Intro:
Back in the old G1 days, Perceptor is well known to be the ultimate geek. He even had a few run-ins with Brawn because Perceptor was perceived to be to doing unimportant stuffs, while the rest of the Autobots would get themselves oily and dirty busting some Decepticons rear-hide.
According to bios, Perceptor is supposedly to be legendary in the sense that he had made numerous discoveries back in Cybertron, thus paving ways for numerous innovations and inventions by subsequent Cybertronian scientists and inventors.
After G1, Perceptor briefly appeared alongside Wheeljack in an episode of Transformers: Victory in order to attempt to convert Ginrai into Victory Leo. The Perceptor name would subsequently be used to portray a group of 3 Minicons, in the Armada and Energon series that would combine together and formed a bigger robot called Perceptor.
The name Perceptor would eventually return to its roots in the Animated series as a Cybertronian scientist, although no action figure ever materialized out of it.
Lo, and behold, our prayers have eventually been answered. Hasbro finally decided to release a Perceptor figure in its Reveal the Shield line, which harkens back to its G1 roots.
Alternate mode:
Instead of the classic microscope mode, Perceptor transforms into a snow-mobile-esque truck with tracks as its back wheels. The box labeled it as Research Truck Mode – whatever that supposed to be. The colors are reminiscence of the old Perceptor, being predominantly red. On the roof of the car, there is a set of searchlights that can also double-up as a sort of weaponry when it is turned around. The registration plate reveals the numbers “MR 5 1409”, and God knows whatever that is.
Robot Mode:
I have to admit, despite the wholesale changes in the Perceptor’s alternate mode from a microscope to a research truck, the robot mode doesn’t really differ that much. In fact, he looks way better than the original G1 figure, and tends to look more animation-accurate, although I have to mention that this version of Perceptor looks way bulkier than he needs to be.
The searchlight in truck mode now becomes Perceptor’s shoulder cannon, complete with a viewfinder. To be honest, I would’ve like the viewfinder to be more flexible, and it would’ve been better if it had been able to somehow swing out to the front of the face, which would have given him a more realistic function. Why is there a viewfinder, if Perceptor can’t use it, right?
Articulations-wise, Perceptor’s head is not on a ball joint, so it can only turn left and right. The shoulders are on ball joints. The arms can turn slightly above the bendable elbow joint, and the wrists turns. His hips are on ball joints and the legs do turn slightly below the hips. The knees bend and finally, there are also ankle joints.
Perceptor’s chest piece does open up to reveal more details and an Autobot rub-sign. There is also a turn-able knob on each arm as if they were microscope knobs – a definite nod to its G1 predecessor. The colors are also spot-on, and so is the head sculpt. My only complaints are the back pack and shoulders. Although the backpack do lock in via a small knob and dent at the back of the figure, I do foresee them being really loose in the future if transform the figure frequently. The arms also don’t lock on to the body, and thus seemed to hover at the side of the body.
Overall:
Perceptor is literally a good idea, executed not up to expectations. After the highs of Scourge, Jazz and Wreck-Gar, I am of the opinion that they really should’ve done better with Perceptor. Yeah, it’s good to see Perceptor back in living plastic, but the figure could really have been better.
Final verdict, 7/10
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