Armada Smokescreen

Robot Mode: Smokescreen is pretty short for a Deluxe toy (or Supercon as the class was called in Armada times), but that's mostly because he's very stocky and has that huge crane arm sitting on his shoulder. His posability is good, though not exactly excellent. He can move his arms at the shoulders and his legs at the hip. His arms can bend slightly at the elbows, but not much. He can also turn his head, or rather the head turns automatically if you move the big crane arm sideways. Possibly the earliest sighting of the Automorph feature?

Interestingly enough despite the big crane arm pointing forward Smokescreen has no stability problems. He's actually more prone to toppling over backwards rather than forward, as the heels of this feet are somewhat rounded. Still, he can stand solidly in most poses, even when you extend the crane arm by flipping out Smokescreen's big missile launcher from it. This gimmick is activated by putting Liftor (or any other Minicon) on top of the crane and pushing forward. The crane arm extends to an impressive length, too.

Smokescreen also features a winch in his chest, where he can extend a cable with a hook. This is more a feature for the vehicle rather than the robot mode, of course, but Smokescreen can swing his hook here, too. So the bottom line here is: A decent, solid robot. No serious complaints.

Alternate Mode: Smokescreen transforms into an orange crane. Despite being a bit simplified, the vehicle nevertheless looks like it's supposed to, so no complaints here. The actual crane arm now sits on top of the vehicle and can twist just about every which way. The extension and missile launcher gimmick work in this mode as well, of course, and you can unwind his hook & cable as well. Not the most fascinating alternate mode ever, but good and solid. No complaints.

Partner: Smokescreen's Minicon is Liftor, who transforms into a blue and grey forklift-type vehicle. Liftor is very posable for a Minicon and offers good looks and detailing. Definitely one of the better Mincions of the Armada line.

Remarks: First off many thanks to Lucy, who sold me this figure here at a very decent price and gave me a Minicon Team as a bonus. Thanks, man. And as for Smokescreen himself, I kinda struggled with this review a bit, not knowing what to write. Smokescreen is a decent figure, but not particularly outstanding, neither in a positive nor a negative way. So what to write? As a character the only thing Armada Smokescreen is known for is being blown to bits by the Requiem Blaster, to be rebuilt as Hoist. That's pretty much it. He also scored a short guest appearance in the Transformers Universe comic book, where he fell under the influence of Unicron and destroyed his G1 counterpart in arena combat.

Still, as Armada toys go Smokescreen is well on the good side of average and offers few grounds for complaint. Like I said, he's certainly not a revolution, but a good, solid toy. So if you're looking to bolster your Armada ranks, you could do a lot worse than Smokescreen.

Rating: C+

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