Phil's
Stunticon and Generation 2 Dead End
Review

Stunticon Dead End

Dead End is a burgundy Porsche 928 with black windows. Along the right hand side of the runs a yellow sticker which would look much better applied with modern paint sprays - the sticker on mine is very worn.

In the rear of the car is a 5mm peg hole which can be used to mount the post for his vehicle mode cannon, moulded in the same black plastic as the windows. For further comments on the Stunticon vehicle weapons design see my review of Dragstrip which can be found here.

Transform: Identical to Stunticon Breakdown. Remove the vehicle mode weapon. Pull the rear of the car back. Fold each half of the car out to the side and back to form the lower legs. Push them back towards the rest of the car. Fold the bonnet back onto the windscreen. Stand on the rear of the car with the underside facing you. Raise the arms and place his compressor air gun in his hand.

We end up with a tall robot mode. There's black plastic on the upper legs, front of the arms, middle of the chest and the head. Most of the chest is, on the earliest version at least, metal. Articulation is limited to the shoulders which turn.

Dead End can form a limb for Menasor or any of the other Special Team/Scramble City style combiners:

Arm Mode: Take the car mode, fold the head down under the car and plug into a shoulder socket. Insert a fist into the 5mm peg hole at the rear.

Leg Mode: Take the car mode and fold the bonnet back. Clip the head into the bottom of a Leader's leg. Peg a foot into the 5mm peg hole.

The instructions show Dead End serving as Menasor's right leg.

Perfectly competent in all three modes.

Dead End was released in the US & UK in 1986 as Stunticon S1 and was also available in the Menasor giftset. In Japan he was numbered D-54 and also sold in the D-55 Menasor giftset. He was re-released in Europe in 1990 as a gold carded European Classics toy. In the mid nineties a supply of the Chinese Menasor giftsets entered the UK and were available in toyshops over here.

Dead End's led a more extensive life since Generation 1 than any other Stunticon. He's been a Beast Wars Neo Destron, a Mini Con, a rather nice Alternator which should have been coloured yellow and called Sunstreakeras it was much later, and as a movie toy.

Generation 2 Dead End

Repaints of the Stunticons were planned for the Generation 2 toyline in 1994. Dead End would have swapped the Burgundy for bright red and black for green with the windows painted silver. A very nice repaint.

Since it's the only existing repaint of Dead End there's a good chance that when a reissue of the Stunticons eventually comes along E-Hobby will provide us with this as an exclusive repaint.

Future Repaints: Autobot Version

I have a theory that the Stunticons were originally meant to be redone versions of some of the original Autobots. See the Motormaster review for more details. Even if you don't subscribe to this theory, you should be able to see that it would be possible to get a set of Autobot repaints from the Stunticons.

Windcharger would make a good Autobot version of Dead End as Generation 2 Dead End illustrates.

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