Cyberverse Thunderhowl

Prelude: Behold, for from the ancient days of Cybertron comes the embodiment of chivalry, righteousness, and nobility. For there is no more gallant a knight than the mighty Thunderhowl. There is no quest he will not go to, there is no call he will not answer, and there is no danger he will not brave for his friends or his Liege Prime. Thunderhowl, mighty wolf of justice, is now ready to be reviewed here on Transformers Universe. Go, shall us utter!

Robot Mode: Thunderhowl is a Deluxe-Class figure from a line that, please remember is geared towards kids. Which means that he is a bit more plain in design than most of the more collector-oriented figures and he also has quite a few hollow parts, especially when looked at from the back (forearms and legs, mostly). On the plus side, he has astoundingly good articulation for a kid’s toy. Really, the only thing he is missing is a hip swivel, otherwise he can move very well. Okay, his lower body movement is a bit hindered by the fact that his backpack and cape are basically just one piece that cannot move out of the way, but otherwise? He can move very well. The right foot is a bit loose on mine, not sure if that is a general problem or not.

Design-wise Thunderhowl is a pretty close match to the cartoon character. His face sports the battle mask he sometimes wore in the series (you can see his unmasked face on the side of the packaging). Color-wise, though, there are quite a few differences. Pretty much every part of the figure that is yellow should be blue or silver in order to match the on-screen character. Not sure why we they made the colors so different here. Overall the paintjob looks good, mind you, but it’s not really a good match to the TV character.

Thunderhowl’s only weapon is his sword and, thanks to his great articulation, he can use it in all sorts of poses. He also comes with an effect part that slides over the blade and makes it look like it’s crackling with electricity. Very nicely done. He also carries a shield, which he can store on his back.

Bottom line: as good a robot as you can expect from a kid-oriented toyline. I wish the paintjob was a closer match to the TV character, but otherwise? Pretty good.

Alternate Mode: Thunderhowl transforms into a robotic wolf. While the transformation is basically the same as with most Transformers who become four-legged animals (they go down on all fours), his has some interesting steps, such as the torso splitting down the middle and folding backwards, the two tails of his cape coming together to form a single wolf’s tail. Far from the most intricate transformation ever, but for a kids toy? Pretty good.

The wolf looks pretty good as such and retains full articulation in all four limbs. Okay, the front paws are clearly fists, but I can live with that. The head can move up and down a bit and open its mouth, too. Inside the mouth is a peg where you can apply Thunderhowl’s effect part. It’s supposed to look like the wolf is spewing lightning, but honestly? It looks more like he’s vomiting some kind of liquid. The part looks great on the sword, but not so much on the wolf. Speaking of the sword, sadly there is no place to store it in beast mode.

So bottom line for the wolf mode: good. Not revolutionary or anything, but a good, workable beast mode.

Remarks: After being somewhat turned off by the first season of Cyberverse, I finally managed to watch the series through to the end and I am glad I did. Thunderhowl appeared late in the third season of the cartoon, having been imprisoned inside the cursed Crystal City for eons before being freed by Bumblebee and Chromia. He happily joined their quest to restore their friend Windblade and served on the Autobot team during the battles against Megatron X and Tarn. He was also instrumental in finding the Cortex Helm on the floating Isle of Onyx Prime, his former Liege, which… yeah, turned out to have been not the greatest idea ever, but he couldn’t really have known that.

Side note: the first releases of Thunderhow came with the head of the Maccadam Build-a-Figure. This one here, though, came out later as part of the Dinobots Unite subline and without the head.

So what’s the final verdict here? Thunderhowl is a good toy for a kids line. For collectors he might be a tad too simplistic in his design, but overall I like him. Again, it would have been cool if he actually matched the colors of his TV counterpart and I could do with a place to store the sword in beast mode, but otherwise? A good, fun toy.

Rating: B-

Picture Gallery: