Kup

Transformers: the Movie introduced a bunch of new robots - and one old one. Sergeant Kup is the oldest soldier any of the Autobots know. Even before the war he was a career military 'bot, dedicated to defending Cybertron against all threats. His long service has supplied him with an endless array of war stories, which he never hesitates to share with his comrades no matter what else is going on. In Generation 1, Kup was a truck of some sort, 1985's idea of what 2005 automobiles would look like. He's still a truck now, but much less crazy. The altmode seems to have been inspired by the Toyota FTX concept pickup truck, and holy Primus, I just this minute understood his name! Kup, picKUP truck, get it? I seriously never noticed that until now. Anyway, there really isn't anything to connect this vehicle visually to the old toy, but that's for the best. The truck is a dark teal, with dark grey for the bumpers. The front grill is silver, and there's an Autobot logo on the hood. The windows, headlights and taillights are all clear plastic, which works better than a tinted version would have. The truck's rear gate folds down, and the truck bed is a darker green than the rest of the body, which is an unusual choice, but certainly not unwelcome. Converting Kup to a robot actually involves some clever engineering, but getting him started is pretty tough - the way the truck doors tuck into the rest of the vehicle makes them tough to pull out (and yes, they're just as hard to work with when you're going back the other direction, so that's something to look forward to). The way his torso flips around is pretty cool, though, and the process of creating his knees seems rather inspired. While there was nothing particularly "Kuppy" about the truck mode, the robot definitely shows its influences. His chest is a game attempt to duplicate the cartoon model, complete with a faux windshield that's never even seen in vehicle mode. He has a grey belt with a yellow buckle, and pointed knees - all things seen on the drawings of Kup, but not the toy. The strongest connection between this Kup and the original is the head. He's wearing his distinctive "hat" thing, and he has the sunken cheeks of an old man. There's some third-party group selling replacement heads, but that really seems like a waste of money - buying two heads will cost you more than the whole figure, and they don't look that different. Save your cash. Kup moves at the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, hips, thighs, knees and ankles. His feet are huge, so they'll support him in even extreme poses. He comes with one accessory, his "laser musket," a sizeable rifle that can be held in either hand. It has a C-clip, so it can be attached to the truck roof, but it usually stores under the chassis and pokes out as his exhaust pipe. Sometime you'll get a toy just because it's been a while since you got one: it seems like the last new shipments of Transformers came out around Christmastime, and we've just been spinning our wheels since then. However, Kup isn't one of those "good because it's been a while," toys, he's legitimately good. There's a little bit of a hitch in his conversion, but we've seen worse. The robot is poseable, he's got a good accessory, and the altmode is nifty. Kup's really hard to find, but he's worth the effort. -- 04/19/11

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