Midnighter XR-4

Midnighter XR-4 is a Decepticon Real Gear Robot from the Transformers portion of the movie continuity family.

Do you understand me? I hate you. I want to torture you. I want to leave doctors puzzling for years over how I’ve done the things I want to do to you.

If Autobot Intelligence tells you that Midnighter XR-4 is planning to attack you at noon... well, go ahead and take a long lunch. He somehow manages to be late for anything and everything he plans. Ironically, because he's so obsessed with punctuality, he's invariably too preoccupied actually to be on time. Combined with his twitchy and paranoid nature, this does not help his effectiveness as a warrior.

Toys

Transformers (2007)

• Midnighter XR-4 (Real Gear Robots, 2008)

• Known designers: Bill Rawley (Hasbro)

Part of the sixth and final wave of Transformers Real Gear Robots, Midnighter XR-4 is a redeco of Meantime, transforming into a (non-functional) digital wristwatch of a made-up model. He's a roughly 1:1 scale with the real deal, though you'll need tiny wrists to pull off wearing him in watch mode without cutting off all the circulation to your hand. The display face flips around to display the time properly as a watch, and then again to align for robot mode. He has an Automorph feature as well: pulling his legs down makes his head and shoulders rise as part of the transformation. On his left wrist, Midnighter features sculpted details intended to look as if he's wearing a wristwatch himself - specifically, a miniature version of his own alternate mode.

Midnighter has a minor factory error in that his shoulders are swapped, which leads to an uneven wristband in watch mode. This is easily fixed by popping the shoulders off and swapping them.

Despite being a digital watch, Meantime's back has strangely accurate analog watch gears sculpted into it.

This mold is superficially similar to the Brazilian exclusive Grendene Transformers watch, but is a different tooling.

• More information on Midnighter XR-4 at TFU.info

Notes

• Midnighter XR-4's display when read upside down spells "Seth", a birthday present from the toy's designer to his brother (according to the BotCon 2008 Hasbro designer's panel).
• With a Rank stat of 8, Midnighter has the highest Rank of the Decepticon Real Gears, which may make him their leader by default.