Name: Scourge
Series: Cybertron
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Three Headed Dragon
DRAGON MODE
Height: 16cm Length: 36cm Width: 10cm
A yellow, grey and orange dragon, Scourge's three primary colours are more or less mixed all over the toy, with the grey dominating his neck and tail. There are some purple paint apps and a transparent purple patch on top of his head, and a few red paint apps that are easy to miss at first glance. It's a European style dragon, with front legs slightly larger than the hindlegs, more like a griffin than a dragon. The colour scheme works very well for Scourge, who's meant to be an evil overlord type - it looks downright demonic while still managing to be an attractive colour mix in it's own right.
There are two main gimmicks here. The first is an electronics system, and there's a small yellow button on his back which activates most of the electronics. Pressing it will activate a rather distorted dragon roar sound and cause the core of his head to flash red five times. His green Planet Key (code: u2m8) activates the other sound gimmicks - pressing into a slot just above the base of his tail will cause two smaller orange dragon heads to flip out from his shoulders and activate a G1 style transformation sound (as well as a couple of flashes from the head). With the key inserted, the yellow button now activates a laser fire sound, along with two flashes of the head. The dragon roar is unimpressive, but the other sounds are nice - the transformation sound is very cool. The extra heads really make this mode for me.
The poseability here is a little disappointing for an ultra beast mode. The neck is fixed in place since it houses the electronics. The lower jaw of the main head opens and closes, the upper jaws of the smaller heads shut close and snap open again thanks to internal springs. All four hips rotate and the knees all bend. The rear ankles (which sit off the ground like those of a cat) are also hinged and there's some movement in the front claws. The tail looks like it should have joints along it's entire length, but there's only one hinge midway, allowing it to lift up and down. The poseability here isn't _bad_, but more foot movement would be nice. This is my only real complaint with what is otherwise a great mode.
The detail on this toy is great, although the array of colours tend to draw your attention away. There's not a smooth surface in sight, and while it doesn't reach the ridiculous level of detail of the Transmetal 2 line, the sculpt is impressive nonetheless. There are both organic and mechanical details on this toy - the main head has a frill of horns as European dragons are often depicted with, while the smaller heads are more reminiscent of Asian dragon heads, with very organic sculpts and stamped Decepticon logos on top. There are three giant spines sticking out the back of the front hips, which taper to purple points, and give Scourge a majestic, powerful look.
A very impressive looking dragon mode - especially with the three heads all showing. The bodyshape and three heads almost make Scourge a cross between a cerberus and a dragon, which for me only adds to the coolness of this beast mode. The colours work very well and the gimmicks work well. A little more poseability would have been nice, but he looks so damn impressive I don't really mind.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
A fairly complex variation of the "stand up and fiddle with the limbs" concept. You'll need to remove the tail, but can leave the key in place if you like. Straighten the hind legs out behind him to form the robot legs, flip out the heelspurs and slide the hips in. Swing down the sternum of the dragon to form a groinplate, folding away the throat panels of the dragon. Fold the main head down to form a chestplate (you'll need to swing the smaller heads back at least part of the way back to allow clearance for the horns). Swing out the shoulders so that the spines form a cape of sorts, flip out and rotate the head. Lastly rotate the forearms and flip out the fists from within the forearms. The tail forms a giant sceptre weapon, which I like to think of as his Icepick of Doom.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 26cm Width: 23cm
Again a mix of yellow, orange and grey with some purple, again on the spines but also on his face (which has green eyes). There's some silver detailing on his chest, the centrepiece of which is the top of the dragon head. The orange secondary dragon heads can deploy over the top of his shoulders, and look very good there. The Decepticon logos on these heads are the logo allegiance symbols visible in this mode, incidentally. The colours are again great, for the same reasons as before. My only complaint is that the dark purple paint on his face drowns out a detailed, evil looking face. Still, at least it's dark and brooding.
The box refers to "Hydra mode", which is basically the robot mode with extra heads deployed. Combined with the majestic spines sticking out of his shoulders, the extra heads look really good, and I'm tempted to say ignore the standard robot mode and just go for this configuration. The forelegs claws now sit on the outsides of his forearms and the Icepick of Doom adds to the imposing look of this already impressive robot mode.
The gimmicks are the same here as the dragon mode - the sounds all operate as they did in dragon mode, with the activation button on his back and the key slot on his... skidplate. The extra heads will still deploy if the key is inserted. The light now glows through the purple patch on his chestplate. While it could be construed that introducing no new gimmicks in robot mode is a shortcoming, I'm impressed that the gimmicks are all versatile enough to work in _both_ modes.
The only real shortcoming of this mode (indeed, the only significant flaw of the whole toy) is poseability. The head and shoulders turn, the elbows twist and bend inwards, the hips rotate and the knees and ankles bend, while the ankles also rotate. The waist and wrist are fixed, the latter is the major issue here. Combined with the inwards bending elbows, the weapon can't be held upright in the fist with a bent elbow, like a sickle - and it's clearly designed to do so. The weapon is still quite impressive, mind you - it's 22cm tall on it's own and there are still options, if not the most obvious one. The articulation still gives Scourge some great poses, mind you, so this is far from enough to ruin the robot mode.
With the giant cape formed form his spines, the Hydra mode and giant sickle/icepick, this robot mode is awfully impressive. The colours are again very effective, and combine with the dark face, dragon heads and overall majesty to create a downright demonic figure. The immobile wrists do bug me, but they're thankfully not enough to stop me from liking this robot mode a lot.
VARIATIONS
None that I know of as such, although his Galaxy Force version is called Flame Convoy. His planet key has gold trim rather than the silver of other Jungle Planet toys. Cryo Scourge is a repaint of Scourge.
OVERALL
A toy that could easily fit into Beast Wars, Scourge is a very impressive toy. The colours work well and give him a suitably evil look, the gimmicks all work, with the three head gimmick bringing a _lot_ to the toy and the transformation sound a lot of fun (especially since it works in concert with the extra heads popping out. The poseability is for the most part very good, the only thing really holding Scourge back is the immobile wrists, which hamper the use of his weapon. Strongly recommended for fans of Beast Wars, and generally recommended anyway - 9/10
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