Dirge, oh Dirge.  Nobody loves you but me.

Dirge was my very first ever Transformer figure over 30 years ago and as such he holds a special place in my heart.  For others not so much, arguably the least popular Conehead.  He only ever used his special power of fear-inducement once (as far as I can remember) to freak out Silverbolt in a Marvel Comic and he even committed suicide when getting eaten by The Swarm in the G2 Comics.  In IDW he has done a bit better for himself, even becoming a central character to a plot line that extended for some time.  But whether you like Dirge or not, here he is – perhaps the last outing for the Masterpiece Seeker mold.  He comes with a very hefty price tag – let’s see if he is worth it.

 

Robot Mode

Despite being pretty much the same figure, for some reason Dirge strikes me as less stocky than say MP Thrust (for a review see HERE).  The colours are quite good though I would have preferred to see a pure black like the toy rather than dark grey like the cartoon.  He has the guns that most of the Seekers shared in the cartoon but these can be covered by bigger guns to resemble the machine guns that the toy had.  These have been retooled from MP Ramjets rockets so are slightly different but overall look too big and bulky (which they need to be cover the null rays) and resemble missiles rather than machine guns.  Dirge is as poseable as any of the other MP seekers but there have been no real improvements.  At least the missile racks built into his chest make sense as opposed to the likes of some other Seekers since he actually did deploy missiles from there in at least one episode of the cartoon (The Girl who loved Powerglide).

 

 

Vehicle Mode

A faithful representation of the character from both the G1 cartoon and the toy.  Dirge has the Decepticon emblem on his nosecone that the toy had but the ones on his wings are smaller than both the original toy and its cartoon depiction.  The guns can be repositioned under the wings but again they really needed to be smaller.  You can put (yet another) holographic pilot in the cockpit but I really would have preferred to see Shawn Berger, since he appeared in two episodes and did go for a ride in Dirge at one point.  Given the huge price point and the fact we are getting a range of different humans in the Autobot line, I think a little Berger figure was warranted (but then maybe not – really rich guys using their power and fame to gain high political office seems to be a bit of a sore point these days).

 

Overall

This is the most expensive MP Seeker figure to date that wasn’t a variant of one that has already been done.  That combined with the fact that Dirge was not hugely popular means that this will be a miss for a lot of folk.  But if you are a MP or Seeker completionist or otherwise, like me, are one of the few Dirge fans out there then this is a nice way to end the Masterpiece Seeker line and will complete your collection nicely.

 

 

Got something you want to say about this figure?  Would love to read it in the comments section below!