Then take a reality check, and notice that this is possibly one of the finest pieces of toy engineering ever to grace the TransFormers line. Robot mode was never going to be a perfect replication of the movie robot, but it's a fine piece of work nonetheless. Very poseable, very stable, and full of worthwhile gimmicks, as well as some halfway decent lights and sounds. Vehicle mode has a blaring horn, while the figure's final automorph plays a strange 'power up' sound and flashes lights in his chest and eyes.

Just about every part of this model does something during transformation, making it a very satisfying model to play about with. My favourite gimmick has to be the way his weapon is stowed against his forearm, but flips round over his fist at the flick of a switch (almost). One of the cutest details is that the logo on the nose of the truck is an embossed Autobot insignia, rather than a real truck's nose ornament

Next to the Masterpiece Convoy, this should easily rank among the best Optimus Prime figures of all time. The model is significantly different to the traditional Optimus Prime/Convoy look, but carries enough of the essential character to be instantly recognisable. The only thing lacking is the paintwork - while the flame pattern on the vehicle mode works quite well, the painted details for robot mode are surprisingly sparse.

I've painted in a few extra details on this model now...

Whereas Gen-1 Ratchet was an ambulance, the movie version is a US Fire Department search and rescue vehicle. The look suits him, and makes him a much more bulky robot than he otherwise might be. The almost fluorescent green colour does him no favours, but it's not utterly ghastly. My favourite aspect of this model is that, like so many Gen-1 toys, the vehicle's front forms the robot's chest... but there's a twist on this one - Ratchet's vehicle chest is upside down.

Ratchet comes with no gun-type weapons, and nothing really appropriate to the Autobots' medic - one hand can fold away allowing for an 'axe' to fold out of the forearm, and the roof rack of his vehicle mode becomes a strange 'claw'.

I've painted Ratchet quite extensively, covering over much of the green plastic on his arms and upper legs with silver, and adding coppery highlights, and also adding some more metallic detail to his head and the outsides of his lower legs.

Where this figure falls down in a big way is the sparse paintwork. Sure, Ironhide's mostly black... but the robot we all saw in the movie was scuffed up and featured all kinds of metallic shades over his body and face. I've added some of this myself - just simple, light brushings of silverish paint on his corners, and a few details painted in.

It's also nice to see that, while Gen 1 Ratchet and Ironhide shared the same mold, the movie models are completely different in both modes.

Robot mode isn't without gimmicks of its own... With one cannon attached to each arm, Ironhide's missiles just sit there and cannot be fired. However, if the cannons are attached to each other and mounted on one arm, there are four sliders in the rear section to fire off the missiles. Clever toy engineering, even if nothing like that happened in the film...

I've painted this one quite extensively - many black parts have been turned sliver to more closely match the movie robot. The only real flaws with Jazz as a model are that his forearms are made up of two open panels each, and his torso is very squat... almost making him look like a super-deformed version of the movie model. If fact, given a head twice the size of the existing one, that's exactly what he'd look like!

Jazz comes with something that's described as a 'lance', but it looks more like a rifle with a very long (retractable) barrel. The rear of the car can be mounted on Jazz's shoulder or on the barrel of his gun/lance as a shield, but it's too bulky to convince in either position. As a robot, he's reasonably poseable, but his car doors manage to obstruct his hips to some degree. Considering the complicated transformation of 2008 Bumblebee, I'm sure they could have done better.

Annoyingly, there is a 'Final Battle' variant of this figure, with a more movie-accurate gun... Why they didn't use that for this iteration of the model, I'll never understand...

His alternate mode - a silver Pontiac Solstice - is more streamlined and street-oriented than his racing Porsche alternate mode from Generation 1 days, but that hasn't stopped Hasbro releasing a Gen 1 colourschemed version of this model.

Camaro mode is sleek and smooth, and the seams left by transformation aren't that noticeable. Transformation is fairly complex, something approaching a mini-Alternator/Binaltech as far as many fans are concerned.

As a robot, he's armed with a very large cannon which, bizarrely, transforms into an energy blade of some kind... Not sure why, as that certainly didn't happen in the movie. If they'd done without that gimmick, they could have done a more movie-accurate gun, that could have fitted over his wrist.

Poseablility is excellent - again, one of the best in the line - and, while this model is also lacking in paintwork, the molded detail is superb. My only real complaint about this is that neither version of Movie Bumblebee comes with an alternative 'Battle Mask' head. That would probably have made this the perfect Movie line figure.

Essentially a larger format version of Energon Arcee (also rereleased with new colourscheme in the Movie line), this version of Arcee appears to be dressed as a dominatrix - shiny black bustier with metal parts, knee-length high-heeled boots - and, despite a decidedly patchy paint job and very alien aethetic, quite a feminine face... sporting black lipstick.

Another thing this one has over the Energon version is that she's far more stable... strange considering the look of the feet. Additionally, her arms are more poseable (the only restrictions being imposed by the strangely-split wheel halves on her shoulders.

While still armed with a bow, this version is far sleeker than the bulky, two-part Energon weapon, she she can aim it in more than one direction.

The model is not without its flaws, but it's a massive improvement on the Energon version, and I can't wait to see Arcee in action in the live action movie sequel.

An non-movie models go, it retains much of the move aesthetic, and yet is simpler and less detailed in many ways. Transformation is complex enough, and Longarm certainly wouldn't have fitted in with any previous range, but the overall look of the robot isn't quite the same as the movie bots.

There's something bizarrely feline about his head, though looking at it a certain way (and squinting) leaves you with the impression that you're looking slightly down on a dog's head (the black chin piece starts to look like the dog's nose).

Longarm's weapon is very cleverly disguised as the towtruck's hook arrangement. The barrel of the gun swings underneath the truck, the hook swings back, and the lightbar folds forward and out, possibly one of the best bits of toy engineering in this range.

The model is only really let down by the awkward feet - the truck's bonnet folds up to create his massive plates, while his heels are just small claws. It's also strange that his gun is actually attached to his right hand... though only by one screw, so it would be easy enough to remove.

Longarm also carries a reference to the 1986 animated movie - the name on the side of the truck is "Orson's Towing", referring to Orson Welles, who voiced Unicron.

There are no significant differences between this version of the mold and any of the Energon versions... Except that her eyes are painted red - unusual for an Autobot, but not unheard of.

It's a shame they didn't remold the head to make it a smaller version of the Deluxe model, but the extensive paintwork more than makes up for that.

I have to say, that was a wise move... the model feels very flimsy and badly constructed, and the transformation is deeply unsatisfying: In vehicle mode, I can't get his legs to clip back into place, and the left arm just sticks out of the back of the vehicle, its only 'disguise' being a Sector 7 logo.

While the paint job is supposed to be subdued and military, I can't help seeing it as bland, particularly in combination with his incredibly dull opaque grey plastic 'Energon star', shield and dish thingy. With a bit more imagination in the colour choices, this could have been a serviceable figure... as it stands, barely poseable and dull to look at, I'm quite glad I got this as part of a set, rather than by choice.

He does have one interesting gimmick, in that his gun barrel rotates as the arm is moved, but it doesn't actually accomplish anything.

As with Signal Flare, this is a mold I didn't bother with when Energon first came round. The colourschemes - both the original and the 'Energon Strongarm' repaint - were foul, and the model didn't strike me as particularly impressive.

It still doesn't, but at least it now has a subdued and appropriate colourscheme, which complements the mold quite well. I'm still not convinced about the idea of a giant robot using its alternate mode's windscreen as feet, but he's a fairly cute, bulky robot, and he has a big gun/winch, so I think I'll let it slide.

The first one I picked up had a superglue spillage in one knee, so I had to take it back for replacement.

Still, the G1 colourscheme ought to win over the inappropriate alternate mode... And yet, again, the plain white plastic lets it down. There's a huge amount of molded detail to this model, and most of it is lost due to the lack of paint application. The colourscheme works better in robot mode - at this point you're not looking for an ambulance - but it's incredibly plain.

Considering the size of the model, it's rather awkward to pose because the feet are in a fixed position, bar the mobile 'toe' pieces, which really only move due to an aspect of transformation. Additionally, those joints that he has don't tend to offer much by way of stability or dramatic posing options. I was quite amazed by how little movement his arms have.

Also, as seems to be the trend with the movie figures, there's not an awful lot of paintwork, meaning he looks quite bland as standard. The photo here is the end result of a couple of days worth of fiddling with additional metallic paint applications. The bare grey plastic is still quite visible all over the place, as I'm pretty sure I'm not finished. The more I painted, the more I saw that needed painting, so it started getting silly.

As with Leader class Optimus Prime, Megatron has lights and sounds... as the final (and frankly almost entirely redundant) part of his Automorph feature takes effect, a couple of red lights in his chest blink on. His eyes don't light up because there's no suitable connection, which is a great shame. The only sound seems to be a weird scream, regardless of his mode. In vehicle mode, a button sets off the scream and the pinkish 'blade' things (on his back in the photo, below the wings in vehicle mode) blink on.

While he's the smallest toy for his price point, Blackout is no less impressive than Ratchet. He's just as poseable, just as complex (with a very awkward automorph feature), and has a neat gimmick in the form of a detachable rotor assembly, which can be used as a weapon.

Every time TransFormers gains a new character whose alternate mode is a helicopter, the model just gets better. We've gone from Generation 1 bricks like Blades, Vortex, and even Whirl, to excellent models like Live Convoy/Evac in Galaxy Force/Cybertron and now Blackout. Helicopter mode is excellent, with barely a hint of its concealed nature, and robot mode looks like a hulking great bruiser...

...or it would, if he weren't the smallest of the lot. Here's hoping for a Leader class Blackout, to go along with Leader class Brawl.

It's quite stocky in robot mode - very broad-chested, and the arms are oversized to accommodate the rotating triple missile launchers he has instead of hands. Despite the odd, bird-like configuration of the legs, he's reasonably stable, too.

Transformation is fairly complex, with a couple of points that would leave you worrying about the flimsiness of the plastic, but he's quite well-built overall.

I think I would have preferred the designers to work in proper, proportional arms and real hands, and certainly the rubber 'claws' around the missile barrels are a huge disappointment. As with much of the Movie line, the paintwork is quite sparse - some weathering on his wings and jet intakes being the limit of what you see in jet mode, and some metallic detailing on the chest and head in robot mode.

Disappointingly, the head and feet are fully visible in jet mode. I would have thought they could have been effectively disguised with a few more joints. The upshot is that jet mode doesn't even have afterburners, which even smaller models in previous lines have been able to fudge somehow.

I'm also pretty sure that the design of the head is wrong, not least because the 'collar' is molded to the head, rather than the shoulders.

Nevertheless, the designers did a reasonable job. Roll Scorponok along, and his claws rotate. Push a button on his tail, and the stinger shoots forward.

What lets Scorponok down is the lack of movement in his scorpion legs (which, while on ball joints, cannot be moved down to support him) and the head, which could easily have been made better with a ball joint if it weren't for the entirely redundant (and, frankly, rubbish) transformation to 'robot' mode.

In the plus column, there's plenty of molded detail, and it doesn't lose out too badly through lack of paintwork.

It does seem that, while Hasbro and TakaraTomy have taken the movie designs seriously and produced some excellent models, they're not that fussed about painting them. Thus, Barricade is almost entirely plain black in robot mode.

Or, he was until I painted him up a bit.

He has a couple of interesting gimmicks - the first is that his left arm is spring-loaded to extend at the touch of a button... not exactly movie-accurate (it would have been nice if one of his wheels had a spring-loaded spike mechanism, something like Cybertron Landmine's key gimmick), but kind of cute in its own way. The second gimmick is that a small Frenzy figure is stored, folded up, in his chest. Pull down the bull-bars and he pops out a little way. Once folded out, he makes a reasonable figure, even quite poseable for his size...

I've no idea why, but Barricade's head is made mostly of soft rubber rather than plastic...

Ideally, this figure should have been chromed, as Frenzy was very shiny in the movie... but then, I guess, much of the detail would have been lost.

On the subject of detail, though, weren't movie Frenzy's eyes blue?

Even so, this Deluxe-sized model is bristling with detail, it's just a shame the sparse paintwork doesn't bring most of it out.
Bonecrusher is easily one of the most alien designs in the movie - hunchbacked, with an insectoid face and vicious claws, he has an even bigger claw mounted on his back. His feet are quite awkward - made up of four large talons each, and with only wheels from the vehicle mode it improve stability... nevertheless, he is remarkably stable, and capable of pulling off some quite dramatic poses.

It's just a shame that his diminutive size means that kids will never be able to properly play out the highway battle between Prime and Bonecrusher... even with the Voyager class/Robovision version of Optimus Prime.

While Bonecrusher doesn't really have any Automorph gimmick to speak of, his claw can be moved using a geared switch on the top, and his arms can be lengthened thanks to some clever double-jointing. If this figure had been of a larger size class, he could possibly have taken Bumblebee's crown as one of the best in the line.

His alternate mode is an armoured car of some kind - possibly a personnel carrier - and seems to be painted in snow camoflage. Robot mode, however, shows up with alarming red and gold highlights that would render such camoflage utterly redundant. Still, I guess camoflage would be the last thing on his mind when he's in robot mode... Much more likely, he'd be thinking about what damage he could do with his large - and strangely crystalline-looking - energy blades.

Many have said that this design would have made a far better Megatron than the strange, spiky thing that actually appeared in the movie, and part of me would like to agree. The helmet evokes a certain sense of Megatron, but the robot seems too lithe, and doesn't look particularly powerful. I'm not entirely sure what to make of the gun protruding from the belly area, either...

Despite a very strange foot design, Wreckage is both poseable and stable, and a very cool addition to the movie line.

It's a shame, then, that the only toys available for him are so limited. The tiny figure that comes with Barricade could have used far more attention, the Robot Replicas version has good molded detail but isn't poseable enough, and this...

...Well, to be honest, it's quite cute. It's probably the best they could do in turning such a spindly robot into a portable stereo but, again, he's barely poseable and rather blocky. He fires a disc from his chest thanks to a button on his back but, aside from posing his arms (a little) all he does is stand there.

Don't get me wrong, I quite like this model, even with the oversized arms... I just think they could have been a bit more imaginative with the colours.

The new head does nothing to make the alternate mode work better - you can still see the robot head sticking out of the back of the plane, but the shape and colouring hide it better than the original Movie Starscream.

I can see why this head wasn't chosen for the movie - while it's very reminiscent of the G1 Seekers, it's not really in keeping with the movie aesthetic... it also doesn't suit the body quite so well

Carrying on the trend of locating batteries in fairly sensible places, Brawl's two AAs slip into the back of his secondary turret and activate three kinds of lights and sounds either by moving parts or by pushing buttons. For the most part, they're actually quite weak. Certainly the lights could have been better (green LEDs for the shoulder-mounted missile pods?) but they're a decent and worthwhile addition to the toy, increasing play value.

Transformation is an all-time classic. The backs of the lower legs do look bulky, but they're also a three-part shell for the outside of the tank alternate mode. Cleverly, these fold out and allow the arms to fold into the vacated areas, with the arm-mounted weapons detaching and folding into the ankles.

The automorph gimmick is almost pointless - like Prime, it pops his head out in a blaze of sound and light effects. Brawl was a good contender for glowing eyes, but they're simply light-piped instead.
The barrels on the secondary turret are only loosely attached, and tend to pop out with the least provocation, but overall Brawl is a sturdy model. The only real problems are the added weight of the electronics and the lack of movement in his feet, both of which make dynamic posing very difficult.