Generations Sergeant Kup

Robot Mode: Sergeant Kup from the Generations line is, of course, a homage to G1 Kup from 1986. The original character’s look is reflected in the design of his head, the coloring and certain design elements such as his shin and his rucksack. There is also a mini-homage present in the form of the small windshield that sits in front of Kup’s head, which references his design in Dreamwave’s War Within comic series.

Despite the somewhat uniform coloring, Kup looks really nice and conveys lots of detailing all over his body. I especially like the torso, formed from the front fenders of the car, a fake engine grill as abdomen, and the aforementioned small windshield. Very nicely put together. Posability is very good, the only slight detriment being the big panels on his arms, which reach beyond his hands. Would have been nice if they could be folded in half or something, but it’s not a big hindrance.

Kup carries a so-called laser musket as a weapon, a reversal of his original weapon, which was called a musket laser (and looked more like your standard laser gun than a rifle). Kup can hold the weapon in his hand or clip it to one of the multiple clip-on ports he has on his arm panels or on his rucksack. Personally I really like the latter, as he can clip the rifle and, for example, Darkmount’s missile launcher on his rucksack, giving him shoulder-mounted weaponry. And you know I’m a sucker for shoulder-mounted weapons. So all in all I’m very much satisfied with this robot mode.

Vehicle Mode: One can’t quite say for certain whether the vehicle mode of the original G1 Kup was his original Cybertronian vehicle mode or a futuristic Earth mode. Either way, it didn’t look like anything you’d see driving around Earth today (way past the year 2005), but it was still somewhat recognizable as a pickup-type vehicle. That’s where Kup’s name comes from, of course: picKUP. Now, for the Generations line, he transforms into an actual realistic-looking pickup truck.

I’m not sure of the exact model (if it is an actual one), but it does appear to be somewhat dated, the kind of car you’d expect to drive around backwater America somewhere. The faded blue coloring and somewhat dirty looking loading area complement each other very nicely. Unlike other pickup truck Transformers, Kup’s got an actual loading space in the back. He’s also got two spaces for clip-on weapons on his roof, where you can mount his rifle or the weapons of other figures. The rifle can also be stored underneath the car, where its tip becomes the second exhaust pipe in the back.

The car is also very nicely detailed, especially the front where you have the engine grill, the headlights and actual turn signals. The windows are transparent, but there is some kibble in the car interior to be seen through it. No visible robot bits, but a grey plate resting against the window. Not a big thing, but the only really negative point to an otherwise excellent vehicle mode.

Remarks: I’ve always been a fan of Kup, the crafty old veteran who loves to tell war stories and always grumbles about those young whippersnappers, as is the sworn duty of all old folks throughout time and space. Kup served as the character template for Animated Ratchet and his appearance as a Nick-Fury-like, cigar-chomping bad ass was one of the few good things in IDW’s All Hail Megatron series. So basically, I love Kup. He just never had a good toy before. Yeah, there was the Botcon Kup figure, but seeing as that portrayed him in his young days, it doesn’t really count for me.

Now we have Generations Kup, though. Not sure why they put the Sergeant in front of the name instead of going with the standard prefix “Autobot” as they’ve done for most of the non-trademark-able names so far. Anyway, this is, to me, the definite Kup figure so far. It gives us the look of the original character with a realistic, solid vehicle mode and nothing worth complaining about, too. Fully recommended to all Kup and G1 3rd season fans.

Rating: A-

 

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Update 2011-05-29: Third-party provider iGear has created two new heads for Generations Kup, based on his original G1 appearance, or rather his cigar-chomping IDW incarnation. See last eight pictures in the gallery below.