Micron Legend Rampage

Robot Mode: Rampage's basic design is pretty straight-forward. The hood of the car becomes his chest, the rear of the car becomes his legs. The finished product is a pretty cool looking robot, though, especially because of the details. Chief among them the scratched-out Autobot insignia on his chest. Not only is it scratched out, the scratch actually penetrates Rampage's chest armour and shows the circuitry lying beneath. Very nicely sculped. The rest of Rampage doesn't quite measure up in terms of detailing, but he's still one of the better-detailed Armada figures.

In terms of posability Rampage is doing pretty well for himself, too. Granted, the knee joints aren't really meant for posing but rather part of the transformation, but they still allow for kneeling poses. His arms are pretty posable, too, though there is one strange detail here: He has wrist movement, but only in the right wrist. The left wrist can't turn. I have no clue why that is and haven't found anything online about it, either. Doesn't take anything away from Rampage, it's just a bit strange.

Rampage wheels two staffs/clubs as weapons. They can be stored in the 'wings' on his back (really the doors of the car mode) and spring out when Rampage's Minicon partner Hawk powerlinks to his back. The weapons aren't the most fearsome I've ever seen, but they look okay and are pretty faithful to their cartoon counterparts, so no complaints here. You can also imagine Hawk functioning as a kind of jetpack, giving Rampage flying power. So all in all a good robot mode with no obvious flaws. Nicely done.

Alternate Mode: Rampage transforms into a black sports car and looks very nice doing it. The car is mostly black with some blue and yellow stripes, the latter being mostly due to Rampage's battle staffs, which are stored in the sides of the doors. Speaking of doors, Rampage has those great wing-doors that I like so much. Of course you need to powerlink Hawk to the roof of the car to open them, but once they do they look really cool. Kinda reminds me of the old M.A.S.K. Thunderhawk. Very nice. Rampage can also fire his battle staffs as missiles in this mode.

Except for the still visible scratch on the hood the car offers only a minimum of detailing, but overall it looks pretty cool and there really isn't a whole lot to complain about. Transparent windows might have been nice, but then you'd only see the robot parts underneath, so that's okay. So to sum it up: A nice, well-done car mode with a fun gimmick and no obvious flaws.

Partner: Hawk, whose American name is Windsheer, is Rampage's Minicon partner. He transforms into a kind of stealth bomber and looks pretty good doing it. In robot mode he looks a little less impressive. He's among the more posable Minicons, though, and offers very little to complain about. Hawk can powerlink to Rampage in robot or vehicle mode.

Remarks: Rampage is the Japanese version of Armada's Wheeljack, one of the more interesting characters from that cartoon series. He began as an Autobot and good friend of Hot Shot (called Hot Rod in Japan). But he switched sides because he believes the Autobots deliberately left him behind on the battle field to die (and he's not entirely wrong about that) and he blames Hot Shot for that (who is not the person he should be blaming). Only at the end of the cartoon, when Autobots and Decepticons joined forces to battle Unicron, did the two of them reconcile their differences. Wheeljack/Rampage did not reappear in the Energon cartoon, though, so his final fate remains unknown.

Rampage is pretty much identical to the American Wheeljack except for his paint job. Where Wheeljack features a lot of yellow paint, especially on his hood, Rampage is mostly black with only a few blue and yellow highlights. Personally I like the darker paintjob of Rampage better and not only because it's much more faithful to the way he appeared in the cartoon. Overall he's a pretty good toy and offers few grounds for complaints. The posability could be a bit better, but compared to other Armada toys it's pretty good. And I just like the look of this figure a lot. So bottom line: If you can get Rampage/Wheeljack (and that's harder than it sounds, as there aren't a whole lot of him around), then I'd recommend getting him. Don't leave him behind or he might come back to haunt you years later on a distant planet.

Rating: B+

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