He's a sort of armoured personnel carrier/assault vehicle. What he really reminds me of is Cybertron Red Alert without the missile - big and chunky 8 wheeled military vehicle done in a white and grey urban camo scheme. There's a cannon sitting up dead centre on the vehicle. His weapons do get stored in the vehicle mode - pull the back up, fold the top and back forward over the gun and fold down the side/top panels about 1/3 of the way from the back to the front. Fold the weapons up in the middle and then slot them into the folded down panels - the curved section with the screw in on the weapon fits the curved cut-out in the panel - I'd have the screws facing up. Fold the panels and weapons back up and lock the top and back down. The weapons fill a gap in the vehicle mode and add a couple of extra gun barrels. Overall the vehicle is very solid if lacking in the clearance department.
TF: Be wary - some of the bits on mine were very stiff on first TF. Excessive force was required. It's also good to note certain features on the way out when you reverse the TF. To start raise the back - this has got 2 clips which align onto the robot legs underneath, then the top, fold down the panels described above and remove the weapons. Pull the feet out from under the car and straighten the lower legs out the back. Fold the feet into a more natural position and then separate the legs - there's a slot and peg arrangement for holding them together. Pull the wrists away from the underside of the car and pull out slightly on the elbows. The shoulders need TFing now and they're on a double ball joint so you want to pull out to the side and raise upwards at the same time - here's a diagram of what it should look like:
Before:
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After
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It'll make sense when you see the toy.
Fold the vehicle gun into his back - which now points through the chest and out through a red barrel in his lower chest - this should auto TF the head and chest but mine needed the folding down chest piece loosened. A lot. Clip the back of the vehicle into the rear of the shoulder blades. Flip out the weapons - sword blades - attach and pose.
The resulting robot is tall and quite thin on the limb department. Said limbs are a reddy orange not seen on the vehicle mode with hands, feet and mid limb joints in grey. There's a distinct beast machines vibe going on and I mean that in a good way. Head's got a red lightpipe but the eyes are so small it's not that effective. At All. Which is a shame because he's got a very good face, which is excellent by movie standards. Articulation - Wooo ! Ball jointed ankle, jointed knee, ball jointed hip, a waist (slightly restricted), the aforementioned ball jointed shoulders, a double bending elbow (so can put his hands on his shoulders) a rotating hand (very restricted) and a neck joint. The shoulder and the arm articulation is the tops. Weapons can be help - he's got a movie style hand but if you look closely it's been molded round a standard peg hole formed between the thumb and index finger. Where are my Minicon weapons ? There's also peg holes for them under the arms, and they can be holstered by folding out the panels on the side of the legs. And - if you really want to - you can peg the weapons into the hub of the wheels. You may be able to see why this is a bad idea. The Bumblebee designers didn't and we'll be coming back to this later. About the only complaints I have is the joint between the shoulders and the back being a tad loose and the lightpipe eyes not being better.
Overall: I like this toy. Ticks the boxes for me. Buy it.
Wreckage is a Wave 1 Movie Deluxe toy. He was available in Japan as Movie toy MD-10.
Bludgeon is a relatively simple colour swap of Wreckage but some of the swaps help to illustrate which parts are moulded with which:
Clear orange becomes clear purple
White (bar the robot's chest) becomes green and looses the camouflage pattern
Orange plus the robot's chest & the grey used for the waist, head & feet becomes brown
Grey - the elbows, knees and hands - becomes black.
It's a fine looking repaint which takes it's colours - the green & brown plus the purple for the gun on the chest - from the inner robot for Pretender Bludgeon. Those wanting a toy looking more like the outer shell should buy the Movie NEST Voyager Decepticon Bludgeon.