Transformers Week Reviews Generations Sergeant Kup

Even though the alt mode is relatively (and appropriately) plain, Kup’s robot mode is complex and nicely done. The best thing about it is that it’s a cool approximation of his classic look.

The big thing I don’t like about doing Transformers in text reviews is that I don’t have a good way to show the transformation. Kup’s is fairly straightforward. The arms and legs pop out and go into position pretty easily, but I do have a little trouble with the chest. It’s simple in theory – you pop the hood/roof and rotate it around to being a backpack, the spring-activated fenders go into position, and the head pops up. That works fine for me, but in reverse, I have a hard time getting Kup’s head out of the way and holding the spring-loaded fenders aside to get the hood back into place. It’s not super-difficult, but it can be annoying trying to get all the little tabs exactly where you want ’em.

Once everything is rotated the right way, you end up with a nice Kup figure. The only kibble that you might find bothersome is on the arms because the “doors” are designed to stick out further than his hands. After some experimenting, there’s really no better place to put them that I can find. I almost wish they were attached in a less permanent way so I could pop ’em off and sit ’em aside until I wanted to make him a truck again.

While the overall figure looks pretty snazzy hanging out with my other Movie/Generations figures, I just don’t like the head sculpt. I know I might be in the minority because I’ve seen plenty of praise, but to me it just looks… odd. It’s got a lot of nice and accurate details, but his mouth is just too agape, it looks like Kup has just seen something that can’t be unseen and that’s not possible for Kup. He looks speechless and we all know that Kup is almost never speechless.

Articulation is really nice on Kup. His transformation gives him very mobile arms with ball shoulders and elbows and swivel biceps and wrists. His legs are similarly done with ball-jointed hips, thigh swivel, and hinges at the knee and ankle (with a slight tilt in those ankles). Kup also features a ball-jointed head – for awhile I thought I’d got screwed and ended up with a bobble headed Kup, but it turned out that I just hadn’t pulled the head far enough forward. It’s a little weird, but the head can be pushed back without popping off and end up being loose. If you’ve got this problem, just pull the head forward on the peg and it should snap into its proper place.

There is a planned third-party 2pk of Kup heads (one with a cigar and one doing a good Sgt. Rock impersonation). I was going to buy these back when I thought I had a bobble head Kup, but now I’m not as sure. They’d still be a cool update, buy my Kup is no longer defective an I find myself less inclined to part with the $15. Weโ€™ll seeโ€ฆ

The paint was okay on Kup. Mine ended up with not quite enough paint on his belt buckle, but other than that he turned out well enough. I really like the choice of green used and I’m even happier that he got a tampoed Autobot symbol instead of heat sensitive sticker.

Overall, Kup turned out to be another kickass Generations figure. I wasn’t that thrilled with the weird arm panels, the head sculpt, and a few other nitpicks here and there, but I was satisfied with the overall figure. He looks great in his alt mode and he’s got a G1 inspired bot mode with plenty of articulation. That’s about as good as it gets when it comes to Transformers. This wave with him and Scourge is one of the best to come out of Generations yet.

It’s also nice to finally have a Kup toy. Now he can bore all the other Transformers on my shelves with his old war stories.

For more Transformers Reviews, check out our Review Index.

21 thoughts on “Transformers Week Reviews Generations Sergeant Kup

  1. Thanks for the great review and the bobblehead tip! My Kup has the same problem but thanks to you I now know how to fix it without glue or screwdrivers (good thing I’m lazy enough not to have busted them out yet lol).

    I was disappointed by the arm panels too. I wish they could have been attached to the legs somehow and just folded over or something. I don’t mind arm panels, in general, as long as they’re not overly-obstructive, which these kind of are. Instead of a head kit, maybe someone can make an awesome arm kit that takes care of those panels for us. Hey, you can’t blame a guy for hoping!

    It’s also too bad they didn’t paint the exhaust pipe to match the gun, that would have been a nice touch. I guess I should just be glad they’re not price-jacking like Mattel. $17.99 for a DCUC? Get bent, Matty!

    1. I was annoyed at Kup’s bobbleheadness for the first couple days until I figured out it could slide forward!

      Having them fold down on the legs would’ve been great! An arm kit would be hilarious.

      Good point on the other exhaust pipe! Hasbro seems to keep costs down in the paint department…

  2. Great job! I’m looking forward to your transformers reviews! Hopefully, we finally see Jazz & Tracks.

    I really liked Kup. I think this is the best version of him ever. And I like the head sculpt too. He looks great in that yelling pic at the top.

  3. Bah weep gragnah weep nini bong to you too!!

    Works every time… ๐Ÿ˜€ ๐Ÿ˜€

    Love the review and love the Kup quote on the banner. I can’t wait to see what you’ve got lined up!

    1. ๐Ÿ˜€ Glad someone got that. Vault has Blurr up now, and then we’ll have three more recent TFs to look at to close out the week…

  4. Great review and I’m looking forward to the rest this week.

    One suggestion: you might want to address the Japanese United version of these figures in case there’s others (like me) that are crazy enough to fork over 3X the amount of dough for paint apps that are more accurate to the G1 Cartoon. For Kup, they gave him a metallic paint job:
    http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/3/38/Unitedtoy-Kup.jpg

    Oh and I think I will end up getting the 3rd party head molds.

    1. That’s a great point on the United. I know that will definitely be coming up in one of the reviews…

      I think this Kup works better than the United version though. It doesn’t happen often but he doesn’t seem as improved.

      I think I’ll end up getting the 3rd party heads too.

  5. Ah, the week of Transformery goodness begins here as promised! I look forward to yours and Vault’s thoughts on these guys. I think that if anything, a week’s worth of reviews of recent Transformers will highlight how spoiled us Transformers fans are, as Hasbro’s really been on a roll, arguably for a couple years now regarding G1 themed figures.

    I’m glad that you mentioned the IDW take on the character, as his more Wrecker-ish tendencies and grit make him a lot more interesting to me as a character. I’m not a fan of characters reduced simply for comedic value – I like that his experience is a bigger trait of his nowadays, much like how I hated how the cartoon always used Grimlock as more of a clown than a a$$-kicking machine.

    1. The only thing I miss is that I don’t have a lot of the figures from the previous releases. I don’t know where I was at the time…

      Agreed on IDW they’re really helping the TFs to grow up… for the most part.

  6. I like rubber tires too but they usually deteriorate a lot faster than regular plastic.

    1. I only have a handful of my old 80s TFs around and the tires on them are still good. Course they used better plastics back then too…

  7. I still have yet to open Wreck-Gar, Jazz, and Scourge, but Kup is easily my favorite entry for this round of “Classics” figures and in my top ten overall.

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