Toy Review – BotCon 2010 Turbomaster (a/k/a Scorch)

BotCon 2010’s theme was “Generation 2: Redux”, a reimagining and extention of the nearly 20-year old (at the time) toy line.  One of the souvenirs was “Turbomaster”, which was a new version of the toy once known as “Scorch”.  A redeco of the Classics/Universe Hound mold, Turbomaster is yellow, orange and grey and comes with the nicest transforming jaguar you’ll ever meet.  But how good is Turbomaster?  Read on!

Turbomaster_Robot_HeadGeneration 2 (or G2 as it has become known) was Hasbro’s several-year attempt to reintroduce the Transformers line to a new generation of kids, but it never reached the same heights that the original toy line did.  In fact, G2 did so poorly at the end, that Hasbro shunted Transformers development over to its new subsidiary Kenner, and they came out with some fool idea called “Beast Wars”.  Which, as we know, helped save the Transformers franchise in the mid-1990’s.

Turbomaster_Vehicle_05But, the G2 line was still beloved by many, and so Fun Publications came up with their theme of G2: Redux.  As mentioned, Turbomaster revisits Scorch, dropping his deco onto the Hound toy.  For the most part, it works well.  The old toy was a “Cybertronian pickup truck,” while Hound is close to a Jeep.  Both toys have a weapon in vehicle mode, both feature translucent red windows with a yellow and orange color scheme. The biggest difference is the flame deco on the hood.  Turbomaster’s flames point the opposite way of Scorch’s, and the direction of the new deco just doesn’t seem right.  That aside, the deco adheres pretty well to the original toy.

Turbomaster_Robot_05In robot mode, once can see that Turbomaster’s head doesn’t quite match; the head wasn’t retooled, so it’s Hound’s head in grey and silver with red eyes.  Without the side wings, it doesn’t quite look like Scorch, but they did a good job of matching the deco between the two.  The use of grey and silver in robot mode is mainly on his legs, with a bit on his shoulders.  It’s good that they have that, or else the yellow and orange would be overpowering.  He can hold his weapon in his hand, although it doesn’t fire.

So, overall, what do I think? There are some nifty bits with his front wheels rotating and pivoting in the transformation process.  My biggest complaint, though, is loose tolerances.  His ankles tend to flop, his shoulders and upper body slouch at times, and his waist piece keeps popping off.  Plus, there is no locking at the waist/chest that would make him feel more solid; that’s because of how Hound was engineered, so it’s not a fault exclusive to Turbomaster.  When transforming to vehicle mode, just when you think you have things pegged together, something will come apart, so you have to repeat a step or two.  It’s frustrating. You can see some of these complaints in the gallery — some pictures show a toy that’s nicely posed or pegged together. Others show gaps or slouching.

I don’t hate Turbomaster; it’s a nice look, and it’s a pretty decent update to Scorch.  I just don’t have any love to this character back to G2 days, so it’s more of a “Hey, that’s kinda neat” toy to have.  The loose tolerances really detract from this toy, though. Honestly, I bet people wanted him more for the toy he came with than Turbomaster himself.

But that’s a review for another day.