Studio Series #91 The Fallen

Ostensibly released toward the end of 2022, this figure was rumoured to not be getting a widespread release in the UK, and was almost instantly listed on Hasbro Pulse as 'Sold Out'. Having seemingly missed out there, I bookmarked the figure on Amazon, despite it being priced significantly higher initially, and ended up ordering after Christmas, at a slight discount, using some of the Amazon vouchers I'd received as a gift. Unfortunately, the copy I received was not only headless, but missing the mask accessory, so I had to send it straight back and claim a refund.

By this point, Hasbro Pulse miraculously had stocks again and, given that their standard price was just 90p more than the discounted price I'd just paid on Amazon, I figured I may as well order there... Free delivery as well, thanks to the current Leader class pricepoint, which is always a bonus.

Now, I'm not a fan of The Fallen, per se. Back when I wrote about the original, Voyager class figure from 2009, I described it as "what would happen if you let H.R. Giger design a TransFormer" and as exemplifying "everything that was wrong with the TransFormers movie robots". In retrospect, I have decided that I like the design, in and of itself, but I just don't think it works even as an ancient Cybertronian quasi-deity. The bizarre, monstrous appearance, coupled with the fact that he never transformed in the movie, was a huge missed opportunity within the franchise... but then, introducing a villain like The Fallen in just the second live action movie, only to kill him off so easily at the end, was the quintessential missed opportunity, as well as being, just generally, a terrible mistake on the part of the 'writers'. Perhaps if the writers' strike had been resolved sooner, the movie could have been more coherent, and The Fallen a better-developed and more 'normal'-looking character, with a more significant impact on the franchise rather than just another Scooby-Doo villain of the week...

...But let's not dwell on what might have been... Because here we have Hasbro's latest attempt at creating a toy based on the bonkers CGI, and all we need to know is whether or not it's better than the original.

"Vehicle" Mode:

Well, early signs aren't good... But then, all things considered, how would anyone create a sensible vehicle mode out of such a nonsense robot mode as The Fallen was lumbered with. This is essentially the same 'dreadnought' as the original Voyager, but without the superfluous nosecone that ended up poking up from the robot's backside, and with the addition of the wing/tendon things looping up from the folded-over forearms and then down to the folded-back legs. The hands go completely uncovered, as before, while the head is concealed by the robot's chest, lifted up and back over it, and the two halves of his staff weapon get tabbed into the 'wings'. For the most part, it looks no more or no less discernibly like a spacecraft or aircraft, Cybertronian or otherwise...

...However, it does have a few advantages. First and foremost, the way the head - or, more specifically, the mask - is designed, this version of The Fallen gains a visible means of propulsion, in the form of what looks like a massive rocket booster, molded in translucent orange plastic and nestled in the middle at the back of the craft. Secondly... this version of the figure is not molded predominantly in a weird green plastic. It first glance, it looks like a mixture of unremarkable greys but, upon closer inspection, a large number of his parts are molded in a dark, smoky translucent plastic. While this doesn't necessarily seem like a logical choice, not least in terms of the reduced structural integrity of translucent plastic these days, versus opaque, it's no so translucent that it becomes conspicuous, or makes him look insubstantial. I can't help but think that, even just a few years ago, there might have been some kind of sparkle component added to the plastic but, given the propensity for breakage in Hasbro's output over the last few years, it was probably a wise choice to leave it out. Other components, such as the forked nose section, the exposed hands and feet and, of course, the tendon things, are molded in opaque, fairly metallic-looking grey plastic which blends in surprisingly well, but it's a weirdly soft plastic that seems to bend more than it ought to. I guess it's a safety feature, and it doesn't harm the appearance of the toy in any discernible way... it just feels weird. The cockpit canopy is molded in the translucent orange plastic, and looks as if it's hinged to open, but apparently not. Also, it's good to finally see this character in more neutral colours, considering the first toy was dark green, one of the store exclusives was black and orange, and the updated version released in 2010 was shades of blue/cyan.

Paintwork is pretty meagre. Where the original toy had plenty of orange lines painted into the various nooks and crannies, there's substantially less in evidence here. Moreover, in the areas where it's applied to some parts, but not others - most notably on the articulated tendon attachments tabbed onto the wings - it genuinely looks like a production error, but this dearth of highlights is apparent on every copy I've seen in photos and videos. The orange paint applications on the forearms are facing inward in this mode, while those on the upper arms are covered by the lower arms. Those on the legs - actually only the thighs - are barely visible, with some obscured below the robot's hands. Thankfully, orange highlights are not the extent of this version's paint job. The forearms - because there's no use trying to pretend they're something else, even in this ostensible 'vehicle' mode - have a series of ridges that are highlighted with silver paint, and there are similarly painted protrusions from the cuffs, as well as ridged sections on the fronts of the 'wings'. The midsection of the craft features a block of metallic cyan paint alongside further hints of this and silver on the small parts of the robot's head/mask poking out around its edges. Most of this tends to blend into the overall greyness of the toy at a distance, with only the translucent orange canopy standing out.

One other advantage this toy has over the 2009 original is that it actually includes the staff wielded by The Fallen in the movie. Granted, the 2010 retool/repaint also had a staff, so this version isn't wholly unique in that respect. Sadly, the staff really doesn't do much in this mode, simply splitting in half and plugging into the 'wings'. The 5mm pegs that facilitate this are quite a way up the shaft on either end, which leaves an awful lot of the shaft hanging off at the back. That said, if one can get behind the wing 'tendons', it's not too much of a stretch to accept these two spears on the wings as some form of weapon. Given a choice, though, I'd have gone with a staff that split into three parts, allowing for smaller, more unobtrusive additions to the 'wings', and for the main shaft to end up somewhere less conspicuous.

Robot Mode:

The original, 2009 Voyager class figure - in isolation, at the time, and having been based on early production artwork rather than final CGI - was a fair attempt at making a plastic toy based on an extremely abstract design. Even at the time, I didn't think something like the Bayverse version of The Fallen should exist in the TransFormers franchise. It was a Giger-esque nightmare of distorted proportions and biomechanical horror that was just too incongruous, even with the inclusion of Sam's dream-sequence in which the other original Primes revealed themselves. I might have been on board with the idea of Megatron declining to adopt a terrestrial disguise, but for all of the Primes and the movie's ostensible main antagonist to appear so different from every other Cybertronian we had thusfar encountered seemed like a huge mistake, and toys based on CGI models for which transformation hadn't been any consideration, let alone an afterthought, really weren't doing the concept or the design any favours.

Given that I still don't like the idea, the design, or the execution, it might seem strange that I would willingly pay the current RRP of a Leader class Studio Series toy for a figure which I must surely dislike every bit as much as the original... But I have a tendency to be more interested in toys that are expected to be in short supply and seeing this figure in action, both in video reviews and publicity photos, there's no denying how good it looks... Also, let's face it, I'm really no stranger to finding an appreciation for TransFormers figures (and their analogues) that don't look like TransFormers. Studio Series #91 basically epitomises one of the precious few recent examples of the fear of missing out, as represented by an articulated plastic figure.

I mean, ignoring any reservations one might have about the design itself, this thing looks incredible... The dark, smoky, translucent plastic looks every bit as solid as it did in vehicle mode, while adding a somewhat ethereal quality to his already alien appearance when it catches the light. One thing the original toy got completely wrong, due to being strangely flat in its torso, was The Fallen's weird posture. His chest was strangely bulbous, as if the rib cage were protruding more at the bottom, such that the upper body never really looked like he was standing erect unless in an exaggerated pose, and this version gets that pretty much spot on. It's difficult to know exactly how to pose the legs, body and head for a neutral, standing pose, but any dynamic pose tends to look awesome, thanks to the detailed sculpt of his gangly, alien form.

The sculpt is largely phenomenal, with the details looking more like some kind of chitinous shell than anything remotely robotic, particularly with the protrusion from the back of the forearms, behind the elbow joint, and on the ridged, horned thighs. There's intricately sculpted detailing on his back, even in the area that gets covered over by the tendons joining his back to his forearms, suggesting layers of rib-like strips of metal, as well as around his collar, in the areas concealed behind the 'frill' on his mask. By comparison to almost any other TransFormers figure, even those based on the early excesses of Bayverse design, if not the later 'Knight' aesthetic, there's an absence of practicality or utility to his appearance, so he never quite fit among the other Cybertronian robots, and there's a clear impression that this robot design was never intended to transform. As well as the softer, opaque metallic grey plastic, there is a handful of components - the small horns on his inner thighs and the folding spikes on his shoulders - that are molded in a rubbery plastic that also appears to be translucent, albeit far more dense than the more rigid plastic components. I can understand the reasoning behind the shoulder spikes, since they are quite thin and might otherwise be prone to breakage, but the chunky horns on his inner thighs don't seem to warrant that kind of caution. Where hollowness has become a significant problem in mainline toys, and is becoming increasingly prevalent in Studio Series, it's nice to see that the only egregious examples on The Fallen are on the inner faces of his knees, the palms of his hands and the undersides of his toes. 

Paintwork appears rather more plentiful in robot mode, but it's not as if 'vehicle' mode set a particularly high bar to clear. There's still a dearth of orange 'glow' paint applications, which is pretty ridiculous considering that some kind of 'inner fire' was the character's motif in the comics, and one of the few things the CGI designers deigned to carry over into the movie. The applications on the legs are just as thoroughly obscured in robot mode as they were in vehicle mode, there are four pinstripes of orange on either side of the chest shell, and then odd highlights on the arms - three on each forearm, two on each shoulder - but there needed to be a lot more to really do justice to the character's design. Surprisingly, there are also applications of orange now visible on the forward-facing part of the tendons coming out of his back but, again, they appear on only one section of the main, hinged, 'wing' part. The original toy didn't have much paint variety, but the one thing it did have was a lot more orange 'glow'. Aside from this, the only paint applications visible in robot mode that were obscured in 'vehicle' mode are the touches of silver and metallic cyan on his arms. These look alright but, given they're supposed to hint at The Fallen's almost iridescent metallic finish, they fall well short of requirement. Thanks to the weird, 'gorilla arms' arrangement of his arms, the applications of silver on the nubs running the length of his forearm are mostly less visible in robot mode than they were in vehicle mode.

Technically, the only accessories packaged with this figure are the two halves of his magical-staff-of-indeterminate-purpose from the movie... and it had to be two halves because, while he has the standard 5mm 'grip', it's set within his 'thumbs' - upper and lower - on each hand, so one half of the staff has to be slid into either hand before the other half is connect. This also results in a wholly unconvincing grip, since none of his fingers are articulated... One can only hope that DNA Design will soon produce replacements, as they have for other Studio Series figures, such as Jetfire, which were cursed with next-to-useless fixed-pose hands. I will say that the claw-like sculpt looks good in isolation, but the lack of genuine functionality really hurts them and, given that his weapon is a spear, it's surely not too much to expect hands that can make adequate use of it. The detailing of the spear is not bad... but, slender as it is, the pointed ends still seem to have some indented portions where I'd have expected them to be either raised or at least more consistent. The main issue from my point of view is that it's so plain - just bare grey plastic. The spear was barely used in the film, and seemed only to be on screen for a couple of seconds at a time. However, in the scene where The Fallen was levitating tanks, etc. around the pyramid, and then dashing them to the ground, the spear can be seen to glow... so a few touches of the metallic cyan paint would have been nice. Mine was also slightly bent, straight out of the box, though I'd imagine dunking it in hot water for a while would allow me to straighten it, should I wish to do so. The two 5mm pegs on the spear's shaft end up on the same side which, while beneficial for photography, since they can both be hidden easily enough, leaves it looking a little unbalanced. Each half of the staff can be just as easily wielded individually, since there's more than enough 5mm diameter shaft, but that use was never suggested in the movie.

I say the spear is 'technically' his only accessory because his mask was wrapped in paper and taped to the rear of the figure's card backing, rather than actually fitted to his head in-box. Back in 2009, I knew the old toy's head sculpt wasn't that accurate, aside from it being almost bereft of paint and without functional light piping. The improvements made for this version are nothing short of amazing. Granted, his 'frill' is unarticulated plastic, but it's molded in a softer translucent plastic, so there is some flex. Given the choice of material, the sculpt of the face and its surprisingly extensive and intricately detailed, coming across - appropriately to the setting of the movie's climactic battle - like some sort of Egyptian deity, or some reject from the Stargate movie/tv series. Paintwork is limited to metallic cyan on the 'frill' and on his chin, four blobs of orange across his brow, with silver around the eyes, on the sides of his mandibles and on his central crest, while the main part of his elongated forehead is molded in the metallic grey plastic. Beneath the mask, The Fallen's 'true face' looks weirdly bird-like, and is just as intricately sculpted as the mask. His 'beak' and the ends of the cables running over the top of his head are painted gold, with silver applied around the eyes, on the raised detail of his forehead, and on his sunken 'nose'. What's particularly impressive is that both the mask and the underlying head feature light-piped eyes, and it's equally effective whether he's wearing the mask or not. Also quite effective is that, since the base head is molded in more of the translucent grey plastic, the translucent orange chunk that gives him his light-piped eyes is visible through the unpainted areas of the head, giving it precisely the impression of inner glow effect the rest of the figure needed.

Transformation is remarkably similar to the original Voyager, but for a few key points. First and foremost, the feet are no longer spring-loaded, so one has to manually fold them down into their 'vehicle' mode configuration which, on balance, I'd call a huge improvement. Alongside that, the arms and legs peg together differently - no more or less secure than on the original, but certainly less fiddly. Aside from that, the inclusion of larger, articulated 'ligaments' between the torso and the forearms adds another level of fun to the proceedings, since they essentially require partsforming - the 'wing' parts unplugging from his back and then tabbing into the ankles. It's theoretically possible to do this without detaching the ball joints in the forearms but, chances are, they're going to fall out during transformation one way or the other. One huge improvement is with the head: while the original had the robot's head only loosely covered by a panel that concertinaed out from his back, this one has an enormous chunk of shell from his chest on a double hinge, allowing it to unplug from the torso and slip over (most of) the head. It doesn't tab into place in 'vehicle' mode, but it's still vastly more secure than on the original, and does a better job of disguising the head. The only downside is that the robot's hands remain completely exposed in 'vehicle' mode, as there's simply nowhere to put them. They can be rotated around and/or angled inward on their hinge, but there isn't a single configuration that disguises what they are. Then again, no matter how hard one might squint, The Fallen's vehicle mode never looks any less like a freakishly alien 'robot' folded into a very uncomfortable yoga position.

While the articulation on this version of The Fallen is on par with the average Studio Series figure in most respects, and even better than some, the tendons connecting his forearms to his back are a significant limiting factor, and their ball joints are very prone to popping apart (though this is likely intentional). The mountings in the forearms are, themselves, articulated to offer a somewhat wider range of motion, but the arms can't easily raise much beyond 90° while the tendons are connected, even though the part that connects to the back is hinged in several places. The main issue is that, while these sections can swing forward and back, the additional hinges for raising them keeps the ball socket at exactly the same angle to each other. Had the socket on the 'wing' portion been arrange to tilt as it raised, the active range of his arms would be increased slightly. Additionally, the shoulder joint intended for articulation is much tighter than the transformation joint, and the arms don't tab securely onto the sides of the torso meaning, inevitably, the whole shoulder is likely to untab more readily than the intended shoulder joint is to move. His bicep rotation is technically unrestricted, except when the tendon is plugged in, while the elbows are double-jointed for transformation, and would be able to bend fully back to the shoulder without that tendon. The wrists have a rotation joint and a hinge for the hand, but then there's a step backward from the 2010 remix of the original toy, in that the hand itself has no articulated fingers. Naturally, there's no waist rotation, but the legs can rotate a full 360° around the hips (subject to the hip spikes and the tendons on the back being kept out of the way, so the legs do need to be angled out for some of that range), and out by a bit more that 45° before the hip spikes start butting up against the body. There's a thigh swivel that can manage at least 180° rotation in spite of those hip spikes, and then there's another rotation joint, just above the knee, for transformation. The knee only manages about 70-80° of bend, and the digitigrade ankle joint is rotation only, again for transformation.  It's not entirely useless for posing, just not as good as it could have been with a hinge.The feet can tilt through about 30-40° up and down, about 30° from side to side, and then the 'toes' are hinged for transformation. While they're not much use for articulation, as such, it's nice to be able to wrap them around irregularly-shaped objects for posing purposes, even to so limited a degree, and the joints are tight enough to offer a fair amount of 'grip'. The head itself is on a hinge at the end of a ball jointed neck, with the socket in the top of the body. Neither offer a great deal of range and the neck perhaps could have done with being a touch longer, but his frills would soon get in the way of lateral movement anyway. Beneath the mask, the jaw is separately hinged for dramatic screams when coupled with a Studio Series Optimus Prime figure for quick game of capture-the-face.

Bonus Alleged 'Solar Collector' Fanmode:

Not quite sure where this idea originated, but I admit I first saw this suggested in a YouTube video by that certain, somewhat contentious reviewer of early figures, PrimeVsPrime. Some of his method didn't quite look right to me, though, so I've made a few tweaks of my own...

...Thing is, it still looks nothing like the solar collector in the movie, because the main part of it is at an angle, rather than pointing straight up, and his staff accounts for only two of the four protrusions that surrounded the centrepiece of the machine depicted on screen.

Plus, let's face it, how stupid would it be if The Fallen actually had to transform himself into his Solar Collector?* He wouldn't be in much of a position to defend himself from the Autobots trying to destroy it and save the planet. Still... it's an interesting idea, and no more daft than half of the 'base modes' offered within the Titans Return toyline.

Grudgingly, I have to admit that I really like this new version of The Fallen. The idea of it being made largely from translucent plastic, coupled with so much soft plastic, seems like a recipe for poor longevity but, for the moment, it feels sturdy enough. The improved screen accuracy of the tendon-like links between his torso and his forearms hampers articulation in ways that only CGI can make work, and the paint job is very much lacking, but the sculpted detail, particularly the intricacy of the base head and the mask, is excellent. Where the original toy included fold-out panels seemingly taken from pre-production concept art, this version is fairly true to what was seen on-screen, though I can't help but think that the use of translucent plastic was the ideal opportunity to add more of the CGI character's inner 'glow', rather than cheaping out and adding a few lines and blobs of opaque orange paint here and there.

Considering this is sold as a Leader class toy, there's an inevitable comparison to be drawn with Studio Series Blackout... and I'd have to say that The Fallen doesn't do well out of that comparison. The engineering is substantially less complex, The Fallen is obviously very much less bulky, and the two-part staff is a pretty dull accessory compared to the mini Scorponok figure. In terms of height alone, he compares well with 'proper' leader class toys like Dark of the Moon Sentinel Prime, if not the awesome RotF Optimus Prime toy but, obviously, he lacks both their complexity and their electronic gimmicks, yet costs £15-20 more than they did upon release. It says something quite significant, I think, that a toy released in 2022 costs more than a toy released in 2018 in the same size class, despite being little bigger than or different from a toy of the same character released in back in 2009, in a smaller size class, and thereby costing about half as much. And it's not even as if this is a particularly good transforming robot toy, because the robot mode barely looks like a robot, while the ostensible 'vehicle' mode still doesn't look like a vehicle, and certainly doesn't represent anything seen on-screen in Revenge of the Fallen.

Even so, as with Studio Series Shockwave, I can't say I feel ripped off, exactly. There is something undeniably compelling about the figure in and of itself, and quite apart from its connection to one of the (worst) live action TransFormers movies. At almost £60 - getting on for £20 more than Leader class toys back when the movie series began, and surely about £10 more than when Studio Series debuted - The Fallen definitely feels overpriced, but not so egregiously overpriced as some of the mainline toys.

So, the bottom line is, for those who percieve a The Fallen-shaped hole in their collection, he is worth acquiring, though I'm reluctant to give him a strong recommendation, and the ideal would be to acquire him at a discount if at all possible. Studio Series The Fallen is a great figure, but a pretty terrible TransFormers toy of a pretty terrible, yet strangely compelling CGI design. It almost feels as though it would have been better off as a non-transforming action figure... not least because, let's face it, that's how most people are likely to treat this toy.

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* Yes, precisely as stupid as G1 Megatron transforming into a handgun that someone else has to wield... So one has to wonder how and why this fanmode even became a thing.