General Information:
Release Date: January 2014
Price Point: $14.99 (depending on retailer)
Retailer: General (Toys R Us, Target, Wal-Mart etc.)
Accessories: "Caliburst" & "Holepunch" Targetmaster figures
*Images above with asterisks and text below in italics are from Amazon.com:
The fearless resolve of Autobot Scoop makes him one of the most relentless warriors on the battlefield. There's no such thing as danger when you can blast enemies with the combined firepower of Targetmaster allies like Caliburst and Holepunch. Convert, arm and attack with all the Transformers action you can handle! This Autobot Scoop set includes Caliburst and Holepunch Targetmaster figures. They're just the Autobot team to create maximum trouble for their Decepticon enemies (other figures sold separately).
Your Autobot Scoop figure is fierce in robot mode, and when the battle calls for building he'll convert to loader mode to get the job done. But when he needs to unleash a devastating attack in robot mode, combine your Caliburst and Holepunch figures into a weapon he can use against the Decepticons! Whatever mode your Autobot Scoop figure is in, his enemies will think twice before taking him on!
In the latter part of the "Generation One" era of "Transformers" toys, many figures were released in the U.S. that saw only limited distribution outside the country. Many of these characters were worked into the Marvel comic books at the time, but didn't show up in animated form outside of toy commercials. One of these characters was Scoop, a "double" Targetmaster. Unlike the first series of Targetmasters, these figures and their accompanying Targetmaster partners were a bit smaller (about the size of a small modern day Deluxe figure). Recently, Scoop became part of the political intrigue in the IDW Publishing "Robots in Disguise" comic book and now he's part of the "Generations" toy line. Like other recent releases such as Goldfire, Scoop includes a reprint of a comic book he is appears in from the IDW Publishing series. The cover is exclusive to this print, featuring Scoop against a grid background.
One of the surprising moves with this figure was the inclusion of Scoop's two Targetmaster partners. In G1, they were known as Holepunch (the blue one) and Tracer (the yellow one). Most likely due to trademark reasons, Tracer has been given the name "Caliburst", which was actually the name of a G1 Decepticon Targetmaster while Holepunch retains his name. Given how a lot of cost reduction has been going on with "Transformers" toys in the past couple years, it's great to see that the designers still want to do homages "right" by staying as true to the original toy as they can.
Caliburst (aka Tracer):
The "double" Targetmasters in G1 had interesting sculpts. True to their fiction, they resembled humanoids in armor suits. You can really tell the designers were looking at the original Tracer figure when sculpting Caliburst. dhe carries over almost all the major details from that figure. This incudes the design of the "helmet" section, a circle in the center of the chest, tubes running at angles under his chest and even the design of the shoulders with circles on them. It's wonderful how faithful this figure is to its preecessor.
What differences there are make the figure even better than the original. The original "double" Targetmasters were basically sculpted blocks with weapon barrels that flipped up. Caliburst actually has articulation in the form of ball jointed arms. Also, he is sculpted so that each of his body parts are distinct segments that aren't all stuck together in a block. To be fair however, while his legs are separate, they do have the weapon mode peg piece connected in between them. Still he looks great!
Caliburst is cast in yellow plastic. The weapon peg piece in between his legs is cast in orange. Orange and blue paint are used to provide details based on how G1 Tracer was painted. This includes orange paint on the chest and thighs and blue paint on his face and waist. It's pretty impressive to see this much paint on what amounts to a fancy accessory. One bad thing, the blue on my Caliburst's face has a tiny streak of orange paint from the helmet on it, so it' snot a perfect paint job.
Transformation to Weapon Mode:
- Swing the weapon barrel on the back up over the head.
- Swing the orange piece in between his legs down.
- Swing the arms back and connect them together.
Weapon Mode:
In G1, Tracer was a dual barreled weapon, but here his primary barrel is a large single barrel with a flat, rectangular piece on top. However, he actually has a total of three barrels. Two are located on top of his shoulders, which wind up pointing forward in this form. He may not be a replica of his G1 counterpart's weapon, but he's totally cool looking regardless! In this form you get to see a bit more orange paint on the back of the thighs but the yellow plastic color dominates.
Like his G1 counterpart, you can combine Caliburst with Holepunch in weapon mode to create a super weapon. To do this, you swing the arms out to the sides to reveal a notch in the middle. A tab on Holepunch attaches to this section. It fits snug, but comes off rather easily if knocked around so be warned. Still, I love the fact this ability was given a homage with this figure. Even better, you can reverse this with Holepunch serving as the primary weapon.
Holepunch:
Like Caliburst, Holepunch's sculpt is an updated version of his G1 counterpart that carries over many of the details from the G1 toy. This includes tubes running across the chest to a circle in the middle, two round details on the top of the helmet that resemble lights and triangular shoulders that lead to large forearms that look like gauntlets. Not only is it impressive that Holepunch (and Caliburst) have details from their G1 counterparts, but it's also great to see how intricate the sculpting is for what is basically a glorified accessory. I'm glad these two mini-figures were given their due in the sculpting department.
Like Caliburst, Holepunch has articulation in the form of ball jointed arms. He has the same basic design as Caliburst, so while his legs are separate, an orange peg piece is situated in between them.
Holepunch is cast mostly in blue plastic, but has an orange piece on his back. His paint colors are a combination of yellow and orange. Not only does this reflect detailing the G1 figure had, but it also carries over colors found on Scoop himself.
Transformation to Weapon Mode:
- Swing the weapon barrel on the back up over the head.
- Swing the orange piece in between his legs down.
- Swing the arms back and connect them together.
Weapon Mode:
In terms of resemblance to their G1 counterparts, Holepunch wins over Caliburst a just a bit. Like his G1 counterpart, Holepunch has two barrels in weapon mode, and they're relatively short pieces in the front. Unlike Caliburst, he doesn't have additional barrels from the shoulders of his robot/Nebulan form. Personally I think it looks great and he really serves as a nice callback to G1 Holepunch.
In this form most of the weapon winds up being blue plastic, with a bit of orange showing on the top. Like Caliburst, you can swing his arms out to the sides to reveal a slot to connect Caliburst via a tab in the middle. The same warning I gave for Caliburst applies here, which is that the pieces do fit nicely together, but knock them around a bit and they come apart fairly easily. I really do love this callback to the original Holepunch and Tracer duo and it really shows the designers wanted to get this as "right" as they could.
Robot Mode:
When looking at "accuracy" of many of the recent "Generations" figures, one has to often go back to either their comic book or video game appearances. However, Scoop is basically an update of his G1 toy, with more articulation and better proportions. You'll find a lot of the details from G1 Scoop carry over to this version. These include:
- The head sculpt is an updated version of G1 Scoop's head. Perhaps the most distinctive feature is the "U" shaped section on the top of the helmet area and the vents on either side of the head. The face is updated however, with "regular" eyes instead of the more visor like eyes on the G1 toy. In this way he bears a greater resemblance to the image of the character from the G1 comic books.
- The torso design takes the G1 toy's torso and makes the details more proportional. The center section is raised and on either side are sections with horizontal vent lines. The mid-body has a raised area with layered panels on it. All these details come straight from the G1 figure but they are shaped to give him a nice trim look as opposed to the wider, bulky look of the G1 figure.
- The arms on G1 Scoop were thin pieces with huge wheels on the shoulders. The arms on this Scoop are nicely proportioned and functional, but like their G1 counterparts, each arm has a large wheel on the shoulder.
- Scoop's forearms each have holes on the sides that allow 5mm peg weapons to attach, just like the G1 Scoop toy.
- The lower legs on Scoop have some details that carry over from the G1 version, most notably the vent like ridges on his feet.
- Scoop's bucket from his vehicle mode winds up on his back in this mode, just like the G1 figure.
While he has many similarities to his G1 counterpart, this version of Scoop has much less chunky proportions than the G1 version. While he does have huge wheels on his shoulders and legs, the rest of him winds up looking like a rather trim robot. This aligns more with how he has been portrayed in both the G1 toy commercial featuring the character and his appearance in the IDW comic books. He's not lanky by any stretch of the imagination, but he's not super bulky either - he's in a nice place right in the middle.
Scoop is cast in orange, yellow and black plastic. The orange makes up most of the figure, with yellow used for smaller sections like his fists, waist and thighs. The black is used for the wheels on his arms and legs as well as the arms/hydraulics that connect him to the bucket on his back. These are pretty much the same colors as G1 Scoop, but the orange is brighter than the G1 version. Dark blue, grey, and red paint are used to provide paint details. The blue is used on his chest and feet, the grey on his mid-body and lower legs. The grey is also found on the sides of the forearms and his face. His eyes are translucent blue plastic that uses light piping, though the plastic is a bit opaque so the light piping isn't the best around - though I do like how the eyes look regardless.
There are sixteen points of articulation on Scoop in this form. This includes four in each arm and three in each leg. He also has waist articulation, which is always welcome. It's also important to note his range of motion is pretty great. His shoulders are ball jointed and his thighs are designed to allow the legs to swivel in and out. Scoop has six 5mm ports to connect additional weapons, though only four are particularly useful for this mode. Two are the ones mentioned before on his forearms. His fists can also hold 5mm peg weapons. Then he has two 5mm ports on each lower leg, though the best ones to use in this mode are the ones on the sides. By coincidence, the G1 Scoop's Targetmaster weapons have 5mm pegs, so you can attach G1 Scoop's weapons to Generations Scoop!
Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
- Detach the weapon(s) if attached.
- Swing each fist into the forearms.
- Swing the robot feet up into the lower legs.
- Connect the lower robot legs together.
- Swing the bucket and the arms/hydraulics connected to the bucket up.
- Swing the upper body back.
- Swing the chest panel forward.
- Swing the driver's section over the robot head, then extend the bucket/arms section out.
- Straighten out the robot arms then push them in, using tabs on the bottom of the torso section to attach to the corresponding slots on the inside of each forearm.
- Swing the robot feet up, connecting the bottom of the legs to the section right behind the driver's area.
- Attach each of the Targetmasters to the holes on the top of the rear section or the holes on the sides.
Vehicle Mode:
Scoop is a payloader in vehicle form. This is the same form Scoop had in G1, so just the choice of vehicle mode alone helps complete the homage. Like his G1 counterpart, he has a huge bucket with a row of "teeth" along the bottom edge. This leads to a middle section that includes ladders on the sides of the vehicle and a driver's section in the center. The back has detailing along the top panels and the vehicle rests on four huge wheels. Among my favorite details on this mode are the ones in the arms that connect to the bucket and the ladders on the side. The ladders really give a fantastic sense of scale to the vehicle (though ironically if you view the ladders as human sized, that makes Holepunch and Caliburst huge in comparison).
Unlike his G1 counterpart, this version of Scoop is mostly orange in this form, with only the black wheels breaking the colors up. I guess the way the mold trees worked out the bucket just happened to be in an "orange" section. In the G1 figure the bucket was yellow, but that's a minor nitpick. Color wise, the driver's section is translucent blue with orange coloring the panels that make up the armor. Grey is used for details on the back and sides. This mode does look a bit plain unfortunately. Granted, of the two forms I'd prefer him looking plain in this form rather than the robot mode.
Functionally speaking, Scoop's arms can raise the bucket using three separate hinge joints. However, it also has a tendency to lift the driver's section when you do it. I recommend holding it down when lifting the bucket. Like his G1 counterpart, Scoop has connection points on the sides for his Targetmaster partners (or any 5mm peg weapons). These are found on the rear wheel wells. There are also holes on the middle of each side, but those require a weapon with a longer peg to clear the front wheel. He also has two holes on the top of the rear section. Overall you can really make Scoop one dangerous payloader in vehicle form!
Final Thoughts:
Scoop is an amazing update of a G1 character. Part of the charm of this figure is how different it is from other "Generations" style updates. He's not a jet or a tank, he's not even one of the "major" characters like Bumblebee or Starscream - yet here he is in his full Targetmaster glory. Highly recommended!
