Two Scoops of Fun!

Having missed out on the wave that carried the spectacular Skids, I decided to not take any chances and preordered the next wave from BigBadToyStore.  You can never be too careful nowadays, apparently.  Since I wanted everyone in the wave with the exception of Skywarp, I just ordered the entire wave.  When it arrived, I just gave Skywarp to my my son.  I'm a good dad. 

The first thing that I noticed was the packaging on the back.  My Skywarp and Scoop had stickers placed on the back for Hasbro Asia.  Had BBTS sourced from them?  Did Hasbro US bring some stock over to meet demand?  Perhaps we may never know.  Perhaps I'm too lazy to find out, you decide.

Hasbro Far East?

Growing up, the only Master sub-group that I ever managed or cared to complete were the so-called "Double" Targetmasters, but just the Autobots.  The reasons for that are that they were cheap, I finally had some money thanks to hoarding my lunch money, and I really liked the fact that each figure had two Nebulons.  In my 5th grader mind at the time, each Nebulon still counted as a Transformer, so that allowed me to balloon my count a little.  As a kid, size is everything. 

Loving the "Double" Targetmaster concept so much and Scoop even more, I was both shocked and stoked at Hasbro's announcement that Scoop would be part of the 2014 assortment.  I was downright ecstatic when I realized that he'd still have two Targetmaster weapons.  Then I read The Transformers: Robots in Disguise issues featuring Scoop. because of course Scoop would show up.  How else would Hasbro throw a comic in with the figure?  I'm not a fan of Scoop's portrayal so far in the comics.  He basically just spouts religious prophecy and blames Starscream.  That really isn't how I imagined him.  I thought that he'd be a gung ho fighter.

Odd characterization aside, I really love the sculpting on this figure.  As you can see, there are ports on the sides of his forearms which allow you to go G1 with Holepunch and Caliburst's placement.  Speaking of which, Tracer has been renamed to Slugslinger's Nebulon partner's name.  Don't ask me why.  Maybe Chasing Amy had something to do with it?

Here's Scoop holding his guns in his hands.  Scoop features some fairly decent articulation.  There is articulation at the shoulder and elbows, as well as the knees.  His waist also twists, which allows for some nice posing.

If you're gonna shoot, shoot with flair

Just as G1 Scoop could combine Holepunch and Tracer, Generations Scoop can combine Holepunch and Caliburst to form a super gun.

Since we're on the subject of the Nebulons, I feel as though I should mention a few things about them.  The only articulation that they feature in is in their arms, and those arms pose a bit of a problem.  They're not really secured on the bodies.  When removing them from the packaging, Caliburst popped out sans arms.  I had to pop those out and then reattach them.  Ditto for the pegs between their legs.  I can't count the number of times that the posts popped out of both Holepunch and Caliburst while going through this photo shoot.  Just be careful.

Proud Papa with the kids

For the uninitiated, Scoop transforms into a tractor.  The Generations version is very faithful to the G1 version.

Naturally, the weapons can attach in this mode, but I'm not too fond of how well they attach.  To really get them in there, I had to use a bit of force, which in turn knocked the pegs out of the Nebulons.

Hey, would you kids like to see some comparison shots with the G1 Scoop?  Funny aside - I love telling my kids that a lot of my figures are older than my sister, who is 11 years younger than I.  The looks on their faces is priceless.

I'm actually a bit surprised at how faithful the designers were when creating this new version of Scoop.  Modern sculpting means that he now gets a tapered torso so he isn't as boxy, but the designers even managed to incorporate the look of the original's feet.  Details.

Even the tractor modes are eerily similar.  However, the actual scoops (get it?) are different colors.  I believe that the production samples that were shown off during various Hasbro presentations showed the Generations version with a yellow scoop, but it most likely got cut due to budget concerns.  I'm actually okay with this as mine will most likely always stay in robot mode.

Out of all of the characters that Hasbro and Takara had to choose from, Scoop seems like he came out of left field.  There are, after all, numerous other characters that could have been chosen for an update.  Waverider, Slag, Snarl, Swoop, Brainstorm, and the Throttlebots all come to mind.  Perhaps Scoop isn't that far-fetched, since I'm fairly certain that any designers at Hasbro, if they were around during G1, were probably at an age where figures like Scoop are their first Transformer memories.  It is nice to see late G1 getting some love.