MP-19 Smokescreen

MP-19 arrived at my house on the 20th, which was a shock.  I figured that with the high volume of packages that UPS had to deliver, he wouldn't show up until after Christmas.  Bully for me.  I've mentioned my love for Smokescreen before, and that extends to this release.

The Chin

Smokescreen, just like Bluestreak, is a re-deco of Prowl.  There has been some retooling of the mold.  The shoulders have been redone to have the tires on top to better emulate the look of the animation model.  The rear of the car has an added spoiler and, of course, the front end has been modified with a new bumper.  While Bluestreak was given a new waist, Smokescreen shares Prowl's. 

There are a few things that are very interesting with Smokescreen as compared to Prowl and Bluestreak.  The first thing that you'll notice is that Smokescreen has the animated cannons on his shoulders.  The cannons actually detach during transformation - which I'm not too big a fan of, but I understand.  Looking at the pictures online, I had thought that the cannons would simply go over the Prowl/Bluestreak styled cannons like the Japanese Amazon exclusive cannons.  That was an incorrect assumption.  Here's a little close-up of Smokescreen without his cannons.

As you can see, the original cannons have been removed and replaced with a tab.  Smokescreen's cannons just tab onto those.  Another interesting thing about Smokescreen is the head sculpt.  It truly adheres to his animated version.

The designers for this figure really knocked it out of the park.  They even went the extra mile with his rifle.  First I'll show you Bluestreak's rifle.

His rifle features a completely different design than Prowl and Bluestreak, just as in the cartoon. 

This is just a shot to show how poseable Smokescreen is

Let's take a look at Smokescreen in car mode.

I swear it's as though Takara just scaled up the original G1 figure.  It's breathtaking.

One thing that dawned on me while taking pictures is the lack of accessories that come with the figures nowadays.  Perhaps it has to do with the lower price points.  The reason I bring this up is that Smokescreen is a figure that could - and should - come with a few accessories.  First, there's the little cable that extends from his wrist so he can reprogram slot machines.  Second, there's the slot machine itself.  Really, when I think about Smokescreen, that's how I picture him - scamming slot machines.  I actually made a halfhearted effort to locate some sort of small scale slot machine to use for this shoot, but I was unable to.  Then again, I'm sure you figured that out when you noticed the lack of slot machine goodness in the pics.  When all is said and done, Smokescreen is still a great figure.  And now I have all of the Twisty Brothers®!  Take a look!

Stay tuned for the next entry to my collection!  For starting next week, I'll have over three months of reviews based solely on the influences of others!