Prime Rumble

Alternate Mode: Contrary to my usual practice I'll start this review by looking at the vehicle mode first. The reason: the vehicle mode is incredibly boring and bland. A light blue car with almost no discernable characteristics, very little sculpting or detailing, and pretty much nothing to make it even the least bit interesting. Which is probably the perfect alternate mode for a Decepticon infiltrator, mind you, but as a toy, it's so plain that it almost hurts. The fact that you can mount Rumble's two weapons on the sides doesn't help, either. So let's move on quickly and do your best to ignore this very, very boring car mode.

Robot Mode: From the aforementioned incredibly boring vehicle mode emerges a truly gorgeous robot mode. Rumble is a sight to behold in blue and black with yellow and red highlights. His entire torso is sculpted to look like a giant face (I'm reminded of Beast Wars Inferno, actually) and while he has a lot of kibble on his shoulders, it does not get in the way and makes him look much broader and more powerful than he actually is. Apart from his shoulders there is actually very little car mode kibble anywhere on his body and he just looks mean and powerful.

Funny thing: most of the stock footage I've seen of this figure prior to its release saw the piledrivers / guns he carries always attached to his arms, so I was very uncertain whether or not this robot actually had hands. Well, he does. Once you put his weapons in them, though, they pretty much vanish, making it look as if the weapons are fully integreated into his arms, which is a nice feature. The weapons can be seen as either big miniguns or Rumble's traditional piledrivers for causing earthquakes. Either way works just fine. When he doesn't need them, Rumble can store the weapons on his back. He also has guns sculpted into the 'wings' emerging from behind his shoulders, another nod to G1 Rumble, but since they're also painted blue, you barely notice them. Might have to break out some silver paint here.

Finally, the articulation of the figure is very good. The only slight limitation is in the waist, which is ball jointed, but the panel hanging there gets in the way. No restrictions otherwise. So bottom line: a very, very nice robot mode, all the more impressive for emerging from such a bland vehicle mode.

Remarks: Without getting into the age old debate on whether or not Rumble is the blue one (the Japanese Arms Micron version of Rumble is red, btw), this is well and truly a very nice toy. Rumble has not (and probably will not) make an appearance in the Prime TV series, but he's a very nice Deluxe-class toy, fits in well with the Car Vehicons, and is just an all-around good figure. Not a classic for the ages, but apart from his bland car mode and lack of TV appearance, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Rumble.

Rating: B+