Dave's Universe Classics Rant: Deluxe Wave 2 Acid Storm - Fighter Jet Galvatron - Tank Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/UDeluxe2 Wave 2 is two each of the Wave 1 figures, plus either two Galvatrons or one each of Galvatron and Acid Storm. Acid Storm is a recolor of Starscream (http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/Deluxe1) meant to evoke one of the unnamed "Rainmaker" Seekers who made it pour acid rain in the G1 cartoon. Update 9/9/08: Got Acid Storm for Wonkimus Prime. CAPSULES Acid Storm: A Recommended mold, but this is the third mass-market version of it (fourth if you include Ramjet), which is starting to push it in terms of reuse. If you don't have any (or many) previous versions, it's worth picking up, but it's not good enough for me to want to buy it. $9.99 at Hasbro Toy Shop. Galvatron: Nicely detailed vehicle mode, challenging transformation, and a robot mode that really needed a much bigger budget to have a chance of working. It falls apart in so many ways it's not funny. Mildly recommended. $9.99 at Target. RANTS Packaging: Same as wave 1. Galvatron's painted art isn't as zombie-like as most. His co-sells are Sunstreaker and Acid Storm. Acid Storm's painted art is pretty zomb, and his co-sells are Prowl and Galvatron. Mottos and functions are my creations. And just a reminder, when I list previous name or mold use, I only mean U.S. mass market...I leave out Japanese and convention-exclusive releases. DECEPTICON: ACID STORM Altmode: F-15 Fighter Jet Function: Rainmaker Weapon: Double Hyperion3 Blasters Previous Name Use: None Previous Mold Use: Classic Starscream, Skywarp variant Motto: "Into every death, some rain must fall." A member of an obscure squad of DECEPTICON air warriors known only as "The Rainmakers," ACID STORM is known as an individual ony to his teammates and a very few others. He is highly intelligent, eager, and dedicated utterly to the DECPTICON cause. He has a talent for marshalling vast amounts of data, as well as a way with words that would make him a powerful speaker. However, he prefers to remain anonymous, as part of his team. His Hyperion3 blasters can seed natural clouds with a highly destructive form of acid rain. STR 6 INT 9 SPD 7 END 7 RNK 5 COUR 9 FRB 6 SKL 10 Avg 7.375 First there was Starscream. Then there was recolor with tiny tweak Skywarp. Then more extensive remold Ramjet. Then a barrage of BotCon exclusive recolors of both molds. And then they dragged the mold out for another go, having used up all the original Seeker names, but for once they didn't go with Sunstorm for the next version. "Hyperion3" is part of a former email address of Monzo, whose birthdate was seen on Onslaught's deco. Packaging: A twist-tie on each missile, four ties on the jet mode. No rubber bands. Color Swaps: Blue becomes black, most of the gray becomes slightly metallic medium green (exceptions in a moment), rubbery plastic on the nosecone is now a pale gray-blue, and the clear yellow plastic is a bit more orange-ish. A few of the gray pieces become pale gray-blue: nosecone section, missile launcher triggers, thighs, the hinges for the wings (including a bit on the wing underside where the pieces are screwed together), shoulder joint roots, pelvis core with hip struts, and the strut that the cockpit connects to (not visible in either mode, just during transformation). Paint Apps: There's a brown and puke yellow camoflage pattern that I suppose is meant to suggest corrosion stains all over the airplane. There's a decent green paintmatch on the nosecone piece, although it covers too much of the clear plastic on the cockpit front. The wingtip lights are painted red, as are the robot's eyes. There's brighter yellow paint on the insides of the airscoops, on the shoulder stripes and the kenecaps. The helmet appears to be painted completely black, so well that I can't tell what plastic color it is underneath (could be blue-gray, could be green); There's also black paint on the upper torso, and black Decepticon symbols printed on the wings and vertical stabilizers. There's blue-gray paint on the torso, above and to the sides of the cockpit, which ties the design together a bit better. Other Notes: This is actually a redeco of the Skywarp version of the mold, not the original Starscream, but I've listed changes in plastic colors relative to Starscream since more people are likely to have that one. The difference is mainly in the air intakes, which have a shallower interior angle on Starscream than on Skywarp or Acid Storm. The hips are a bit loose, which might be a function of the blue-gray plastic (which I think was chosen for being slipperier, as it's on most of the joints). Overall: A decent enough redeco, but I have mold fatigue on this one, and it'd have to be an astonishingly good character or deco for me to want one for myself. This is merely pretty good. DECEPTICON: GALVATRON Altmode: Tank Function: Emperor of Destruction Weapon: Particle Cannon Previous Name Use: G1, RiD, Armada, Energon, Cybertron Previous Mold Use: None Motto: "It's a pity you Autobots die so easily, or I might get some sense of satisfaction!" Arrogant, powerful and ruthless, GALVATRON has emerged to seize control of the scattered DECEPTICON forces. He has formed [sic, should be "taken"] what was once a loose confederation of assassins and warlords and turned it into an army capable of threatening the entire universe. Rumors abound, but no one knows where he came from; they know only that he arrived, and swiftly crushed all opposition to his rule. Some DECEPTICONS hope another leader powerful enough to challenge him will emerge, but most are too afraid of him to even hope for someone better. STR 10 INT 9 SPD 9 END 10 RNK 9 COUR 9 FRB 9 SKL 10 Avg 9.375 Speedy little tank, eh? Odd that his Rank is only 9, though. Sorta implies that he's acting as a front for someone else. That might explain why he's only a Deluxe (other than not wanting two Ultra gray armored vehicles on the shelves at the same time), as we'll see an Ultra or larger super Megatron or something later. Yeah, yeah...I know it's kinda pointless speculation on my part, as future toys have been laid out far enough in advance that the odds of there being any "true leader" figure in the 2008-9 range are slim to none, but even pointless speculation can be amusing. This is the first Galvatron to be made first AS Galvatron since G1. Every other Galvatron has been the go-to recolor for Megatron, ever since they decided that "Devil Megatron" wouldn't fly in America during RiD (Car Robots had Gigatron upgrade into Devil Gigatron, RiD had Megatron upgrade to Galvatron). The next three series followed the pattern and had Megatron get recolored into Galvatron, and I wouldn't be surprised if the movies eventually do it too. At least Megatron's upgrade in TF:A was still named Megatron. :) [Because people are picking nits over this, it's the first TRANSFORMING, AMERICAN RELEASE Galvatron that was made to be Galvatron since G1. Yes, BWII had Galvatron, but I don't count te Japanese lines when considering name or mold reuse. And yes, there's been Heroes of Cybertron, Titanium 3" and Robot Heroes Galvatrons, but those are all non-transforming representations of the G1 version. Plbt.] Packaging: Two twist-ties hold the tank into the blister, a third holds the missile in. No rubber bands. The rocket pack at the rear right of the turret is folded down horizontally, but should be bent up by 90 degrees for tank mode. Comes with the first version Animated/Universe catalog. Vehicle Mode: A semi-realistic tank with some sci-fi elements (mainly the energy cannon) but not tightly based on any actual tank that I recognize (The TF Wiki thinks it's close to the Israeli Merkava, which doesn't contradict my previous point since I'd never heard of that model prior to checking the wiki for G1 colors scheme info). The main body is 5" (12.5cm) long and 3.5" (9cm) wide, 2.5" (6cm) wide if you ignore the rockets strapped to (well, molded onto) the rear sides. The turret is 5.5" (14cm) long with the missile loaded, and the center of rotation is 3" (8cm) back from the front. The whole thing is pegged together pretty extensively and is fairly stable, but the turret is liable to pop off. Mainly the same "feldgrau" (thanks Susp!) color as Onslaught, with some silver accents and bits of safety orange. The main gun's barrel is clear orange plastic (very strong UV glow), shaped like the G1 Galvatron's animation model's cannon. The trigger is safety orange (also a very strong UV glow) with a sort of shape at the top that might be thought of as a hatch if it weren't right on top of the barrel. Safety orange is also used for the strut on the rocket pod. A bit of Decepticon Purple (moderate UV glow) plastic is visible at the back of the turret. Like most tank toys, it rolls on four little wheels...and these are made of clear orange plastic but badly painted safety orange. Not only is the pain job mottled, but it also prevents the wheels from rolling well. The rest of the tank is feldgrau (greenish gray armor color) plastic, slight UV glow. Silver is the main paint color in this mode, found on the barrel, the front "fenders", vents on the sides and on the center of the turret. The treads are painted black, and a black "GALV-25" (Galvatron 25th Anniversary, perhaps? Despite this not being a 25th Anniversary line toy, and Galvatron being only 22 years old now) is stencilled on both sides of the turret. No Decepticon logo visible in this mode. A black or brown wash would have been nice to bring out all the molded details on the toy. One nice touch is a set of folding panels at the front and back between the treads to hide the robot kibble. The only robot bit visible other than from below is one hand at the back of the turret. The tank rolls along...badly. The turret turns, but is prone to popping off. It does not elevate at all. The rocket pod at the right rear of the turret can be swung around a bit, but this can make the hand emerge. Walker Tank Mode: There's been some speculation about the weird feet things that form the caps of his backpack in robot mode. Some think it's simply an attempt to get his silhouette more in line with the G1 animation model without having to make the vehicle mode look odd (I don't think it does a good job of evoking either animated or toy versions). The other main school of thought is that the TakaraTomy designers decided to add in a legged tank mode, but Hasbro didn't care for it and left it out of the instructions. Getting the front "feet" out is fairly simple, but the rear ones can only be pulled out if you pull apart the rear flanks some first. The rear feet are a bit taller than the front feet, so the lack of elevation in the main gun is made worse. You might want to just flip out the front ones to let the tank point up a little and leave it at that. Transformation: The front two thirds of each tread unit unfold to become the legs, although they're liable to pop apart in a few ways. There's a lot of twisting and folding to get the lower legs into shape. The rear thirds of the treads become a backpack, with the "feet" positioning fairly arbitrarily, and looking at both the animated model and the G1 toy I really can't see what they're supposed to look like if it's an homage. The backpack pegs together okay, but you kinda need the instructions to figure out where everything's supposed to go, since the package photos hide the backpack and it doesn't really look strongly LIKE anything. The turret folds around fairly cleverly into the right arm, with the side halves sliding together into shoulder armor once the cannon has been pulled out. The left arm is folded up under the rear of the tank. A block folds over the top of the shoulder to cover the joint, but doesn't lock into position on its tabs like it seems intended to. A small gray hook folds up from its top, as shown in the instructions but not on the package photos. The head slides up from inside the chest by means of a slider connected to a panel that folds down to form the front of the chest. There's some nifty molded details inside the chest, only visible during transformation. Robot Mode: 5.5" (14cm) tall, with a color scheme that owes more to the animation model than the original toy, but deviates from the animation model in some odd ways as well (such as the feet being purple instead of gray, and the knees being gray rather than purple). There's a lot of little bits of safety orange, but that's in keeping with the original toy to some extent. The purple is darker than the more violet color seen in the cartoon (and on the 2005 Japanese re-release of the G1 toy). The overall look is an odd mix of influences. The head and torso are very close to the G1 animation mold, although the purple is too dark. The right arm has a turret-shaped shoulder that's new for this version. The kneecaps are hexagonal like Energon Megatron/Galvatron (and as I stated at the time - http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Energon/Super2 - that mold was actually made to be Galvatron and "recolored in advance" as Megatron). The head, torso, pelvis front, most of the left shoudler, the hands, the right forearm outside, upper arm inside, toes and lower shinguards are a darkish Decepticon Purple plastic. Safety orange plastic is on most of the hinges and joints and on the buttplate. The cannon barrel on the right arm and the head's lightpiping are clear orange plastic. The rest is feldgrau, including that odd little hook on the left shoulder top. The face, abdominal border and kneecaps are silver painted, and a silver Decepticon symbol is printed on the left shoulder. The four abdominal windows are painted red. That's pretty much it for dedicated robot mode paint. Some purple paint around the silver of the kneecaps would have been nice, and some have already done that touchup. The right hand is in an open position, slightly clawed. The left hand is a fist, with no peg hole. The waist is really skinny, as if they intended to have the joint collapse into the torso during transformation but had to cancel that early in the process. The knee joints are rather high up on the legs, his thighs barely an inch long. A big chunk of his deckplate armor forms a skirt in back. A very restricted ball joint forms the neck, while the waist is a swivel. [Later correction: the neck is a swivel with wiggle room.] (Take as given that no joints on this toy are ratcheting.) The right shoulder is the turret peg swivel, which pops apart easily. Also, the turret bits get in the way of the backpack and vice versa. The left shoulder is a ball joint that's going to need stiffening up with glue or nail polish. Both arms have upper arm swivels, but in slightly different places. The right elbow is a single hinge, the left elbow is a double hinge. No real articulation on the right wrist, the left can swing down on its transformation joint but can't turn. Universal joint hips, disc-style swivels in each thigh like those found in Prowl. Hinge knees a bit too high to do much good. There's swivels below the knees, but these are transformation joints and are pegs that REALLY easily pop out. The toes have a lot of transformation joints involved, but there's almost no practical articulation. [Later correction: the right elbow is also a double hinge, but it can only bend 90 degrees due to forearm chunkness.] There's a huge problem in this mode of nothing holding together properly. The backpack comes unpegged. Joints pop apart. The looser joints cause it to sag due to upper body weight unless you're really careful in posing. It might be possible to fix most of these problems, but the design is simply FAR too ambitious for TakaraTomy's ability to manage quality control and tolerances. [Later note: the right shoulder (turret joint) is a screw in a peg. I've heard reports of the screw stripping out the peg rather than the turret turning around the peg, causing the arm to fall off permanent-like. So be careful out there.] Overall: Really needed the budget of a Voyager or Ultra to work. It feels like a downsized bootleg of a design that was never intended for Deluxe size. Points for ambition, but near-total fail on execution. The vehicle came out pretty well, but the robot mode just needs so much more budget to work. Dave Van Domelen, really hopes they don't reveal that Classics Megatron turned into Galvatron. It'd be nice to have a totally separate character for once.