TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

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The Reverend's review: QUINT-01

Name: Quintesson Judge (QUINT-01)
Function: Judge

(text from packaging, not corrected for punctuation or grammar)
"WAR, WRATH, WISDOM, DEATH, JUDGEMENT. These are the five faces that make up a Quint. Their only purpose to eliminate those who threaten their being. In spite of having five faces no matter which voice speaks, generally, the verdict ends up being the same "Innocent!" Generally a nomadic race, the Quints way is to invade and colonize new worlds, In order to do so, they have created robotic slaves, in which they use on the battlefield. Their goal is to recreate their homeworld on each planet they invade."

The Quintessons - who are they? The creators of all Transformers? The minions of Unicron? Pointless deux ex machina? An idea which only found public exposure because its main backer was banging a key corporate executive? Frankly, the argument that sometimes ensues over this is enough to drive me away, as I would prefer to enjoy the fine things in life such as beer and the pleasant company of the ladies instead of quibbling over issue numbers and writers' intent. So whatever your particular interpretation of the Quintessons is, Impossible Toys put out this figure of the iconic "Judge" (aka "Egghead") types first seen in the animated film.

The figure comes packaged in an attractive box with obvious throwbacks to G1 packaging (the "Function" graphic block, the background grid, etc) and a handsomely drawn Quintesson Judge adorning a side or two, plus a bio section (with Tech Spec ratings), photos of the five faces and the figure itself, proclaiming "FIVE SUPER DETAILED FACES" and "WITH LIGHT UP ACTION!". The figure itself requires some easy assembly, but it consists of the "egg" shaped body with attachable faces, four thin grey tentacles streaming out its underside, multiple thin antennae on top (I should have glued these in, they all fell out and disappeared in a move), a clear plastic energy beam stand/base. A button on the top of the body turns on a red LED that lights up the energy stand - the LED isn't particularly bright, but it looks excellent in low light.

As a depiction of the "Judge" character, this is a pretty good one. The body features circuitry-like etching all over its upper half, with the oval "wart" like markings on the bottom, just like their animation model. Each tentacle ends in a small cylindrical "knob" and is semi-flexible - while they won't stand up overhead on their own, they still look "right". The "energy beam stand" features lots of little bumps and spikes instead of just being a straight, smooth plastic piece, which helps somewhat with the illumination feature. And, as promised on the box, the faces are rendered in nice detail - the painting is off in a couple spots, but overall they're very close ringers to the animation version. The "Death" face may be a disappointment to some, though, as the outer eyes and teeth are painted in a sickly yellowish pus color that doesn't quite look right. Oh yeah, and take my advice and put a dab of glue on those antennae before you stick them in their slots. Please. Scale-wise, the judge is about the same height as most of the 1984 G1 cars - roughly six inches. Although the animated Quints probably never appeared the same size twice in relation to the robot characters, I'll still say he's a size that looks nice with them... well, except Galvatron, who really seems pointlessly large to me. Because of the way the bulbous body fits into the stand, he CAN sort of rotate on it, although not gracefully. I kind of wish his stand or the very bottom of his body was a free-spinning joint because of this, but that probably would have driven the price up exponentially. Still, he stands well - an earthquake or rough handling can knock him off his stand, but left undisturbed he stays up without issue.

(My cat is patting curiously at the tentacles right now, actually.)

Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation: N/A.
Durability: 4/10. Somewhat delicate, but it's reeeally more of a display piece.
Fun: 3/10. Again, it's not really meant for play, although you COULD.
Price: 3/10. Got it for $30 a year or so ago. Looks like they're going for less now - BBTS has them at $19.99 at the moment.
Summary: 5/10. You know, it's not really a must-have... but it's kinda cool. I don't think I want any of the other Quint figures Impossible has produced, but I'm glad I got this one. If you're particularly endeared to the animated film or the post-movie episodes, I'd say you should take advantage of the lowered pricing and grab one up.