Transformers War for Cybertron Siege: Astrotrain

As the year comes to a close, I typically get swamped with work. Sorry for the lack of content lately. Anyway, here’s Astrotrain!

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Astrotrain is part of the new type of Leader Class figure, where the base toy is Voyager sized but he comes with add-on armor parts to “bulk” him up to leader sized. If you want. See with some of them, like Ultra Magnus, it’s more essential to the character, but with Astrotrain it seems un-needed as the base figure is pretty excellent to begin with.

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Astrotrain’s add on parts, however, are quite intuitive. The parts function as: 1.) A coal/supply car for the train, 2.) A launch pad/taxi vehicle for the shuttle and 3.) A weapons container for robot mode that can attach to his back.

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This at least serves a purpose, unlike, say Shockwave’s armor that’s just added kibble. I particularly like the coal car add on for the train, and the weapons rack functions much like that of the RX-79 (G) Gundam’s in 08th MS team (for those familiar with Gundam mythos).

Astrotrain himself feels like the best of the various iterations we’ve received of the character since the G1 days. He’s…heavy. Or feels that way. His joints are all solid and he has excellent articulation.

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What’s more, he pulls off all three modes in a way that actually look good in all three modes, a very rare feat not seen since the G1 Toy.

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Astrotrain also comes with a bunch of guns to equip, either individually or combined together (I’m never a big fan of this).

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They all store inside the crate too, which is a nice touch.

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Bottom Line

Astrotrain is one of those characters that everyone seems to love. Like Springer with the Autobots, he’s one of the more recognizable Triple Changers and as such usually gets a toy every few years. This time however, the engineering put into his design succeeds where most others have failed in one mode or the other. He’s a definite buy, even if you toss the extra stuff, though this time, the extra stuff also has some added value.