Dave's Titans Return Rant: Voyager Octone

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Transformers Titans Return Rant: Voyager Wave 5

Decepticon Octone with Murk (Optimus Prime retool)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/VOctone

Also known as Tall Tankor. Not sure why he has to be "Decepticon
Octone" since Octone isn't a real word as far as I can tell. Anyway, it was
pretty obvious when the Voyager versions of Optimus Prime and Megatron came
out that they were really pretools for the remaining Decepticon Triple
Changers.

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/VROptimus - Optimus mold


CAPSULE

$25-30 price point.

Decepticon Octone with Murk: Original mold was mildly recommended. This
is clearly the intended use of the mold, though, and it works significantly
better than either Prime version. Jet mode is still a bit iffy, but the new
wings make it somewhat better. Recommended.


RANT

Packaging: Same as other year two Voyagers, with the Decepticon symbol
trade dress. Bio note contains the boilerplate line about Decepticons rising
up.


DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON OCTONE
Assortment: C2396
Titan Master: Murk
Altmodes: Tanker truck, Jetliner
Transformation Difficulty: 22 steps
Previous Name Use: None
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Titan Master Ability: Toxic Cloud Generation
Weapon: Flamethrower
Function: Decepticon Fueler
Motto: "Well, excUUUUUUUUUse me!"

When DECEPTICON OCTONE unites with MURK, the results are toxic. With
MURK, DECEPTICON OCTONE gains the ability to produce corrosive clouds of
toxic fumes, capable of wiping out any bot in pursuit.

B: STR 6 SPD 7 INT 6 FRB 4
T: STR +4 SPD +2 INT +1 FRB +2

He has the same specs as G1, and Murk doesn't really help him much,
considering that mixing it up in melee is probably not something Octone wants
to do. Leave that to Fat Tankor.

Packaging: Seven ties on the robot, plus a rather hard to remove rubber
band keeping the head on. One tie on the rifle, one on the Laser Prime style
seat gun. The package renders have yellow paint on the truck hood that is
not present on the toy. Cosells are Ramhorn, Misfire, Blitzwing, and Sky
Shadow.

Color Swaps: Yeah, no simple sprue swaps here, every folor on Optimus
seems to split to two or three others except for the clear plastic, which is
now clear purple. Murk is all very light gray plastic except for a purple
head and dark cool gray faceplate (it's totally painted over).
A vibrant Decepticon Purple plastic is definitely used on the forearms,
shoulderpads, pop-up head flanking pieces, shins, and feet. A dark cool gray
plastic is used for the chestplate, abdomen button, fists, shoulder towers
(cab halves) and jet nosecone. I suspect it's also used for the panels
between shoulders and torso, they're painted over completely and lack a
convenient "not seen in any mode" spot to try scraping. The wheels and dual
cannon are black. The new wings, vertical tail part, new rifle, and the
panels on the shoulder tops are medium gray. Everything else is extremely
light gray plastic.

Paint Apps: The faceplate is dipped in purple paint (a little darker
than the plastic) with a silver face and red eyes. The fists are likewise
coated in purple paint. The shin fronts are painted light gray, a decent
match except for how it's a bit sloppy around the edges. Dark cool gray is
painted on the backs of the forearms. There's a pair of thin yellow wedges
printed on the abdomen in reference to the truck hood on G1 Octane (but the
actual truck hood lacks those details, oops). A foil Decepticon symbol
sticker is in the center of the chest, and the wings have foil stickers on
both sides with blue/purple/gold stripes along the long axis and more
Decepticon symbols.
In jet mode, the nose section is dipped in light gray paint with medium
gray paint on the windows. The purple-blue-gold stripe stickers along the
sides and down the center of the wings (longways) are decent by Hasbro foil
sticker standards, and have Decepticon symbols embedded in them. The center
of the vertical part of the tail is painted bright blue rather than using
stickers, and the rest of the tail is painted medium gray.
Truck mode shows better how carelessly the side stickers are applied, as
the extra segment ends up not aligned well. And just transforming to truck
mode seems to have gotten the stickers peeling a little on the sides of the
tank. Most of the paint in this mode is on the cab. The side panels are
mostly dipped in light gray plastic with silver on the smokestacks (but no
silver on the middle third of each smokestack where they're on a different
plastic part), light gray on the front fenders. Most of the nose end is
painted dark cool gray in a good match for the plastic. The purple paint on
the fists doesn't quite match the purple plastic, something that shows
clearly in the front bumper. Silver windshields, no paint on the side
windows.
No paint on Murk other than the faceplate.

Mold Changes: The wings are new, made to look more like a jumbo jet's,
but still kind of small (and far back on the jet mode) for a proper cargo
jet. The chestplate and abdomen button are remolded to better fit the look
of G1 Octane, although the "truck cab" resemblance is damped down. The
shouldertop truck cab parts are completely new molds (no windshield wipers on
the windshield, different lights on the roof, slight aerodynamic cowling),
although the plug-in gray bits on the front are more obviously new (zig-zag
plates). The sword is replaced by a rifle made of medium gray plastic that
is 4" (10cm) long and bears a vague resemblance to G1 Octane's flamethrower.
Obviously, the faceplate is new, but the rest of the Titan Master is Diac's
mold.

Other Notes: They didn't remold the head-flanker bits, so they still
look like Optimus Prime antennae, and they should be left down. The longer
wings do end up sticking out the back of the tanker mode, reminiscent of a
beetle that hasn't quite got its wings under its elytra. The dual cannon
doesn't stay as well on top of the Titan Master compartment as on my other
versions of this mold, but that's more likely QC crapshoot than mold rot.

Overall: While the Laser Prime redeco at least made sense of the tanker
mode, this is clearly what the mold was originally intended for (Prime-style
cannon aside). It's much more satisfying than the previous Generations
Tankor, although the stickers are still pretty weak.


Dave Van Domelen, will do Sqweeks next and then either Blitzwing or
Slugslinger or Grotusque...stuff's been coming in the mail.