Dave's Rescue Bots Rant: Deluxe Wave 1 Optimus Prime (Semitractor) Bumblebee (Sportscar) Heatwave the Fire-Bot (Firetruck, not reviewed) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/123/RBDeluxe1 Heatwave was originally going to be my test buy for this size class, but in person it was just SO unimpressive it stayed on the shelf. I got Prime first, but before I got around to reviewing it I saw Bumblebee for three bucks less and decided to grab it (and his partner Axel Frazier) too. Wow, do I regret that decision. CAPSULES Optimus Prime: This would be better as a non-transforming truck. The robot mode is more of a brick than a Jumpstarter. Avoid. $12.99 at Target. Bumblebee: This one makes Prime look good by comparison. If you must get it out of some sort of Bumblebee completist thing, don't bother taking it out of the package. $9.99 at K-Mart. Note, Walmart originally priced these at $12.88, but locally at least has dropped them to $9.88. About five bucks too much for what you get, though, and that's being charitable. [Later note: I've gotten reports of 3-year-olds really liking these, and they DO have more play value than Under-3 (the McToy), so I suppose at least part of the target audience can enjoy them. They just don't compare very favorably to previous "little kid" TF lines.] RANTS Packaging: Like the humans, these are open card-style packages with the toy held onto a blister support with paper strings. There's not much value added by having the packaging open, though, since there's no sound or light gimmicks to trigger, or even any motion (the toy's intrinsic articulation is pretty minimal). The top of the card front proclaims these are for ages 3-8, which may be giving 8 year olds too little credit. The general layout is about the same as on the humans, but instead of a fold-over nameplate in the upper left, a thin cardstock cutout of the partner human is inside the support blister. Maybe these guys can hang out with the cardboard cutout ponies from the MLP vehicle sets. The toys are packaged in robot mode, so the cutouts are standing over the robot's right shoulder. There's a fold-over in the lower right instead, with the vehicle mode pictured an promises of one-step transformation. That should satisfy the people who've been complaining about overly complex transformations. ;) The cards are 11" (28cm) tall, 7" (18cm) wide and the bottom part is 2.5" (6.5cm) deep, although the fists on Prime stick out a little past that. The underside has cosells for the other two in the wave, and instructions are stuck behind the support blisters. The cardbacks show the same scene as on the human figures, with the robot pic on the right and the vehicle in the center. At the left is an inset of the intended partner human, and the lower left shows tool mode attached to the robot mode. No individual bio notes on the cardback, just the same "Anything can get done..." blurb as on the humans' cardbacks. The instructions are two-step rather than one-step, but does it really make a difference? ;) AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME Altmode: Truck Human Partner: Chief Charlie Burns Packaging: Four white strings hold the robot into the support tray. You have to cut open the tray or peel it off the card to get at the instructions and the cardboard human. Robot Mode: I'll get the important point out of the way first. There is no real articulation. AT ALL. The arms can flap at the shoulder hinges, but springs make sure they pop back up. Similarly, the legs can be squeezed together, but snap back apart, and the head can duck down but pops back up. He can lean back at the waist on a transformation hinge, but I wouldn't call that useful. Visually, it's a stocky variant on the G1 Prime look, with some elements of Classics and the front wheels on the forearms rather than the hips. 6.5" (16.5cm) tall at the top of the roof piece behind the head, more like 6.25" (16cm) at the head itself. The legs, head and hands are medium blue plastic. The wheels are black, the pelvis and a lot of internal bits are light gray, the torso and arms are bright red plastic. There's silver paint on the grille, hubcaps, faceplate, stubby smokestacks and thighs, plus bits on the forehead and top-of-chest lights. Tye eyes, lights, and some strips on the feet are yellow. There's white on the mid-chest and upper arms, and a white Autobot symbol is printed at the center of the chest. While the feet are reasonably flat, they're just rounded enough that the figure is prone to tipping over backwards at the slightest provocation. Humans cannot attach to the robot mode in any way that I can find other than cramming one into Prime's neck hole. The cardboard cutout can stand behind the head, though. Tool Use: Well, I don't have Charlie Burns, so Prime gets to use Walker's saw instead. Too bad he can't really hold it. It has to go in on the underside of the fist to fit, and Prime can't stand up while holding it. Looks from the packaging like the underside grip is how he has to hold his intended tool too, no guarantees he can stand without support while holding it. He can stand while holding Axel's winch tool, though. Transformation: There's a small light gray button on the back that is held down by the folded up legs. When it's held down, the head will stay stowed. As soon as it's released, the head pops up. There's another pair of latches that swing down when the legs are folded back, and those keep the arms in place. So folding the legs back locks all the torso pieces in place. The toes need to be manually folded down. While there's a peg between the boots, it's just a guide...the legs are held together by the angling of the hip joints. To transform back to robot mode, fold the legs down and watch everything pop out. Then fold the toes up. Vehicle Mode: To a first approximation, it's G1 Prime's truck mode stretched side to side and given more of a Classics stripe on the front and sides of the cab. The robot fists are visible at the front, I guess they decided painting the fronts of the fists silver would look too weird in robot mode. 5.75" (14.5cm) long, 3" (7.5cm) wide, but at the top of the cab only 2.25" (6cm) high. The stumpy smokestacks add about a centimeter. It's quite stable and rolls well. If you put Walker's vehicle on back, its rear deck ends up almosf flush with the roof assuming you point the saw backwards rather than having it gnaw on Prime's roof. Axel's helicopter can land there too, although it's not as stable. The lack of pegs is a major oversight. Even if you abandon the idea of connecting the humans in robot mode, they should be able to ride on the back without sliding off. Overall: Rather disappointing. Sure, you have to make allowances for kiddie toys, but Go-Bots could manage it without being total bricks. The automorph gimmick totally destroys all other play value of the robot mode. The vehicle mode is nice enough, but at $10-13 I kinda expect more toy. AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Altmode: Car Human Partner: Axel Frazier Packaging: Four black strings, same deal with getting at the cutout and the instructions. The Axel cutout is a mirror-flop, with his microphone on the wrong side. Robot Mode: This actually manages to be worse than Prime in almost every respect. The arms aren't bent at the elbow, so any tool is held pointed down. There's no place to stick Axel, not even the neck hole, since the car front end doesn't fold back enough to use as a backpack. The feet are even less stable, and it'll fall over if the air conditioning kicks on in the room. And they didn't even bother to put yellow paint on the big gray belt-chunk he has, so the car mode has intrusions of gray. 5.5" (14cm) tall at the head, it picks up a half centimeter or so from the hood chunk that sits behind the TF:A-ish head like a hoodie. He has a pot belly because the roof of the car doesn't spin around, it just sits there as an energon gut. There is SOME yellow paint on gray plastic, for the upper torso, but...you know, I really don't feel like spending any more time describing this in detail. It's just bad. Tool Use: Axel, I have. The fold-down deck doesn't really help here, although it can let Axel himself use his accessory's tool mold as a shoulder mount. Since Bumblebee can't lift his arms, he can only use the shorter tools, Walker's tool is unusable here too. I guess I'll have to get Boulder if I want to match up this tool, but I'm not really inclined to get more of the Deluxes in this line. Not if Prime and Bumblebee are representative of what they're aiming for. Transformation: Pull the belly down to make the legs come together, then snap them together at a peg. Pull the hoodie hood up to make the head duck down and the arms hug the sides. Then squeeze somewhat to make it all lock together, or you'll have big seams and loose connections. The ratchets in the leg transformation sometimes slip, too. To go back to robot mode, pull down the front end and pull back on the roof. And then regret doing so, because now you're in robot mode. Vehicle Mode: It's closer to Armada Hot Shot's vehicle mode than to any Bumblebee we've gotten before. Almost no ground clearance, and those gray chunks on the belt end up as the top thirds of the doors. No, the gray bits that were painted yellow aren't even visible in this mode. Why did they waste the paint budget like that? Those parts being gray in robot mode wouldn't have looked any worse than what we ended up with, and the way they chose looks worse in vehicle mode as a result. Color issues aside, it's a decent enough chibi sports car, 5.25" (13cm) long, 3.5" (8.5cm) wide and 1.75" (4.5cm) tall. It has movie-style black stripes on the yellow body, blue windows, red taillights, silver grille and hubcaps, and a red and white molded Autobot symbol on the roof. There's an unpainted molded Autobot symbol on the rear license plate. No front license plate, so it's not street legal in Nebraska. Stability is iffy, it's a lot more prone to popping apart than Prime. And there's even less ability for this mode to interact with anything else. No pegs, no flat areas to land Axel's microcopter on, nothing. Overall: A waste of ten bucks, frankly. Even allowing for the Ages 3-8 market, it's bad. Unstable, can't really stand on its own, unable to even interact well with its own intended partner. If you must get a Rescue Bot Deluxe...don't get a Rescue Bot Deluxe. Or, at least, wait for the second wave on the off chance it won't be as bad. Dave Van Domelen, really disappointed in Hasbro here. This could have been an improved Go-Bots, instead it makes Gravity Bots look good by comparison. These aren't even Goodwill bait, that'd be cruel to some kid I've never met. At least the humans are okay, and their tools are MechTech compatible.