By Loran
Ah, the Seekers… the classic backbone of the Decepticon army. What’s more fun than an army of nigh-identical jet guys to fill out the backgrounds of scenes and never get seen again? Sure, some of them get redemption later on, like Sunstorm and Acid Storm (both of whom seem to have set the precedent that all generic Seekers will named after weather from here on out), but most of them just fade in the background into obscurity. But hey, it’s nice to see the classic Seekers all have toys in the new style now, with just one more that needs a mass-release to round off the set (I’m looking at you, Thundercracker).
Thrust here was one of the three Conehead Seekers from the second series of toys, and here’s his new Generations remake from the first wave of figures. He’d already received two Classics-style figures in the past, one in the Botcon 2007 boxset and the other as a store exclusive in Japan. This figure uses the same parts as the latter mold, with a color scheme much closer to his animation model from the G1 cartoon, right down to the gray face.
Thrust comes in that awesome shade of maroon that he’s most known for. It looks great here, and out of the three Coneheads, I’d say he has my favorite color scheme. Ramjet’s too bland and Dirge looks like a flying station wagon. Sorry, it had to be said. The white accents are more pronounced than they were on the original figure and are very eye-catching. Possibly my favorite touch is the chrome inside the cockpit, a nice carryover from the Japanese version of the figure.
There are still some inherent flaws with the mold, however, like the exposed face on the undercarriage and the really silly landing gear that I wasn’t even aware of til I bought this figure (seriously, I NEVER noticed it on Starscream, Skywarp, and Acid Storm). However, I do really like these little turbine things. You can swap them with the missiles and put them wherever you please! I prefer them on the back wings-it looks the best in my opinion.
The transformation is pretty simple, as a Seeker should be. His paint apps are very nice and clean (though mine has a little chip on his nose). His only visual Decepticon insignias are on his turbine things. This makes them kind of hard to notice and as a result they’re always upside-down, unless you move them to his wings (which in turn hinder his arm movement). His light gray face with yellow eyes and the little gold accents on his upper body are nice tributes to the cartoon model. The only real issue I have is all the plastic scaring on the dark gray bits-what the heck? I’ve never seen such obvious scaring on an official toy before; usually I only see that on knockoffs.
His articulation is pretty good, but he has the one problem that always bugs me with the Seeker mold-the guns: They get in the way so damn easily! Sure, you could put them in the hands, but that just doesn’t look right. Speaking of the guns, he uses the 84 style Seeker guns, which are accurate to the original toy (the Botcon version used the same guns as Dirge and Ramjet).
Thrust is another welcome addition to the Generations lineup. The initial announcement of this figure caused a lot of complaints from people who bought the Botcon 2007 thinking their figures would drop in value. I personally say screw ‘em, this guy looks a lot better and costs a hell of a lot less! So what are you waiting for? Drop in to FPNYC and grab yourself a Thrust to help bolster your Decepticon army!
