Animated Sentinel Prime

Robot Mode: From a visual standpoint Sentinel Prime might just be my favourite character in the Animated cartoon. It's mostly because he looks like the Tick, but more on that further down. Anyway, Sentinel Prime here is a pretty close match to his animated counterpart. The only differences are that the face is a darker shade of grey and he's missing a few paint highlights. Apart from that, though, a very close match. And I love the way he looks.

Posability is pretty good, though there are a few tricks you need to figure out. Sentinel's shoulders are actually double-jointed. There is a ratchet joint in the wheels and another joint where the arm connects to the wheel. Sadly he's missing wrist or upper arm joints to twist his hands or arms sideways, meaning he can only hold his lance straight. A wrist joint would have worked wonders for his poses. Still, he can pose quite a bit regardless, so no points deduction.

As weapons Sentinel carries a shield and a lance, giving him a somewhat knightly image. The shield looks pretty good (though it was an energy shield in the cartoon, not a physical one), but the lance... well, not quite my cup of tea. It's not bad, but I think he would have looked better with a sword or a gun. I know, the Animated Autobots don't use guns. So moving on. Sentinel can also combine his two weapons by slipping the lance through a hole in the shield grip.

So all in all there is little to complain about concerning Sentinel's robot mode. Wrist joints, okay, but apart from that he's top notch. A very good robot mode.

Alternate Mode: Sentinel Prime transforms into a kind of big pick-up like vehicle with a big snow plow fastened to its front. In the cartoon Sentinel selected this mode as an inconspicious disguise. Because hey, there are always snow plows driving around big cities when there isn't a snow flake to be found. Anyway, the vehicle at first reminded me a bit of Energon Ironhide's vehicle mode, but it looks a lot better and more detailed despite being only half the size.

There isn't a lot you can do here, though. Sentinel's weapons can be mounted on top, but in my opinion that looks pretty stupid, so I'd rather leave them off. You can wiggle the snow plow sideways a tiny bit, but it isn't really meant to move. The windshield is actually transparent, though very dark, but there is solid blue plastic directly behind it, so I don't really see the point. Whatever. Not the best vehicle mode in the world, but a good, solid one. Good enough not to drag the figure as a whole down any.

Remarks: The name Sentinel Prime has popped up a few times in Transformers history. In several different variations of G1 he was the immediate predecessor of Optimus Prime, killed at the hands of Megatron when the Cybertronian civil war began. In Animated, though, he's nothing of the sort. In Animated Sentinel Prime is a jerk. He's the one who convinced Optimus Prime and Elita-1 to go to the planet of the mutant spiders and later blamed Optimus for Elita-1's apparent death. He's also a jerk. He treats Optimus and his crew like dirt, even though it was Optimus who saved him from the Headmaster. Did I mention he's a jerk?

More important than that, though, is that he's the Tick. The Tick as a Transformer. In the Animated cartoon he's even voiced by the same guy who did the Tick, Townsend Coleman. I loved the Tick, so I had to get the Transformer modelled after him. And it's not a coincidence, btw, that Sentinel Prime looks so much like the Tick. Most of his visual design was done after Townsend Coleman was cast as his voice. Why isn't the Tick out on DVD in Germany anyway?

Getting back to the actual figure, I really like Sentinel Prime. I'd have liked it if he were Voyager-sized to better fit with Optimus Prime, but even as a Deluxe figure he's pretty nifty. I'd have liked wrist joints and maybe a better weapon than that lance, but otherwise he's very good. And come on, there was no chance I wouldn't get me the Tick Transformer. So to all fans of TF Animated, Sentinel Prime, or the Tick, this is one Transformer you shouldn't miss out on.

Rating: A-

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