Dave's Transformers Cybertron Rant: Legends of Cybertron Wave 3 Galvatron Soundwave (Cybertron Defense) Red Alert Vector Prime Haven't seen these locally yet, but Justin Anderson found them for me at Biggs (a regional chain in the Ohio River area). They're $3.99 each at Biggs, but most stores that I've seen carrying them (Alco/Duckwalls, Kohl's, online sources) charge $4.99. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/LoC1 - Megatron mold original review. CAPSULES Galvatron: Recolor of the Megatron LoC, which got a mildly recommended. The color scheme is nicer, though, and it's more stable. Recommended (dude, at this price, owning the original doesn't really lower the recommendation). Soundwave: Okay robot mode, really finicky transformation, lumpy vehicle mode. Generally disappointing. Neutral. Red Alert: The Cybertron Defense version, with cannon permanently open. Essentially an overgrown Micromaster. Its main virtue is that it doesn't fall apart. Mildly recommended. Vector Prime: Pretty good shrink-down, although some last-minute cheapening moves hurt it. Recommended. RANTS Packaging: Same format as the first two waves, but the P/N's skip ahead from ending in 0700 with Leobreaker to ending in 1300 on Soundwave. The missing five may simply be later shipments of the wave one toys. Galvatron has 4 twist-ties, Soundwave 3, Red Alert 4 and Vector Prime 4. All are packaged in robot mode. DECEPTICON: GALVATRON Alt Mode: Race car Bio Note: DECEPTICON leader and intergalactic criminal. STR ? INT 10 SPD 10 END ? RNK 10 COUR 10 FRB ? SKL 10 Avg 10+ Same stats as the Leader Class version. Color Swaps: Dark gray becomes a very light gray, orange becomes black. There's one exception, the rear rolling wheels hidden within the rear molded wheels are black on Galvatron, despite being dark gray on Megatron. Paint Apps: Several black apps on the fenders and roof, red cockpit and a red strip down the middle of each shinguard. The hubcaps on the front wheels are also black, and there's black accents on the robot shoulders, plus on the forearm armor bits. The face is metallic light purple, and the collarbone area in front of the head is gold. The chest has a printed Decepticon symbol. Other Notes: The looseness and popping-off-joints-ness of Megatron are almost completely gone here, and while the usual "this may only be quality control variations" caveat applies, I now have two Megatrons and both are floppy and poppy. The hips are still a bit floppy, but not as badly so. While the black and silver color scheme is a bit dull, dull is better than Megatron's garishness. While the LoC mold is incapable of the jet mode, it can deploy the front fenders as cannons. Overall: Improved in almost every way over the original. Worth picking up, especially if you'd like a C.Galvatron but don't wanna drop forty bucks. DECEPTICON: SOUNDWAVE Alt Mode: Stealth Fighter/Bomber Bio Note: Sinister DECEPTICON communications specialist and spy. STR 8 INT 8 SPD 9 END 9 RNK 9 COUR 9 FRB 6 SKL 8 Avg 8.25 Same specs as the big one, but no mention of Planet X. Not that there's much mention of anything on these toys. Robot Mode: 3" (7.5cm) tall at the head, 3.5" (9cm) at the wingtips, with a 2.5" (6.5cm) wingspan. The arms, thighs and some connective bits are a silvery light gray (CCCCCC), all the other parts are made from a darkish blue (0033FF) plastic. The face, chest and wing leading edges are painted gold. Metallic purple paint graces the "window" of the chest and the cockpit windows. There's bits of gunmetal paint on the abdomen and the lower shins. The kneecap tops are painted red. A Decepticon symbol is printed on his chest. The arms are ball joints, as are the hips and knees. The hips have weird directions of freedom...they need to be positioned to prevent the legs moving forward if you want the vehicle mode to be as good as you can get it, but it's possible to reorient them to allow better poseability. The toes are hinged for transformation. The cockpit piece is not attached to the left arm, instead being on a poseable post connected to the wing chunk on his back. Transformation: Wow, this is finicky. In principle it's really simple, but getting all the pegs to line up is REALLY hard, and I had to disassemble it the first time in order to see where everything went. And it doesn't really settle firmly into vehicle mode. Sliding the cockpit post up between the legs is what really makes it difficult, it'd be a lot easier if they just cheated and made the cockpit a removable part. Vehicle Mode: A little over 3" (8cm) long, wingspan same as above. The lack of colors on the keystone/starburst symbol behind the cockpit really hurts the overall appearance. Whatever faults the Voyager version has with the tail area looking kinda arbitrary, the LoC version multiplies by a factor of ten. And the robot arms don't really fit in anywhere no matter what I do, so they just sit there awkwardly. Overall: Pretty disappointing. The robot mode is okay, the transformation a pain in the skidplate, and the vehicle mode kinda sad. And this coming from someone who LIKES the Voyager version...if you don't like the Voyager version, you certainly won't like this. AUTOBOT: RED ALERT Alt Mode: Missile Truck Bio Note: AUTOBOT medic and technical expert. STR 6.5 INT 9 SPD 5 END 7.5 RNK 6 COUR 9 FRB 4 SKL 9 Avg 7 He has the techspecs of his Dodge Magnum form, despite having the appearance of his Cybertron Defense form. Robot Mode: Shown mistransformed on the package. Not that it matters much. This is an oversized Micromaster. 3" (7.5cm) tall at the head, a bit taller when you include his big gun. The pelvis, rolling wheels and gun post are a dark gray (666666) plastic, everything else is white. The head, chest and thighs are painted a slightly metallic dark blue (000099). There's a very dark gray on the vehicle roof and the non-rolling wheels, copper strips along the tops of the arms, silver all over the gun, and red (FF0000) on the visor and gun tip. Oh, and in a case of gilding the lily, it looks like there's a white band on the gun painted over the silver that's painted over white plastic. There's a Cybertron Defense symbol printed on the left shin. The arms are jointed like a bad Micromaster, with a peg through what looks to be the elbow and the whole stumpy arm rotating around that. The hips are ball joints. The only other joints are the two ball joints on the post holding the main gun, which let it either sit over the right shoulder or stow behind the back (it's in this position in the package). The gun is molded open, but being almost all silver makes it look less impressive. It's 2.25" (5.5cm) long. Transformation: Again, Micromastery. Snap legs together, point toes down, swing shoulder chunk around 90 degrees and make sure the arms line up in the right place. That's pretty much it. Vehicle Mode: 3.25" (8.5cm) long. It rolls along on four tiny hidden wheels, the "real" wheels are molded solid. There's no paint on the front end, which hurts the appearance. The gun does not slide over to center on the vehicle, and it doesn't even come close to hiding the big gap in the rear section's roof. Overall: Slightly better than a Micromaster, but only slightly. Okay, there's not a whole lot you can do with this design AUTOBOT: VECTOR PRIME Alt Mode: Spaceship Bio Note: Champion of CYBERTRON and time traveler. STR ? INT 10 SPD ? END 10 RNK ? COUR 10 FRB 10 SKL 10 Avg 10+ Same stats as the Voyager. Robot Mode: Packaged with shoulderpads down. The prototype shown on the package is MUCH better than the actual toy, with extra molded details and separate forearm pieces with paint apps. Anyway, enough on What Might Have Been. 3" (7.5cm) tall, with ball joints on the shoulders, hips and knees. However, the shoulder and hip joints are blocked a lot by kibble, such as the unmoving armor skirt. The wing support has no joints in it except for the swivels on which the wings are mounted. Mostly made of pearly white plastic, with chocolate brown arms, thighs, wing supports and one hinge. Metallic cyan (00FFFF) paint on his face, chest dish, cockpit windows and solar panels, gold on shoulders and waist, red (FF0000) eyes and center of chest dish, and brown upper chest and toe details. Transformation: Pretty much the same as the Voyager version, although without the head-turn or the wing reposing. No hassles, though. The legs don't peg into place on the underside, but the joint friction is enough to keep them from flopping. Vehicle Mode: 3.5" (9cm) long, 2.5" (6cm) wide. Looks pretty much correct except for the visible robot face and the changes made post- prototype. Could stand more paint, but the same is true of the Voyager version. Overall: The biggest problem with this toy is that they showed us a superior prototype on the package, so it automatically suffers by comparison to what we could have gotten. Best of the three new molds, but that is sadly not saying a whole lot. Dave Van Domelen, not planning to get any of the wave 4 recolors, which means no online ordering since everyone seems to sell only complete sets.