[Toy Review] Autobot Intel Ops sports some cool accessories

Christmas is coming, and if you’re wondering whether to pick up that Autobot Intel Ops set you’ve been seeing around – I hope this post answers your questions! Hasbro sent this over really long ago, and I’m really really late in taking a look at it (what with the vagaries of work and all). So here’s a look at this reissue of Blaster and Perceptor!

With Spectre out recently, it might be time for you to re-enact some Transformer spy goodness. So who better to play Q and to an extent, M, than Blaster and Perceptor?

Bumblebee would be Bond, of course, since chicks dig him. But he’s not here. Maybe you could use Eject instead?

The set is packaged in a really organised way that really shows off all the accessories – include some new ones for Perceptor. Can you spot them?

There’s a “cargo manifest” on the bottom of the packaging.

And the sides sport the new Autobot logos that are reminiscent of the Elite Guard’s own symbol.

And here they are! All fresh and minty.

Here’s everything, and do you spot some microscope slides?

We’ll take a look at Blaster first.

Blaster

Blaster’s probably one of the biggest G1 Autobots around, which is weird considering he was more of a support role than a bruiser.

I wonder if he can emit sonic blasts through his shins.

So here’s Blaster from the side.

And the other side.

Yipes I forgot to extend his arms I think

Here’s Blaster ejecting one of his cassettes.

And with one of his cassettes ready to launch.

I wonder if people still sell boom boxes? In any case, it would be a very large Autobot that could carry Blaster like this.

He looks unidentifiable from the side.

You can try to put batteries inside.

And more of his other side here.

Flip the switch!

Blaster would have some really big cassettes if he were to scale as a boombox.

Some shots of his accessories, and those of his fellow cassette bots.

And the less pretty side of it. They’re all chrome though!

Cassettes

From left to right – Eject (blue), Ramhorn (brown), Steeljaw (yellow).

I wonder if their alternate modes are obsolete on Cybertron now.

Or most likely, they’re just Micro SD cards now.

They could possibly be just regular thumb drives too.

But what would their capacity be?

Probably a few TBs. They are highly advanced, after all.

It’s weird how they’re only in disguise on one side. What if the bad guy flips them over?

Here’s Eject, raring to go!

Size-wise, the cassettes could only really fight other cassettes.

But one cassette had to be made first, right? They didn’t all get created simultaneously.

So when there was only one cassette around, who did he fight?

Or did they really just have only spying functions?

But if they were only meant for spying, what was Bumblebee created for?

Even weirder are the animal cassettes.

Why were they created? Wouldn’t a humanoid spy be more effective?

Oddly, Steelajaw’s non-painted side looks more like a lion than the other side.

So back to the question – what’s the raison d’etre of the animal cassettes?

I guess only Primus knows.

Steeljaw really is quite a nifty piece of work though.

And here’s Ramhorn, who probably doesn’t need firepower going by his name.

He’s quite fierce looking.

You would expect him to be grumpy looking though, since he’s a rhino and all.

But if he rams anyone, it’d really just be in the shins, rather than the body.

Wagging his tail at ya!

Ramhorn’s a really slim rhino, when you think about it.

Perceptor

Percecptor looks pretty buff and armed in this incarnation, considering he’s a scientist.

Wonder what he’d be like if he had an anime accurate face?

It’s amazing how a microscope can become a giant blaster.

He has a slight Megatron-ish vibe to him in robot mode.

But that’s probably because of his giant cannon. Megatron’s not red after all.

Just in case airborne Decepticons need some help, Perceptor is an Autobot. Case closed.

And here we have his microscope mode, probably the most famous of the support Autobots since there’s purely no offensive capability in this mode.

Instructions depict his legs folded in another way, but I’m following the box art’s transformation here.

Wonder whether Perceptor goes around checking out random bits of drivel.

His back looks more high tech and futuristic… although most of that is just imaginary, of course.

You can try and put some of your leftover lunch to see what it looks like under the lens.

Can Perceptor become a spyglass instead? That would be most useful if he were one of Cannonball’s crew.

And now, for his tank mode! Contrary to what many Buzzfeed or 9Gag articles would have you think, Perceptor does have a useful mode, which is a tank.

Granted, it’s not the most believable of tanks.

But it does mean that he can actually hold his own in a fight.

So yeah! Don’t diss poor Perceptor. He can hold up in the war against the Decepticons.

It’s just that he’s the only scientist around, so the Autobots have him perform that function instead (who else would they call, really?). There are many other tanks around if they need one.

Perceptor’s actually a triple changer! If you think about it.

Here’s his guns. One of them was meant to fire missiles, though not in this rendition of the toy.

It would be cooler if his lens could fire missiles, but that would probably mean someone would shoot it into their eye in microscope mode by accident.

And here’s what all of you have been waiting for – Perceptor’s new accessories!

This is actually a microscope slide holder, but when Perceptor wears it in bot mode, it looks like an ammo back pack.

It’s really cool when Hasbro adds new accessories like this to re-issues.

It’s more playability, and come on, do you have microscope slides handy at home to play with Perceptor? Don’t think so, right?

The crate look makes it look like a weapon of war.

Perceptor could detonate it like a real weapons cache if he wanted to.

It has pegs for you to hook on to Perceptor’s back.

And here are his microscope slides!

So, will you be getting the Autobot Intel Ops set for Christmas?