Full Metal Hero's Stripe (or Minon to Transformers At The Moon members) has gotten his hands on the BotCon exclusive Hunt for the Decepticons Voyager Sea Spray repaint of Shattered Glass Otcopunch, and posted a pictorial review. Click here to view the rest of Stripe's images and read his review of the figure
Early warning for the review - Octopunch is my favourite Transformer and has been since I got my paws on him as a child, so expect some biased love for this toy.
I've wait 20+ years for a new Octopunch toy and whilst i'll openly admit that I wasn't blown away by this interpretation at first, having the toy in hand is perhaps the most excited i've been for a Transformer in years.
This is the third time we've seen this mold, and if you don't love it by now then you've likely already made up your mind about this figure. If you took the lunge on Seaspray and Deep Dive then you'll know what to expect and it really comes down to character and colour choice.
The colours on the toy are much better than early images suggested, and whilst the green of the hovercraft ring isn't what I would call 'Octopunch green', the use of blue, yellow and purple is really nice. Paint apps are decent, with only a few little missed bits here and there. One half of the crotch plate is missing the blue though. If you take the view that Shattered Glass figures can ignore traditional colours schemes, then the one chosen for Ock is perfectly acceptable and very cool in its own right.
I've grown especially fond of the head, and whilst I completely understand the calls for a new one, the blue breathing aparatus (like on the G1 pretender's chest) over the purple helmet really does have that Octopunch feel to it.
Transformation is smooth and easy (and yes I know I mistransformed the shoulder plates in some photos - I was too excited to have my Ock figure), and joints are reasonably tight. Overall the quality of the toy from a construction point of view is easily comparable to Seaspray and Deep Dive, and the firing missile launchers work fine.
My only real gripe is that the peg for the missile launcher is a bit too tight for him to hold them in his hand, although they fit on the forearm pegs just fine. The back plate where the deck of the hovercraft folds up is also a little finnicky at the bottom hinge and takes some effort to lock in correctly.
Octopunch is far from a must have for most fans, and anyone who already owns this mold has probably had their fix from it, but there is still something really special about him. Sure he's missing the tentacles, harpoon gun, crab chap and the pretender-ness of the G1 toy, but recent reimaginings over the past few years of Bludgeon, Skullgrin and Thunderwing have redecuated us in our expectations anyway. The little touches such as the tentacle decals on the chest, blue breathing mask and general coolness really sell the figure.
Dare I say - roll on a voyager sized Stranglehold?