Lugnut

We've seen this before, and it's always a bit interesting to see the results: a cartoon character made real. None too bright, but fanatically loyal to Megatron, Lugnut lives to see the Decepticons victorious. He is a literally a force of nature on the battlefield - gravity generators in his fists spawn point singularities on impact, causing massive explosions with each punch. That, combined with his seemingly limitless supply of missiles, makes him a chaotic and deadly opponent - one that most Autobots avoid at all costs. Lugnut, like his fellow Revenge of the Fallen release Lockdown, began life on the underappreciated Transformers Animated. He's available in the final series of movie Voyager figures, and you know what that means: he never showed up in stores. If you want him, you pretty much had to buy online, which is a sure sign of failure. The figure stands 7⅛" tall at the highest, though the shoulders come up much higher than the head. The head, by the way, is very true to the Animated origins: he's got the single giant eye in the center of his face, and smaller eye-spots on the sides. He's even got the large bulky jaw! The eye is lightpiped, but the head is so engulfed by the body that it barely works. The body shares many similarities with the old toy, as well. There are engines on the shoulders, guns on the sides of his chest, and he's got two toes on each foot. Instead of pinchers for hands, he has two fingers and a thumb, but his forearms are still very bulky. Each arm has a spring-loaded feature, too: press the trigger and the hand shoots forward, probably an imitation of the cartoon's Punch of Kill Everything. Additionally, you can raise a missile laucher out of the plane's tail and fire it over Lugnut's head. Converting Lugnut is pretty fun, and easy enough to get the hang of. It's a smooth process, with just enough complexity to keep it from being mundane. click to embiggen His altmode in the cartoon was a heavy bomber, and the same is true here. The plane is based mostly on the B-24 Liberator, but with two jet engines rather than four propellors. The tail is a different shape, but there's no mistaking that nose. Lugnut has a 12¾" wingspan, is 8½" long, and 3¾" tall. There are four rolling wheels on the belly, so he doesn't have retractable landing gear. There are no action features in this mode at all (though I suppose you could put up the missile launcher, if you wanted). The paint apps are nice, with hazard stripes around the air intakes, a "shark mouth" design on the nose, and his name spelt out in the call letters on the wings and tail: "LU-6 NU-7." The rest of the body is green and the glass, like the robot's eyes, is red. Lugnut is a really nice Transformer, which is why it's particularly annoying that he's so hard to come by. Some fans have been lucky enough to find him at closeout stores like Ross or TJ Maxx, but for the rest of us, it's online prices or nothing. click to embiggen -- 07/19/11

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