Dave's Transformers Cybertron Rant: Wave 1 Scouts Scattorshot Overhaul Ransack I actually got both wave 1 and wave 2 on the same day, but I'll still go ahead and review them separately. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/GC06 - Review of Backpack, the Galaxy Force version of Scattorshot. CAPSULES Scattorshot: Very good toy, and lacks one of the main problems I had with Backpack. Strongly recommended. $6.99 at TRU. Overhaul: Vehicle mode is solid, if chibi. Some interesting transformation bits, but the robot gets in its own way too much...a nifty design that would have worked better at a larger size where it could have more joints. Clear G1 Brawn homage. Mildly recommended. $6.99 at TRU. Ransack: No real problems other than being a bit spindly, and that's kinda to be expected for a motorcycle. Good, if somewhat cheaty transformation, nifty vehicle and robot modes. Strongly recommended. $6.99 at TRU. RANTS Packaging: The same sort of blister card package as the Deluxes, but shorter: 8.25" (21cm) tall and 7.5" (19cm) wide, 2.5" (6cm) deep at the thickest. All packaged in vehicle mode, with twist-ties as usual. The poster and instructions are rolled up in a bag taped to the bottom inside of the tray, behind the nameplate cardboard. AUTOBOT: SCATTORSHOT Planet: Earth Altmode: Missile Halftrack Key code: s67k Possibly the most neurotic AUTOBOT ever created, SCATTORSHOT always gets the job done. As the right hand 'bot to JETFIRE in protecting earth [sic], he worries so much about messing up in front of his legendary commander that he sets a nearly impossible standard for himself. Despite his nervous clumsiness, he somehow never seems to fail, but his good luck just serves as proof to him that somewhere in the universe is a huge store of bad karma just waiting for the right moment to come crashing down on him. STR 6 INT 7 SPD 5 END 6 RNK 4 COUR 6 FRB 8.5 SKL 8 Avg 6.31 (Right-hand 'bot at Rank 4? Ooookay. I think they just don't want to give a high Rank to ANY of the Scout Class.) Key code info: Although an active and important part of Optimus Prime's team of Autobots, Scattershot really loves to play Cybertronian video games! He used to be a video game programmer back when he was younger on Cybertron. His nervousness may work against him sometimes in battle, but that high-strung nature keeps his mind sharp and Scattershot uses his knowledge of strategy games to help Optimus make their plans against the Decepticons. (Also shows a screencap of Scattorshot and the human kid on the Space Bridge from the episode "Space". Notice how he's ScattErshot on the webpage.) See the Backpack review for most of the details on this toy, I'll just cover the differences here. 1 massively twisted twist-tie, 1 rubber band. The accessories are just held in by blister shaping. Plastic Changes: None I can find. Paint Changes: None I can find. Mold Differences: None I can find...but the chest locks down, something I couldn't get Backpack to do no matter how hard I pushed. This is probably something related to quality control (i.e. got unlucky with one, lucky with the other) rather than any changes in manufacture. Overall: Great little toy. Get it. AUTOBOT: OVERHAUL Planet: Jungle Altmode: Off-road SUV Key Code: s9d7 One tough AUTOBOT, OVERHAUL has never thought much of intellectual pursuits. His solution to a complex problem is generally to stomp on it until it gets simple or stops being a problem. He's never felt that he's had the respect his strength deserves from the other AUTOBOTS, but now that he's on the Jungle Planet - where might makes right - he feels right at home. STR 6 INT 5 SPD 4.5 END 8 RNK 4 COUR 8 FRB 6 SKL 7 Avg 6.06 (STR 6 seems a bit low for strength that deserves respect.) Key code info: In the original design stage for TF: Cybertron, Overhaul was going to be called "Trailbreaker", a popular name from the 1980's. This was to match up with his later upgrade to "Leobreaker" -- a lion on the Jungle Planet. His name was changed to Overhaul, but the Lion's name stayed the same! A lion would sound kinda funny with the name "Leohaul", right? (Also shows various head design sketches for Overhaul. For those reading this who don't know GF stuff, the toy is Jackshot in GF, with an upgrade to Ligerjack. Too bad the lawyers didn't let them keep the Trailbreaker/Leobreaker thing.) 1 twist-tie on the vehicle, 1 on the missile. A rubber band around the front end of the vehicle. Vehicle Mode: A "just enough changed to avoid lawsuit" Hummvee (not the civilian Hummer, it has the sloped back of a military HMMV), with some of the angles a little warped. A little Land Rover influence, too. The wheels are disproportionately large, though, making it a Chibi Hummvee (and thus a good Brawn homage, since the original MiniBots were mostly chibified versions of vehicles). Leaving out the missile and Key, it's 3.5" (9cm) long, 2" (5cm) wide and 2" (5cm) tall on its 1" (2.5cm) diameter wheels. If you leave the missile loaded, it sticks out the back by a couple centimeters, just above the Key slot. The feet can flip out as a cowcatcher/brushcutter and the wheels will still roll on the table. The main chassis color is a forest green, furthering the G1 Brawn homage. The wheels and parts of the front and rear bumpers are black plastic. There's a little clear red plastic visible on the spare tire, which holds the robot head. A darkish metallic red paint is on the windows, neon yellow paint on the headlights and roof-mounted lights, bright red on the foglamps. Gold stripes form a pattern on the hood and doors. There's a bit of silver paint on the running boards. There's no paint on the hubcaps. The Key can be inserted in this mode, but the missile can't fire, as it's totally blocked. It'll move forward a little, though. Planet Key: Standard Jungle Key, with silver paint around the edges and silver chrome on the symbol. Transformation: Some interesting bits, several reminiscent of Ironhide from Energon (in fact, that's sort of his secondary homage, to Energon Ironhide). You can pop out just the head to strengthen the Ironhideness. Be sure to straighten the claws (rear bumpers) first, or they may pop off when folding out the arms. The legs are pretty standard, though, being the front end of the vehicle. Robot Mode: A scrappy 4" (10cm) tall, with kibble and odd jointing getting in the way in many places. The head, chestplate, upper arms, claws and feet are black plastic. The forearms, butt and hips are a sort of brownish yellow (yes, more Brawn homage). I think the front of the pelvis is actually the same forest green as the chassic bits, but completely painted over in gold. The head has a gold-painted crest and a small silver-painted face with a tiny grim-set mouth. His eyes are lightpiped red. The chest has silver painted details, and presumes a loaded missile to give a central focus. There's also little bits of red on the lower corners of the chestplate. The shoulders have silver and gold paint, plus a molded red Autobot symbol on the right shoulder. The proportions are a bit odd. The head sits up a bit high on its baseplate, giving the impression of an extended neck. The lower legs are huge, with massive kneecap pieces in the form of the windshield halves. Still, only a *bit* odd. The jointing of the arms is very odd. The shoulders are ball joints, but attached to wings formed by the doors (which are diagonally hinged, between a suicide hinge and a gull door). This limits the ways they can be posed without snapping off. Also, while the elbows are standard hinges, they then are molded to bend inward 45 degrees. This could look good, but the arms just get in the way of the chest or even the kneecaps unless you swing the shoulders all the way out. The claws are hinged for transformation, but cannot be folded out of the way. The rest of the joints are fairly standard. The head and waist are swivels, the hips are somewhat floppy ball joints (a little nail polish will fix this, or even sticking little balls of poster putty inside the joint), and the knees are hinges. The ankles swing on a transformation hinge, but are also kinda loose and not generally useful for supporting poses when at any angle but flat. Inserting the Key into the slot in his hunchback hump makes the missile in his chest fire fairly impressively. There's a little spring-loaded nub inside the slot that holds the Key in pretty securely once it's been inserted. Overall: An A for effort, it's certainly not recycling the same old vehicle transformation. But I think it's a design that would have worked better on a Deluxe or even Voyager, where they could put in a few more joints and transformation folds. Plus, a larger size would let the missile be fully concealed while loaded. It's getting a recolor as Brushguard, which I may or may not pick up. Oh, and lest people think I didn't notice it...SNIKT! DECEPTICON: RANSACK Planet: Speed Altmode: Motorcycle Key Code: sc92 Skittish and suspicious, RANSACK is a loudmouth bully, always ready to intimidate others into giving him what he wants, but only when his big partner CRUMPLEZONE is around. With the energy of the Speed Planet flowing through his circuitry, everything about him is fast - sometimes too fast. Unable to stop thinking or moving, his hyperactive mind tends to draw connections between unconnected things, and he sees conspiracy everywhere. STR 5 INT 7 SPD 8.5 END 8 RNK 4 COUR 3.5 FRB 5 SKL 5.5 Avg 5.81 (Well, at least Crumplezone doesn't outrank him...they're tied.) Key code info: Ransack is one half of the dastardly duo of Ransack and Crumplezone. What most citizens of the Speed Planet don't know about Ransack is that he secretly has a crush on Speed Planet leader Override! He's tried to ask her out at least five hundred times, but every time he gets the nerve up to ask her, he blows a gasket! (Also shows design sketches of the motorcycle mode and its Key gimmick. I really don't want to think too much on what blowing a gasket means in this case, and I expect to see a Cybertronian Enquirer issue on the matter.) 2 twist-ties on the cycle, 1 on the separately-bubbled weapon. 1 rubber band on the cycle. Vehicle Mode: A Sbarro hubless wheel style of motorcycle (for real examples, see http://www.burningart.com/meico/moto/sbarro/index.html). He's of the hubless front wheel, standard rear wheel design, like the first cycle shown on the page. In fact, his front end seems to be directly inspired by that one, but the back end is rather different. And no pizza jokes, please. 5" (13cm) long in intended vehicle mode, it's a stretched motorcycle. Most of the body is an orange-red plastic, with some very dark gray plastic in the middle third and on the struts for the wheels. There's extensive use of clear red plastic: windshield, tires (made of Tachymers, of course), gunbarrels and Key. There's also an inserted piece of clear red plastic for the headlamps. Gold paint is used extensively on the front end, the wheel rims, the gas tank and on the sides of the seat. There's silver paint on the majority of the gastank, as well as on the weapon section, and a tiny bit of neon green paint on the weapon. A small and somewhat blurry Decepticon symbol is tampographed onto the right side of the weapon section. The wheels are wide enough that the toy has no problem staying up without a kickstand, and they roll pretty well, although the hubless nature of the front wheel makes it a little more friction-y and it tends to slide on smooth surfaces rather than rolling. If you leave the Key out, the seat has two 5mm peg holes from the robot fists, and it's possible to add some weapons here, although the angle is wrong for most weapons. The robot's heel spurs can be flipped down to act as brakepads for the rear wheel, a nice little extra feature. Once in a while, a Basic-sized toy comes out that has an unexpected range of transformations. And while this is no BMac Scavenger, it's got some nifty fanmodes available. The rear wheel can split for transformation, and folding the halves all the way around creates a trike mode (which, it should be noted, puts the rear wheel about where it would be if the rear end was in "real life" proportion to the front). Putting them at 90 degrees and then rotating the front wheel to its robot mode position gives you a hoverbike. Inserting the Key causes the clear red (with silver and black paint) barrels of the weapon section to pop out and point backwards. Given the personality stated for Ransack, having a special weapon that's most useful while running away seems apt. Planet Key: Standard Speed Key, but with no paint around the edges, just the chrome at the center. Musta been a choice between that and more paint on the figure. Transformation: A little cheaty, in that a big chunk of the toy comes off as a weapon, but the rest is decent. The rear section becomes the legs, with the wheel halves folded onto the boots. The gas tank and seat splits to form the arms, and the windshield folds down to reveal the head and become the chest (the underside of the windshield piece is patterned and painted). The front wheel is turned sideways, but this isn't really necessary for transformation...it does lend credence to the unofficial flight mode, though (keep the rear wheel halves at 90 degrees, they have hoverfan patterning on them). Robot Mode: A spindly 4" (10cm) tall with high heels and big shoulderpads...and a smirking face. Oddly, while he has a lightpiping block on the back of his head, his eyes are painted green, so no glowing eyes. The upper arms are black plastic, as are the abdomen, pelvis, thighs and neck piece. The chest is clear red plastic painted gold and silver. The outside of the torso, the shoulderpads, the head and the boots are orange-red. The shoulderpads are mostly covered in silver paint with some gold, and there's lots of gold and black paint on the boots. The forearms are actually orange-red plastic painted almost completely black with gold on the "buckler" parts. The face is silver with a black "mask" and forehead, and the earlier mentioned green eyes. Poseability is pretty good. Universal joint (a hinge and a swivel) shoulders, ball joint elbows, swiveling neck and waist, ball joint hips, restricted ball joint knees. Also, due to a transformation joint, he can bow at the abdomen. Despite the long foot base, the figure is a little back- heavy, but the (proportionally) huge gun in front balances him out. The gun fits firmly in either fist, and its peg is a dead Mini-Con hardpoint, although its position means it can't really connect in a useful way to a Mini-Con. Key gimmick is the same, but now the gun points forwards. And he can stand with feet on either side of Crumplezone's head for a sort of Master Blaster thing (no, not the BW ep, the Mad Max character). Overall: Proportions are a little weird in both modes, but otherwise no complaints. A good, solid toy with some fun fanmodes. Definitely worth getting. Dave Van Domelen, now to get into the wave 2 Scouts. And then Decepticharge. And then Japanese Go-Bot Randy. Feast or famine, man.