Cliffbee.com ROTF The Fallen Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: The Fallen
Series: Movie Tie-ins
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Cybertronian Place

Thanks to Goktimus Prime for loaning me The Fallen for this review



PLANE MODE
Height: 6.5cm Length: 21cm Width: 25cm

   A dark green cybertronian plane with various orange painted details - mainly lines, The Fallen has a transparent red "cockpit" towards the front and a "bridge" on top. The wingtips are dark grey and there are some gunmetal painted aspects here and there. It's a dark colour scheme, and one that looks underdone at first glance, but since most of the colouring is dark and very subtle. The colours loosely resemble those of the 6" Titanium toy of the same name, and while this character is to some extent inspired by that one, the colour schemes aren't really similar.

   Depending on how one looks at it, this jet could be considered a mess or a work of art. It's a jumble of fine details, curved elements and shapes attached to one another, which is unusual for jets and unusual for Transformer alt modes, but is done by design here. It _does_ look half baked, but it's meant to, for an alien effect. I can't say I like the end result - all the detail doesn't make for an especially good display piece - but it matches the overall aesthetic of the character on screen.

   The play value here is almost non-existent. There are three small grey feet underneath which can fold away and that's about it. There are two "racks" on top which can pivot forward - this is not part of his transformation - which I assume is part of an abandoned play feature.

   A weird vehicle with few well defines features and very, very, understated colours. Sure, it matches the character on screen, but the alien mess we saw on screen is now a mess lying down. There's a lot of detail here, but not a lot of plane aside from the shape, cockpit and bridge. At this pricepoint, there's precious little that really makes this a plane, and with so little play value it's al a bit underwhelming.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Since so little of this jet is really distinct, I'll summarise. The wings become legs with the tips becoming his feet. The sections on top become the arms while the head is buried underneath the bridge and the chest is underneath the jet mode. The arms can clip onto the waist (not pictured above). When transforming this toy back to jet mode, there are a few spots where he clips together, and until you get them right the jet will be very unstable.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 21cm Width: 16cm

   Again green with orange here and there, The Fallen has some more transparent red on his knees and elbows - as well as the eyes, although this is hard to make out (and there's no lightpipe). There are some gunmetal elements here and there, but again The Fallen is essentially a very dark and understated toy. The metallic-dark look from the film isn't quite achieved here, although I suspect the use of very dark green plastic was used to try and simulate that effect. Again it's a fairly complex paint job but one that's very subtle.

   Again The Fallen is a blend of curves and subtle sculpted detail, although this works better in robot mode, where the alien theme works better on a humanoid shape. The head and face - with whiskers - are reminiscent of the creatures from the film Alien, in fact. If you've clipped the arms into the waist, he'll have an even more alien look, and while it limits the poseability, it looks good. He has a slight hunchback, a narrow torso and head and wide arms, giving The Fallen an elderly and sinister appearance, which suits the character. While he's not aesthetically appealing, this robot mode _does_ represent the character well.

   The play value here is again fairly minimal - well aside from the poseability. The arms can clip or unclip from the torso as mentioned, and the are no weapons here - the spear we see him using in the film isn't included. If you pull the head forward, two transparent red panels will pop out on either side of his head, you can release and the head springs back into position. There are also mostly-concealed red panels on his upper arms, pulling them out will deploy a second set, giving The Fallen yet more transparent red. These panels provide some more colour, although they're not an action feature. For some reason his feet are spring loaded - they'll only spread out when he's standing, and spring into a "curled" position if you lift him off the table. I suspect the designer included this aspect to provide a little more play value, but it tends to take away really - you can't hold him in your hand and many action poses are out as a result of this weird foot gimmick.

   Poseability is somewhat limited by the features. The head is fixed as is the waist. The shoulder swing and lift out to the sides while the elbows rotate and hinge inwards. The wrists rotate and can hinge inwards. The arm poseability is severely limited if the arms and waist are clipped together - which is to be expected. The hips swing and lift out to the sides a little while the knees are hinged with rotators. The ankles rotate and the feet, well, they just collapse on themselves when you lift him up, and this doesn't help stability in poses. Overall it's a decent effort of poseability, but more useful feet would have helped display value (along with a weapon).

   This is The Fallen's better mode, since the aesthetic of this character was conceptualised around a robot mode. The colours are still dark, but there's a lot of fine detail. The gimmick in his feet is more annoying than anything else, and the lack of a weapon hurts. The robot mode does work well as a static display piece, but at this pricepoint I'd hope for more.

VARIATIONS

   There is a "flaming" repaint in black and orange.

OVERALL

   Overall this is a slightly disappointing toy, although The Fallen isn't without his strengths. The detailing is great and there's a lot of attention to detail in the paint job, but the play value is limited and the vehicle mode is poorly defined. More than anything else, the snappy feet really hold this toy back - and ruin it for me personally. I'd recommend the Legends toy over this one in terms of value for money - 5.5/10

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