3H BotCon (Europe) 2002 Universe Rook

It's interesting to note, in retropect, that my purchasing of older BotCon exclusives - those that preceded Fun Publications' acquisition of the license from Hasbro - has followed a similar trajectory to my earliest collecting. Tap-Out was the first 3H BotCon figure I picked up, and was a repaint of the first TransFormers toy I ever bought, Cliffjumper. It gets less precise after that because, while Glyph - based on Bumblebee - was the next BotCon repaint of a G1 Mini Autobot that I acquired, the second Autobot toy I bought was Windcharger... and it took me several years more to finally get round to buying this BotCon repaint of that mold.

Rook was originally made available at BotCon Europe 2002 - an event I wasn't even aware had existed until a few years ago, since it preceded my return to TransFormers collecting by a year or two - and is based on the slightly remodelled version, released as a novelty key fob in the early 2000s, but is otherwise just a repaint... and the only reason I really thought about picking him up is that Rook appeared in Fun Publications' TF Collectors' Club magazine a few times. He's not even that hard to track down, or expensive to buy, so it eventually became a bit of a no-brainer...

Vehicle Mode
So, here we have a rather simplified model of the 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am... Also known as "that car from Knight Rider". For his colourscheme, versus G1 Windcharger, the red plastic has become a pale grey, the black has become blue and the grey has become charcoal grey... though the wheels remain black. The car itself is fairly accurately proportioned, making it seem strange that it came from the same toyline as the likes of Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, considering their Super Deformed/Choro-Q stylings. The front end features the same chromed panel, though the loop for the key chain makes for a rather unsightly addition - almost like a hitch for having the car pulled along by another vehicle. That said, the back end can hardly be said to be accurate to the car, since it reveals the robot's chromed legs.

The main thing that makes this car look a little unusual is that the wheels are massively oversized - the rear pair in particular - and sit within expanded wheel wells that seem to occupy about half the size of the car. On the upside, these oversized wheels give the toy awesome ground clearance.

Personally, I'd say it's almost heresy to make a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am look so dull and grey... even the blue plastic for the windows and sun roof doesn't really help much. The only things that really lift this up in vehicle mode are the chrome on the front and the Autobot insignia sticker, printed on chrome stock.


Robot Mode:
Rook ends up looking quite odd in robot mode due to the changes in plastic colours not aligning very well with the original paint scheme. The super dark body disguises much of what little detail there is, though it's a very glossy plastic and does catch the light quite well. The contrast between this and the silver battlemask is a little too sharp, and then the lack of contrast between that dark plastic and the blue visor makes him look a little lifeless.

Granted, that lifelessness isn't helped by the bland, almost featureless battlemask on his face, whose only feature is a small, squarish chin nub. It worked quite well on Windcharger, I always thought, but it feels here as if the angles of the mask are softer - perhaps due to the age of the mold, or the thickness of the silver paint.

The detail of the torso and arms is sharp enough - no obvious signs of degradation - but the legs, particularly the raised details on what I take to be the knees, look a little worn... though this could easily be down to the chrome coating rather than any issues with the molding.


This mold has one of the simplest transformations in the entire history of TransFormers toys, without even the potential clashing of feet and arms that one might sometimes encounter through carelessness with G1 Cliffjumper or Bumblebee, and with no steps needed to reveal the head because it's right there on the bottom of the car. It's literally just a case of flipping the rear of the car back on itself to turn it into the robot's feet, then pulling out the front wings of the car to become his arms, then standing him up...

...But, of course, that's not necessarily as easy as it sounds. I'm pretty sure I never had this much of a problem with Windcharger, but Rook really doesn't like to stand up. The lack of a defined heel spur on the feet and the way the wheels sit just a hair lower than the soles of his feet means that he's very much inclined to slide over backward. Whenever I next have access to him, I'm going to try to compare Windcharger's construction with this figure as, theoretically, the only change to the mold was the addition of the key chain loop on the top of his head... but I'm starting to suspect there was more to it. The arms are much the same as Windcharger - able to shrug slightly due to transformation, and rotate a full 360° at the shoulder... but the joints here feel much looser than I remember my 35+ year old Windcharger being.

For me, I think the most disappointing thing about BotCon EU Rook, versus the two BotCon US figures from the same year, is that he didn't come with a bio card... Thus, it's only through Rook's appearance in Fun Publications' stories, or through reading TFWiki (or similar) that one comes to know that Rook is a Cybertronian journalist. Other than this surprising omission, he's a pretty cool toy... but I'd never want to use him as a key fob, considering his all-plastic construction, and the state of the metal key fob I currently use. I'd expect him to get crushed, broken and worn away within a few weeks.