Thanks to Tiby for lending me Rampage for this review.
Name: Rampage
Series: Convention Exclusives
Allegiance: Heroic Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Tiger
TIGER MODE
Height: 3.5cm Length: 7.5cm Width: 2.5cm
A fairly bright red tiger, Rampage takes cues from his G1 counterpart, using red as his anchoring colour. There's some gold here and there on the torso and claws, black eyes and a black Heroic Decepticon logo on his left shoulder. The colour scheme is perhaps a little sparse for a toy composed entirely of red plastic - some more gold to break things up would have been nice, but the paint mask is completely new - Snarl's stripes are nowhere to be found. While this might seem like a strange omission, G1 Rampage also lack stripes. Most of his sculpt is fairly generic save for the tiny whiskers on his face and segments on his tail (which is an unusual feature!). While he's more of a generic robotic big cat than anything else, this is consistent with the original.
Still, this isn't a great beast mode. The shape reminds me of cheap animal toy packs and his forelegs are far too big and angular for an animal that doesn't climb trees. The lower jaw does open and the tail lifts up, but his limbs are static (they look it, too!). The top of the torso - which includes the head - doesn't anchor well at all, which is disappointing.
I don't think much of the mould - it's very static yet holds together poorly. It's actually the mould's stronger mode, and there's more effort here than robot mode. I am impressed with the repaint itself - the red suits the character and while there's not much of a swap from evil to heroic, at this scale that would have been hard to really capture.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Lift up the head and back, swing down the rear. Fold down the front legs, rotate the waist and swing out the robot boots.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 5.5cm Width: 8.5cm
A red robot with fairly extensive gold highlights and a silver face with silver eyes. The Decepticon logo is on his right arm. The extensive gold coupled with silver face _does_ give Rampage a "good guy" feel, I'm happy to report - even if the G1 semblance is a lot weaker here. The facial sculpt is pretty good, and Rampage is able to take advantage of this better than Snarl.
This is a poor robot mode. The right arm is the back and head of the beast, and isn't much of an arm. The left arm is worse - it's the back half of the the beast, complete with hindlegs and tail. The groin and thighs are the back of his beast forelegs, complete with hollow gaps in the plastic - something the black Snarl gets away with to an extent but not something Rampage can pull off in red. The boots are small and gimpy, and his knees are bent back. There is some poseability here, but it's not enough to rescue Rampage from the poor kibble that is his limbs. The right shoulder is ball jointed and the beast jaw opens, giving him a claw-hand of sorts while the left shoulder swings and the elbows lifts up - there's actually a dedicated joint for this. His waist rotates and can fold, allowing him to sit down - which is unusual for a MiniCon.
I don't understand what the designer was trying to achieve here, because so little works. Everything seems to be an afterthought, but the beast mode is also poor. The arms are very kibbly, along with the legs - and it's not often robot legs are kibble. The colour scheme is admirable, and it actually manages to convey a heroic look, but sadly it just save a bad robot mode.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of. Since Rampage was available exclusively at BotCon 2008, he is likely limited to a single production run. He was sold in a souvenir pack with Blurr and Sideswipe/Whisper.
OVERALL
One of the worst MiniCons moulds I've experienced, it fails in both modes. The engineering and bodyshape are awful and while the BotCon guys have done a pretty good job in trying to lift this mould up with a nice paint job, he's still very limited. The mould just feels so half baked, but he's bundled with some nice larger toys, so Rampage is a bonus really. Which is a good thing, because even as a BotCon exclusive, he offers little - 3/10
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