| 05.20.2018 – Kup is a War Hero who is an old microchip of the block. If you’re turbo-revvin’ punk he doesn’t want anything with that. The vetran war hero like telling tall tales and Grimlock’s favourite Petro-rabbits are some of the interesting things about Kup as the character, now as a toy that had very few versions is something to look at.
Introduced as part of the fourth wave of Deluxe Class assortment, Sergeant Kup comes with Flintlock (formerly Recoil, Trademark issues), which transforms into his head a Titan Master that can “drive” Kup in vehicle mode or man the two guns that form the rear turret of the Cybertronian vehicle mode the latest rendition of a retro picKUP truck. |
By the time 2018 rolled in the Prime Wars Trilogy was in its tail-end with the Power of the Primes series, and there was so little to see in retail other than the previous series assortment going off on clearance in select stores in South Australia. There’s not much you can find on the pegs other than the previous line of Titan Returns assortment figures that are going on clearance.
Kup is one of those semi-peg warmers because he’s not the “most wanted” figure. But for those who missed it on the original release, this one found in the Australian retail was sort of a lucky find on a discount. This Autobot is not a tertiary character, Kup appeared in the 1986 animated movie being the old sage to Hot Rod, and the one who wants to burn rubber underneath the Sharkticon pit with the young cavalier.
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Blistery Artsy Packaging
Like most figures released from the previous Primes Wars Trilogy, Sergeant Kup and Flintlock are packaged in the standard blister card back in robot mode. To maximize the limited use of the packing there’s art on the side of the bubble featuring Kup’s gruff smug about to “head-on” to his body, which is similar art for the flap on top of the blister. At the back, multilingual information about the character as well as the Titan Master compatibility to others with Voyager and Leader Class assortments.
Besides the image of the toy’s robot and vehicle mode, there are also product cross-sell images explaining the other size class that’s now rare with other toy brands. The artworks make up most of the toy’s identity for those who don’t watch animation or read comic books featuring the character. The figure and its accessories are held in a blister tray by tiny plastic wires as compared to the soft rattan ones from the previous toy line that was known.
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Robot Mode | Old Muscled-up Kup
Minus the Cigar chompin’ look, Kup is a very brightly coloured Autobot based on his appearance in All-Hail Megatron Maxi-Series artwork by Guido Guidi published by IDW publication. The head sculpt doesn’t look like a grumpy old man, but with that smile that doesn’t look like very much a Kup of Tea character that you know about that talks about his experiences during those tall tale war stories of his.
The bright colours certainly were inspired by his original 1987 toy, and it is a contrast to the Titan Returns version of Blurr in dark blue. Kup comes with two blasters that can be joined together to become a two-barreled weapon that a Titan Master can sit on when it is attached separately (pegs inside what would become the rear of the truck bed) to the back of his vehicle mode (more of this later). But in robot mode, it can be stored on the back as there are two 5mm ports to attach, and can be his jetpack.
The front and back of the robot mode aesthetics make him muscular, but turn him on the sides he’s just flat that needs the two-barreled blaster attached to Kup’s back to add some heft to his aging robot body. But this latest rendition of the old workhorse Autobot is well-articulated when he does the action poses.
Featured Articulation:
- Head can rotate, but limited to look up
- Ball-Jointed Shoulders
- Swivel lower shoulder
- Elbows can fold to the Shoulder
- Limited Wrist Joint
- Rotating Waist
- Swivel Upper leg
- No Rocking Ankles
Transformation | Things don’t Tab Together
The step-by-step manual lets you transform Kup into his familiarly futuristic truck that involves a majority of folding arms to the cabin, and most of the solid legs engineering into the vehicle’s side panels and wheels in 18 steps are something impressively different at the same time a bit of challenging on the tabbing part, where you all attach both sides needs care and patience not to have heavy-handed or forcing them to take the vehicle form.
Vehicle Mode | Futuristic Truck
You can never go wrong when you try to squint and remember what Kup looks like in the 1986 animated movie. He transforms into a futuristic Cybertronic pick-up truck with the weapons split off and stored at the truck’s bed with individual 5 mm ports that could have been worked on to become a rear turret for the Titan Master.
The vehicle mode doesn’t look like what you’d expect, which is inspired by the original toy. But more like a little bit of a cartoony appearance that takes a lot of the cabin and the arms and less of the truck’s bed and it looks wider than a sleeker futuristic truck that most used to know of the character.
But it still has the details including rounded headlights painted in yellow, and light blue tinted windows showing Flintlock “driving” Kup is enough to give you the Diaclone vibes of Takara Tomy’s beginnings on how they produced those old pre-Transformers robots with pilots having magnetic feet in them.
Futuristic Truck Mode Features:
- Flintlock can seat inside the cabin
- Tinted Blue Windows
- Detailed Wheels
- Painted yellow headlights
- Dual Blasters can be pegged separately on the truck bed
Overall, Kup is something of a fun figure to have despite the 2011 version from Generations was still a favourite character despite taking the form of a classic earthen pickup truck. The proportions of the vehicle mode being a bit cartoony it was still considered the “Perfect Kup” for its time, which the Takara Tomy version would improve on some parts of the figure (new arms and head), and still retain the misassembled leg panels that plague the following renditions of this figure.
Titan Returns | Deluxe Class Sergeant Kup with Flintlock was sold on clearance in general retail in South Australia and was acquired at Big W in Armada Arndale in Kilkenny, which was originally retailed at:
$ 25.00 AUD | ₱ 950.00 Pesos | $ 17.58 USD
Currently on Clearance Retail at:
$ 18.00 AUD | ₱ 692.64 Pesos | $ 12.66 USD
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