This ain’t Sentinel’s ride.

Sentinel Prime doesn’t deserve it. Hasbro apparently thought the same thing so they packaged Roller with the Ark instead of Sentinel. Good move Hasbro.

Playsets aren’t really a thing in Transformers anymore since the Legends/Legion class has been left on the wayside. Well, I’ve unearthed the Ark and we may as well take a look at this relic from a bygone era.

Autobot Ark

Vehicle mode

Now the Ark looks pretty close to what you see in the movie, if a bit simplified. What’s disappointingly not accurate though is the size and scale of the Ark; in the movie, the head of the ship fit a whole crew of Autobots. Here on the actual toy, only one Legends/Legion Transformer can fit in the cockpit.

The Ark has a lot of molded detail but is a bit scarse on paint. I don’t usually harp on the differences between the details in Bayverse and G1 but the Ark would have benefitted a lot from a brighter colour scheme. All the grey just looks boring and drab.

For playability, the guns on the back can swivel as well as go up and down. The cockpit opens and you can sit a Legends/Legion figure inside. And one of the guns fires a missile; only one.

There’s light and sound action in this mode but I’ll cover that in the gimmicks section.

Transformation

The Ark has a nifty Automorph style gimmick. Pulling out both sides of the ship raises the base mode tower automatically. The rest of the transformation is dead simple opening up of panels to reveal parts of the base.

Base mode

Now usually base modes get a bad rep for being half-hearted but the Ark looks like something that’s meant to be stayed in. Well, apart from the fact that it has no walls or a roof.

There’s a bunch of sections and stuff here. A watchtower, a prison cell, a space bridge, a medic bay, multiple gun emplacements and even a deployment ramp.

Also, it’s not in the instructions but you can hook up all the Cyberverse playsets from DOTM with the Ark. There’s pegs and holes on the sides of the base mode for it.

Autobot Roller

Vehicle mode

Roller is a rather convincing moon buggie. He’s detailed well and from anywhere but straight underneath he looks great.

For playability, Roller has tiny rolling wheels on the bottom of his treads. His arm emplacement thing also moves from side to side. The solar panel (?) as well as control panel also move up and down.

Transformation

The transformation is about what you’d expect from a Legends/Legion Transformer. Simple and to the point.

Robot mode

Roller is supposed to be one of the generics on the Ark at the beginning of DOTM but he’s pretty unique looking for a generic. He’s got a big, Hulk arm and has a really eye catching colour scheme.

Roller has quite a bit of posability for a Legends/Legion. His right arm rotates forward and back. The right elbow bends inward. His left arm is ball-jointed at the shoulder. He has ball-jointed hips and bending knees.

Gimmicks

The Ark is full of neat doohickeys for your Cyberverse/Legends/Legions Transformers to mess around with.

Starting in vehicle mode, there’s one gun that has a firing missile. The other gun just stores the spare missile. Seriously, would it have killed Hasbro to put in two spring-loaded guns?

For lights and sounds, pressing the orange button on top of the Ark lights up the two guns below the cockpit while they make firing noises. Putting a figure inside the cockpit makes the Ark play powering up and lifting off noises.

In base mode, the prison cell at the back is spring-loaded, the medic bay has a swivelling arm and the gun emplacement parts can be removed then rearranged however you like; they have 5mm handles.

For lights and sounds, pressing the round button on the front makes the gun turret in the middle of the base light up and make firing noises; the turret also can swivel around. The ramp on the front also lights up and makes noise when you put a vehicle on it; you can use the trigger on the side to launch the vehicle off the ramp.

Last thing; transforming the Ark activates the iconic transformation sound effect and the lights.

Toy or collectible?

Both.

The Ark is pretty uncommon these days but it’s still pretty reasonably priced used or new. In fact, you can get the set new for the same retail price as back in 2011 which is about RM120 ($30). Compared to the stuff aimed at kids that’s being released nowadays, that’s a steal.

The Ark is a well done and most importantly fun playset. The fact it comes with Roller means kids don’t need anyone else to have fun with this set but having more Legends/Legion bros certainly doesn’t hurt.

Adult collectors who enjoy Legends scale figures will get a kick out of this set. The fact that more and more collectors are getting into the Legends scale stuff means that they’d probably want a house for their toys right?

Closing

I really, really like messing with the Ark. On paper this is a very simple playset but besides the dull colours on the Ark, it’s done way better than you’d expect it to be.

Transforming playsets should be a staple of Transformers. I really hope that the next Transformers toyline aimed at the younger set centres itself around playsets and Legion sized Transformers. It’d be better than some of the stuff we recently got….