Rook is a replacement for the deluxe class Groove who was the motorcycle in the original G1 release. Rook is a six wheeled S.W.A.T. armored vehicle. His primary colors are white and blue, with yellow ans silver accents for the vehicle lights and silver for the windows and motor. In this mode Rook is a squat powerful looking brute machine much like a tank without the turret on the top. Rooks weapons can attach on his 5mm ports that he has all over his body. There are two ports on the back of the vehicle mode one on his hood area and another in the front bumper where his silver gun thing can attach and act as a battering ram type weapon. The Defensor hand/foot can be used as a weapon too, for Rook the hand/foot that has the mini guns on the tip. You can fit two of the guns on the back of Rook and make him have heavy weapons on him.
One mode that Rook can take aside from his vehicle mode is a leg or hand for Defensor as you saw in the last review. The leg mode for this character is very simple just fold down the bumper and lift the front hood section and flip up the connector port and then attach it to the desired port for Defensor.
Rook's robot mode is an armored bot that looks like he is wearing a helmet guarding his face and also wearing a lot of armor. His paint scheme is completely different than his vehicle mode, in bot mode he is primarily black and blue with white legs and arms. Rook is a very thick bot with broad shoulders and a thick waist and his knees and feet are also thick like he is wearing a very strong armor. He is articulated at the shoulder on a ball joint, mid bicep swivel, a hinged elbow. The head is on a ball joint, he has waist articulation because of his transformation, ball jointed hips, mid thigh swivel, single jointed knees, and a slight ankle pivot. Rooks hands have a neat but also stupid design to them instead of 5mm ports on the tops of his hands like all other Transformers he has them on the front of his hands so his weapon goes in there like its a stabbing device instead of a gun or whatever it is. But if you really get creative you can take two of the Defensor hands and put them into the ports of Rooks hands and give him monster hands, he looks a little goofy but its kinda neat too.
From the robot mode to the arm mode for Rook as well as the other appendages of Defensor is just a little bit of a Transformation. As an arm Rook makes Defensor have a really thick and muscular arm. To counter that he would have to have someone like First Aid as the other arm. I prefer to leave Rook as a foot that way it is evened out a little for Defensor. But as the arm he is double jointed at the 'elbow'. I like that the scramble city design for these is still in relative effect.
I like Rook as a Transformer I just wish Hasbro would get on it and release Groove like Tomy/Takara did in Japan.
