Legacy???  Is out??? In stores now???  They told us JULY.  Because of COVID probably.  But here's "Prime Universe Bulkhead," sure enough, bought in a local Target.  Transformers Legacy, this year's Transformers toyline, says it's about a bunch of different guys from other universes visiting the G1 guys or something like that, and so this is Bulkhead from Transformers Prime.

Apparently when you step into Generation One, your limbs become boxes and whatnot, as this is a classic-look reimagining of the character, rather than an attempt at recreating the original character model.  I have a First Edition Bulkhead, meaning I'm fine with this different take, but those of you who don't and wanted a more traditional Prime Bulkhead, I'm sorry!  Everything's all G1 now, even the stuff that isn't.  So sorry.  

He's actually pretty surprisingly complex despite how he looks!  Like, you look at him and think, okay, he kind of stands up and transforms and that's it, right?  Naw.  His crotch breaks apart into like six pieces and rearranges.  His entire arms tuck inside his chest.  His legs are full of vehicle parts!  There are many tabs and slots!  But it's not complex in a way that hates you, which is good.  He's just got a lot more going on than you'd think.  

Prime Universe Bulkhead comes with two weapons -- an Energon gatling blaster that pegs into his shoulder and his trademark wrecking ball, which opens up and closes around his fist.  Both of these can stow in the truckbed under his tarp in vehicle mode.  Also, his tarp can come off and attach to his arm as a shield.  If you want to do that.  It doesn't need to be removed during transformation, so I haven't really bothered yet.  I like adding the shapes to his torso's silhouette.

This toy is good?  Yeah, I like it.  I wanna get a second one, swap his head for Hound's, and make myself a Big Red.  We'll see.  

I'm auctioning my Takara-release First Edition Bulkhead!  He has lots of Reprolabels applied.  This Bulkhead's a darker, more metallic green than the domestic version, so if that floats your boat, maybe you want this dude.

When news hit that most of the "First Edition" toys weren't gonna be making it into the United States, I was out a Bulkhead (and some other things).  A day or so later, Big Bad Toy Store put up a preorder for a restock of the Takara figure.  I threw that into my stash, sort of hoping I'd find an alternative in the meantime.  But the preorder got restocked sooner than I thought it might (it's February already???) and now I have a Japanese Bulkhead.

Given the choice, I would have gone for the American version.  I think its lighter, oliver green looks more accurate, and I was afraid the shiny finish would stand out too much from my other figures.  In person, I don't mind the darker, more forest green as much as I'd feared.  It's not ideal, but it's not as conspicuous as the sparkly gold Takara Animated Bumblebee I have.  (Eep.)

The toy itself is crazy, possibly in an awesome way.  Bulkhead transforms from a pretty small SUV for a Voyager Class toy into a huge ball of a robot.  It's like he explodes into something twice his mass.  (So probably exactly what he does in the cartoon.)  Part of this is because the robot mode compresses as much as possible into vehicle mode.  I don't think there's a sizable gap anywhere inside.  And the transformation unwinds the vehicle into this multidirectional ticker tape of plastic which reassembles into the surface area of a torso with limbs.  Bulkhead's got a spine back there, but most of his gut is empty air.  The way the panels form the torso's surface area is amazing.  Everything goes where it should according to the animation, with doors on top of panels on top of other panels, but the animation makes it look implausible.  And yet here we are.

It is not a simple toy.  Its complexity approaches the event horizon of Oh My God Why, but pulls back just short of being an annoying mess.  My awe in its engineering manages to eclipse any potential rage.  I'm not sure exactly where that particular threshold is, but this toy really skirts it.  Well, maybe flirts with it is more accurate.  Its complexity is playful.

Which is all heartbreaking, because I want to recommend the toy, but it's not an easy toy to come by.  I hope it gets released somewhere for cheap so others can share my infatuation.

And hopefully by then there'll be a Miko to buy to hang out with him.