Masterpiece Ramjet

The Seekers present a dilemma for me. The Autobot cars are small enough that repaints and remolds are easy to cram onto my shelves. The Seekers are much larger, with wing bits that make finding space a little difficult. That said, I have to have the complete set of six characters, plus the Rainmakers. When Ramjet was announced, I was ecstatic.

He's a heavily modified F-15 Eagle. The color choices make for a pretty striking looking aircraft. He retains the radar dish inside the foldout nosecone, a deployable airbrake, and retractable landing gears. The canopy opens to reveal a nicely detailed cockpit. He has an additional pair of thrusters that are probably his namesake. My inner child had fun flying him around making swooshing noises, while my real children shake their heads in embarrassment.

Transformation is pretty much the same as before. The only change is the cockpit. Unlike the faux cockpit of Generations Jetfire, the nosecone on his head comes from the hollowed out insides of the jet's nosecone. Takara has modified what to do with the rest of cockpit and back panel, but not in a good way. Getting into jet mode, the legs and head are easy to get into position, but the arms and fuselage can be fiddly to line up all the pegs and ports.

The mold is almost the same as all the previous Seekers. The wings are obviously redesigned. His head sculpt now has the expected cone shape. The redesign of the nosecone and cockpit is done in a most unfortunate manner. The seat no longer makes room for the back panel to collapse inwards and peg to the nosecone. The whole thing just kind of flops loosely in the back. Except for the nosecone sticking past the crotch, it's not really that visible from the front. However, from the back and the sides, there is a huge visible gap where the back should be.

His head is on a ball joint. His shoulders are on ratcheted swivels and hinges. He swivels at the biceps and wrists. His fingers are ball jointed at the thumbs and the base of the fingers. Like the previous Seekers, the pointing fingers are separate from the rest and all the fingers have an unfortunate habit of popping off at the articulated first knuckles because they are just held in by little nubs. His elbows and knees are double jointed with ratchets in the knees. I don't believe he has any waist rotation. If he does, it is severely limited. His hips are on ratcheted universal joints. His thigh rotation is somewhat hindered by his wings and back kibble, especially if the missile pods are pegged to the wings instead of his null rays. His toes are on swivels and hinges. His heel spurs are just on hinges. On my copy, the heel spurs don't do much to keep him from toppling backward. I rely on the thrusters to keep him upright. His null rays are on ball joints.

His accessories include two large canons and a clear plastic pilot. The pilot can probably stay in the cockpit during transformation because it now lacks the step of rotating the seat. The two canons can stay pegged to the wings, which hinders his articulation to a large degree. I prefer to attach them to his null rays. He does not come with a flight stand.

I will display Ramjet on my Masterpiece shelf, but my enthusiasm for the rest of the Coneheads has been severely dampened because of the badly designed back. I'll still pick up Dirge and Thrust so I can complete the set. If Toyworld's Coneheads didn't seem so oversized, I would switch to them.