Dave's RoadBots Rant 1:18 Toyota Celica (Tuner Version) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Alt/RoadBot3 Picked this up on clearance at agesthreeandup.com. Looks like HappyWell's being careful to avoid lawsuit hassles by not touching the 1:24 scale that Alternators sit in. CAPSULE 1:18 Toyota Celica: Good vehicle mode, derivative transformation, nice looking but kibble-hobbled robot mode. Recommended if you can get it fairly cheaply. $14.99 on clearance. RANT Packaging: Corrugated cardboard box with windows on both sides that extend to the top in a gullwing sort of deal, plus a TRY ME! hole to let you press the button on the car's hood. 12.5" (32cm) wide, 7" (18cm) deep, 6" (15cm) tall. The car inside is held to a box base with a plastic blister that has a hole for the TRY ME! function. Bolted to the box base is a chromed nameplate with the car brand on it. The front of the box has a photo sequence of transformation on the left, surrounded in orange energy crackle with "TRANSFORM TO ROBOT!" next to it. The right side has line art of the robot mode. Along the bottom is the RoadBot logo, "WITH LIGHTS & SOUND" underneath it. The toy name is to the left of that. No Toyota ovals logo. The top repeats the transformation pics, larger on the right. The logo and size class is in the middle, and a big CELICA logo on the left. The right panel has photos of both modes, a smaller line logo and another big CELICA. Same on the left panel, but the robot picture is bigger and the car picture smaller. The back panel is similar to the front, but with CELICA instead of the transformation sequence. The bottom panel has a big picture of robot mode, two views of the vehicle (one showing the doors and hood open), more logos and legalese, and the battery changing instructions. The inside left panels have the model logo and a line art version of the box art. You have to open both ends to get the inner tray out, as it's hooked under stuff on each end. Inside are the usual black and white instructions, plus a baggie with a catalog, ooooh! It has photos (a bit 'shopped) of the 1:18 Land Cruiser (whose face is used in the RoadBots logo), 1:18 Supra, 1:18 MR2, 1:18 Celica, 1:18 Lancer Evolution VIII, 1:12 Lancer Evolution IX (they love the Lancer) and 1:12 Ford GT. No pics of the 1:32's. No backstory or anything, so I feel free to continue with my own. Unlike the 1:32's, there's no bevy of accessories included. The only weapon is the light-up sword, which is integrated into the vehicle mode (core in the hood, blade on underside). Also, no plastic bands or twist ties or anything. Just the main blister. Fanficky note: while I've been naming the Class 32 characters in elemental ways (Fireshot, Seablade, Skyscythe, Rockhound), I think I'll name the Class 18's after various kinds of warrior. Land Cruiser is Samurai, Supra is Shocktrooper, MR2 is Berserker (and defected to Diamond Motors), Celica is Bushi, Lancer VIII is Bowman. Haven't decided on a Class 12 naming convention. Maybe they're such corporate flacks that their model name is their personal name...so Ford GT is simply Ford GT. ROADBOT: Bushi Class: 18 Faction: TAG Altmode: Toyota Celica, Tuner Version Birthplace: Tahara, Japan Motto: "You call it ricing, I call it self-improvement!" BUSHI is, like most Class 18 ROADBOTS, terribly average and unremarkable. Armed with a well-proven Plasma Lance, wrist-mounted dual .50 machineguns and a pair of hydraulic "jaws of life" cutters, he's reliable in both combat and rescue situations. Yep, nothing special as giant self-aware robots go. And he HATES it. Originally a standard Toyota Celica like his "little brother" SEABLADE, BUSHI has undergone extensive body work at the finest street racing shops in Japan. Maybe they can't do anything to improve his insides, but he seems to really believe the spirit of the adage, "Every decal adds 10 horsepower," valuing *looking* fast over actually *being* fast. Mind you, he is pretty fast anyway, capable of speeds over 100 m/s (220mph) on a straightaway, and quite experienced with drifting techniques. It's not really accurate to say that BUSHI is vain. Nor is he an attention whore like SKYSCYTHE, although sometimes people mistake him for one. No, he's just desperate to stand out from the crowd, to be different from his brethren. Even if it causes him to make some pretty stupid decisions in the name of not going with the "normal way". STR 8 INT 5 SPD 7 END 8 RNK 6 COUR 7 FRB 6 SKL 7 Avg 6.75 Vehicle Mode: 10.25" (26cm) long including the wing-like spoiler. Weighs almost a pound (448g). The front windshield, headlights and taillights are clear colorless plastic. The hood and most of the interior are black plastic. The side molding is light gray plastic. As far as I can tell, the ludicrous spoiler is also light gray plastic, although it was completely covered in silver paint and then some black. The hubs are silver chromed plastic, and the wheels are rubberized black. The side mirror pieces are a soft blue plastic. Most of the body shell is medium blue with metalflake, close to Mazda's "Champion Blue". As with many Alternators, there's molded brake discs and shoes, but they're just chromed silver plastic with no detailing paint. The trim around the windshield is painted a good metalflake blue match, and the front stuff and wipers are black. The moonroof, side-rear and rear windows are black, as is the front grille, and a black Toyota-ovals logo is printed at the front. The side-front windows are open. The backing of the head and taillights are chromed, and the clear plastic on the taillights is painted red and amber. A metallic red paint is used on the foglamps, upper brakelight and some secondary taillights. The side molding and most of the hood are painted silver, but a strip down the center of the hood is bright blue (not a great match to the plastic). The side mirrors are painted silver rather than being chromed, since the softer plastic used won't take chroming. Silver paint is used on the dashboard as well. The rear license plate (which is under a molded CELICA) is white with black printing of the Toyota name and logo. Some of the paneling on the insides of the doors is either painted gray or made of the gray plastic used on the side molding. The doors open, but then sag down on loose ball joints. They also pop off VERY easily during transformation to vehicle mode. Inside is a realistic interior, although the seats don't fold down and there's no rear view mirror. The trunk lifts open, although you can pretty much just see the arms inside. The hood comes off, but the little molded bits in the upper corners indicate that it's the type that in real life just does come off rather than folding up. The front wheels turn in unison using the same mechanism as Alternator Tracks and his remolds. Having the 1:32 Celica maks it easier to see how this has been riced up. The main changes are the pop-off hood, the supercharger scoop (made of chromed silver plastic, and it's the trigger for sound and light), the boofed out side molding, the extra silver-painted tailpipes, the airdam, and that damned wing on the back. However, that last detail is held on by two screws rather than glue, so a little unpimping of ze auto is possible there. Pushing down on the turbocharger intake while the hood is closed makes the headlights glow with strong amber LEDs, while a police siren sounds for a couple of seconds (reinforcing the idea that these are rescue vehicles more than war machines). Lifting up the hood a little un-pushes a recessed button in the soundbox, switching over to the zapping sound of the weapon and a different flash cycle. You can also tell there's red LEDs in there flashing, but the solid grille mostly blocks them. Transformation: The torso and arms work a lot like Alt.Tracks (including having the fists and forearm weapons push out on sliders, although he only has guns on the right arm), the legs kinda like Alt.Sideswipe, although the vehicle shell pieces don't split apart. Instead, the front fender chunk all stays together as a U-shaped block behind (and blocking) the legs, while the roof and rear door parts telescope down a bit after some plastic-stressing bending out of the door panels. Getting the shoulders spin around also requires some stressing (both of the plastic and of the owner afraid things are gonna shatter into shards any second). The hood comes off and pegs onto the chest, the side moldings come off and repeg on the doors differently. The huge sword blade is pegged (solidly) onto the underside. The engine block is the soundbox, remove it and you can fold out the handle and then snap on the blade. Robot Mode: 9.5" (24cm) tall, with shoulderpads 9" (23cm) wide. The torso block, fists, boots, feet and some of the joints are black plastic. The upper arms, thighs, hips and wrist weapons are light gray plastic (mostly with silver paint). The head is blue, with a crest made from rubbery plastic. The forearms are also blue plastic. The head, by the way, is VERY Gundam (shades of Sandrock, but with a more "samurai helmet" crest). Given the colors and the general transformation scheme, there's a definite Alt.Tracks feel here. Lots of silver and black paint all over the place, including silver paint on the engineblock details of the sound/light box. The face is silver with metallic red eyes and chin, plus silver and black paint on the crest and silver details on the sides of the helmet. Nonmetallic red paint details are on the kneecaps and toes. The head turns, the waist doesn't. The shoulderpads have transformation swivels but aren't really set up to move in robot mode. Instead, there's a hinge between shoulderpads and upper arms, and a somewhat sticky swivel right below that. The upper arms are weirdly flat. There's a sideways hinge for transformation above the hinge elbows that gives a little more range of motion to the arms. The hips swing forward about 45 degrees and wiggle loosely side to side (transformation bit). They could conceivably go backwards, but the front fender loop blocks them. The knees bend, the ankles swivel on the horizontal plane and the toes rotate on a transformation joint that gives a little more stability in spread-leg poses. In general, while there's a lot of joints, there's not a lot of functional posability due to all the kibble issues. He's also top-heavy enough that the limited range of the legs is further limited if you want him to stand without support. Bushi is equipped with three weapons. On the right wrist is an extendable double-barrelled gun much like that on Tracks. A sort of clamp with the sides geared together is on the left forearm. The main weapon is his plasma torch sword, which is a total of 7" (18cm) long with a blade that gets to be a little over 3" (8cm) wide at the base. Pressing the chromed button sets off a zappy sound effect and three LEDs. Two amber ones near the sides, and a red one down the center. You can see the phenomenon of "internal reflection" from the yellow beams bouncing off the inside edge of the blade (nicely collimated beams, too). The hilt of the sword has a cross-section of 7mm by 4mm, a little bigger than the standard used for 1:32 RoadBots. Overall: Decent vehicle mode, if a bit too riced. The kibble in robot mode is a MAJOR issue, but I can see how a heavy-duty fabricator type could modify it to put more range of motion in the panels. Definitely worth what I paid, although maybe not worth full price. Dave Van Domelen, needs to find a place to display this big guy.