Transformers Review – Generations Sergeant Kup

Intro:

I must say, I love Kup the character. Back in the G1 days, I have no idea whether or not he’s a sergeant, or a lieutenant, or a corporal (I reckoned that the main reason the people in Hasbro used the term Sergeant here was because they couldn’t hold on to the copyrights of name Kup), but the fact of the matter is, he is an old timer, whose experience had no equal and had probably seen more than his fair share of battles. He was the post-1986 movie version of Ironhide, who unfortunately met his untimely demise during the Decepticon siege on Autobot City on Earth.

For the durations of the G1 years, Kup received a lot of screen time, and was fairly popular with the audiences. Oddly, the name Kup has not been in any other show reincarnations whatsoever, probably due to copyrights issues. There have been also limited versions of Kup figures so far, up till now that is. After so many years in the doldrums, Kup has finally managed to make a comeback.

Oh yeah, before I go any further, I just gotta get this off my chest first. For those of you who have caught a glimpse of the Mandarin-dubbed version of the G1 cartoon, you’d probably realized that those Chinese people really have a problem in fixing a name to any characters. Apart from Optimus Prime and Megatron, others do not fare that well. Soundwave name is 声波 (Sheng Bo), which means sound wave. Starscream is 红蜘蛛 (Hong Zhi Zhu), which means Red Spider (honest to God, I have no idea why). Prowl is 警察车 (Jing Cha Che), which means Police Car. Kup, on the other hand, I think suffered the worst, and I think you guys already know what to expect. In Mandarin, his name is 杯子 (Bei Zi), which literally means Cup!!!

You have no idea how many times I laughed my socks off whenever I heard that. Oh God, for the lacked of a better name!!!

Alternate mode:

Kup actually transforms into a pickup truck – an old-fashioned-ish type pickup truck with a somewhat round-shaped hood, which kinda reminds me of pickups that you would normally see in Kansas wheat farms. Anyways, I think the old-school themed alternate mode really suited his character well. The colors are spot-on, which basically screams Kup. Another that is worth to mention is the creative idea of storing his rifle, or as mentioned on the box, Laser Musket under the base of the car, with the tip protruding to mimic an exhaust pipe. And believe me; the gun is really attached down there snugly.

The windshields are all made with clear translucent plastics. While I would normally endorse this, in order for you to be able to appreciate the interior details, it doesn’t seem to work here. There is no steering wheel or gearboxes available in there, only a piece of plastic joint, which is kind of an eyesore there.

Robot Mode:

Kup excels in his robot form. While he may not looked as slick as his original G1 incarnation, he really looks rugged here. He has a pair of very huge feet to provide him with the stability that he needs. Combined with his gloriously designed articulations, he is magnificent.

The head is on a ball joint, which is always a welcome. However, there is something else to point out here. Accordingly to illustrations, the panel right below the head is supposed to stack on top of a protrusion within the chest cavity, in order to support the head. However, and I am not sure whether this is prevalent on other Kup figures, or just with mine (you guys are welcome to feedback to me regarding this), the panel just doesn’t stack up. So, you kinda ended up with Kup always wanting to look down into his chest cavity.

Anyways, the shoulders are on ball joints; the arms bend and rotate at the elbows, and the wrist articulations work. Despite the excellent joints, the door panels at the side of the arms can be quite a border, which kinda hinders pose ability. Still, it doesn’t prevent you from having Kup holding his musket with both hands.

There is no waist movement, but the hips are on ball joints. The legs also rotate slightly below the hips and bend at the knees. And finally, a pair of working ankle joints with full range of motions.

Also I wanna mention here, I really love the head sculpt, which is absolutely spot on.

Overall:

Kup is one heck of a figure. He is brilliant in every sense of the word, but with little problems here and there. But hey, those are really minor gripes, which don’t really take away the fact that this is one great figure. Although he is slightly bigger and buffer than the Classic Rodimus, you can still definitely relive the moments from their adventures on Quintessa.

Overall, he is a very good figure, and really deserves to have a place in any collections.

Final verdict, 9/10.

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