He embodies vision of "surly union guy". Ain't no chance you're getting any overtime out of this boyo. As soon as that bell rings he's dropping whatever he's holding like a hot take and walking.
While he’s short, lacking in possibility, and can only stand or hold his canon but he’s got charm. I really wanna see a legacy deluxe version of armada smokescreen and his minicon is one of the more cooler ones pretty good possibility and a cool design with some extra paint would look amazing
Aaron Archer has actually talked about this guy in the Toy Armada series here on youtube! So if you want his more recent thoughts about it, that's where to go.
Here's a nigh irrelevant fun fact you didn't ask for: Armada Demolishor is one of the privileged few toys of his era that has good knees, and one of even fewer that can kneel properly, that's an accomplishment even today. Turns out his daft looking legs just so happen to have the golden ratio that lets him hold a very stable 'down on one knee' pose, too bad the upper torso lets it down so hard. With just forward and back elbows and shoulders and a waist swivel I guess, you can't really do much more than point off into the distance
Aaron is being too harsh on himself, I loved this toy as a kid. You can use the unfolding action of that incredible crane to launch small objects SO FAR I was 7 when megatron shot a HOLE through this guy on TV and I cried for hours 😭 only so they could resurrect him and sell a new toy... the bastards
i heard smokescreen was going to bite it way ahead of time when I caught up to the episode, had no idea how the show was going to handle a death given how fairly light it had been up to that point oh God it was horrifying, '86 movie level of "he is dead," I felt glad when they almost immediately walked it back the very next episode
Another simple yet great review, Thorough as well. When Armada came out, I was out of a job and still had to support my family. (Not my fault. The president of that company should be able to get parole in a couple of years for what he did.) So collecting was out of the picture for a while. But I did keep track of Transformers at the time. I liked the gimmicks and how well they fit the character. Really a neat little figure.
Long time fan, first time commenter. Messaging from Tokyo, Japan, to say this is another cracking video. I love your work and tell all my friends. You're famous over here too.
This was my first official Transformers figure. I contemplated selling him for a while due to his lousy articulation, but he's just gotten such a big place in my heart that I could never part with him. Great review. I'm happy to see the guy getting some love c:
I’m having to re-watch the video because I’m laughing out loud after being insulted by Gavin and this is the kind of content that I come here for 🫂 thanks pal 🙇♂️
I never realized how similar in the face Armada Smokescreen and EarthSpark Jawbreaker look but they are just those juggernaut-like squat heads on big on shoulders and I love every bit of it lol
Smokescreen’s shoulders slide forward to improve his proportions a little. And how Aaron, how in the world, was Armada Sideswipe not the barrel bottom instead lol
Great review! Thank you! Okay, he's not the best Transformer I've ever seen, but "bottom of the barrel" is a bit harsh, considering some of the other ones I've encountered, watched reviews of, or even bought.
Always loved Smokescreen growing up, he was my first experience with a Transformer, even if I swiftly lost Liftor down some couch or something. Apparently he's infamous as a shelfwarmer, like Injector, but I think that's mad, they're both great :)
My childhood liftor came with 2 left arms, which I can only hypothesize that Aaron Archer bestowing on me for being the biggest armada fan. He also snapped the left leg on smokescreen too but that's the price we pay.
this was the first transformers toy I owned, ripping of the original box and all the guy gets a bad rep due to the difficoulty of posability, but that's all. the toy is perfectly fine for what it is and is sturdy as hell, both litterally and figurativelly. the guy is even a 1;1 to the charather on screen (untill they changed the animation model, twice, adn then killed him, and then revived him in a new and more advanced body only to stay behind a desk and speack 8 words!) the minicon is one of the most complex, some of the bigger figure up to animated wished for such wide articulation! also, the second minicon port, the one the crane rests of in veicle mode, goes on the arm in robot mode, if you put Liftor there, you get a pocker weapon (or if you have a lot of immagination, you turn him around and you get a little pew-pew). man, I'm abslutelly partial in this, but armada smookescreen in my biased opinion needs a legacy treatment. armada starscream and ot shot got it and it borderlines on perfect for them
I was looking at one of these online recently and thinking he looked pretty neat. That face sculpt feels like it belongs in another toy line. Can't place it. Rock Lords maybe. It's great. I want one.
Armada Smokescreen looks like a good transition between old and newer (for the early 2000s) transformers: more focus on fun than action and poseability.
Gavin: what more could you want? Aron Archer: Well….. Also this comment should really be for the other video but Gavin’s built different so I’ll say it here: I wasn’t considering getting legacy Road Hauler at all but ever since Gavin mentioned the funny face he has, I’ve been honestly considering getting it. I’m so glad Gavin isn’t the Transformers sales person because dear god he knows how to speak to me…
Armada is unmatched in charm, really. there are so many figures that could be redone with better articulation and transformation without this necessarily making the original an inferior toy. they're so chunky! i'm pleased we're getting Armada characters now, though, and would be all for some reissues once the BW effort cools down
I assume you don't have Artfire for the reason as me: you REALLY want one, but you can't justify the price tag for a toy you already own + a few extras.
Aaron Archer seemed to confirm to me on Twitter that Hasbro was just slapping old G1 names anywhere they could in order to secure the trademarks, and any explanation he had made over why X new character had Y G1 name (like Armada Wheeljack sounding like a bad guy's name) was simply an off-the-cuff answer to not have to explain this internal process. That said, he still regrets how inappropriate this name was for this figure (Hasbro wouldn't get "Grapple" back for another 15 or so years).
@@ffnbbq Kinda figures, hasbro did seem to have a fair amount of "close enough" names in the 2000s, though it does leave me wondering why the body with the crane arm wasn't called hoist
Well, with this figure I only see 2 options... Ignore it. Or take the minicon and THEM ignore it. Considoring the fackt that that's the only good thing about this figure outside of altmode.
See, that crane cannon gimmick didn't get in the way of anything with the figure. If this was a modern figure it wouldn't have messed with posability or the overall look of the figure in the slightest. When a Transformers figure has gimmicks like that its 100% fine. Its when the gimmicks cause the weapons the figure comes with to be piles of shit, or the figure itself to be built weirdly in areas, and/or lacking in posability, that gimmicks become a problem. Edit: I'm not saying the figures posability was good, it wasn't, but it sure as shit wasn't the cranes fault, or its gimmick.
