Transformers Legacy – Dead End review

Dead End represents a fun milestone in my Transformers modern era of collecting as he’s the final figure needed to complete my first TF Build-A-Figure Menasor. The Stunticons and Constructicons are my favorite factions within the Decepticons so I’m thrilled to have the other main gestalt in my collection. Though I will happily start on a Bruticus and Predaking as well.

Dead End probably has my favorite design of the Stunticons and as always, I dig the whole crazed Decepticon car gimmick of the crew. Like his pal Breakdown, Dead End was a hard figure to track down. Now that I’ve got him, let’s see if he wins the race or if this a dead end of a figure.

Packaging: While Hasbro ditched any visibility with their ill-conceived removing the window packaging scheme, the Transformers mostly had an avenue to see the quality of the figure on the shelves. It’s not the full glimpse of the figure, but the head and torso is more of the concern for the aesthetics anyway.

As usual, the accessories are tucked away so you can’t see if they’ve been swapped out, but the zip ties mainly ensure there’s been no tampering since it takes thieves much more effort now. Dead End’s accessories are packed within the interior wall so no worries about them being gone.

Hasbro’s packaging for the Legacy line is an assault on your senses kind of busy. I think I like it now that I’ve gotten accustomed to it though it’s not as dramatic and intense a presentation as the Kingdom series. We still get a shot of Dead End in both his bot and alt modes.

At the top is the Menasor icon with an indicator of where Dead End was slotted. He’s the third of five Stunticons needed to build Menasor. I like that logo. This time the QR code for his bio is on the rear to see the bio on Transformers.hasbro.com.

The bio states: Dead End thinks it’s pointless to keep fighting in the Cybertronian war. When he’s not being forced to fight, he spends his time shining himself. Combines with other Stunticons to form Menasor.

His stat breakdown has him at 7 for strength and speed, 6 for intelligence and five for firepower. This line has the best bio presentation of all of Hasbro’s lines.

Likeness:  One of my favorite aspects of collecting these War for Cybertron era figures is Hasbro/Takara Tomy’s intent to get the figure resembling the cartoon as closely as possible. That’s the ideal approach since the original G1 toys looked very little like their cartoon counterparts.

There’s one noticeable difference from the cartoon as that model had his wheels making up his shoulders. With the figure, the wheels are on the sides of his arms. That’s just more of an engineering deal and hardly a problem.

Dead End also lacks much in terms of feet due to the execution of his alt mode. It wasn’t like he had massive feet in the cartoon or in any of his previous figures, but they do look a tad dainty here. The main thing is he’s able to maintain a steady foundation and doesn’t topple over constantly.

I love the head sculpt, which captures his great cartoon design with the goggles-style eyes, the thin nose and “Prime” mouth covering. His torso also looks cool with its sleek looking silver against the black front panel showcasing the Decepticon logo.

For my padawan level of Transformers molds, I think Dead End is an all-new mold highlighted with the appropriate new head sculpt, torso and limbs.

Alt Mode: Dead End’s alt mode is mostly based on the Porsche 928. I’m way more of an action figure guy than a car enthusiast so to my non-expert eye, the resemblance to the car is fantastic.

In addition to the car alt mode, Dead End also transforms into Menasor’s left arm.

There’s some paneling issue with the rear.

There’s a tab that connects the back portions of the car, but it will not stay tabbed in when placing it flush in the rear cabin.

It’s one or the other. You can put it down in the cabin flush and have the back portion untabbed or vice versa.

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Transformation: Dead End takes 15 steps to transform. That’s not a bad amount and like the other Stunticons, his transformation is pretty intuitive after doing it a few times. The only problem is that annoying tabbing issue with the back.

Scale:  None of the Stunticons need to be particularly tall especially since they all need to look up at Motormaster.

Dead End is scaled about the same size as the others.

Paint: Dead End has a great color scheme as well that complements the rest of the Stunticons well with his silver, black and red mix. There’s a nice shine to the black and the red is a strong deep shade while still looking vibrant enough that it’s not dull.

His orange mouthpiece section and the purple goggles also pop. And as usual the Decepticon logo is very clean and applied with no issue.

For his alt mode, there’s an homage to the G1 figure with the gold stripe along the left side of the hood.

Articulation: Dead End has 22 points of articulation, plenty to allow for some fun, quality poses as he joins his fellow Stunticons in harassing the Autobots.

Dead End has:

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

Accessories: Dead End comes with two matching blasters. They’ve got some cool design elements including a raised, angular tip on the translucent purple barrel. It’s also got a purple scope First up is his concussion blaster, which has very nice detailing.

He doesn’t come with any new weapons, but the blasters are enough in this case. They can be attached to Dead End’s roof in his alt mode.

Worth it?  I got Dead End for $24. That’s a decent price for Transformers because it’s basically two in one, though it’d be nice to see another accessory or two. With the Stunticons amazingly harder to track down in stores, I didn’t want to chance paying higher prices.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Dead End is a very fun figure with a great paintjob, awesome head sculpt and fun accessories. I just wish his panel arrangement was sleeker and tabbed in better in his alt mode.

Where to get it?  Hopefully, you can find him at retail or else you can try Amazon or Entertainment Earth.