So I didn’t mess around with her the day I got her, but I did last night. And damn, I didn’t think I’d have so much to say about
A figure, but here it goes…
Starting off in bot mode:She's heavy! I think her legs are entirely diecast.... either way she's got the weight of MP-10. She seems to be quite posable. Double jointed arms, very deep curl on the knee joint, but
doesn’t have a waist swivel?! Her... stomach(?) pops out of her waist for transformation which can sort of give her a tilt, but no actual swivel. For some reason, this really upsets me. Her ankle pivot is kinda weak too, and with those small feet it is actually really difficult to get her to stand. She does have a toe joint though, which is pretty good. But yeah, posing can be a chore.
There’s a razor thin gap in her chest that really irritates me... right between the white collar bone’ish piece and the pink hood chest piece. I can’t not see it when I look at her. Not to mention the mushroom pegs in her arms. Seems very $15 Deluxe'y. And that backpack of hers shockingly, secures to
NOTHING. Granted the friction seems to mostly be keeping it from flopping about, but seriously all it woulda taken was a single peg to secure each of her back thingies. And speaking of her back thingies, they look kinda messy from certain angles. Weird angles. Like, from the back, it’s one solid smooth piece. But from the front
(which is how every right minded person will have her posed on a shelf) it’s a jumbled mess. I find it very unappealing...
Transformation:If you scroll down, you’ll see that I took a LOT of car pics. I did this for two reasons.
1) Even though people are getting her in hand and pics are populating the internet, there are almost none of the car, and
2) I will likely never be transforming her a second time. Taking her from bot to car for the first time was a
friggin nightmare. Car back to bot was better, but still not a fun experience. Unraveling her back thingies was crazy, and her front wheels are on a slider/pin dealy that annoyingly pop out to easily. It’s all pretty involved... feeling like a you took a TF, blew it up, and are trying to reassemble it. And one last thing, her torso separates from her wait on a pencil thin piece for transformation and is rather dangly. It’s not a good feeling.
Car mode:Once everything is in place… it is a pretty solid piece of car. Once you can see the car taking shape, I was thinking the driver/passenger
(cockpit? Sorry, words failing me) area would be an open gappy mess, but it actually comes together quite well, even with some neat tricks. And although I mentioned (in robot mode) her back thingies look messy, but I gotta give it props because essentially 80% of her alt mode is stored up in them.
How does the car mode look though? It’s not bad, but not perfect either. Certain angles look great, others not so much. I think the front end is kinda choppy with panel lines and such, whereas the back gives a more solid (and pleasingly curvy) look. Also from most angles, she looks like a hover car.
I hate that. Her wheels are quite small, and half covered, so they’re pretty hard to see.
So my final thoughts…Right at this moment, I don’t know if I’m happy with Rouge or not. Y’know how Badcube Sunsurge came out and blew us all away? Then was
completely obliterated by MP-39 Sunstreaker? That’s what this feels like. I’m starting to get wise to how these 3P MP’s have been going. I’m not trying to demean their effort, but I can’t help but picture an official MP Arcee free of these issues (even if she currently is nowhere in the books). Takara probably has an entire team of people working on each figure, so it’s no doubt that they have a better refinement process than these 3P’s. I have been staring quite hard at Fanstoys Kup and Springer itching to pull the trigger, but based on Rouge here, I’m nowhere closer to pulling it or dropping it.
All I'll say is, I was more impressed before she was in hand. Do your homework before you commit.
