Sadly, the Dark of the Moon toyline brought the three Dreads out in different size classes, and each was given a unique vehicle mode - Crankcase was the only Deluxe at the time, turning into a Suburban, Hatchet was a Cyberverse Commander and turned into a jet(!), while Crowbar only ever made it as a dinky Cyberverse Legion class figure, turning into a car.
Now, however, hot on the tails of The Last Knight's Berserker figure (aka Crankcase v2), Hasbro's Studio Series has delivered a Deluxe class Crowbar, superficially similar to the TLK figure... Sounds great in theory, but is it surplus to requirements?
Vehicle Mode:
Just like Berserker, this new Crowbar is a Deluxe class Suburban - all plain black apart from that one inconcruous transformation hinge on each side of the vehicle... and the dreadlocks hanging out the back of the vehicle. All the sculpted detail appears to be identical to Berserker, even down to the transformation seams... though this is a little deceptive. More of Crowbar's robot parts are visible, from the back of the groin, sticking down under the front bumper, to the legs, just visible under the sides of the vehicle, and particularly the four-toed feet, visible within (and poking out of) the rear wheel wells
The paint job is also basically identical to Berserker's, even down to the Decepticon insignias stamped on below the wing mirrors, although Crowbar's are purple rather than silver. Headlights, tail lights and the ends of the lightbars are painted with flat colours and don't look especially impressive against the black plastic. The Chevrolet logos, front and back, are picked out in gold, while the windows appear the be painted a slightly different, darker shade of metallic blue compared to Berserker.
As with the TLK figure, he comes packaged with a pair of spiked harpoons, molded in the same soft, brownish plastic, and which tab into the sides of the vehicle in exactly the same way, looking just as daft. Unlike Berserker, however, there's no way to tab them in to the underside of the vehicle mode due to changes to the arrangement of the legs.
Robot Mode:
Despite the nigh-identical vehicle mode, robot mode is surprisingly different. There seems to be remarkably few common parts, with the groin being the only part that looks identical, as far as I can see. He has a similarly hunched posture, but his legs aren't arranged to be digitigrade... which I think is a bit of a mistake, as he ends up with massive clawed clown feet. They may be more stable than Berserker's but I believe the CGI models for both Crankcase and Crowbar - the only two Dreads who stood upright - featured digitigrade legs. That said, his increased stature further differentiates him from the TLK figure, even though the concept art for the Dreads suggests that Crankcase stands most erect, with Crowbar hunched over and Hatchet on all fours.
As with Berserker, the majority of the car shell compacts down onto his back, with the rear wings getting wrapped around his forearms (though with the wheel well affixed to the undersides of the arms and the windows folding in to the sides, rather than vice versa). The arms themselves look fairly similar, but are definitely not identical, and they don't have the shoulder spines. The legs have the same flaps of shell from the sides of the vehicle hanging off the calves, then the feet have additional chunks of shell sticking outward below the ankle, as well as long heel claws running over and around the vehicle's rear wheels, folded back into the soles of his feet.
The paintwork on this figure seems a bit more deliberate - there are no unnecessary red gradients on his arms and, while the legs are only partially painted (the lower legs only have a coating of charcoal paint on the outer faces, the tops of the feet have a panel of the same just behind the claws), the kneecaps have the same block of red paint as Berserker. The body, meanwhile, features more of the charcoal paint on the central part of the torso, tapering inward from the shoulders to the segmented spine-like detail on the belly. While a lighter metallic paint would have been appreciated, to bring out some of the foreground detail, the dark paint does a good job of emphasising the depths of the sculpt - the chest overall is actually fairly flat when viewed from the side, the paintwork makes it seem almost concave. Where it goes a bit weird and random (albeit possibly in an attempt to link Crowbar visually to Berserker) is the red 'V' drawn on his chest, which doesn't actually follow any panel edges or really have much visual impact, because it's so much thinner and darker than Berserker's 'X'. The plastic colours or Crowbar's robot mode are more consistent than those of the TLK figure - three shades of grey have been used, which all are fairly close in lightness, with subtle variations in hue between parts.
While he has the same weapons as Berserker, Crowbar has a harder time actually gripping the harpoon handles due to the chunks of car on his wrists, which are attached closer to his forearm than they were on Berserker. The handles can't be fully inserted into his hands and, with Crowbar's hands missing the 'outer thumbs' that Berserker had, means the harpoons tend to be a little wobbly. It is possible to wedge them in to a point where they're almost secure, but it doesn't take much of an impact to knock them out, or loose, at least. I've also found that they don't like to hang on the vehicle shell on his back. Something about the shell - or the clips on the harpoons' handles - means they don't like to hold in place, or rest against his back in a stable position.
The head sculpt is the clear highlight of the figure. While the Decepticon designs from the live action movies were contentious, in that their robot modes were too far removed from their traditional looks, frequently bearing little relation to their vehicle modes, and many of their heads tending toward the bestial - with the Dreads in particular following Megatron's example of looking like they were made of needles and broken shards of metal - the Dreads were at least consistent among themselves... just that all of them looked like Predator rip-offs. Crowbar looked like a cross between a Predator and some sort of Fantasy creature wearing a bigger monster's jawbone as armour. His eight beady eyes are picked out in red, while the 'jawbone' and the larger panels of armour on the sides of his head are painted silver. He looks thoroughly menacing, and the head is mounted in such a way that he has to hunch over slightly. It's quite clever that the head is in no way connected to any of his dreadlocks, but is close enough to them that a link is clearly implied.
As with Berserker, Crowbar is largely a shellformer, with the robot parts folding together, then getting covered over with the vehicle panels. On the one hand, he's probably a bit simpler than Berserker, but transformation into vehicle mode is nevertheless a frustrating exercise in fiddling with tabs on the miscellaneous panels that make up the car. There's no clear 'best practice' for dealing with the dreadlocks beyond letting them hang out the back of the vehicle, below the bumper, because trying to conceal them within the vehicle leads to them warped into strange contortions, which then looks ridiculous in robot mode. I also find the waist troubling - there's a stopping point with the chest slightly hunched over the waist, but the sculpting of some of the vehicle shell parts and their hinges suggests that the front of the car should fold closer into the body on his backside. Unfortunately, this leads to him being even more hunched over and, since the waist doesn't actually peg together in either position, it's not clear which is 'correct'. It's worth noting that, while Crowbar and Berserker look to be structurally similar, their legs aren't interchangeable, so you can't simply buy an extra Berserker and swap the legs to make Crowbar more screen-accurate. I did try, but evidently their hips end up in a slightly different position within the vehicle.
Crowbar's points and range of articulation are much the same as Berserker's, with the only major difference being that he has a very slight ankle joint as a result of transformation, rather than having digitigrade legs with the lower portion in an effectively fixed pose. The feet aren't as poseable as I'd have liked, given their range, because the vehicle side flaps on the backs of his calves butt up against the long heel claw, preventing the toe from pointing downward except during transformation back to vehicle mode. Even so, his larger foot print tends to make him more stable in most poses. The head is on a similar hinged stalk to Berserker's but, without the short dreadlocks as part of his head, it has a far greater range of movement. It still can't turn in a particularly natural way, but it's certainly an improvement.
One of the most frustrating features of this toy is the dreadlocks. They're set up as three pieces - one connected to each side of his back, approximately just below where the shoulderblade would be, comprising of two strands, the other being a five-strand piece connected just behind the head. They're molded, I think, in the same soft plastic as his weapons, meaning they're actually a little too stiff to properly resemble the chain-link/zipper effect 'dreadlocks' of the CGI. They also have a tendency to mold themselves according to how they're stowed in vehicle mode, meaning they can end up with some interesting, yet awkward kinks, just where you don't want them. It's not entirely clear what should be done with the two pairs attached to his back, but the set of five has to just trail down his back, partly concealing the vehicle shell parts, but mostly just looking a bit cheap and naff. It may have been better to have used three more sets of two - one in the middle hanging straight back, the other two set at slight outward angles either side... but that may have made transforming into vehicle mode that much more complicated.
I really liked TLK Berserker, and have to say that I like SS Crowbar just as much, despite the annoying 'dreadlocks'. Yes, they're both very generic, bestial, monster-faced Decepticons and, yes, the toys are effectively shellformers, but they're well done for what they are... and if Hasbro will oblige us with a Deluxe class Hatchet that transforms into a Chevvy Suburban, I'll be more than happy to pick that one up as well!
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