By Loran
Over the years, Sentinel Prime’s been seen in one form or another, and typically, no two are alike. Typically, he’s Optimus Prime’s predecessor, but in the case of his most known incarnation (Animated) he was Prime’s rival. As much as I liked Animated Sentinel, I think it was a wise idea to make him Optimus’s predecessor again. Most importantly of all, it gave us a chance to hear the ever-fantastic Leonard Nimoy in Transformers again. I gotta say, Leonard Nimoy’s performance was the best part of Dark of the Moon, and I’ll fight you if you think otherwise!
I opted for the Voyager-class figure to give myself a figure to go with the similarly-scaled Optimus and Megatron.
Sentinel Prime’s vehicle mode is a big fire truck, the kind used to put out fires at airports. I had a LEGO set like one of these once! It was awesome. Some people were upset about the fire truck wasn’t Inferno, seeming to forget the fact that sometimes the name of the character and their personality are a liiiittle more important than what they turn into. Anyway, it’s a pretty cool vehicle that I don’t think we’ve seen at a larger scale before.
His MechTech gun makes a sort of water cannon for extinguishing flames, and is probably the only “vehicle-integrated” MechTech gun so far I’ve liked. Its addition adds to the overall appearance, and removing it doesn’t ruin anything. Sadly, his gun has his only MechTech ports, as his vehicle mode is completely devoid of them.
His transformation isn’t too difficult, but it can be rather finicky along his torso, namely when dealing with his front wheels. Getting them to get where they’re supposed to be takes a bit of fiddling. Also, his legs end up in a position that just doesn’t feel natural.
Sentinel’s robot mode does a good job at scaling down the Leader-class figure. It’s clear that there was some cheating done (particularly the chest), but overall it doesn’t look too bad. He has a SERIOUS fire truck panel backpack, but it folds up into a cape that works for the overall look of the character. It doesn’t bother me too much. What DOES bother me is the amount of space between his body and backpack. It doesn’t make it look like it’s hanging, just… floating. It’s weird!
I’m rather disappointed by the head sculpt on this mold. It looks very weak and doughy—not very detailed. His light-piping works fantastically, however, but it would’ve been better if he had blue eyes instead of clear eyes.
His articulation is decent. It’s nothing spectacular. However, there’s one big problem with him, and that’s in his hips. He has a great heavy ratchet joint, but it doesn’t have enough “points of ratchet” to get him into a decent neutral pose. The best thing to do is to extend one leg past the second ratchet, and have him face you at an angle with that leg extended.
I’ve mentioned before that I really liked his MechTech gun in vehicle mode, and it certainly holds true in robot mode. It’s a very effective-looking gun in both forms, and its design more than makes up for the figure’s total lack of MechTech ports. It’s a shame that he doesn’t have his sword/staff, but this weapon is a decent substitute.
I can’t compare him to the Leader figure because I don’t have it, though pretty much everyone I know who has one praises it despite its complex transformation. I’ll probably get one myself down the line, but for now, the Voyager will do. He’s not completely spectacular or total crap; he’s in the middle of the road. He’s recommended if you want a less complex incarnation of robo-Spock or if you want one to go with your Voyager Prime and Megatron. Hop on down to FPNYC and grab one of your own, because sometimes, the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many! 😉
Looks good in both modes, but unfortunately that’s because he’s a total panelmaster with an action figure inside. The action figure parts lack articulation as you noted, but they do look nice. Basically his vehicle is a nice looking shell with a folded-up action figure tacked underneath. Though, granted most large boxy vehicles have been that way lately, including Ratchet for the most part. In this case, the only things from his vehicle that were in robot mode are his wheels and the soles of his feet – EVERYTHING else is flattened into the cape. And of course, the chestpiece is fake, but that’s normal short of very large versions – only the Leader version of Sentinel Prime actually has truck windows for his chest. Even DotM Voyager Prime has fake chest windows, and he’d have been much easier than Sentinel to do correctly. My summary: He looks good in both modes, but due to cheating – he doesn’t transform, he just folds up and gets covered by panels.