Transformers Studio Series 86 Scourge figure review

The Decepticons were the big winners in Transformers: The Movie. While the Autobots took a few blaster shots and died, the Decepticons withstood the onslaught of Optimus Prime and still functioned…albeit barely. And just as they were on death’s door, they got makeovers into arguably cooler characters. Scourge was always one of my favorite upgrades of the G1 Decepticons — it’s the mustache/goatee that did it.

Hasbro’s rabbit hole known as the Transformers Studio Series 86 line brought Scourge in early. It was a smart move because just like Hot Rod, he’s so well done that it was a wrap in terms of my self control and being able to ignore this line. Let’s see if this guy is ready to lead the Sweep.

Packaging: The Studio Series has a simple black and red color scheme. It features a large portrait of Scourge and clear labeling that this is Studio Series is focused on the animated movie and not the live-action…whatever you’d like to call them.

Scourge has a great drawing that really conveys his size and intimidation factor. The rear package provides a shot of Scourge in both robot and alt modes with the tagline — Heralds of Unicron.  That’s nice and ominous and shows the transformation of Thundercracker into Scourge.

We get a basic sentence that Unicron reformats Thundercracker into Scourge. That gets the job done although I wouldn’t complain with the inclusion of an bio and stats.

Likeness: Scourge was the bruiser of the new Big 3 Decepticons. He was thicker and looked more menacing with his bladed bat-like wings. The figure captures that broad nature with a wide chest, prominent shoulders and thicker ankles.

He’s got a great presence and looks very formidable. Scourge was one of the futuristic characters so he’s got more angular and rounded edges compared to the blocky Autobots and Decepticons of the first two waves. There’s some ridges along the torso and arms as well as layered plating for that way out in 2005 visual.

The bat wings have always been a cool part of this design for me as well as the clawed nails culminating in the Fu Manchu mustache. The logic of Transformers needing to shave or having facial hair is an entirely different rabbit hole, but I am kinda curious now…

Alt Mode: Scourge basically changed into a hovercraft, but with the switch to the “far future” in the cartoon, he rarely got to go over water and instead just flew in space like a standard jet. His alt mode looks solid and is sleeker than the flying bathtub original figure version.

Transformation: Scourge’s transformation is relatively simple at a reasonable 19 steps. His transformation makes sense although as usual the directions aren’t as helpful as I’d like. Thankfully there’s a plethora of YouTubers that are more deliberate in showing proper transformation techniques.

I never fully feel like I have the panels as flush as they should be even though it feels more like I’ll break something trying to get it “just right.”

Scale:  I’ve always considered Galvatron and his two lieutenants to be taller than most of the other Decepticons with the exception of Soundwave. For now, that doesn’t matter much since I don’t have a ton of the others anyway so let’s just see how he looks compared to Burr and Hot Rod. He’s definitely taller than them.

The real test will be when I open up Galvatron.

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Paint:  I’ve always loved the color scheme of the newer Decepticons as they kept the colors focused on shades of blue and purple. Scourge’s light purple turned out well and the smaller details like the red eyes and nails are mostly fine.

There’s some roughness with the goatee with the paint apps not covering all the areas properly, but that’s about it.

Articulation:  Scourge moves pretty well. The razor wings don’t get in the way for twisting and his hips have more than enough range for deep poses.

He ended up being a lot more fun to pose than I expected.

Scourge has:

• neck
• bicep
• ball-jointed shoulders
• elbows
• wrists
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hips
• thighs
• knees (double-jointed)
• ankles

I do dig how easy Scourge is to hit strafing attack poses like any good Decepticon.

Accessories: Scourge comes with his main blaster, which can be affixed to the left side of his alt mode.

He also has a light purple translucent energy blast that can attach to the blaster or the center barrel in his vehicle mode.

As usual the package insert includes a backdrop — in this case the reformatting of Thundercracker and the Insecticons into Scourge and his Sweeps.

Worth it?  Scourge is a voyager class figure so he’s slightly more expensive at $30 figure. He’s bigger and more complex than the standard size Transformer figure so I see the added value here. He’s a stronger value than Hot Rod.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Scourge is a very solid figure. I wish he wasn’t voyager class so I could grab an additional 2-3 Sweeps figures.

Where to get it?  I tracked down Scourge from Target, who have been pretty reliable about restocking up this line. If you aren’t having any luck, you can always order him from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.