Studio Series 86 Kup

Prelude: Kup is so old… (How old is he?) Kup is so old, he walked into an antique store… and they kept him. Kup is so old, when he was young, rainbows were black and white. Kup is so old, he knew the Rust Sea when it was just… the Sea. Kup is so old, he called Alpha Trion a young whipper-snapper. Kup is so old, when Primus said “let there be light”, he flipped the switch. Kup is so old… ah, you get the point. Here he is, the old fossil himself: Studio Series 86 Kup aka the Old Guy. Let’s say old… eh, go!

Robot Mode: The goal of the Studio Series 86 is to recreate the Transformers we saw in the 1986 animated movie as faithfully as possible. In the case of Kup, I would call it a 95% success rate. He is clearly recognizable as the character, no problem, but overall I’d say he is maybe a touch too spindly and his face a bit too narrow. Just small stuff, really, and in total that is clearly Kup we have here, easily the most faithful recreation of the character in toy form we have ever seen from Hasbro.

Overall the figure is surprisingly slim and almost entirely devoid of kibble. It does carry a rucksack, yes, but a pretty slim one and it pegs in solidly, so no complaints here. Articulation is as good as one expects from a modern-day figure, meaning pretty good. Twisting wrists are just about the only thing missing, apart from that he can move very nicely, including elbows that bend more than 90 degrees and ankle tilt, too. Also, Kup’s limbs can detach to simulate that scene from the movie where the robot octopus on Quintessa tore him apart (need to break out Tako Tank for a picture, I think). It works fine, I just hope the plugs the limbs are on won’t wear out over time.

As a weapon, Kup carries his trusty Musket Laser and he also comes with an Energon cube dispenser, which he used on Quintessa to try and placate the Sharkticons. No actual Energon is dispensed here, sadly, but it’s a nice little add-on.

So bottom line for the robot mode: very nice. Purely in terms of looks I still prefer the Titans Return Sergeant Kup figure, but that is entirely subjective.

Alternate Mode: Kup transforms into a pretty good likeness of the futuristic (or possibly Cybertronian) pickup truck we saw in the movie. The transformation is actually rather similar to that of G1 Kup, so no complaints here. The resulting truck is, as mentioned, a good likeness to the one from the movie and… yeah, that’s pretty much it, really. Both his gun and his Energon dispenser can be attached to the sides of the vehicle and the back is large enough for another figure to stand on it.

Nothing more I can write here, really. The alternate mode does its job of looking like it did in the movie. Nothing more, nothing less.

Remarks: When you have a cast of characters going off on an adventure, there are certain archetypes you want to have along for the ride. The young hothead, the feisty princess, the cool rogue, and then there is the old guy (often but not always a wizard) who dishes out pearls of wisdom at any given opportunity when is not complaining about being too old for this sh**. Kup filled that niche for the 1986 Transformers Movie and stuck around for the third and fourth season of the cartoon, too. He also has numerous comic book appearances under his belt and can safely be considered an evergreen character by now.

Side note: this figure marks the first time in a long time that Kup has been sold without some sort of prefix before his name. These last few years he was always Sergeant Kup or Autobot Kup, but in the Studio Series 86 it’s just Ken… eh, Kup. Not sure if there is any story behind that, just something I noticed.

So final verdict for this figure… I don’t know. I cannot really find anything objectively wrong with him, but for some reason I am not happy with this figure. As mentioned above I think Titans Return Kup pulled off the look better and personally I really like the somewhat modified version of the old coot we got in the form of Generations Sergeant Kup (complete with cigar-chomping iGear upgrade set). But from an objective standpoint, this figure here does a pretty good job as Kup as we saw him in the movie. He just doesn’t really excite me much.

Rating: B-