Review: Generations Darkmount/Straxus

Hello Everybody,

The Geek here once again to give you another review. This time it will be for Generations Deluxe class Darkmount/Straxus. His figure name is Darkmount, but he is an homage/straight up toy for the Decepticon Lord Straxus. Straxus is a Decepticon who serves as Lord High Governor of the Polyhex region and rules from his fortress Darkmount, which give name to the toy, he is noted for throwing enemies into the smelting pools and being brutal with his battle axe. His most famous quote is "Mercy is not dispensed here, fools... only death!".

 

Straxus' vehicle mode is based on a South African G6 self propelled howitzer, however it is modified into a half track instead of the 6-wheeled chasis. His main color is a darker blue than my camera makes out in the pictures, with gray bits as well as silver paint for the treads, windows, and lights and has a bronze color for the missiles and mid-front.Vehicle mode lacks many paint apps but makes up for it in molded detail all around from rivets and bolts to simple lines that help the look a-lot. 

Straxus has a "third" mode that is more of a mid-transformation shit that is suppose to be a battle station mode. It has handles that can be held in 5mm hands with open figures, however there aren't any that have been released with hands like that except for Straxus, and the Skullgrin repaint.There isn't much change from vehicle mode except the arms are now visible.

In robot mode Straxus is great, and he has a good transformation. In a reverse of usual transformation the turret becomes his legs instead of the arms, with the arms being folded up into the tread are which becomes a backpack. He retains the colors from vehicle mode, but gains alot of red highlights in the form of the triangles all over his body and his forearms. The wheels from vehicle mode also disappear for robot mode by being folded up into his chest which is a plus for me aesthetically. His head sculpt is a different look than what most are used to and looks more like a helmet than a face, but is good none the less and uses the bronze from his center chest/stomach for the eyes.

Articulation is good he has around 26 point of articulation, with 7 points alone being in each arm. In the arms the shoulder connection to the main body is on a hinge and that hinge is attached to a ball joint in the arm, under that is an upper bicep swivel that leads to the elbow hinge with another hinge in the for arms that allow the arms to better rotate inward towards the body. The arms are topped off with ball jointed wrists and slight rotations for the fingers. His lower body keeps up the articulation with a waist swivel, ball jointed hips, knee swivels, knee hinge, and ball jointed ankles. On my figure the ankle joints and knees are a bit loose and make good poising a little finicky. But the articulation still allows Straxus to hold his axe/pick axe with both hands across his chest.

  

Straxus comes with four accessories the first being his axe that doubles as the cannon for vehicle mode. As well he comes with 3 3mm clip system weapons, these being a machine gun, a smoke grenade launcher, and a missile spam pod. At the deluxe price point Straxus is a good way to get clip weapons for all the figures with the right clip points such as the newly release Reveal the Shield Voyager Lugnut who has many clip points available in both of his modes.

Final Wrap-up: Straxus is a great figure, and interesting vehicle mode, a so-so battle station mode, and a great robot mode. He has some of the best clip weapons and as I said if you just want clip weapons, pick his up and keep the figure as a bonus. However despite the praise I have to with hold a few points because of ankle problems, which are hope fully limited to my figure only, and the so-so battle station mode that could have been left out as a feature and given as a fan mode. But never the less he is great and earns 9 out of 10 of this weeks rating system which is the famous cocaine Bear. So Darkmoun/Straxus gets 9 out of 10 cocaine bears.