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.
