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Series: Revenge of the Fallen NEST Global Alliance
Allegiance: Decepticon
Categories: Deluxe Mail-Order Exclusive
Year: 2010
Light slides off Ravage the way a duck's feathers shed water. Even in the brightest light, he is nothing more than a shadow, slinking unnoticed toward his prey. He is the ultimate infiltrator, absolutely silent, endlessly patient, but savage and lethal when the mission calls for it. No creature in the galaxy is better suited to be a thief and spy, which is just fine with Ravage. He takes delight in working in the darkness for the glory of Megatron.
Review by Caked-Up:
Overview: Recon Ravage has a special place for me right now. For starters he is the first figure in nearly two decades that is an exclusive mail-away promotion for the States. And secondly, I sent off for him and then underwent and recovered from open heart surgery before this item arrived at my doorstep; a total of seven weeks and six days.
Robot Mode: Ravage’s robot form is similar to what it nearly always has been, a robotic panther, but this time he has a freaky alien aesthetic. In addition to the mail away gimmick, another point for Recon Ravage is that he is the first American release figure that has chromed pieces since the Transmetals of Beast Wars. They are present on his lower jaw, back, weapons, and front legs. Sadly, they left the back legs in a generic gray, but this prevents the chrome from being monotonous. Other colors present are a muted red, yellow, black, and the solitary eye is piped yellow. His Decepticon symbol is located on his left flank. The overall color presentation is very sharp, but sadly even he couldn’t hide anywhere but a rave despite his bio.
While looking nice the posability is a mixed bag. Each leg has very realistic cat-like posability plus his waist rotates adding to the agility. The head and tail will disappoint you though. The head cannot move in any direction but forward causing him to lunge and bite while the ears fold back. In truth it isn’t a bad gimmick at all, but at the cost of posability I think it is a waste. His tail has three good looking blades at the end of it (the gray one swivels), but the jointing does not allow for any posing besides behind him or under his belly. The base and mid-point bend on swivel joints while the tip is on a ball joint. If all three were on a ball joint it would be near perfect. The choice of head design could be forgotten if his tail could at least be brought over his body to use those blades.
It is really a shame that these critical parts of his anatomy bring this figure down. Just like a supermodel, looking at Ravage in his Recon paintjob is great, but outside of appearances he isn’t much of anything special.
Alternate Mode: Instead of transforming into a cassette tape as the Ravage of old would, he instead transforms into a messy ball of limbs that is supposed to be a reentry mode. The overall shape isn’t anything special, but you can see the purpose it serves, getting around quickly and the obvious atmosphere entry. Ravage’s underbelly possesses sculpted thrusters and fold out chrome wings. His paint job still does not reflect anything related to stealth, but it looks good on the mold. Regardless the mold still looks like a mess of limbs, shiny and colorful limbs.
Remarks: Recon Ravage makes for a spiffy looking figure, but I would not have paid any more than the $4.95 for shipping. I was really looking forward to getting him because he just looks so good, but the robot mode is brought down by the head and tail while the vehicle mode is a mess. In fact the best part about this figure is that he marks the possible return of both mail-away exclusives and chromed parts. If Hasbro had the gall to name him Disco Ravage or Pimp My Ride Ravage I would have given him an A+.
Rating: C+
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