Transformers: Generations: Earthrise Leader Class Doubledealer

Doubledealer

Vehicle Mode: Doubledealer is awesome! I love this toy. His vehicle mode looks great, paint apps are sufficient. He has a few minor design issues. The stabilizer legs in vehicle mode do not attach to the body, and are only connected by their ball and socket connection making it hard to get them to stay perfectly lined up. Would have been easy to fix, but, Hasbro is Hasbro.

Base Mode: He sort of has a base mode. His missile can be tilted back for launch and the stabilizer legs deployed. This gives him a connection on the back for a ramp. I suppose as Leader Class bases go, that’s not bad. It looks cool.

Bird Mode: They altered Doubledealer’s G1 bird mode by putting the missile on his back. I didn’t mind this so much until I learned this was how he looked in IDW, so on principal, I now hate it. Honestly, I don’t mind the change so much, but it reveals another design flaw. The missile only attaches to the plate that forms his back at the rear of the missile, leaving it extremely front heavy. The panel does not mount securely, so the front heavy missile tips forward rather than pointing straight ahead. They needed to make two changes, First, the vehicle mode stabilizer legs are attached to the place, but just hang off the bird’s side. If these pegged in it would go a long way to securing that plate. That alone wouldn’t do it. There is a port on the bird’s back directly below the middle of the missile. The missile should have had a flip out arm with a peg on the end to peg it in here and hold it straight and secure. If you ignore the drooping missile, the bird mode does look great. Unlike the G1, Doubledealer’s bird mode has no faction symbol. More on that change below.

Robot Mode: DOUBLEDEALER IS A BEAST! He is perfect in robot mode. Great paint apps, great head sculpt, great molded details. His only flaw is that his elbow joints aren’t really strong enough to hold up his gun. There are flaps on his shoulders that flip down to change his faction symbols from Autobot to Decepticon. This change makes a little more sense than the G1 toy. The G1 toy had his robot mode as an Autobot and his bird mode as a Decepticon. Making his robot mode able to be either makes a lot more sense. Whoever decided on his position in the package did a great thing putting his fists on his hips. It makes him look even more bad ass. Also of note, is that Doubledealer is the only War for Cybertron Leader Class toy to be a true leader class toy, instead of a Voyager with lots of accessories.

Overall: Doubledealer is, thus far, my favorite Earthrise toy. He beats Sky Lynx, and that’s saying a lot. I would totally buy a Doubleclouder repaint, though he has a bunch of color differences, it may not be different enough for Hasbro to bother, but frankly, there isn’t anything else to repaint him into. It’s probably more likely that Doubleclouder will be the next Takara Selects toy after Super Megatron. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks for reading!