I don’t usually bother much with the simplified more kiddified Transformers sublines, but Cyberworld is doing some pretty neat looking stuff so I can’t help but pay attention a bit. Pirate Ship Scourge is definitely super neat. This actually isn’t the first Cyberworld toy I have gotten (I already have Sky-Byte) but its … well, it actually isn’t anymore complicated than the first one either. Its the biggest I guess.
So, first off, these are very simple toys. They certainly Transform, but for the most part they are essentially “one step” or at least “few step” transformations. They also don’t have a ton of articulation. I would actually love it if Scourge here had elbows, or maybe even just wrists. I keep wondering how hard it would be to add elbows of some kind. A sword wielding figure without elbows is always a travesty on some level.
Scourge has like, 6 points of articulation, hips, shoulders, and some very limited knees. The head doesn’t turn. The whole idea is to keep things simple so nothing really becomes out of place in a complicated way for the transformation. The transformation is also very simple, you essentially T-pose Scourge, and fold everything backwards. Its all sort of geared together so just folding the waist back should fold the arms back while lowering the head. There is a bit of alignment finagling that needs done, the knees need to be straight and the arms positioned just right, but it tabs in solidly with fairly little effort.
So what is the appeal?
Its just, a super cool design. Instead of the usual “space speed boat” that Scourge normally gets, this Scourge is a scourge of the seas, a pirate who turns into a pirate ship. The colors and greeble detail are also very nice, giving him a strong sort of, almost undead pirate look. Kind of appropriate for a character created by Unicron from dead Decepticons. To help sort of cement this idea, the ship’s forward hill, which becomes the robot chest, can open up revealing a translucent pirate skull and crossbones.
He also has these little purple effect parts that look like those sail things you might see on the sides of ships, but also a bit like undead flames. They can be attacked to any of the various ports on the robot and ship, or combined into a sword of weird sword hilt. His other accessories are his scimitar, made from the same translucent purple plastic, and a ship’s sail, which doubles as a sort of shield piece in robot mode.
Size wise he is about Voyager size. These cost about half as much as Voyagers though, which I suppose just goes to show how much extra cost all that extra engineering takes. Its a super cool looking figure, though the simple transformation and articulation certainly are not going to be for everyone.
