Darksteel (DOTM)

Darksteel is a Decepticon from the Dark of the Moon portion of the live-action film series continuity family.

Snakeman! Call Dennis Quaid!

Darksteel is dark and presumably made of steel. Tarnation! He was trained on Cybertron as a master swordsman, and although he's still capable of utilizing blasters, he doesn't trust them. There's nothing else with the killing power or reliability of a good blade.

Toys

Dark of the Moon

• Darksteel (MechTech Deluxe, 2011)
  • Accessories: 2 MechTech Cannons/Swords

Part of the fifth wave of Dark of the Moon MechTech Deluxe Class toys, Darksteel is a retool of MechTech Deluxe Sideswipe, with a new head and new weapons. Darksteel changes into a Corvette Stingray concept convertible in very dark brown with a teal flame deco. The interior is highly detailed, with seats, dashboard and steering wheel all molded into the compartment, though it's missing its floorboards.

He comes with retooled versions of Starscream's MechTech weapons, with one weapon being static and the other being functional. Both weapons are double-sided, featuring a cannon barrel (which looks like a machine-gun barrel) on one side and a "sword" on the other. Pushing forward the scope on the functional weapon will cause the sword weapon to extend, increasing its reach. The peg and cannon barrel on the static weapon correspond to the peg-hole and the hole of the scope of the functional weapon, meaning his weapons can combine to form a long, double-sided bladed weapon. This means that he is one of the few Deluxe figures to have a MechTech weapon that can remain locked in both modes.

This retool changes the appearance of the weapons, with the static weapon gaining a second blade and now resembling snake fangs, and the functional weapon now resembling a scorpion's stinger. Additionally, the lever and the slide mechanism, which were originally two separate pieces, are now molded as a single piece. The holes and the pegs used to combine the two weapons have also been widened, making the static "fangs" weapon incapable of combining with the original version of the spring-loaded weapon. One could still combine the original static weapon with this version's spring-loaded "stinger" weapon, however.

The packaging stock photography shows his stinger weapon painted the same red-orange as his fangs weapon, when the final product leaves it unpainted.

The static weapon's cannon barrel is slightly longer than the hole it's meant to combine with, meaning that it's pegged a bit crookedly.

In Japan, this figure was a BIC Camera exclusive released in September for 3,150 yen (approximately $40 US at then-current conversion rates).

Notes

• As revealed at BotCon 2011, Darksteel is an intentional homage to Beast Wars Quickstrike. This occurred because designer Lenny Panzica likes snakes.
• Darksteel's name was originally announced at BotCon 2011 as Dark Iron (possibly Darkiron). Evidently plans changed at some point in production.
• Darksteel's instruction sheet incorrectly refers to him as an Autobot.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Darksteel (ダークスチール Dākusuchīru)