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Thursday 12 June 2014

Generations Deluxe Tankor - Pictorial Review

One would thought that Beast Wars was the most unorthodox and controversial Transformers franchise when it was aired in the 90's. But then 1999 came in and we have Beast Machines (BM), a 26-episodes sequel to Beast Wars.



Season 1 of BM focused on the Maximals (Optiumus Primal, Rattrap, Cheetor and Blackarachnia) being back on Cybertron...but not the Cybertron as they know it. All that's left is a deserted Cybertron with streets patrolled by mindless Vehicon Drones serving Megatron and at the same time, the Maximals are infected with a deadly virus that'll kill them. The problem was solved with the help of a supercomputer, the Oracle which reformats them into technorganic bodies.


On the other hand, we have Drones serving Megatron evil plan, specifically Tank Drones, lead by the tank general, Tankor. Tankor along with the other Vehicon Generals, leads Megatron mindless army in keeping the planet under control and to fight against the Maximals.

Pic Credit : TFWiki
Tankor and the other generals are the only ones granted sparks, as opposed to normal drones. Tankor fought again and again with the Maximals, holding onto Megatron's promise of "fabulous prize to be won!" for getting them into captivity. And the Maximals anything they can to defend themselves from Tankor brutal attacks. However, much to their dismay, Tankor turns out to be their beloved comrade that fought side-by-side with them during the Beast Wars, Rhinox

Pic Credit : TFWiki
Rhinox was one of the unlucky ones during Maximals' returned to Cybertron. Unlike the Transmetals that were able to stay mobile for a short period, Rhinox was held captive by Megatron and had his spark forcibly removed. The spark was later used to power Tankor, the tank general with hope that the Maximals will be less willing to fight him. But Megatron failed to foresee that Tankor end up being only slightly more intelligent than the rest of the Tank Drones.

Pic Credit : TFWiki
Despite Optimus Primal attempt to reach Rhinox's spark, he was too late as the spark was already tainted by his time inside Tankor, rejecting the Maximals and supporting Megatron's idea of technologically-pure Cybertron....but only the idea, not Megatron himself. This resulted in a fail coup d-etat and Tankor was killed. Rhinox expressed his regret over his actions when Optimus Primal met him (his Spark) one last time within the Allspark.

The widely-inaccurate BM Tankor
Pic Credit : TFWiki




In Package


As part of the Thrilling 30, Tankor is the first Beast Machines characters to receive a new mold, under the Generations line.


Tankor comes with a copy of "No Exit : Dark Cybertron Chapter 6" however there are complaints of the pages being out of order (mine included)

Back View

Tankor's Character Bio

Alt Mode


This Tankor is the best interpretation of the character out there. I still don't know why the original BM Tankor was designed so inaccurate to his CGI in the series.


From the side, there's a bit too much of Tankor's body parts visible, wished it was done differently.


Tankor has a missile attached to the underside of his alt mode using C-clip. However, the plastic is sturdier than most C-Clip weapons used by most Generations figure.



The head which is on top of his alt mode is clearly visible (based on his character design in the series) and can be turned around.



The alt mode is roughly the same size as most previous Generations releases but it's a bit too 'thin'

Robot Mode


This is Tankor! Haven't watch the series for quite sometime and I was surprised to see how Generations Tankor resembles the character design. As you can see, the lower legs configuration is as shown at the back of the card but they were facing the other way when he's in packaging (which I think is the correct way)


Despite being a show-accurate figure, Tankor kind of disappoint me as he is small!!! I know for a fact he's going to be a Deluxe Class figure but in hand...he's hard to bear. Transformation wise is simple which is acceptable but the hollowness of him really make me miss pre-2012 Generations figures.

Back View


The head sulpt is nicely done albeit with just a small amount painting involve.


On the plus side, Tankor is really fun to play with due to his unexpected range of movement.



Tankor comes with swivel on the neck, swivel and hinge on the shoulders with the shoulder pads on a hinge, swivel joint above the elbows, double jointed elbows, hinges on the claw, universal joint on the thighs and a wide range hinge on his knees.



The gears can be rotate but without any gimmick aside from character design's accuracy. The detailings on the chest are nicely done, nice work.


My biggest disappointment again...the size. As a stand alone character, I don't actually mind. But considering he's, in a way, a reincarnation of Rhinox, I would've expect him to be AT LEAST the same size if not bigger (based on his size in the series). Even worst when he's not something that Hasbro didn't expect to be doing, he came in the same line as Rhinox and not even a year apart.



I'm not the drone, I'm the DRONE GENERAL!!!!






2 comments:

  1. Beast machines... Wow that's so long ago. The concept of Tankor I think its represented again during the Transformers Prime, Vehicons!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yeah, it's great that Hasbro revisiting other obscure characters and line

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