Dave's Transformers Cybertron Rant: Legends of Cybertron Wave 2 Scourge Leobreaker Jetfire Evac I ordered these online shortly before they started hitting Kohl's stores. However, given that Kohl's wants five bucks each (no savings over BBTS) and didn't get Jetfire in, so no regrets. CAPSULES Scourge: Nothing exciting, but a decent representation of the full-sized toy. Mildly recommended. Leobreaker: Actually works better at this scale than at full size. Some bad color choices, and the beast mode still has bad proportions, but reasonably worth getting. Mildly recommended. Jetfire: Pretty faithful reproduction of the full-sized toy, albeit with some fixable floppiness. Recommended. Evac: Odd proportions in robot mode that work well anyway, and some floppiness issues. Interesting transformation, good vehicle mode. Pick of the litter, recommended (and better than Jetfire, but enough flaws to prevent a strongly recommended). RANTS Packaging: same basic format as wave 1. Only one Decepticon this time out. 4 twist-ties on Scourge, 4 on Leobreaker, 4 on Jetfire, and 3 on Evac. All four are in robot mode in package. Of the three who have come out in regular size, all of the tech spec numbers are the same between versions. DECEPTICON: SCOURGE Alt Mode: Dragon Bio Note: Evil villain and leader of the Jungle Planet. STR 9 INT 8.5 SPD 7 END 8 RNK 8.5 COUR 10 FRB 9 SKL 7.5 Avg 8.44 Yes, another Evil Villain. Sigh. Robot Mode: 3" (8cm) tall at the head with a wingspan about the same as the height. It's made solely of golden yellow and dark gunmetal plastic, with airbrushed metallic purple paint, gunmetal paint, a few bits of orange paint (but not covering all the orange parts of the Ultra version), and a tiny Decepticon symbol printed on the chest. The color match is generally pretty good to the Ultra version. Down to the pointlessly purple face that can hardly be told apart from the helmet. Shoulders, neck, hips and ankles are ball joints. The elbows are ball joints too, but don't turn in any useful direction in this mode, being purely for beast mode. The tail does not detach, but is on a hinge to keep it out of the way. The Beavis-heads can swing forward or back on swivels. Transformation: Essentially the same as the Ultra version, but with less joints, no length-changing in the torso, and no panels to cover up the gap in the beast chest. It can be hard to reposition the heads without popping off the central one. Beast Mode: Pretty much only the three-headed version of the beast mode, as the Beavis-heads can't fold away all the way. There is no key slot molded onto the back. The central head is mounted on a ball joint. Overall length is 4.5" (12cm). The robot head isn't really hidden...either you have the face out and obvious, or you turn it around and the head sticks out. Oddly, the front knee joints don't bend in a useful direction here either...with multiple ways to align the ball joints, they picked the one configuration that cripples BOTH modes. Way to go. Probably the cheapest to mold. Overall: A decent mini-representation of the bigger toy, as faithful as is feasible. Even the pseudo-Ghidorah mode is doable, barely. A bit floppy and pop-apart-able, but decent for the price point. AUTOBOT: LEOBREAKER Alt Mode: Lion Bio Note: Master hunter and heroic AUTOBOT. STR 8 INT 8.5 SPD 7 END 7 RNK 9 COUR 9 FRB 8 SKL 8 Avg 8.06 Robot Mode: 3" (8cm) tall and made almost entirely of golden brown plastic (a little darker than the Voyager) with pearl claws, tail and butt. Some of the internal workings are also pearl. Given that all of those parts are golden brown on the main toy, it's an odd choice of mold separation. The shoulders and head are painted gunmetal, with silver on the face, pelvis and thighs. The robot eyes are unpainted, setting them apart from the rest of the head a little. The lion muzzle on the chest is painted pearl, and the eyes red. The mane itself is brown, and while the wires are molded into it, they aren't painted separately. A tiny Autobot symbol is printed on the left shoulder. Proportions are about the same as on the Voyager, but the lack of color difference between upper and lower legs de-emphasizes the "short shin" effect. The head is on a ball joint, but just as limited as on the Voyager. Shoulders and hips are limited ball joints, elbows and knees are hinges (although the knees almost look like ankles). The claws can not fold down far enough to be weapons in this mode. The tail can flip up and down, but not detach for use as a weapon. There are faux key slots molded onto both arms. Oh, here's something I neglected to mention in the Voyager review. If you stow the robot head and don't transform any further, it looks kinda like a Webdiver/Daigander figure with its beast head in the chest as the only head. Transformation: Similar to the Voyager, but without the abdomen panels, and the heel spur is fixed. The upper torso folds up to be the lion chest and head, but via a simpler internal joint. You push it forward, rock it up 45 degrees, then forward and the remaining 45 degrees simultaneously. The white claws fold down to cover the robot fists. As an aside, it's just as hard to pop the head up from beast mode here as it is on the Voyager, the little notch for your fingernail is partly blocked. Beast Mode: 3.5" (8.5cm) from snout to tail tip. The proportions are about as bad as on the Voyager. The placement of the white plastic is a bit off-putting. Oh, and not only are there no metallic green paint bits, there's no sign of a mold bit for the forehead button. Arm Mode: There is no way to do Arm Mode here, as the robot arms do not detach. Also no connector on the back, and he's too big to work with LoC Optimus anyway. :) Overall: Believe it or not, I like this better than the full sized version. At least with the small size there's a good excuse for some of the engineering problems. The plastic color choice bothers me, but I feel more like I got value for my money here. AUTOBOT: JETFIRE Alt Mode: Cargo Jet Bio Note: AUTOBOT commander hero of the skies. STR 9 INT 10 SPD 8 END 8 RNK 9 COUR 10 FRB 8.5 SKL 9 Avg 8.94 Robot Mode: Deliberately mistransformed in the package, since it's too deep to fit in the standard bubble otherwise (they fold the tail down to be behind the feet). 3" (8cm) tall at the head, it's made of light gray and light slightly yellow green plastic, a good color match to the Ultra. There's some dark green paint in appropriate places, as well as silver. A rather nice metallic red paint graces the wrist cuffs, visor and the light up parts on the tail (well, the parts that light up on the Ultra). A small Autobot symbol is printed on the chest. The head only moves forward to stow (and it's a devil to get back out without long nails or a pry tool). The arms swing up at the shoulders. The hips are very floppy ball joints, as are the knees (which only bend sideways for transformation). The waist turns. Also, this version has joints not found on the Ultra version...the wingtips fold up (possibly introduced just to let it fit in the bubble better). While the legs are kinda floppy, the torso holds together a lot better than in the Ultra. And the legs are stable enough that the figure doesn't fall over backwards under the weight of the backpack. There is a fake key slot molded onto the backpack. Transformation: Pretty much the same as the Ultra version, although the arms are simplified and merely swing up against the wings. And you have to straighten the wings. The two "boots" are NOT identical on this version. One has larger wheel bumps than the other, so you can transform the jet to either be tilted up (taking off) or down (landing). Nothing really locks together, but it holds together reasonably well. The pop-out hip launchers and the toes are molded in position and do not retract in transformation. It's worth noting that the Attack Mode is also possible, since the tail section can fold up and over the wing. The guns don't deploy, of course, but are molded in enough detail they don't really need to. Vehicle Mode: 4.5" (11cm) long, 4" (10.5cm) wingspan, 2.5" (6cm) tailspan. The robot head is a bit visible, but not much moreso than in the Ultra version. It could use a few more paint apps here and there to be a complete replica of the character, but it's a good job as it stands. Stability isn't great, but it's good enough. Interestingly, it's almost exactly the same size as the BK version, but less chibi (and less sucky). Overall: A good, solid toy. The floppy joints could probably be resolved with some nail polish, and it wouldn't be too hard to add a little yellow to the cockpit weapons. AUTOBOT: EVAC Alt Mode: Rescue Helicopter (Eurocopter AS-365 Dauphin) Bio Note: AUTOBOT guardian and protector of planet Earth. STR 7 INT 8 SPD 8 END 7.5 RNK 9 COUR 9 FRB 6 SKL 8 Avg 7.81 This is the only one of this batch that I'm reviewing "blind" this time, with no reference to the full-sized toy. So I'll perforce be both more details and more speculative. Robot Mode: 3" (7.5cm) tall at the head, 4" (10cm) at the shoulder cannons. The shoulderblades (pun intended, they're the split tail and rear rotor sections) are 3" (7.5cm) wide, and the rotor on the left forearm is about 3.3" (8.5cm) long. Most of the body is made of bright yellow plastic with white paint on the shoulderblades and shins. The torso, thighs and shoulders are dark blue, as are the shoulder guns and rotor. There's a bit or red on the chest and kneecaps, and some yellow plastic in the torso. The helmet is painted bluish silver, with red eyes and a red forehead tablet. The windows on the boots are metallic blue. There's a small Autobot symbol printed on the right shoulderblade. The proportions are sort of "hiked his pants up to his collarbone" in nature. The waist is 8mm below the head! But the overall effect isn't as bad as that might suggest, as big feet/small torso do tend to give the impression of being a giant. The shoulders do not move in a meaningful way, and the head is static. The elbows kinda wiggle and can rotate along the long axis, being on ball joints whose main direction of freedom is strictly for transformation. The waist turns, the hips and knees are ball joints that kinda "ratchet" between straight and 90 degrees, and the toes can point (transformation joint). The piece with the shoulder cannons has a faux key slot molded into it, suggesting that the cannons on the full-sized toy deploy when you insert its Key. The left arm has the rotor assembly attached to it as a huge gauntlet. The right arm has a big gauntlet with a pod attached to the underside, some bit of rescue equipment. The boots are likewise big, in part due to the cockpit halves. Despite some odd proportioning, the overall feel of the robot mode is very dynamic. However, from the back it's pretty open and gappy, something I hope the full-sized toy deals with better. Transformation: You can almost transform it without removing the rotor, but there's one step where you have the choice of removal or serious bending, so go ahead and remove it in the first step like the instructions advise. :) It's just pegged on. The transformation is quite interesting, and also pretty simple if you do things in the right order. If you do them in the wrong order, though, it can be pretty challenging, as I found. :) Vehicle Mode: My best guess on the specific vehicle mode is Eurocopter's Dauphin, which is commonly used as a rescue helicopter (although it's been around so long that variants of all sorts exist, including a gunship). While many of Eurocopter's designs have the fenestron (ducted tail rotor), the specific shape of Evac's fenestron best fits the Dauphin. Plus, while I expect the nose is lengthened to make for better feet, the Dauphin's general lines seem to fit (and the bottlenosed look certainly fits the name "dolphin"). Not a perfect fit, of course, but that's often deliberate to avoid trademark issues. About 4" (10cm) long, it's a sleek helicopter with its symmetry broken by a pod on the right side that looks like it might be a winch. The rotor, being pegged on, does not spin freely. The fenestron, being molded, does not rotate at all. :) The bottom is smooth, with the landing gear retracted. Overall: Cool vehicle mode, interesting transformation, good looking (if not good-moving) robot mode. A bit floppy and fragile in robot mode, but still definitely the star of the wave. Dave Van Domelen, can't wait to get the real Evac.