Name: Shuta
Series: Japanese Generation 1
Allegiance: Cybertron
Function: Rescue Commander
Alternate Mode: Police Car
Thanks to heroic decepticon for loaning me Shuta for this review
CAR MODE
Height: 5.5cm Length: 13cm Width: 6.5cm
A white Police sports car with midnight blue painted windows, a black stripe down the hood with a police badge and black stickers on the doors with different police badges (incorporating Autobot logos), Shuta has a stroberack on the roof with mid blue strobes. There are red stickers on the rear fenders with the words "POLICE", and a silver sticker across the top of the windshield to the same effect. Shuta has black plastic tyres, with black hubcaps. Two small black guns mount on the hood (for sieges, I guess). Shuta is a repaint of Siren, and the blue of his strobes is a shade brighter than that of Siren.
While I'm not sure what type of car this is meant to represent, it resembles a Mazda RX-7 with pop-up headlights and rudimentary moulded taillights. There's a gap at the back for a license plate, as well as doorseams and pinstripes seams. The pinstripe seams are completely unnecessary, while we have moulded doorhandles - unlike on Siren, they're not covered by stickers. While the moulded detail isn't lazy, it could have been dome smarter - so I'm glad we have a painted hood and some stickering.
There's a fairly obvious hinge behind the stroberack and a socket behind this at the top edge of the rear window for the black handgun. The hinges on his roof allow the lid to open and reveal a cabin in which the minifigure can ride. The helmet forms a white seat, although this seat slides over the seated minifigure's back without attaching to the car as such. The cabin and rolling wheels represent most of the play value here - the three optional weapons rounding things off.
A more logical purpose than Siren's Fire Chief theme, and in better colours. Shuta's car mode is well done and while there are still flaws such as the pointless pinstripes and the hinge on the roof, this is a car mode well above the standard of most 1988 Transformers. It's clearly different from Siren, and works well. The white plastic of this mode is prone to yellowing.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Remove the minifigure if you have him in the cockpit, fold over the front to form his boots. Flip up the rear window to reveal his shoulders and pull the arms out from his sides. Attach minifigure as the head, attach the helmet and the small guns as antennae.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 16.5cm Width: 10.5cm
Now a mix of white and blue, with the blue plastic on his arms, head and torso the same mid blue on the strobes. The outsides of the arms, helmet and boots are white while the thighs are forearms are black. His face is light blue with red eyes, and is really well sculpted. The antennae on his head are black, along with the handguns. These colours are very similar to those of Siren - the blue is a shade brighter and the grey of that toy is now white, but the overall look is quite similar. There's a sticker o his white chestpiece which bears an Autobot logo.
The boots are a single piece (the hood of the car) but there's a white between the black stripes, giving the impression of separate boots. The white panel in the middle of his chest forms a nice centrepiece. The rear wheels sit on the outsides of his upper arms.
The shoulders rotate on two axes, giving Shuta good arm poseability, although the arms represent all of his movement. The black gun can rest in either hand and the grey chestplate can fold down to reveal his tech spec meter. Unlike the previous year's Headmasters, which had three tumblers, this mechanism is simply a plate that slides down when the head is inserted, although it still gives a reading of (SPD, STR & INT).
A good robot mode with good colours. My main complaint is that these colours are very similar to those of Siren, although the two were intended for different markets - it's a minor issue anyway.
The conjoined boots count as his only flaw, but the seam is quite clever, to the point where I'm not bothered about the boots. The arm articulation is great for G1, rounding out a great robot mode.
Shuta Minifigure
A short mid blue figure with black legs and painted yellow face (as opposed to green on Quig). The larger face is clearly visible on his back - which lacks the fold over panel of the larger, more poseable Headmasters of 1987. He can bend at the hips to sit down, but otherwise he's really all about the head mode.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of, but given his rarity I'm sure they'd be worth a packet. As mentioned, Shuta is a repaint of Siren.
OVERALL
A good, thoughtful repaint of Siren, Shuta is a very nice toy and he deals with a few of Siren's shortcomings well. Sadly his white plastic is quite prone to yellowing (then again, so is Siren's grey). He's a lot rarer than Siren - in fact Shuta is very hard to find, and quite expensive. For that reason I'll stop short of recommending him, but this is a great repaint of a good mould. He's very prominent in Masterforce and while the repaint shares many similarities with Siren, the two are very different. If you have the cash & option of grabbing Shuta, I wouldn't recommend against him - 8/10
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