General Information:
Release Year: September 2004
Retailer: General Release (Toys 'R' Us, Kay Bee, Wal-Mart etc.)
Price: $6.99 (Depending on Retailer)
Transformation Difficulty Level: 2
Accessories: Sword, Gun, Energon Star
Repaint season is upon us, and one of the coolest molds from the Energon basic assortment has been resurrected. Cruellock has been given a new deco and a new name: Doom-Lock. This review will focus on the changes made to this toy. For two other looks at this sculpt, check out the Cruellock review and Dinobot (Magma Type) review.
Beast Mode:
Right off the bat I'll say that Doom-Lick is not a US release of the Dinobot (Magma Type) toy. The color scheme is completely different, and darker to boot.
Doom-Lock's primary colors are brown, orange and shades of grey. The brown used is a very reddish-brown, hence some people thinking it was just Dinobot (Magma Type) in US packaging. Metallic orange is used for a lot of details from the head to the neck and the tail. His main body and legs are two shades of grey. There's a bit of gold too, used on the head in this form. The eyes are painted yellow. All of the parts that were translucent green on Cruellock have been replaced with translucent orange parts.
The result: my favorite deco for this mold so far. The colors blend well because they all remain within the red/brown/orange range of colors (aside from the grey of course). Unlike Dinobot (Magma Type) who is very overt with the "fire" visual analogy, Doom-Lock is much more subtle. He looks like he has power brimming inside coming out in parts like the orange on his arms and the translucent orange parts.
Unfortunately, this sculpt did not survive reuse unscathed. For some reason, if you move the left leg on mine, it has a tendency to pop off. It doesn't do it everytime, and I wonder if it's something specific to mine (I looked at the ball joint but couldn't find any obvious flaws). This isn't that big of a deal since the leg pops right back on, but it is still odd since none of my Cruellocks (I have three) and Dinobot (Magma Type) do not have this problem.
Robot Mode:
Doom-Lock's colors carry over into the robot form but with some additions. The upper body and the armor over the legs are beige. Gold and orange are used to add color detail. They are most present on the chest which utilizes a combination of the two. The robot head is grey with green eyes and an orange brow.
Once again these colors work very well together. In this mode however everything is opened up, so visually everything is more overt, and there is less brown so he is brighter overall. The designers chose not to paint the sword at all this time, a good choice since the translucent orange is effective enough and looks fantastic.
Final Thoughts:
Doom-Lock is my favorite of the three versions of this toy. However, the leg popping off is a bit odd, it is possible that only mine has this problem. Still, it knocks a few points off hence his rating being lower than his predecessor's.
