Revenge of the Fallen The Fallen

Robot Mode: What we have here is a robot that looks like a cross between an Egyptian Pharaoh and the creature from Alien. Also, a very good likeness to the character we saw in that dreadful movie this year. His proportions are pretty alien, too, as his lower body is a lot bigger than it should be for the rather slim upper body. He's also got humongous shoulders and forearms, but almost no upper arms and long, very thin hands. I'm not sure what half the things adorning his torso are supposed to be or do, but the overall look works pretty well.

The Fallen's feet are an acquired taste, each foot ending in three toes that snap together when the foot is raised. But it gives him a very stable platform to stand on and he doesn't have any balance issues, either. As a gimmick the Fallen can flip out transparent red panels from his shoulders and head, creating a so-called "energy absorbing mode". Probably for absorbing the energy from the Star Harvester once it's done destroying a sun, I'm not sure. Sadly he's missing the big spear he carried in the movie.

So all in all the Fallen is a pretty good robot with no obvious flaws. Whether you like his look is, of course, subjective, but he does fine both as a toy robot and as a translation of the movie character.

Alternate Mode: Now technically the Fallen didn't have an alternate mode. He never transformed in the actual movie and the prequel comics stated that the ability to transform was first given to the generation of Cybertronians created after the First 13. Of course this doesn't preclude that the Fallen (and the other 12 as well) might not have added transformation capability to their own forms at some later date, but nothing in the movie or the comics gives any hint to that. But as a toy Fallen can transform, so he has an alternate mode.

The Fallen transforms into an alien-looking space craft that bears a certain resemblance to the alternate mode of Megatron from the first movie. The transformation isn't really all that much. He unfolds a cockpit from his back, folds in his legs, and that's pretty much it. I've seen different ways for the lower legs to be arranged in this mode, either folded in or pointing outwards. Personally I like the former better, but to each his own. To its credit, this looks more like an alien space craft (and less like a folded-up robot) than the first Movie Megatron did.

Apart from that, though, there is little that comes to mind here. Can't say anything about accuracy, since there is nothing to compare it to. It looks cool and detailed, but I'm not a big fan of alien space craft, especially when you can never be quite sure whether you've arranged all the parts correctly or not. It has a landing gear, which is always a plus. So all in all I've nothing bad to say here, but not really anything good, either.

Remarks: Now there is a lot I could say about The Fallen as a character, most of it bad. His abyssmal showing in the ROTF movie, the completely nonsensical idea that he is the same character we saw in Dreamwave's War Within series, or the fact that the big showdown between him and Optimus Prime lasted all of 30 seconds before he was killed faster than just about any other character who had the pleasure of dying in that terrible movie. But I'll spare you yet another rant about the lacking talent of Michael Bay and get down to the toy, independent of its connection to that barely coherent arrangement of action scenes called a movie.

As a toy the Fallen combines a very nice robot mode with a decent, if unspectacular and somewhat unnecessary vehicle mode. It's a bit strange that he has two gimmicks (the red panels and the ability to transform) he didn't have in the movie, while missing the one thing (the spear) that he did have there, but whatever. The Fallen is a nice toy. Far from the best of the ROTF line-up, but far from the worst, either. A good, solid robot and pretty much a must-have anyway, seeing as he's the main bad guy.

Rating: B

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