Animated Lugnut

Robot Mode: Let's get the obvious out of the way first. Lugnut suffers from the same problem as Bulkhead and Movie Blackout. He's advertised as being the biggest of his respective group, in this case the Animated Decepticons, but despite being of the Voyager-class, he's actually the smallest Decepticon, at least among those I own so far. He should be towering over everyone, but instead most of his mass goes into his width, leaving little for the height. And unlike Bulkhead we'll probably never see a Leader-class Lugnut. So we gotta live with his height impairment.

Leaving the height thing aside, though, Lugnut makes for a pretty good robot. He's a dead ringer for his TV counterpart, no problems here. He looks big, strong, and stupid, so that's just the way it should be. For some reason I really like his arms and hands. I'm not usually a fan of robots that don't have proper hands, but Lugnut with his big bomb-fists has won me over. They just fit him, as do his tiny little feet. And his face (such as it is) is just too precious for words. So in other words, I really like his look.

Posability-wise Lugnut offers no grounds for complaint, either. He's bendy, he can move with the best of them. Okay, he can't turn his head, but that's just a minor thing. He's also pretty stable, even when he carries his big battle staff / mace on his back. Speaking of his mace (which is supposedly powered by a star core, go figure!), it's his primary weapon, even though I can't really remember him ever using it on the show. It doesn't look too bad, but to me it doesn't quite fit him properly. It looks too... regal, I guess. Lugnut would be better served with a really big gun or maybe some kind of big club. Still, the mace is quite good and features a snap-up feature that activates when you put it in Lugnut's hand and then push down on the end (the mighty Thor will probably file for trademark infringment). That, together with the mini-guns on his torso, gives Lugnut enough weapons to chose from.

So all in all, a very good robot mode that offers no room for complaint apart from the fact that he should be a whole lot bigger.

Alternate Mode: Lugnut transforms into a kind of big B52-like bomber. Don't know if it's any kind of current model and didn't care enough to find out. Suffice to say he looks pretty good in this mode, too. It's actually quite surprising how a big, stocky robot like Lugnut can transform into a rather slim airplane.

Apart from the rather un-military colouring the bomber looks pretty realistic, at least as far as I can tell. It's also quite well armed with three small gun turrets and the big bombs under the wings, which can open up just like they do when they form Lugnut's forearms. The bomber also has a functioning landing gear that retracts. So as far as attention to details go, quite well done. And overall, too. A nice vehicle mode, no complaints.

Remarks: In just about every Transformers series - or come to think of it, just about every cartoon series - the bad guys need to have the big, stupid strongman type in their ranks. In Animated that role is filled by Lugnut. Devouted entirely to Megatron's cause, he would die for his leader in an instant if so commanded. He hasn't seen as much action in Animated as a big, powerful type like him should, but he's one of the main cast of the Decepticons, so I needed to get him.

As a figure Lugnut really is quite good and I have nothing bad to say about him except that he should be Leader-sized at least, if not bigger. But I guess one Leader-class bad guy is the most we can hope for in Animated, so Lugnut will remain a pint-sized giant and rely on digital trickery to look gigantic compared to the others. Still, a very good figure. If you like bad guys, especially dumb bad guys, Lugnut is your man.

Rating: B

Update 2008-07-28: User F-22 Starscream of the NTF-Boards just informed me that Lugnut actually did use his mace once in the episode "Garbage in, Garbage out". I think that was the only occurence, though. Thanks for the hint, F-22.

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