Name: Wolverine
Series: Marvel Crossovers
Alternate Mode: 4x4 Rally Truck
Thanks to Goktimus Prime for loaning me Wolverine for this review
TRUCK MODE
Height: 8cm Length: 16cm Width: 8.5cm
A blue rally truck with yellow painted on the hood, doors and rear fenders, Wolverine also has a yellow plastic bull bar on the front. His tyres are grey plastic with silver painted hubcaps while the headlights, sports lights and roof mounted floodlights are painted white. His windshield is painted black and the side windows are an unpainted blue. The "tray" at the back is black with two spares tyres on top, with colours matching the other tyres. It's a somewhat garish colour scheme but matches the spandex colours of comic Wolverine, so I'm not complaining.
This is a racing pickup truck, with the yellow creating a rally feel. There are two spare tyres on roof and rollcage mesh on the side windows, giving him a rugged look. Basically it's the sort of truck you might see on in the Dakar rally (not that it ever seems to actually visit Dakar anymore). It's only vaguely realistic but there's enough detail here for the size - including moulded door seams & handles and various vents on the hood.
The play value is limited to the wheels rolling, and he rolls quite well. The spare tyres on his roof are fixed in place. There are no gimmicks or weapons of any kind here.
A relatively simple truck with no real play value, but the rally theme is well executed and the colours suit the character quite well. It's a little simple for it's size compared to other Transformers - at least modern ones - which bugs me a little.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Quite involved and fiddly without being difficult. In summary, the rear becomes his boots while the front becomes his chest. The doors become the arms and the spare tyres end up on his back.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 15.5cm Width: 14cm
A blue, yellow and black robot, again the colours match those of the comic Wolverine. The torso is blue with the yellow bull bar in front while the arms are mainly blue with yellow elbows and fists. His thighs and head are also yellow while there's a black mask over his eyes. The boots are black with blue on the outside panels. The grey front tyres of the truck are visible underneath the armpits. Again it's a slightly garish colour scheme but one that works for the character.
The eyemask and three silver blades on the outside of his hands (which pop out) are the main Wolverine elements here - as opposed to the truck elements. The mouth is snarling with white teeth and has a werewolf feel about it, which suppose it should. There's also a small black and red "X" logo on his waist - an X-Men logo which I guess counts as an allegiance symbol. The front fenders sit on angles as shoulderpads, complete with the headlights now on an angle.
The poseability here is fairly good although his feet don't allow a wide range of poses. The head turns a little, the waist rotates through 360° on a ratcheting joint. There are restricted ball joints in his shoulders while the elbows are double hinged with rotators and his wrists are fixed. The hips swing and lift out to the sides while the knees bend and rotate. His feet are fixed and the heelspurs sit on the outside edge at the back, which is what limits the range of poses. There are a fair few poses available, but the feet have to remain fairly close together. The only real action feature here relates to the silver blades. If you press blue buttons just in front of his elbows, the blades pop out. They're maybe 2cm long and pop out over the fists. More than anything else, these define Wolverine (since they're the visual element that unites the comic and movie incarnations), and really sell the character here.
A well constructed robot mode with some truck elements and the important elements needed to anchor it as Wolverine. The colours, X logo and of course blades are all present. The heelspurs aren't quite idea but they're not a disaster by any means. The poseability is good overall, even if there are a few limitations. The pop out blades are the highlight here.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
With garish colours that suit the comic book character and a bunch of distinctive features in robot mode, Wolverine is quite un-Transformer like overall. The truck mode is less than you'd expect of a Transformer of this size, and there's a distinctly different feel to the robot mode compared to most Transformers - thanks to the definitive X-Man features. The engineering is pretty good and neither mode really disappoints, even if the robot mode poseability is slightly less than you'd expect and the vehicle mode has minimal play value. He feels more like an X-Men toy than a Transformer, so I can only really recommend if you like the character. The blades will please his fans, too - 7.5/10
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