Dave's Alternators Rant

     14: Decepticharge

     There are no solid sightings of this in U.S. stores at the time of my
review (July 23, 2005), but the TF Collectors' Club has been getting in a few
here and there for its store, and I managed to snag one.

     http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Alt/Windcharger for my review of the
original. 

CAPSULE

     Decepticharge: A hardtop convertible remold of Windcharger, it shares
the flaws of the original (including the neutered gun), but doesn't seem to
have much in the way of new problems.  Recommended.  $19.99 for members at
the TF Club Store, plus about seven dollars for shipping.

RANT

     Packaging: Standard red-box.  It's packaged with the top up, so the "top
down" piece is bagged under the tray with the instructions.  Also listed
simply as "Honda S2000" on the box.  Rather than trying to pass the neutered
gun off as a shield, they call it a scanner.  Wheeljack is the cosell on the
bottom of the box.
     It looks like this may be a shortpack on multiple assortments...if you
want one and don't want to pay scalper prices on eBay, you'll probably have
to pay online retailer markup.

     Vehicle Mode: There's three mold changes that I can make out.  One, the
ragtop is now a hardtop, so while it's still a convertible as a toy, it's not
really set up like a hardtop convertible in real life (there's nowhere for
the top to go, unless you take it off and leave it at home).  Two, the trunk
has a spoiler on it, which splits in half to go around the sides of the
abdomen in robot mode.  Three, the hubcaps have a 9-pointed design (18 total
points in pairs), which is odd for cars.  Hubcaps usually have a 3-fold or
5-fold symmetry.  All other mold elements are the same.  I'm told that this
format is a racing variant produced/customized by Mugen.
     The body is yellow with black paint.  The hardtop is clear smoky plastic
painted yellow, and looks CLEARLY different from the rest of the yellow.  The
little bit behind the hardtop is also painted (from black plastic, I think)
and stands out even when you put on the "top down" piece.  The hood is
painted almost entirely black, with a tilted "4" painted in yellow over the
yellow plastic.  Yeah.  Maybe they were thinking of applying this scheme to a
different color of plastic at some point, or it was easier to just lay down a
single solid piece of multiple colors.  The paint on the engine is similar to
Windcharger's, but with the red and silver on the centerline swapped.
     The license plate is a Decepticon symbol with "DCHRG".  The doors each
have a "4" with black flames trailing away, and a lot of rally sponsor names
on the door and on the fender behind the front wheel.  They are: Dinotron
Racing Fuel, Energon Power (also repeated on the windshield's top),
Cybertronian Radials (also on the tires), Thrust Power, Destron Oil,
Hyperling Racing (yes, with a g), Dualor Exhaust, and Sporal Plugs (which I
expect is supposed to be Spiral Plugs, but got engrished like Hyperlink
did).  There is no paint on the interior of the car.  [Correction, Hyperlinq,
the Q looks kinda like a blurred G.]
     The engine doesn't stay in place.  It really depends on the removed
barrel to keep it locked down, and while Windcharger's wedged in reasonably
well on just its hinge point, the vagaries of quality control meant that on
my Decepticharge, it's just a little too loose for even nail polish topcoat
to solve.  So I made a barrel out of a Technic rod and the same jointing
trick I played with Windcharger.  The little gaskets that slide onto a
Technic rod are a little too big to fit through the gap in the underbody,
though. 

     Transformation: Identical, except for an extra little step in which you
split the spoiler and turn it into hip plates.

     Robot Mode: The knee joints are REALLY stiff, even stiffer than on
Windcharger.  The only additional remold for this mode is the head, which
reminds me of BWII Thrust in terms of color, but also has a molding similar
to the way Windcharger was portrayed in the comics.
     The paint scheme is a little...less than on Windcharger.  He doesn't
have much in the way of accent colors, just black and silver (and maybe a
little yellow).  He has a Decepticon symbol on his black chest, his helmet is
yellow with black stripes, his face is silver and his eyes are red.  His
shins are more silver-painted than WC's, but his abdomen lacks the black in
its lines, and there's no red on the pelvis or thighs.  He definitely needs
some touching up.

     Overall: Suffers a little more from the gun-neutering than Windcharger,
and the lighter plastic means that it's more obvious when they're painting a
bit to match the yellow.  Those and the lack of paint apps in the robot mode
mean I'd put this toy a but below Windcharger, and probably not worth busting
a hump to find if you already have Windcharger.

     Dave Van Domelen, now to do GO-19 Randy's review and clear his to-do
stack!