DE 
EN 
Series: Botcon Exclusives
Allegiance: Decepticon
Categories: Deluxe Convention Exclusive
Year: 2011
We are all just food for rust
The dark and dreary Dead End believes in nothing beyond the sheer pointlessness of existence. His nihilistic world view drives him to perform increasingly dangerous stunts in pursuit of even a fleeting thrill. He has been known to throw himself into the line of fire. Theatrically morose, he considers his Autobot shell the height of ironic fashion and composes poetry so bleak as to be farcical. His mini-bazookas are nigh-undetectable when stowed.
The dark and dreary Dead End believes in nothing beyond the sheer pointlessness of existence. His nihilistic world view drives him to perform increasingly dangerous stunts in pursuit of even a fleeting thrill. He has been known to throw himself into the line of fire. Theatrically morose, he considers his Autobot shell the height of ironic fashion and composes poetry so bleak as to be farcical. His mini-bazookas are nigh-undetectable when stowed.
Prelude: Dead End is a straight-up repaint of the Animated figure Jazz, so this review will focus mainly on the differences between the two figures.
Robot Mode: First off, Dead End is one of the figures who did not get a new head mold for their Botcon release, so he's got the same noggin' as Jazz. That works out well, though. In order to emphasize Dead End's rather bleak, goth-style outlook in life, he's gotten a black goatee, which makes his expression look sufficiently depressed. The rest of his body is mostly a dark burgundy, which is both relatively close to the paint-job of his G1 predecessor (though he was more brown than purple) and also dark enough for a self-styled goth (though there could have been more black, I guess). Very nicely done.
Apart from the color, nothing else has changed about the robot mode. He carries the same weapons as Jazz, of course, though the profile text calls them mini bazookas instead. Works for me, too. Posability is still awesome and everything fits together very nicely, so absolutely no reason to complain about anything here. Two thumbs up.
Alternate Mode: Dead End's vehicle mode is, of course, identical to that of Jazz except for the color. Here the similarity to G1 Dead End is even more pronounced than in robot mode, mostly because of the rather distinctive racing stripe that runs across the entire length of the car. Sure, the car is a completely different model than it was in G1, but apart from that, a very good match. Nothing new to write here apart from that, though. A top notch vehicle mode.
Remarks: Just like all the other Animated Stunticons, Dead End's sole appearance to date was in the Botcon 2011 comic book "The Stunti-Con Job", where he and the other Stunticons posed as Autobot actors in order to break Megatron out of prison. I think Dead End was actually the one with the least lines, which somewhat fits his image, of course. He didn't do anything of consequence in the comic book, so not a whole lot I can write here. The figure itself, though, is very nicely done and, in this case, actually trumps the original it was repainted from, at least in my mind. He just looks better to me than Animated Jazz. Can't give you a concrete reason for that, just a subjective feeling. Anyway, I wouldn't call Dead End the best of the set, but he's near the top and definitely worth getting for all Animated, Stunticon, or goth fans.
Rating: B+
Picture Gallery:
