot the guns up to form shoulder cannons.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 11cm Width: 7.5cm

   Again based on army green, Dunerunner has black thighs and upper arms, teal forearms, gunmetal feet and a silver head with a light blue eyestrip. There are green armour panels on the outsides of the arms, the silver and blue windshield makes up his groin, while the Autobot logo is on the left side of his chest. The gunmetal gatling guns form shoulderpads, rounding out a good colour scheme. It's not quite as strong as in vehicle mode, since the more prominent teal doesn't work perfectly with the army green.

   Dunerunner's rood shape gives him something of a pot belly while the armour on his arms also give him a fairly solid look. He doesn't look overweight, but he's a stocky little fellow. The bodyshape is still good, mind you. There are some buggy parts visible, forming nice features. The roof I've already mentioned. The headlight rack is now on the top of his feet and the armour on his arms is the sides of the buggy. The gatling guns aren't a buggy part as such, rather they work in both modes. They still point inwards slightly, but you can adjust the arms to negate that look now.

   His head is on a ball joint but it's a little tricky to move since Dunerunner's neck is nestled away. The shoulders are ball jointed, and their transformation hinges allow you to move the guns so they point almost straight ahead - in fact you can adjust the ball joints themselves so the guns _are_ straight ahead. His elbows are double ball joints while the waist is fixed and his hips are ball jointed. His knees and ankles are hinged. Dunerunner has open palms but the gatling guns are again on two hinges each so he doesn't need to hold a weapon when he has two useful, targetable weapons.

   While it's not quite as good as his vehicle mode, Dunerunner still has a very good robot mode. The play value is solid, he generally looks good and there's a nice layout of alt mode features here. The teal on his arms is a little off and some more neck motion would be nice, but these are fairly minor issues.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of.

OVERALL

   While we saw a very similar vehicle in the last movie line, Landmine, Dunerunner is more a dune buggy and is at a lower pricepoint. Some might find the pair too similar, but the engineering is different and the integrated gatling guns bring something new here. ROTF is generally producing good scouts, and while the teal in his robot mode is less than idea, he's still up to the standards of ROTF's smaller toys - 9/10

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