With the new mainline just recently announced, this means that the current mainline, Transformers: Legacy Evolution, is winding down. There's been a few interesting things, but overall things have been relatively mundane. Not wanting to break that streak, Hasbro released several Fembots as part of the final push, with the most recently released one being Shadow Striker.
Now, I don't know if the character has a comic backstory or something, but for me, I was introduced to her (yes, that's a female) when the Botcon 2 pack featuring both Shadow Striker and Roulette was released. Both were basically RiD 2000 Sideburn with a different head and paint scheme, and that is pretty much what we got here. I just wish they brought back the insane complexity of that toy.
Contents are dreadfully dull, consisting of the figure, the bumper of the car, a gun, and the roof of the car. Technically, the roof doesn't need to come off the figure for transformation.
As I was saying, if you're familiar with the original toy, then this figure will immediately give you a sense of nostalgia.. jus a bit less sleek. The original toy wasn't particularly masculine per se, but it featured more balanced proportions. This toy, is very much a brick with arms and legs. It's.. certainly not an aesthetic that everyone will appreciate. I don't mind it or the fact it adds some variety to my Fembot shelf.
Head sculpt tracks as well. The original toy featured some weird pirate looking thing and I feel this is a pretty good update of it. Roulette was the more traditional looking Fembot.
Articulation wise, Shadow Striker is pretty much what every other Deluxe is like. Your typical waist and articulation on the limbs are present. In fact, Shadow Striker is slightly better than average as it has wrist rotation, though I suppose this is balanced by the fact the figure does not have a true ankle front/back tilt. But, from the perspective of general posing and what you'd normally see on a Deluxe, she's basically all there.
There's several reasons why people don't like this figure, but the most common one is the shoulders of the robot mode. You'll notice that the arms are actually attached to the back of the figure, as opposed where you'd normally expect to see them. This isn't the first time something like this has happened, but when it does it always gets people upset. In addition to looking weird, this arrangement also has the unfortunate side effect of basically blocking all arm motion backwards.
Transformation itself isn't particularly complicated and you end up with a vehicle mode that is significantly more aggressive looking than its predecessor, though again, you can see where designers drew their inspiration from, though it resembles a Camaro more than a Viper.
It's a chunky, but fun, alt mode.
Paint Application wise, again, the figure doesn't particularly excel, but it doesn't disappoint either. It's really more areas of must paint, and those are done quite well, particularly the face and the Decepticon sigil on the left forearm.
One of the most unfortunate things about this figure is the Build Quality. Not because it's bad, but because so many people passing on this figure will actually miss out on one of the most sturdy, well constructed Transformer Mainline figures that I've held in my hands in a long, long time. Joints are tight, tab and slots align and fit together, there's no misalignment. There is not a single thing that is wrong with the Build on this figure, and I was quite honestly shocked at how well this figure was made.
Undoubtedly, Shadow Striker is one of those "love it or hate it" figures, with perhaps the most unfortunate strike against her being the fact that she doesn't look like a traditional Fembot. It's a shame, really, because wonky shoulders aside, this is actually a pretty neat little toy. It's got pretty much all the articulation you need and is well built.
Definitely worth it if you like a little variety on your shelves.
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