Takara really makes the best of a pretty universally panned mold with Arms Micron #26: Smokescreen! A new head sculpt, some stickers, and some nifty little tricks that the fandom has come up with makes this a nice little homage to one of Transformers: Prime’s more liked characters.
Video Segments:
Out of the Box: Beginning
Alt. Mode: 2:34
Transformation: 5:05
Figure Overview: 12:32
Final Thoughts: 16:21
As said at the beginning, it takes a bit of trickery to truly get this toy out of looking like a straight up repaint of the original Knockout mold that it was based from. However, when you do, you really do have a nice Smokescreen to put on your shelf. The downside to that is the fact that it’s not a very good likeness out of the box. Don’t get me wrong: The headsculpt is fantastic, and the vehicle mold fits well, but the robot mode of the mold really screams knockout prior to some touching up. If someone was to buy this one without seeing all of the modifications posted throughout message boards, then there would definitely be disappointment. For this review though, we’ll be using the modified version so that anyone reading can at least see the differences from what’s shown in the instructions post-modifications.
I actually really like the transformation between modes for this figure. However, the one part that may be a bother for some is transforming the forearms when going to robot mode. Similar to the RID Vehicon mold, the toy featuresa strange transformation of “looping” the elbow around itself to get to where it needs to be, and folding the window and door into each other to create the forearms can be a pain.
The poseability for this figure is very standard and passable, but I do have some gripes. The fact that the shoulders don’t lock into place when transformed into robot mode leads to some swinging of the entire shoulder/wheel area when trying to turn the shoulders. Another is that the windows placed on his forearms keeps the elbow movement very limited in upward swing.
He comes with one accessory, and it’s his Arms Micron. For anyone new to Arms Microns, they are basically robots (while some are animalistic as well) that turn into weapons for these figures. The weapons range from melee to projectiles: In fact, my favorite is a miniature bulkhead that turns into a large fist! These weapons even combine with each other to make larger weapons. Smokescreen comes with a robotic Arms Micron that looks a bit similar to Transformers Season 3 Scourge. It turns into a bird-shaped gun.
You shouldn’t have to look online to read how to make a figure look like the character it’s supposed to be. Add that onto a premium price for importing, and it’s something that I wouldn’t recommend unless you’re a huge Smokescreen fan or a Transformers: Prime completionist.
Overall Score: 6.0/10
Enjoy a few more pictures of this figure below! Remember to click the pictures to view larger resolutions:
