Dave's Attacktix Rant: Intergalactic Showdown Set This is apparently being positioned as an introduction to Transformers Attacktix, using Star Wars Attacktix as a launchpad. It contains two regular figures and one "Battle Master" figure from each of the two lines, plus rules. Star Wars is represented by Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and the AT-RT walker from Episode 3. Transformers are represented by Cybertron Super Optimus Prime and Megatron (both in robot mode), and Energon's Omega Sentinel. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/AttRules contains my comments on the rulebook and a rewrite of the rules some may prefer to the official ones. I've made some adjustments to it since first posting it, based on playing with the figures. CAPSULE Intergalactic Showdown: If you only want the Transformers stuff, it's a bit overpriced, especially since Prime and Megatron can be found in boosters too if you're only collecting for sculpts. But if you want a decent starter set to try out the game, it's not a bad deal, all things considered. At least, if all your figures are functional. Recommended. $19.97 at Wal-Mart. RANT Packaging: I think this is the biggest Attacktix box I've seen so far. Of course, having two Battle Masters (the big figures) helps in that. The box is irregular in shape (almost obligatory for Hasbro), with the front being smaller than the back and the top and sides angled inwards. It's made from thin corrugated cardboard, not cardstock. The front is 11.5" (29cm) square, almost all of which is a plastic window. The bottom has corrugated cardboard in a strip with "STAR WARS vs. Transformers" logos, and a cut-out drawing of Darth Vader on the left and Optimus Prime on the right. The art style is vaguely like that of the Clone Wars cartoon. A sticker in the upper right is in the shape of an explosion and proclaims, "GREAT VALUE! Includes 4 Exclusive Figures and 2 Battle Masters Figures!" Note: what makes the figures exclusive is the gold base, they seem to otherwise be the same as those available in boosters. The back is 15" (38cm) wide and 13.75" (35cm) tall. It shows a few examples of game play, a Stormtrooper (not included) in detail, and pictures of the six figures in the set. The two sides show animated-style art of Darth Vader versus Optimus Prime (left side) and Luke Skywalker versus Megatron (right side). The Transformers have shrunk down to be the same size as the humans. Luke's art is the most tellingly Clone-Wars-style. The bottom has just legalese, and the top just has the Attacktix logo writ large. A combination of tabs and tape keep the box closed. The top is taped up from the inside AND outside, meaning that you're supposed to open the box from the bottom (as I found out after opening the top the hard way). The interior tray is also made from thin corrugated cardboard, with only the front side open, lending it pretty good structural strength. Unlike large Cybertron boxes, this one is pretty crush-resistant. All the missiles are attached to the inward sloping sides with blister bubbles of their own, and are largely out of view. A shelf about two thirds of the way up holds the four regular figures, and the Battle Masters stand on the bottom. Lots and lots of straps and ties and rubber bands and tape to the point that I will NOT be bothering to count them all. :) The plastic straps that hold the Battle Masters in place are really easy to remove, though, and I hope Hasbro switches over to them. The regular figures are held in by rubber bands connected to plastic hook strips, which are also very easy to pull off. The entire blister holding the regular figures is attached with taped tabs, Alternators style. The background of the inner tray has a divided landscape. On the left side is a sort of painted desert Tatooine landscape with the Death Star looming in the yellow sky. On the right is a high tech cityscape with Cybertron in the sky. Explosions dot the background. The shelf is done up as slabs of metal deckplate, while the main floor is split betweem sand and metal roadway, with a wavy line separating them. The rules booklet is in a plastic bag loose underneath the tray, so if you open the bottom first it'll fall right out. The sticker on my Megatron's base front had come off in the package, and only the strap holding the figure in place kept it from wandering away. FIGURES Bases: Each has a tix base of dull gold plastic, with black being the normal color. The regular figures have bases just under 2" (5cm) in diameter and just under a centimeter thick. The Battle Masters have bases equally thick, but large enough to support them (different for each one). Regardless of the size of the base, the tix wheel inside are all the same size (you can tell by the distance between the rolling wheel and the special ability window on the bottom). There are 26 spaces on the tix dial (since Luke's unplayable anyway, see below, I marked one of his numbers with a pen and counted). A move of one tik is about an inch, but depends a lot on how good contact with the surface is, how hard you push, and if there's any slack in the dial when you start. Quality Control: Somewhat iffy. Prime's missile is hard to get locked in, Omega Sentinel is kinda floppy, and Luke's spring is weak enough that he can't actually attack. Notes on layout below: The "SVT" in the collector's number stands for Star Wars versus Transformers, setting these apart from the same-mold figures in booster packs. The "Speed" value or values given represent the range possible on the dial. The most common value will be listed in parentheses. The "Special" value given will be the number of times out of 26 the special ability window shows white. "Height" does not count the base itself. OMEGA SENTINEL Collector's Number: SVT01 Points: 70 Attacktix Class: Mega Faction Class: Not given, presumably Autobot Speed: 4-5 (4) Special: 6 (mostly clustered on one side of the dial) Special Ability: Rally (Autobot) - Return one of your Autobots to play. Height: 5" (13cm) Base: 8cm wide, 7.5cm deep Attack: Ranged (multishot) This is the recolor of Energon Omega Supreme that I didn't buy, but the paint job looks pretty good. It's mostly proportional, except that the right claw arm is oversized to hold the quad missile launcher. Also, the right arm is more reminiscent of the G1 Omega Supreme claw, with three orange "fingers" on it, as opposed to the mitten-like Energon OS claw. Seems to be made entirely out of medium blue plastic, with extensive silver and black paint, plus red paint on the chest, antennae and pelvis. His gun turrets are red plastic. The missiles are dark purple, and identical to those used by the AT-RT. The head turns, and both shoulders swivel kinda loosely. The right upper arm also has a swivel, giving you the ability to aim the launcher over a pretty wide arc without turning the base. The small cannons on the left shoulder can swivel, but the one on the left forearm seems to be fixed in position. He tends to assume a pose of leaning back a bit unless you rest the right forearm on the right kneecap to keep it from swinging back. Striking the kneecaps triggers a "limbo"-like falling over that provides an alternative to trying to actually knock over the oversized figure. If the right arm swings just right, Omega Sentinel can sometimes catch himself, but it should still count as a Defeated result. The launcher fires by turning a knob at the elbow, and while there's some variation in spring strength, they'll fire about 2 meters straight up (so the launch velocity is 6 to 7 meters per second...around 15 mph for those of you without metric). Maximum range at 45 degrees launch angle is around 3-4 meters. "Do Not Point At People" warnings are in full effect. The missiles themselves are 2.75" (7cm) long. I've had a few unintended firings, so I'd recommend storing the toy with the missiles unloaded. Besides, you want to keep the springs as strong as possible. AT-RT Collector's Number: SVT02 Points: 70 Attacktix Class: Mega Faction Class: Not given, presumably Republic. Speed: 4-5 (4) Special: 6 (very clustered) Special Ability: Rally (Trooper) - Return one of your Troopers to play. Height: 6" (15cm) Base: 6cm wide, 7.5cm deep Attack: Ranged (multi-shot) The open cockpit walker from Episode 3, it's almost exactly as big as the Lego version of the unit. All gray plastic with some green accents painted on it, and black on the "windshield" and handlebars. The pilot is a single hunk of white plastic with black paint, the standard "almost an Ep4 Stormtrooper" design. The missiles are the same as Omega Sentinel's. The main mold difference frmo a regular AT-RT is that the gun has been replaced by the quad missile launcher. It can twist at the "waist" and rock back and forth a bit at the hips. The pilot is immobile, but only glued on at the butt, so there's some wiggle room. Enlarged armor plates at the ankles provide alternate defeat mechanisms, and the AT-RT falls over pretty energetically when both are triggered. The launcher works the same as Omega's, but the springs aren't as strong, at least on mine. Muzzle velocities closer to 4 or 5 meters per second. Still, for a target under a meter away, that'll usually do the trick. The waist joint also means the figure is a turret, and can shoot any direction without turning the base (you need to finish movement before the firing phase, and it's nice to have the option to change targets if you luck out with another unit). LUKE SKYWALKER Collector's Number: SVT03 Points: 30 Attacktix Class: Warrior Faction Class: Rebellion Speed: 9-11 (10) Special: 9 (spread out) Special Ability: Recruit (Princess Leia) - Put Princess Leia into play from your Back-Ups Height: 2.75" (7cm) Base: 5cm Attack: Melee This is Luke in his "under the Stormtrooper armor" outfit from Ep4, white tunic and leggings, brown belt, tan boots, 70s hairdo. The lightsaber is silver with a medium bright blue blade (3"/8cm long total). His trailing foot is embedded in a bunch of rocks. The proportions are a little weird, I think the legs may be a tad short. The head and shoulders swivel. The waist twists for attack, but the spring is so weak it doesn't actually snap back around. Of course, at the lowest point value of the lot and having a special ability unusable with this set, Luke's kinda a writeoff anyway. Note the much higher speed. Melee characters seem to have higher speeds in general, to balance their lack of a ranged attack. DARTH VADER Collector's Number: SVT04 Points: 40 Attacktix Class: Leader Faction Class: Empire Speed: 11-13 (12) Special: 8 (fairly well spread) Special Ability: Attackback (All Empire) - Free move and attack for all your Empire figures in play Height: 3" (7.5cm) Made in black plastic with gunmetal shoulderpad details, some silver, red and blue control panel details, and red lightsaber blade. Lightsaber is 3.25" (8cm) long in total. The head turns and the shoulders swivel, plus there's a hinge in his cloak so it can get out of the way of attacking. Or be pulled up as a handle for winding him up. Flipping it down keeps him from sagging out of position, a good idea so that you can be sure when you move him in to attack that he'll have some follow-through on his strike. SUPER OPTIMUS PRIME Collector's Number: SVT05 Points: 40 Attacktix Class: Leader Faction Class: Autobot Speed: 4-5 (4) Special: 8 (fairly well spread out) Special Ability: Recover - Stand up Super Optimus Prime if you have another figure in play. Height: 3" (7.5cm) Base: 5cm Attack: Ranged (Shield) Note that the version found in boosters has the Transform ability, to allow it to be replaced by the vehicle mode. However, this version can still be brought out by the vehicle mode's special ability, and is generally a better choice. This is Super Mode Optimus Prime from Cybertron, but with his wing pack shrunken to the point that it's no wider than his shoulders. Fortunately, box art aside, he has the closed faceplate. Except for the oversized right arm missile launcher (which is dark blue plastic), the entire toy is made of bright red plastic, with a lot of dark blue and silver paint in the relevant areas, plus some black. The head and waist turn, the shoulders swivel pretty stiffly. These combine to let you point the missile launcher pretty much any direction. The missile itself is what I call a "shield missile", with a big roundish chunk on the end. In this case, it's a roughly conical red plastic warhead 1.75" (4.5cm) across and 1" (2.5cm) deep...it's like he's firing a ziggurat. Its sheer mass means a short range, with a launching speed of 2-3 meters per second, and a maximum effective range of under a meter. Good thing the play area is a meter on a side. The missile also makes a good top. MEGATRON Collector's Number: SVT06 Points: 40 Attacktix Class: Leader Faction Class: Decepticon Speed: 4-5 (4) Special: 12 (somewhat clustered) Special Ability: Sacrifice (Decepticon) - Replace one of your Decepticons with this figure. Height: 2.75" (7cm) Base: 5cm Attack: Ranged (Shield) Cybertron Megatron, made from very dark plastic but almost completely covered in paint applications. Good proportions, although the arm blade weapon is stumpy and the pistol is vastly oversized. The gun looks removable at first, but it's glued into place. Head and waist turn, shoulders swivel. Again, this gives a full range of aiming lines. The missile is another shield variety, with the head resembling the actual toy's wheel gun, albeit in solid light purple. The diameter is 1.5" (3.5cm), and it's actually tilted at a 20-25 degree angle for reasons that escape me. Maybe to increase the chance of banking blows that impart sideways momentum? Ehn. It's less massive than Prime's missile, with a correspondingly greater firing velocity of a little over 3 meters per second. Megatron can use Prime's missile, but Megatron's missile won't go into Prime's launcher far enough to lock into place. Not that Prime's missile always goes in far enough in his own launcher. :/ Both of them can use the purple missiles of the big guys. Pretty good interchangeability. Dave Van Domelen, updated this review with stuff like base size and format rectification.