Time to get around to some Animated reviews. Despite that I have not watched any episodes of Transformers Animated, I ended up buying 5 of the toys while down at Botcon. The best part is, I got them in actual stores so no lame “dealer mark ups”. Thanks to Despotes for the suggestion that we drive south across the river into Kentucky. This first review however came from northern Cincinnati near the crap hotel I was staying in. The first toy of my Animated experience is Bulkhead.

It’s kind of sad to say but Bulkhead is definitely the biggest shelf warmer of Transformers Animated. The photo there, with the twenty Bulkheads on the shelf, that wasn’t the only scene like that we found. This was echoed at K-Mart nearby, though the K-Mart also had two Megatrons. I imagine most people are waiting for the larger Leader Class version. This guy really is probably the most fun toy of the ones I’ve picked up. Note, he’s not the “Best” but he’s certainly the most fun.

So, for tradition, I’ll start with vehicle mode. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to say about his vehicle mode. He’s a large stocky military vanish thing. The toy has quite a bit of heft to it and it’s all around pretty solid. There aren’t any gimmicks or special features really and he holds together almost too well.

That out of the way, the transformation deserves several comments. This line has been plagued with quality control issues and Bulkhead seems to get quite a few of them in his transformation. The stubby little legs fold out from under the front cab area easily enough. Next you’re going to want to pull down the back section to reveal the fists. The next part involves splitting open the outer shell just behind the front cab. Like I previously mentioned, mine holds together a little too well, and it takes some prying to get it apart. When apart, the arms seem like they are supposed to be spring loaded so they flip forward on their own but it doesn’t always work properly. Next, compressing the back half of the van to the back of the robot is suppose to auto transform his head but it doesn’t work too well either (see video). Finally, I get the impression that there is supposed to be some kind of mechanism in his back that causes the shell “wings” to pop into place on their own but it doesn’t work at all and it takes a great deal of force to get them to pop into place. Basically, there seems to be a lot of quick auto transform style gimmicks and none of them work.

The robot mode brings in the fun. For starters, I just love his design. He’s very unique and originally I had decided the off proportions bugged me but in person they give Bulkhead a ton of personality. His body is simply enormous next to his tiny legs and I like how his head is effectively embedded onto the top of his chest. Both arms have claws instead of hands but at least he’s not one of those “guns/propeller hands” Transformers.

In his hands, he’s got two action gimmicks, and they don’t hinder the toy in any way. I still can’t help but feel that both gimmicks would have been better served by both being in the same arm however. His left arm, has a friction activated ball missile attached to a string. The idea is that it’s a ball and chain flail. It doesn’t go very far but it’s fun to shoot. I like the mechanism that fires it as well. there is a lever you pull on the side of the arm which forces the ball missile out with friction. The other arms features an uppercut action. Press a lever in his upper arm and the front part springs up. Like I mentioned before, I feel that combining these two gimmicks would have worked better. You could launch the flail, then the spring loaded arm could have flipped the ball up. It’s a bit of a wasted opportunity but it doesn’t really hurt him any.

Overall, I like this guy. I think part of it though may be “Initial Newness”. I know at first everyone was rather impressed by him in my little group at Botcon but we also hadn’t any of is seen any of the animated toys. I know a lot of people are waiting for the larger version but as I haven’t yet actually watched the show I can forget that he’s supposed to be considerably larger than everyone else. He’s generally a pretty solid toy even with his possible transformation flaws.