Dirge

Height: 14.5cm to top of cone (robot mode).

Articulation: 13 total points: Swivel neck; universal joint shoulders; hinge elbows; ball-joint hips; hinge knees; knee swivels.

Colors: Molded blue, gold, black, grey, and transparent blue(eyes). Painted blue, red, yellow, and silver.

Accessory: Missile launchers x2.

Release Data: Released in late 2010 at an MSRP of $11.99.

Author: RAC

(more...)


There is a certain sub-harmonic frequency that triggers the fear response in most living things across the galaxy. Dirge has used this frequency for centuries, tuning his engines and his vocal processor to generate it. Fear accompanies him like a dark cloud, everywhere he goes. Even his fellow Decepticons feel it. He enjoys the feeling of power he gets, watching other robots quaking in fear at his presence, or fleeing at the sound of his engines.

Okay, so I've finally got a complete team of Decepticon jets- yay! Unfortunately it's the B-team. I never had any of the coneheads as a kid and I couldn't tell you much about Dirge except "He's the blue one who isn't Thundercracker, and Optimus Prime shoots him in the chest while The Touch is playing." He isn't even used comically as a pope-themed superhero or sidekick in fanfiction, so I've got nothing. This is proving to be a difficult review to write, since this is the sixth instance of this mold I own with one more to go. (Two if they ever do a Sunstorm.)


Vehicle Mode

Pretty sure there was never an F-15 with wings like this. Of all the modern versions of the `85 seekers, Dirge has probably the least-updated wings. They look pretty close to the originals in shape, size and deco. The red and white stripes are larger now, and hence are interrupted instead of being a single sticker closer in to the body, but that's about it. There's also a running change to watch out for: some earlier Dirges were missing the white detail from the forehead of the Decepticon emblems on the wings. Mine is corrected, which I'm just as happy about. The wings are tighter than Thrust's, but this may be due to the fact that only the small front wings attach to the hinge on the torso. They also sort of slot into the lower wings, so they stay still pretty nicely.

Both the gold and silver plastics on Dirge have a swirly pattern I associate, right or wrong, with the cheap dollar store toys of my youth. Not the first time I've seen it on a Transformer, and I don't particularly mind it, but it's kind of bizarre to see it on both colors. He's also a slightly darker, more vivid blue than the Botcon version that seems to me to be closer to the original toy than the animation. The blue paint used on the black parts and around the cockpit doesn't quite match the blue plastic, but that's largely forgivable to me. And sadly, his cockpit interior isn't inexplicably chromed like Thrust's- I kind of like how that looked.


Transformation

Pretty simple, though I've always kind of admired this transformation for doing what it took a lot of removable parts to do in the `80s. Being the sixth Hasbro mass-market use of this mold, (Plus three BotCon uses and six more uses by Takara) Dirge has the same issue with randomly tight or loose joints that Thrust does. Particularly tight on mine are the feet, which I'm half afraid will snap shut and pinch the hell out of my fingers if I'm not paying attention. The tab that keeps the nose of the jet in place actually snapped a piece off just now, and it's still more than tight enough to keep the jet together. So yeah, the mold is showing its age, but its far from unusable.


Robot Mode

Nice deco here- the red interiors of the foot are particularly sharp. Where Henkei Dirge's Jet Mode was less slavish to the original toy, his Robot Mode looked a lot more drab, using darker colors throughout and little to no silver. This Dirge is brighter, more interesting- apparently a side-effect of basing him more on his animation model. A small feature I really like is that, since his Decepticon emblems face backwards in Robot Mode, he's got a tiny, tiny one in the middle of his chest. I'm torn on whether or not I like his wing configuration in this mode- while I thought Thrust's rear wings were a bit too wide, Ramjet's are incredibly wide, wider than anyone else I can think of, so he's got some serious robot bell-bottoms.

ExVee covered the basic articulation ages ago in the Ramjet review; nothing much has really changed. Most of the joints lean towards too stiff rather than too loose, though he does have one fairly loose knee. The knee swivels are loose, but Acid Storm and Skywarp are actually worse in that regard. Nothing here seems to be in danger of being so stiff it could damage itself like that jet-nose tab. The problem ExVee noted with Thrust's transformation hinges being easier to move than the shoulders is still present here, though they usually want to move out for me, rather than in. The smaller half of the wings stay out of the arms' way the second-best of all the Seekers, right behind Ramjet.


Accessories

-Missile Launchers

One thing I think the Botcon version got right: if you're going to reuse missiles for Dirge, Ramjet's make more sense. These are the same model that came with everybody but Ramjet- though if we're adhering to Dirge's animation model these would apparently be correct. If that's what we're going for though, I'd like to see a set of normal missiles for Ramjet sometime, or maybe even a Ramjet rerelease so equipped. They fire well enough, though I haven't given them a really good test- still spooked after Thunderwing.


Closing Remarks

There's actually a lot less I can think of to say about Dirge relative to Thrust- he has fewer moving parts and just one viable configuration in each mode. Like Thrust, Dirge is the best-looking of all three versions of the toy. Also the most animation-accurate, if that's your thing. Happily, he's also the cheapest for North American collectors. The mold has aged and Transformers have improved dramatically since 2006, so Dirge rates a Good instead of Ramjet's Excellent, just as Thrust did. But the important thing is that you can now have one full team of Skyraiders! ...Assuming you thought to grab Ramjet in 2007.

-RAC