Dave's Alternator Rant: 

     1: Smokescreen - Subaru Impreza WRC

     In honor of this hyper-detailed toy, I will be writing a hyper-detailed
review.  It's going to be a bit jump-around-y in places, though, so bear with
me. 

CAPSULE

     Smokescreen: Excellent vehicle mode, transformation that's both
conceptually simple and practically difficult, very poseable robot mode.
Strongly recommended.  $19.76 at Wal-Mart.

RANT

     This will have a few more subsections than normal, since I'm going
IN-SLAGGING-SANE with detail.

PACKAGING

     The box is 10" (25cm) wide, 5" (12cm) high and deep.  The main
background is dark blue with light blue gridlines 7mm apart.  The plastic
window is on the top 3/5 of the front and front 4/5 of the top, with 3cm
boundaries on the sides.
     Upper left of the front says "81301/81300 Asst." suggesting that there
might be a variation floating around out there, aie!  I am SO not getting a
variant and reviewing it with the level of detail I'm using here.  }-> In the
lower left are the Subaru logo with the six stars in an oval.  I thought this
was supposed to be the Pleiades, but that's seven stars.  Well, I'll continue
to call it the Pleiades for this review.  [Late note: Doug Dlin points out
that it's not supposed to be the Pleiades, it represents the five smaller
companies that merged into one big company to eventually form Subaru.]
There's a "1" in the very bottom left corner, presumably Sideswipe will have
a 2 there.  To the right of this is a silver Autobot symbol.  In the middle
bottom are the Transformers Alternators logo (same font on Transformers as
RiD/Armada/etc), and below that the nameplate done to look like a metal plate
with "SUBARU IMPREZA WRC" in silver and "SMOKESCREEN" in red.  The right side
of the front is the character art of Smokescreen in robot mode.
     The right side of the box has a picture of the robot mode in a static
enough pose to give little idea of how many joints the toy has.  The left
side is a photo of the car, proclaiming the scale as 1:24.
     The back of the box shows the car with everything that can open being
open and the robot mode in a more active pose, plus various feature blurbs.
     The top of the box has most of the images from the front, only smaller,
since there's more window.
     The bottom of the box is a co-sell for Sideswipe, a red convertible
Dodge Viper.  This is actually the second licensed Viper, since Side Burn was
licensed when it came to the U.S. (Takara hadn't, figuring they made enough
changes to get around it, but apparently it either wasn't good enough for
U.S. intellectual property law, or Hasbro decided to just do it in case).
     The toy is packaged in vehicle mode, something that has caused this to
occasionally get shelved in the 1:24 scale car section of the toy car aisle
rather than with Transformers.  It's sandwiched between two bubbles, the
upper one of which has tabs running down through the card and taped down.  No
twist-ties, yay!  A plastic sleeve is wrapped around the middle of the car to
keep it from rattling apart, rather than a bunch of rubber bands.
     [Later addition] The inside tray has dim reflections of the car on the
three sides, as if it were surfaced with aluminum or foggy mirrors.  A
"ghost" of the robot mode also rises up from behind the back panel
reflection. 


VEHICLE MODE

Model: Subaru Impreza WRC Rallye Monte Carlo #8

     I will be using mostly just metric for measurements when it's possible
to say something with precision.  My comments range around the car in no
particular order, although I've tried to rearrange some of the chunks in
editing to make things a little less incoherent.  I apologize for any
sentence fragments that sneak through.

     http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/031107/230/edbvv.html is a picture of the
real car. 

     This toy is all plastic (aside from some screws and pins, of course), no
die cast chunks like the Japanese Binaltech version.  Nonetheless, it seems
pretty stable in this mode, and weighs 7 and 7/8 ounces (mass of 222g).

Measurements:

     A Subaru Impreza WRC is really 4.4m long (a little wiggle room between
sources, with variation from 4.405m to 4.419m).  The toy is 18.4mm long
(ignoring spoiler).  This works out to 1:23.9 scale, close enough.  However,
a 70mm figure (5'6" at 1:24 scale) is way too big to fit inside.  Lego
figures fit in the passenger seat, but not the driver's seat.  Car width is
70.3mm not counting side rear view mirrors, 75.0mm counting the mirrors,
height 58mm (couldn't use calipers on that measurement, so one less decimal
point).  Wheels are rubber tires and gold hubcaps, 26.3mm in diameter.  Tire
thickness is 9.4mm.

Motion:

     There is a magnetic connection between front wheels so they turn in
unison without the need for fragile little peg connectors or for keeping the
connection in place all the time.  The tires spin very well, and the front
wheels will mostly keep the angle you set them at, so you can push the toy
and it'll turn in a wide circle.  Wheels only turn about 10 degrees either
way.  Given that my apartment is entirely carpeted and all the tables are
covered in stuff, my best estimate of the turning radius is 50cm.

     The hood opens 18 degrees.  The trunk opens 20 degrees, but it's
shorter, so this doesn't seem like as much.  The front doors open about 100
degrees (but bounce back to less than that when released), using a slider
joint inside the door panel to let them open this far without having a
visible external joint.  The rear doors are on swivel posts and can actually
open 135 degrees, but only if you open the front doors first.

     The roof is REALLY hard to keep in place, it easily deranges and then
requires more massaging than Big Convoy to get back in place.  Four other
pieces have to be in just the right places, and you have to get invisible
pegs seated in holes you can't see.  I put this in the "motion" subsection
since it's something that moves but is not supposed to.  The rear doors are
what make this tricky, since they're only connected at their bottoms on a
post, so they're really free to get into every so slightly wrong positions.

     Aside from the roof problem, it's pretty stable in car mode.  At least,
before ever transforming it.  }->

Colors and Details:

     The main body is a bright blue (like, almost metallic car paint look)
with a lot of neon yellow paint applications and some black bands, plus other
stuff as detailed below.

     Headlights are clear plastic over molded silver chrome plastic.  Light
blue "PIAA" is imprinted across the bottom of the clear plastic.  Not sure if
this is more rally logo-age or the headlight brand.
     Front grille is chrome with black wash between the slats, and a well
detailed Subaru Pleiades symbol in the center of the upper part.
     Taillights are a mix of clear red and clear colorless plastic over
silver.
     Small chrome muffler and tailpile on driver's side underneath.
     Silver (not chrome) paint on side mirrors.  Windshield wipers molded
onto the plastic, but no rearview mirror.  [Late note: according to Prabal
Nandy, the rally version of the car lacks rearview mirrors anyway.  A few
people have pointed out that the Binaltech version has flat chrome mirrors,
which might be extra solid pieces glued on.]
     There's a small silver thing over the driver on the roof, most likely
some kind of sensor (it's been suggested that it also includes a video camera
for dramatic racing footage, or that this is a vent flap and not a sensor at
all).  The antenna mid-roof on the real thing isn't present, but it'd be
hair-thin and snap off if you looked at it, so....
     The rear side windows, windshield and rear window are clear plastic.
The front side windows are open.

     Inside, there are two bucket seats that can fold forward, and a steering
wheel that is adjustable but does not turn.  The entire dashboard section is
very well detailed, although all in black so it's kinda hard to make out the
nice details.  [Late note: according to Physalis on the AllSpark, this is the
interior of the WRX non-rally version.  The rally-oriented WRC has an
interior geared towards racing, with pedal shifts instead of a stick, for
instance.] 
     The back seat does not try to have a realistic interior, but there's
enough open space to give the illusion of one.  [Late note: Again from
Physalis, the rally version has nothing but roll cage in the back anyway.]
     The tail spoiler has vertical slats to make five rectangular pipes of
it, which is an accurate detail for the car.
     If you open the hood, you see engine-like molding with an Autobot symbol
molded into the top of it.  This engine is actually the rifle, all folded
up.  It's also the only Autobot symbol visible in car mode.  [Late note: To
be more specific, Physalis points out that the gun is the intercooler, which
is why it looks kinda like a radiator.]

     There are loads of rally logo paint apps.  Some too small for even a
magnifying glass and my aging eyes, those have a "?" next to them.  I'm told
that the #7 variant in Binaltech had different rally logos.
     Passenger side (back to front): Motul Robin.  STI Subaru Technica
International.  String on roof strut (Kenwood, IHI Turbo, Snap-On, Standox,
Domino Systems, JDS Catia?, HOK?, some kind of elongated star with an E built
into the left side).  Makinen and Lindstrom (umlauts on the a and o) on rear
window with little Finnish flags [Justin Anderson tells me that these are the
Finnish drivers of number 8, and Joona Palaste corrects me that they're
Finnish and not Swedish as I'd initially written].  Subaru logo large on rear
door.  swrt.com on bottom of front door.  2003 Rallye Monte Carlo logo, with
the number 8 very large.  The E-star thing again.  Pirelli Tires.  Motul and
Pirelli again up at the very front.
     Bumper (left to center): Robin and STI.  STI Performance.  Prodrive.  
     Everything mirrors around to the driver's side.
     Rear (left to right): Pirelli.  www.subaru.fr under Subaru logo under
Prodrive under STI Performance.  Pirelli again.  License plate is orange with
S30WRT on it, which is accurate (the picture in the URL above has S600WRT).
     Hood: Subaru World Rally team at the front.  Rallye Monte Carlo logo in
red and white just in front of the supercharger.  swrt.com just behind it.  A
couple of decals in the upper left, an E in a circle and a triangle with a
zigzag arrow thing.  Sunvisor part of the windshield has SUBARU and a small
seven-star logo (Pleiades).
     Roof: The number 8 card again.
     Rear window: SUBARU and Pleiades again at the top.  Rallye Monte Carlo
logo in red on clear at the bottom.
     There are no logos on the bottom of the car, unsurprisingly.

     Okay, I've spent two hours reviewing the toy before even transforming it
once.  Time to try that.  }->  Probably won't do any more reviewing until
tomorrow.  

TRANSFORMATION

     Conceptually: Oh, that's pretty simple, I can see how that works.
Pretty much classic G1 Smokescreen with some extra bells and whistles and
panels, and a nifty lower torso trick.
     In practice: MY BRAIN IS MELTING!  Okay, only the first few times.
After three times through, I can almost transform it back to car mode without
popping parts off.

     Anyway, going from car to robot is pretty easy.  I didn't need the
instructions, and only got one detail wrong when I compared against the box
photo (I'd missed the toes).  In rough outline, it's the same transformation
as the G1 Smokescreen/Bluestreak/Prowl mold.  Arms under hood, hood becomes
chest, rear section becomes legs, front doors become wings.  But there's a
lot of extra details along the way.  
     The midsection of the bottom of the car folds up with the bucket seats
to become the lower torso, which is very cool.  The rear doors fold around
the back of the feet, and the rear bumper sections pull down on jointed arms
to become the toes (a heel spur folds out as well. although the instructions
incorrectly have the heel spur moving all the way forward to be under the
toe).  Instead of telescoping out like in G1, the legs unfold along multiple
joints...be sure to examine this closely before transformation, since the
instructions don't help in getting them back into the correctly folded
position.
     Probably the biggest pain in the butt for transformation either
direction is the rack and pinion steering gimmick.  The parts that connect to
the wheels are fixed in position, and get in the way a LOT when trying to get
the arms out and in position.  In fact, the arms tend to pop off entirely
when I try to get them spun around (a problem that the metal-shelled
Binaltech version does not have, I'm told).  It's easier to just deliberately
pop them off, swing the joint around and plug the arms back in.

     Transforming back to car mode is a LOT harder.  This is one of those
Transformers where going to robot mode is almost an explosion of extending
pieces...just pull out everything that can be pulled out and you're most of
the way there.  But putting things back in the right places can be insanely
difficult if you don't have a second untransformed toy to refer to.  If
things aren't folded into just the right position, other parts won't fit, or
will pop off (so far I've had both arms, both front doors and the central
slider for the steering pop off at some point or another during
transformation).  Massaging all the parts back into place makes Big Convoy
look user-friendly by comparison.  Getting it to look almost correct isn't
too hard...getting all the parts to fit flush is VERY hard the first several
times.  Oh, and almost as a last poke in the eye, you almost need articulated
tweezers to get the folded up gun back into place as part of the engine.  Or
realllly tiny fingers.
     Oh, and be sure you don't get the steering wheel folded under when you
transform back to car mode, as you won't be able to get it back into the
correct position after transformation.

ROBOT MODE

Appearance:

     7" (18cm) tall, it's at the "standard" Mega/Ultra height, which is cool,
since it's at the Mega price point.  In scale, he's 14 feet (4.3m) tall.
     His chest is the front of the car mode, and the rear section forms the
boots, with the rear windows being clear shields over the shins.  The rear
wheels are over the heels, and the front wheels are on the backs of the
shoulders.  
     The colors mostly come from the car mode, but the forearms and mid-leg
(lower thigh and upper shin) are gray and the hands and heel spurs are
black.  His helmet is the same bright blue as his bodyshell, with gold
"horns", silver face and light blue eyes.  There are Autobot symbols in red
on silver on each shoulder.  The neon yellow on the front doors makes them
look almost like energy wings in robot mode.
     His gun is gray at the center with raised red Autobot symbols, and black
at the front and back.  Unfolded, it's 7cm long.  There's small pegs on the
grip that fit into holes in the palms so that you don't depend on the finger
joints to hold it.
     Oh, and here's a little no-doubt-unintentional bonus.  The little pegs
on the forearms that are meant to hold the gun/engine in car modes have
central holes that are just about right for Mini-Con connectors.  The outer
peg is too small, but you can fit a Mini-Con on each forearm if you're not
worried about a little stress on the plastic.
     [Late notes: Only Mini-Cons with long central pegs will attach to
Smokescreen's arms.  There are holes in the "collarbones" on either side of
Smokescreen's head that look like they're intended for add-on shoulder
missile launchers in the style of the G1 Smokescreen.]

Poseability:

     Gonna go top down here.
     The head is mounted on a ball joint with enough play that he can just
cock his head to one side if you wish.
     The shoulders are a combination of separated hinge and swivel to make a
universal joint, but the steering rods block some of the poseability.  Too
bad these bits are just metal, with the magnets being on the slider part of
the steering, or you could at least use these annoying rods to attach metal
stuff.  
     The elbows are double-hinges, with a roughly 1.5cm long black connector
hinged to both the blue upper arm and the gray forearm pieces.  This lets the
arms bend a full 180 degrees.  There is no upper arm swivel.
     The hands are rather nice.  There's a limited ball joint for the wrist,
and then there's hinges on the index finger and the remaining three fingers
as a chunk.  This is mainly intended so that the trigger finger can be
wrapped around the trigger separately, but it also lets you do a "come get
some" crooked finger pose.
     The waist turns 360, in part because it's a transformation joint.
     Much worrying was seen in the past few months online regarding this
toy's hips.  Would they be useless joints, barely able to move and ruining
the whole toy?  Nope.  The hips are stiff ball joints with a good range of
motion.  The hip detail keeps the legs from spreading apart too much, so the
maximum spread angle of the legs is 40 degrees.  A protruding bit on the
waist conspires with the hip junk to keep the leg from rising more than 45
degrees before it starts to turn the upper body (which means that if you want
to lift both legs, 45 degrees is it).  If you allow the body to turn, you can
get one leg up to about 65 degrees.  The legs can swing back about 90
degrees.  The hips can also be twisted on the ball joints to change the angle
of toe-pointing by about 15 degrees outward and 10 degrees inward (pigeon-
toed).  This is helpful, since there is no upper hip swivel.
     The knees are simple, stiff hinges.  They bend back from vertical by
about 75 degrees, the joint stopping motion itself before the kibble starts
to get in the way.  They also bend forward by about 90 degrees before the
rear windows stop motion.
     The big toes formed by the rear bumper halves have pretty much as much
bending range of motion as you could hope to ask for.  Add in the
positionable heel spurs, and the feet can be adjusted to support just about
any standing pose that the leg joints can give you.

OVERALL

     A very good design.  As many people have said, this is the G1 redesign
that fans have been waiting for.  Detailed, poseable, complex if a little
frustrating.  Does it suffer for being made of plastic instead of metal as
was done with the Binaltech version?  Probably a little.  The extra flex
granted by the plastic seems to make it harder to get all the pieces in the
right places for car mode, and the need to make joints pop off rather than
break the plastic contributed to the problems mentioned above with the
shoulders.  On the other hand, the painted metal reportedly has some issues
with paint scraping, and after a half dozen transformations and a lot of
general messing around, there's no signs of wear on my Alternators version.
     [Late note: I'm hearing from a few people that the Binaltech version is
no easier to transform back to car mode, the early comments I was working
from must have involved either a unit at the high end of the quality
variation spectrum, or the person is just that much better at transforming
stuff.  }->]
     I'd personally have preferred a version without all the rally logos in
neon yellow, especially one in the classic Smokescreen colors, but that's
really only a minor issue.
     Buy this one if you can find it.

     Dave Van Domelen, maybe should get around to reviewing all the Heroes of
Cybetron he found over the course of the last four weeks or so, but is still
holding out hope of completing the waves first.