Revenge of the Fallen Scalpel

Series: Revenge of the Fallen
Allegiance: Decepticon
Categories: Scout
Year: 2009

Scalpel has a massive database of anatomical dada for millions of creatures across the universe. The can disasemble anything that doesn't struggle too much in a matter of minutes, and usually puts it back together with only a few parts in the wrong place. He serves as medic to the Decepticon army, but most Decepticons prefer to suffer in silence rather than allow Scalpel to work on them.

Robot Mode: I always try to start with something positive about any figure, but Scalpel really makes it hard, at least in this so-called robot mode. Scalpel's primary mode is that of a robotic insect or spider, walking on six tiny legs and with two much shorter appendages out front. His upper body sits on the very front of his lower body and rises up quite a bit, ending in a big head consisting mostly of two giant eyes. Oh, and he has antenna on top, too.

Whether you like his look or not is, of course, entirely subjective. What's not, though, are his massive design problems. First off is balance. Because his upper body sits at the very front, he's very prone to toppling over forewards. To make matters worse, his six legs aren't exactly built for stability. They'd have trouble keeping him upright even if they were solidly designed. Sadly, they aren't. I only transformed the figure once and posed him for those pictures above, but already three of the six sockets where the legs' ball joints go in are split. The plastic there is really thin and breaks easily.

So is there anything positive about the robot mode? No, not really, unless you like Scalpel's strange look. Which personally I don't.

Alternate Mode: This figure's sole saving grace is that its alternate mode, a microscope, manages to look pretty good. It does look a bit more realistic than the microscope mode of Perceptor, but doesn't have the solid construction and feel that the old G1 thing had. Unsurprisingly the microscope is not a working one, but the sculpt is very nice, including such details as pins for holding the sample in place. So bottom line, a very good-looking alternate mode, which manages to save the figure from total disaster.

Remarks: Scalpel appeared in the Revenge of the Fallen movie. He was among the Decepticons diving to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve Megatron, giving the order to rip apart one of his comrades for spare parts. He was later involved in extracting the information about the Sun Harvester machine from the mind of Sam Witwicky. Afterwards he disappeared, never to be seen on the screen again (though the comic and novel adaptions of the movie show him being blasted to bits by Optimus Prime). Oh, and like all cheap movie villains, he spoke with a German accent. Please, Hollywood! Think of something new! I've had it up to here!

As a figure Scalpel is a severe disappointment. His alternate mode as a microscope isn't bad, but we've seen better. And his so-called robot mode is not even worth the effort it takes to make him stand upright. I'm usually a big fan of Transformers that change into everyday objects, but Scalpel isn't even in the same league as TFs like Soundwave and Perceptor. So unless you are a completist or want to get the full cast of the movie, I recommend leaving Scalpel on the shelf.

Rating: D-