Back in the good ol’ G1 era, the Triple Changers were one of the major attractions of the line. Fans were already captivated by the fact that they are getting essentially 2-toys-in-one, but with the advent of the Triple Changers, we were fed with the ideas that there could be more than 2-in-one, which eventually brought us to Six-changers, a.k.a. Sixshot.
Anyways, while both the Autobots and the Decepticons factions have their own Triple Changers within their ranks, the Decepticons’ tend to be more memorable and more significant in their TV portrayals, such as Blitzwing and Astrotrain.
On the Autobots’ side, although both Sandstorm and Broadside had their screen time, none actually reached the heights of Springer – arguably the most well known of the Autobots’ Triple Changers.
As far as the storyline goes, at the conclusion of the events of the “Five Faces of Darkness”, Blitzwing decided to join the Autobots, at the chagrin of Galvatron. In one of the subsequent episodes, we were introduced to the character Octane, whom just like Blitzwing, had deserted the Decepticon causes and joined the Autobots’ ranks, and ironically, Blitzwing never again featured in the show. That led to the notion that the character Octane was supposed to be Blitzwing in the first place, and the character Octane was chosen so that HasTak could market the action figure.
Fast forward to the Noughties, Hasbro finally announced that they were releasing both the Astrotrain and Octane figures in the Universe line. While I had to resort to the Henkei Astrotrain, due to unavailability, I did manage to get my hands on Octane, officially known as Tankor due to whatever God-knows-what reasons. Anyways, I am still going to refer to him as Octane due to nostalgic reasons, and because I like…
HAHAH!!!
Anyways, here goes with the review.
Alternate Mode 1:
Now, gone were the days of Boeing 767, this time around Octane transforms into an unspecified airplane model, but I reckoned it could be some type of WW2 carrier aircraft – well, at least it looked the part.
While a whole, the plain looks nice, it is when you go to the details where Octane starts to lose some valuable points.
The body of the robot is noticeable, specifically right below the wings. The designs there are just a bit too strange for me. It is quite creative for HasTak to have a separate piece to cover the undercarriage of the aircraft, as well as putting some landing wheels on it.
For most part, the truck parts are not really noticeable, save probably the cab right below the tailfin.
While the airplane mode isn’t really that spectacular, it is still a pretty good attempt on HasTak’s part.
Alternate Mode 2:
Back in G1, Octane transforms into an oil tanker as well, but now, while Octane still transforms into a truck, he only vaguely resembles a tanker, if that’s indeed his second alternate mode.
To me, he looks like some type of military truck. Again, the side of the truck doesn’t have a clean finishing, and the back of portion of the truck (with the exposed airplane cockpit) looks odd at best.
While Octane has in all 8 wheels to help him move, two wheels are actually fake, i.e. the inner back wheels.
While it is a commendable attempt, you can’t help it but to feel that HasTak came just a little too short with this design.
Robot Mode:
Again, the robot mode has nothing to shout about. It’s an okay-looking robot but nothing really spectacular.
The arms are bit strangely designed, while I do like what they did with the legs. The head sculpt is thankfully quite accurate – that’s a really saving grace.
Octane is armed with a blaster, formed by combining both of his blasters (or you could even arm him with both) and also a shield-like contraption, if that’s indeed what it is supposed to be. I’d say it’s a rake – maybe.
Articulation-wise: the head rotates; inner shoulders are on ball joints, while the shoulders proper are a little bit too high; the elbows and hips are on ball joints; the wrists rotate, as well as the legs, right below the hips; the knees bend and that’s all there is to him.
I would love to say that he is a magnificent little figure, but unfortunately he is only a mediocre figure at best.
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| From left: Henkei Astrotrain and Universe Octane |
Overall:
Let’s face it; Octane was never a candidate for the action figure of the year, and with good reasons. The figure and all of its modes are mediocre at best, and you just can’t help it but to think that they could’ve done way better than this.
The only saving grace for this figure is that they managed to squeeze in 3 distinct modes into the figure, and that really requires a lot of engineering ingenuity. If you’re looking to buy at least 1 Triple Changers from the line, go get Astrotrain instead.
Final verdict: 6.5/10.
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