DE 
EN 
Series: Dark of the Moon Mechtech
Allegiance: Autobot
Categories: Leader
Year: 2011
Sentinel Prime is a legendary warrior, thought lost long ago. The strength of his will and the power of his sword are spoken of in reverent whispers by Autobot and Decepticon alike. Now that he has returned, the final defeat of Megatron and the Decepticons is assured.
Prelude: One of the most eagerly awaited toys of the last years: Sentinel Prime. Loved by most long before it’s become available, hated only by very few. Sentinel Prime was the first Transformer seen from the cast of the third movie. Theories about his identity included Vector Prime, Alpha Trion, and (correctly) Sentinel Prime. One may assume he won’t be the same kind of asshole he’s been in Transformers Animated. Apparently he’ll be the former mentor of both Megatron and Optimus, who only introduced Optimus to the mysteries of the Primes (which fits into current Movie continuity). Megatron felt betrayed and so started to doubt the ideals of the Primes. As High Protector of Cybertron he was the leader of the military, while Optimus and Sentinel were more sympathetic to science and civilian life.
After Sentinel’s disappearance (and the ceasing of his life signs) the Fallen, a banished Prime, gained strength. Via a discovered artifact he made contact with Megatron, seducing and manipulating him by promising to turn him into a Prime as well. The Fallen never came through on his promise, though, which probably only further increased Megatron’s hatred for the Primes. How the clash between Megatron and Sentinel in the movie will go down, only time will tell.
Alternate Mode: Sentinel Prime transforms into a Rosenbauer 6x6 high performance fire truck. Which makes him the first Transformer to transform into what’s in my mind one of the coolest vehicles of all time. I love fire trucks, especially the modern and very costly airport fire trucks. The Rosenbauer vehicles are recognized as the finest fire trucks in the world (the best and biggest being the 8x8), wining the Red-Dot-Award.
Sentinel Prime is highly detailed, in part thanks to a full license from Rosenbauer in Austria, which is proudly proclaimed on the package. A fully posable extinguisher arm, front-mounted foam cannons, everything’s there. Very cool. The railing on the vehicle leaves plenty of room to mount endless rows of clip-on weapons. You can also mount Sentinel’s Mechtech weapons on top of the vehicle, but that looks extremely stupid, so I didn’t take any pictures of that (you can see it on the package if you must). Mounting other Mechtech weapons looks a lot better, giving the image of Cybertronian water cannons. Unfortunately my Sentinel has a miscolored front wheel, not a big thing but it does bug me a bit. Through the windscreen you can see the back of his robot mode head, but you barely notice, especially when you don’t know what it is. So overall, no complaints.
Robot Mode: Transforming into robot mode is relatively simple, unlike the other way around, which is very intricate and may cause desperation. Who despaired over ROTF Leader Optimus Prime will probably fail utterly here.
First issue here: The chest area is very slim and when looking at him from the side one does get the impression that Sentinel misplaced his spine somewhere. That’s the biggest thing for me. Second issue, Sentinel is rather prone to toppling over backwards, which makes posing him a bit difficult. He does have a nice head, though, which is pretty much Peter Cullen. It also holds some resemblance to Optimus Prime, making it a nice fusion of the two characters. The feet and hands are fully posable, just like the arms and legs, making a variety of poses possible. Haven’t tried them all yet, but this guy’s definitely fun. Third and final issue: the shoulders. They are fastened to the torso by pins even smaller than those of HftD Deluxe Brawl. Combined with a rather stiff shoulder joint (in order to hold the heavy weapons and shield), a simple twisting of the arm suffices to separate shoulder from torso. Not a big thing, but unfortunate.
Sentinel’s weapons are fabulous. The double blade and the shield with built-in blaster look really cool. Unfortunately the shield is painted less than shown on the package. The same goes for the rest of the figure, by the way, leading me to suspect that what we’re seeing on the package might be the inevitable Masterpiece Sentinel Prime. The shield, when in shield mode, should be put in Sentinel’s hand. When in blaster mode, it looks better clipped to his forearm. A very cool robot mode.
Gimmick: The best Mechtech weapons I’ve seen yet, but with one catch: They only work on Leader-class figures. The blade can be folded and the shield can assume multiple forms, while sporting cyber-glyphs, just like the blades.
Sounds: Sentinel Prime can speak several sentences, some of which are activated via the right-side Mechtech Port. These are “I am Sentinel Prime”, “What has happened to the AllSpark?” and “Good to see you alive, Optimus”. Additionally there is the classic transformation noise (strangely you only get that one by taking a weapon out of his shoulder port) and sirens, which are really, really loud. One thing to be said: Don’t listen to the dribble some of the video reviewers spout. Just because some of them got defective toys or possibly test shots (which I would never do for a Leader), it doesn’t mean you should get scared off.
Conclusion: A full and unconditional recommendation. A great figure, superb alternate mode. Kitbashers will also have fun, for it’s easy to transform this one into an army vehicle (Goliath), thereby practically begging for Nemesis Primes and Onslaughts.
After Sentinel’s disappearance (and the ceasing of his life signs) the Fallen, a banished Prime, gained strength. Via a discovered artifact he made contact with Megatron, seducing and manipulating him by promising to turn him into a Prime as well. The Fallen never came through on his promise, though, which probably only further increased Megatron’s hatred for the Primes. How the clash between Megatron and Sentinel in the movie will go down, only time will tell.
Alternate Mode: Sentinel Prime transforms into a Rosenbauer 6x6 high performance fire truck. Which makes him the first Transformer to transform into what’s in my mind one of the coolest vehicles of all time. I love fire trucks, especially the modern and very costly airport fire trucks. The Rosenbauer vehicles are recognized as the finest fire trucks in the world (the best and biggest being the 8x8), wining the Red-Dot-Award.
Sentinel Prime is highly detailed, in part thanks to a full license from Rosenbauer in Austria, which is proudly proclaimed on the package. A fully posable extinguisher arm, front-mounted foam cannons, everything’s there. Very cool. The railing on the vehicle leaves plenty of room to mount endless rows of clip-on weapons. You can also mount Sentinel’s Mechtech weapons on top of the vehicle, but that looks extremely stupid, so I didn’t take any pictures of that (you can see it on the package if you must). Mounting other Mechtech weapons looks a lot better, giving the image of Cybertronian water cannons. Unfortunately my Sentinel has a miscolored front wheel, not a big thing but it does bug me a bit. Through the windscreen you can see the back of his robot mode head, but you barely notice, especially when you don’t know what it is. So overall, no complaints.
Robot Mode: Transforming into robot mode is relatively simple, unlike the other way around, which is very intricate and may cause desperation. Who despaired over ROTF Leader Optimus Prime will probably fail utterly here.
First issue here: The chest area is very slim and when looking at him from the side one does get the impression that Sentinel misplaced his spine somewhere. That’s the biggest thing for me. Second issue, Sentinel is rather prone to toppling over backwards, which makes posing him a bit difficult. He does have a nice head, though, which is pretty much Peter Cullen. It also holds some resemblance to Optimus Prime, making it a nice fusion of the two characters. The feet and hands are fully posable, just like the arms and legs, making a variety of poses possible. Haven’t tried them all yet, but this guy’s definitely fun. Third and final issue: the shoulders. They are fastened to the torso by pins even smaller than those of HftD Deluxe Brawl. Combined with a rather stiff shoulder joint (in order to hold the heavy weapons and shield), a simple twisting of the arm suffices to separate shoulder from torso. Not a big thing, but unfortunate.
Sentinel’s weapons are fabulous. The double blade and the shield with built-in blaster look really cool. Unfortunately the shield is painted less than shown on the package. The same goes for the rest of the figure, by the way, leading me to suspect that what we’re seeing on the package might be the inevitable Masterpiece Sentinel Prime. The shield, when in shield mode, should be put in Sentinel’s hand. When in blaster mode, it looks better clipped to his forearm. A very cool robot mode.
Gimmick: The best Mechtech weapons I’ve seen yet, but with one catch: They only work on Leader-class figures. The blade can be folded and the shield can assume multiple forms, while sporting cyber-glyphs, just like the blades.
Sounds: Sentinel Prime can speak several sentences, some of which are activated via the right-side Mechtech Port. These are “I am Sentinel Prime”, “What has happened to the AllSpark?” and “Good to see you alive, Optimus”. Additionally there is the classic transformation noise (strangely you only get that one by taking a weapon out of his shoulder port) and sirens, which are really, really loud. One thing to be said: Don’t listen to the dribble some of the video reviewers spout. Just because some of them got defective toys or possibly test shots (which I would never do for a Leader), it doesn’t mean you should get scared off.
Conclusion: A full and unconditional recommendation. A great figure, superb alternate mode. Kitbashers will also have fun, for it’s easy to transform this one into an army vehicle (Goliath), thereby practically begging for Nemesis Primes and Onslaughts.
Rating: A
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