General Information
Release Date: July 2025
Price Point: $24.99 (Depending on Retailer)
Retailer: Walmart Exclusive (with limited quantities sold on Hasbro Pulse)
Accessories: Blaster, Cyber Key, Arm Panels
Official images and text in italics are from Amazon.com:
- TRANSFORMERS: CYBERTRON 20TH ANNIVERSARY: Celebrate the anniversary of the Transformers: Cybertron animated series that debuted 20 years ago with this Transformers Deluxe Class action figure
- EXCELLION ACTION FIGURE: This 5.5-inch (14 cm) Excellion action figure toy features deco and detail inspiration from the Transformers: Cybertron animated series
- 2-IN-1 CONVERTING TRANSFORMERS TOY: Transformers action figure converts from robot toy to sports car toy in 17 steps
- AWESOME ACCESSORIES: This Excellion Transformers figure comes with a blaster and Cyber Planet Key accessories. The action figure toy makes a great collectible figure gift for any Transformers fan!
- ARTICULATED FOR PLAY AND DISPLAY: Transformers figures feature articulated heads, arms, and legs for action poses
- EXCELLION: Excellion is a descendent of one of The Thirteen Primes: Amalgamous Prime.
- AGE OF THE PRIMES: The Thirteen Primes are the very first bots in Transformers mythology, a pantheon of beings each with a unique ability and personality. Every battle, bot, and power in the Transformers universe can be traced back to them
- Transformers Age of the Primes Deluxe Class Transformers: Cybertron Excellion 5.5” Action Figure, Only At Walmart
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Transformers: Cybertron animated series with the Transformers Age of the Primes Deluxe Class Excellion action figure! This 5.5-inch Excellion action figure converts between robot and sports car modes in 17 steps. Includes attachable accessories. The Excellion figure is inspired by the character from the Transformers universe and features articulated head, arms, and legs for awesome action poses. Transformers: Age of the Primes opens up the world of the Primes, the very first bots in Transformers mythology, a pantheon of Thirteen beings, each with a unique ability and personality. Every battle, every bot, and every power in the Transformers universe can be traced back to one of The Thirteen. Collect and combine different characters to create your ideal Age of the Primes lineup. TRANSFORMERS and HASBRO and all related trademarks and logos are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. Includes figure, 2 accessories, and instructions.Figure scale: 5.5 inches Ages 8 and up Warning: Choking Hazard - Small parts. Not for children under 3 years. © 2025 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved. Manufactured under license from TOMY Company, Ltd.
Background:
In 2005 Hasbro launched a new toy line called Cybertron. This was the third part of what is known as the "Unicron Trilogy" made up of Armada, Energon and Cybertron. In each series Unicron's presence is felt either directly or through the consequences of his actions in the previous show. One of the main characters in the show was Hot Shot, who was first introduced in Armada and appeared in each of the "Unicron Trilogy" shows. In Cybertron Hot Shot took on a new form which could transform into a super sleek car. That action figure was heavy on the play features with a firing missile blaster and a "Cyber Key" activated gimmick where you plugged a key in to cause his spoiler wings to deploy.
As with most Transformers toy lines, Cybertron eventually released a series of redecos as new characters. One of these was Excellion. Excellion used the Hot Shot sculpt and gave it a G1 Hot Rod inspired deco. With the release of Legacy Cybertron Hot Shot Hasbro took the chance to redeco that sculpt into a modern day version of Excellion.
Packaging:
Age of the Primes represents a dramatic shift in Generations packaging. Unlike previous years of the War for Cybertron trilogy or Legacy which went in dramatic directions with packaging shape and artwork, the designers have dialed back the look of the boxes a lot. The Age of the Primes packaging winds up looking a lot more like Studio Series packaging. The boxes are now rectangular. No weird angles or anything like that. The background is just plain black. The "Transformers" logo is no longer vertical (dropping a trend that began over ten years ago) and is now horizontal in the front of the packaging with the "Age of the Primes" name underneath it. Character art is featured to the right, but it's only partial art showing a bit of the character in robot mode with focus on the vehicle mode underneath. To the left are icons describing how many steps the character takes to convert from one mode to the other and the age recommendation (8+ in this case).
Excellion sits inside the box attached to a cardboard tray. You can see the entire figure in robot mode thanks to the return of plastic windows! Fans will recall that for the last few years Transformers toys have had no plastic windows in an effort to (ostensibly) make more eco-friendly packaging. However, this led to damaged toys with heads being yanked off and sometimes figures being outright stolen. For many fans, the return of the plastic windows is a welcome one.
The back of the box shows the character in both modes calling out a 17 step transformation. On the lower left hand side is a callout for his Cyber Key features. I think the designers were going for a more "adult" and "premium" appearance to the packaging and to that end it works. It looks like something you'd see in a museum shop, but I do feel some of the fun and whimsy of the dramatic Legacy artwork and visual bombast has been lost and I'm a bit sad about that.
One interesting note: the front and back of the packaging uses a Decepticon symbol but Excellion is an Autobot. Some fans believe this is a callback to him being respected by Decepticons because he has broken into their base more than once. If this is true, this is an odd choice. If he had actually changed sides it would make sense, but nowhere has it ever been indicated that he changed sides so...um...yeah. Moving right along...
Accessories:
Excellion includes two accessories:
- Blaster: This weapon is the same sculpt as the one included with Hot Shot. The blaster has a curved base section with a tab sticking up at the top and then a long weapon barrel sticking out in front. This piece is made of translucent blue plastic with no paint applications. This is the same color as Cybertron Excellion's weapon (though that one had an orange button for the missile launching feature). The weapon has a 5mm peg at the bottom and you can attach a Blast Effect to the end of the barrel.
- Cyber Key: The Cyber Key included with this figure is not intended to activate any features. It is purely decorative. The sculpt looks just like the one for the Speed Planet just shrunk down. This includes have dashboard style dials on the sides and the Speed Planet logo in the middle. This piece is made of translucent blue plastic with silver paint applications. This differs from Cybertron Excellion's key which was translucent red. The tab on the bottom slides into a slot on Excellion's back, simulating the way Cybertron Excellion's action features were activated. This piece is really nicely sculpted and while there is no true Cybertron style action feature on this toy, I appreciate the callback to the past.
Robot Mode:
This figure uses the same sculpt as Legacy Cybertron Hot Shot without any retooling. This time out the figure is made up of red, orange, grey and translucent blue plastic. The red in particular is interesting because it is a pretty bright, deep red versus the more orange-red found on the original. Paint colors include silver, gold and red. While not an exact match, it is not hard to see how these colors are inspired by G1 Hot Rod who also had red, orange and silver colors. This connection will become stronger in vehicle mode. The deco is not an exact match for the original Excellion. Perhaps the part that differs the most is the piece on his back where the spoiler "wings" are orange plastic instead of translucent blue as they were on the original figure. The original also had some orange paint on the chest but this one does not. Overall however the deco is beautiful. These colors all pop and I do appreciate the callback to Hot Rod.
All twenty six points of articulation on this figure are still relatively tight and you can pose him out (within the limits of the design). One thing that I completely missed when I reviewed Hot Shot is that the doors on his forearms can detach. They are actually connected via a 5mm peg, so this opens up an additional 5mm port on his forearms to attach other accessories! I felt pretty bad for missing this in my review of Hot Shot but I was very happy to find this extra bit of functionality.
Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
- Detach the accessories and set them aside for now.
- Straighten out the arms and legs.
- Push down the spoiler "wings" if deployed.
- Push the back pack piece back and lift up the blue panel inside.
- Swing the robot head back.
- Swing the shoulders up and connect them together.
- Swing the feet down using the ankle hinges and swing the foot pieces in. Then swing the feet back into place.
- Swing the panels on the front of the lower legs open.
- Swing the lower legs up over the thighs.
- Push the legs together.
- Rotate the back panel so the windshield faces out to the side (this is just to keep it out of the way temporarily).
- Swing the arms down to form the sides of the vehicle, tabbing them in to the leg sections on the sides.
- Rotate the back pack all the way around.
- Swing the panel on the back piece up.
- Push the back pack in a bit and then swing the panel down to fill in the gap behind the neck.
- The weapon can attach to the top and the Cyber Key can fit into the slot in the back.
Vehicle Mode:
The vehicle mode is where the G1 Hot Rod influence is most obvious. Most of the vehicle mode is red plastic with translucent blue windows. The paint colors showing in this mode are red, gold, silver and grey. The gold is used for flame patterns on the hood and large sections on the back. Silver is used for the headlights and the sides of the wheels. Red is used to paint parts of the translucent blue to match up with the red plastic that makes up most of the vehicle. Overall the color scheme looks amazing. I only wish the designers had included the Autobot symbol on the front of the car.
There are five 5mm ports available to attach additional weapons in this mode: two on each side and one on top. All four wheels can roll independently. As mentioned above, the weapon barrel allows you to attach a Blast Effect. The spoiler "wings" can be manually deployed and look great in this mode. The Cyber Key can be attached to a slot on the back, but it does not activate anything, it's just for show.
Final Thoughts:
As far as straight up redecos go, Excellion is awesome. The sculpt was already cool to begin with and the whole "flames on a red car" motif is a welcome one on a Transformers toy. I do still miss the Cyber Key activation gimmick but overall this is a cool figure. Being a Walmart exclusive is a bummer as they are generally terrible at managing their exclusive figures. True story: they cancelled my preorder of this figure, and then two days later had it in stock to order on their site (which is how I got it). However if you can order it online or get it in store, I do recommend it!
Pros:
- Excellent sculpt that calls back to Excellion very well.
- The G1 Hot Rod inspired deco is beautiful.
- Great articulation.
- I appreciate the inclusion of the Cyber Key even though there is no gimmick for it.
- Intuitive and solid transformation.
Cons:
- I do find myself missing the Cyber Key gimmick, but your mileage will vary on that.
- I would have liked the Autobot symbol on the hood and the orange patches on the chest.
