Dave's TF: Cybertron Rant - Voyager Wave 1 Crumplezone Vector Prime with Safeguard Part of a big haul I made over the July 4th weekend. Already reviewed the Deluxes, leaving the Leaders for last. See http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/GFMicron1 for in-depth comments on Safeguard, I'll just cover the differences here. CAPSULES Crumplezone: Nice vehicle mode, okay robot mode, somewhat simple transformation, nice-looking gimmick. No great shakes, but a decent toy. Recommended. $19.99 at TRU Vector Prime: Lovely mold hampered by lack of paint. Rather simplistic transformation. Recommended, especially for anyone willing to do some work to paint it up. $19.99 at TRU RANTS Packaging: The Voyager boxes are kinda keystone shaped. Trapezoids 11" (28cm) wide at the top but 9" (23cm) wide at the bottom. They're 8" (20cm) tall, with mostly window-plastic fronts. From the top, they're truncated rectangles so that the front faces are three roughly equal panels. The box is 4.5" (11.5cm) deep in the middle, tapering to 3.5" (9cm) deep at either side. The odd shape and large windows make them a bit vulnerable to damage in shipping, but mine were fine. The antisymmetry of the Deluxe packaging is also present here, with the planet key being up against the window on the lower right for Crumplezone and lower left for Vector Prime. The same 7 and reverse-7 shapes are there for the names, but they aren't dents. The character art is on the left for Crumplezone and on the right for VP. The left panel has the Speed Planet info for CZ, and the right panel has VP's personal background plot stuff. The tiny techspecs are on the opposite side panel. The bottoms have co-sells. Both plug the leaders. Crumplezone has Scourge and Vector Prime, while Vector Prime has Dirt Boss and Jetfire. VP has no love for his fellow Voyager. On the backs are the bio notes, big pictures of the Keys (including the paint apps missing from VP's key), pics of both modes and the various gimmicks (CZ's Key stuff, Safeguard in both modes). The Galaxy Force versions are used for the pictures, so the paint apps don't always match up. Note that Vector Prime doesn't have a Planet listed, and he has all four planet symbols and a gold background where other toys have their affiliation. The blurb for his Key calls it Universal. The box seems to be designed for top-opening. The corrugated cardboard tray inside pulls out easily, and has a little secondary blister to hold the planet key. Vector Prime is simply twist-tied down (4 to the card, 2 just to hold it together) with his sword and Safeguard under a blister glued to the tray. Crumplezone not only has 3 ties, he has a bubble over all that, tabbed like an Alternator's. His two missiles are twist-tied down. Each has a bagged poster and instructions taped to the back of the tray, and VP's missile is in that bag. DECEPTICON: CRUMPLEZONE Planet: Speed Altmode: Trike Dragster Planet Key Code: vj40 Trusting but dumb, CRUMPLEZONE is often drawn into serving as the muscle to back up the paranoid plotting of his partner RANSACK. Huge, powerful and superfast, CRUMPLEZONE is sometimes surprised by sudden turns. Not that it matters - he's the biggest guy on the SPEED PLANET, and crashing straight ahead through whatever gets in his way is his specialty. Twin- turbing ramjets can propel him at nearly the speed of sound, and selective thrust reversal allows him to fire hypersonic, high-explosive slugs nearly 12 miles. STR 8 INT 3.5 SPD 9 END 9 RNK 4 COUR 9 FRB 9 SKL 7 Avg 7.31 Key code info: Crumplezone is a massive Transformer. He loves to blast things, loves to crush things and LOVES to race as fast as he can all day long and all night long. But what he really loves is hanging out and causing all sorts of trouble with his best buddy Ransack! From putting grease on Overrides wheels, to Giving Clocker an atomic Speed Planet wedgie, Crumplezone is a punk that LOVES to cause trouble wherever he goes! (Also shows the back of his Galaxy Force version's box. Atomic Speed Planet wedgie? Owwwwww.) Speed Planet Entry The pure racing culture of the Speed Planet is about to change forever, as it becomes the first battleground in the war for the lost Planet Keys, ancient artifacts missing for eons on the Lost Colonies. In order to save Cybertron, Optimus Prime sends Hot Shot and Red Alert to face the untold dangers of this lost planet and an army of Decepticons, who seek the Planet Keys for their own evil ends. The Speed Planet is a tangled mass of roads, trails and aerial race- tracks, ruled by the dazzlingly fast Override. For millions of years, the inhabitants of the Speed Planet have been devoted to the pursuit of perfect acceleration, tuning their vehicle forms for optimum horsepower, displacement and torque. It is a turbo-charged world of cold air intakes, narrowed air flow profiles and stiff struts, where only the fastest survive, and the slow are left behind, grills choked with the dust of a thousand street battles. Yeah, some of that is on the poster too, but there's more stuff so I typed it all in. :) Looks like Crumplezone and Ransack have a BB and Starscrem thing going (or a Lenny and George thing, to go back to Steinbeck). Vehicle Mode: A fantastic rocket dragster sort of vehicle, but with only a single front wheel, making it a trike. With missiles loaded (and they look like part of jet nozzles, so they count as part of the vehicle proper) it's 9.5" (25cm) long, with a rear wheel base of 5.5" (14cm) and a "cowcatcher" at the front that narrows from 3" (7.5cm) to about an inch (2-3cm). With the spoiler wings flipped out, it has a "wingspan" at the back of 8.25" (21cm). The main colors are light gray, dark olive green and two shades of bright yellow-green (the plastic color is lighter than the paint). Most of the body is dark olive, with connective bits being yellow-green and the jet thrusters mostly gray. The wheels and cockpit are a dark clear blue, and there are several gold paint details (headlights, exhaust pipes, hubcaps, decorative bits). The Key chamber at the rear between the thrusters is painted gray and green, with a small Decepticon symbol tampographed on it. The thruster heads are made of the clear blue plastic, painted green around the outside except for what look like iron sights. The wheels spin very well, and are large enough for the toy to travel on relatively rough surfaces, but the clearance is too small to let it go over anything too hilly. The rear section holds together pretty well, but the cowcatcher at the front comes unpegged pretty easily. The dragster wings are only loosely held in "undeployed" position, so as to not interfere with the Key gimmick. Inserting the key causes the two 4" (10cm) long thrusters to spring around 180 degrees to point forward, throwing the dragster wings open. This is accompanied by a firing sound followed by a sort of electronic echo (batteries are included). The only way to repeat the sound is to remove the key a bit (it's in there pretty well) and re-insert. The missiles do not, thankfully, auto-launch when the launchers spring out. In deployed mode, Crumplezone looks more like a car than a trike, thanks to the launchers fleshing out his front end to 4" (10cm) wide. The missiles launch independently (and can't really be launched while the weapons are stowed), and can fire straight up about a foot or so (30-40cm). You can store the Key in its slot without triggering the gimmick. It is also possible to pop the launchers out without the key without breaking the toy, although the sounds won't happen. Planet Key: standard Speed Key. Transformation: Similar to many jets, actually. The front end is kinda like that of a jet, and folds down to make the chest (with the front wheel folding inside), while the legs are the undercarriage. The arms unfold from the sides, the head flips out, and it takes a bit of excessive force to get the chest to come together. It's worth noting that the pegs the robot fists are locked onto in vehicle mode are essentially Mini-Con hardpoints. However, they're not really accessible for most Mini-Cons. Jolt can fit on, but really awkwardly. Robot Mode: He's got that same bulky topheavy look as BB/Dreadwing, and generally looks like a cross between a jet-TF and a gorilla. And Trapjaw. 7" (17cm) tall at the head, a bit more at the backpack. His shoulderspan is 4.5" (12cm), and he's got that Popeye thing going with his huge forearms. The color balance is pretty good. His torso is mostly dark olive with light gray flanks, the blue cockpit in the middle, and plenty of light green and gold trim. The head is dark olive with a gold face, lightpiped blue eyes, and light green paint on his forehead and lower jaw. The shoulders, forearms, fists, shins and feet are also dark olive. The upper arms, collar area, hip and knee joints are yellow-green, and the dragster wings hang off his forearms (they get in the way a bit, but don't flop totally loosely). The thighs and pelvis are light gray. The jaw moves up and down, and looks kinda like E.Demolishor's (or Trapjaw's, as mentioned). Shoulders ratchet on a swivel and have some ratcheting lift and shrug motion. There's upper arm swivels, hinge elbows, swivels between elbows and lower arms. The short upper arms and large forearms do tend to limit poseability some, as do the dragster wings. The fists don't turn, but they can swing in from a transformation joint. The fists have 5mm holes, although mine has a really thick bit of mold flash covering over the right fist. Simple enough to cut open, though. The hips are ratcheting universal joints, there's a swivel above each knee, the knees and ankles are ratcheting hinges. The waist also ratchets. Oh, and the head turns. :) Triggering the Key gimmick in robot mode lets the launchers go from a jet backpack to shoulder cannons, swinging around 270 degrees. They deploy with the same sound as in vehicle mode. Overall: The proportions cause some problems, and the gimmick really dominates the toy, but it's generally a good piece of work. If it doesn't dazzle, neither does it really disappoint. AUTOBOT: VECTOR PRIME Planet: Cybertron (or none, or all) Altmode: Space Cruiser Mini-Con Partner: Safeguard Planet Key Code: v38g VECTOR PRIME is one of the first TRANSFORMERS. A powerful, wise and incredibly ancient warrior, he has served as protector over CYBERTRON since its beginnings. Pulled out of the shadows of time by a distress signal broadcast by his damaged planet, he arrives too late to save CYBERTRON without assistance. Arising from an era in which all TRANSFORMERS lived in harmony, he is unaware of the conflict between the AUTOBOTS and DECPTICONS, a fact that MEGATRON uses to trick him and steal the map to the lost planets and the planet keys. Realizing his mistake, he joins OPTIMUS PRIME and pledges his knowledge and skill to the desperate quest to retrieve the planet keys before MEGATRON. STR ? INT 10 SPD ? END 10 RNK ? COUR 10 FRB 10 SKL 10 Avg ? Key code info: Vector Prime is a Transformer from the earliest days of Cybertron's history. There is a legend of 13 original Transformers, built by Primus before he took the shape of the Planet Cybertron. It has been rumored that Vector Prime is actually one these original 13! (Also shows the back of his Galaxy Force version box.) Plot Entry Cybertron is the ancient home of the Transformers. Now, after the final, cataclysmic battle of a war as old as the universe itself, it is too badly damaged to resist the pull of a gigantic black hole that threatens to destroy it. The damaged planet has called forth out of the shadows of time a protector, one of the first Transformers ever created - Vector Prime. Vector Prime carries with him the knowledge of the ancients, including th elocation of the Lost Planets and the Planet Keys, the only items powerful enough to repair Cybertron and stop the black hole before it destroys the entire universe. Vector Prime has enlisted the aid of Optimus Prime and his loyal Autobots - warriors in an urgent quest to recover the Planet Keys and restore Cybertron before it's too late. Vector Prime is kinda mashed and mistransformed to fit into the box, kinda looking like he crash landed in the box. And joy, more "UNKNOWN" techspecs. He requires two AAA batteries for his sound gimmick, not included. Vehicle Mode: A "sword ship" sort of design, with a bladelike body and solar panel "wings" resembling a fancy hilt. It's 10" (26cm) long with a wingspan of about 8" (20cm) depending on how you fold the solar panels. There's a big block on the underside made up of the robot legs, making it look like it's hauling a tacked-on cargo unit. The main body of the ship is mostly white with plenty of metallic blue, gold, and dark red-brown paint. The solar panel struts are dark red-brown, while the panels themselves are unpainted soft clear aqua plastic. The cockpit is also clear aqua, as are the canards (one of which is actually part of his sword), Key and missile that launches from the nose. Two other bits of clear aqua are used to put sensor/comm dishes on the underbelly, below some white gunbarrels. The toy rolls along on tiny wheels. There's an extensive cog pattern throughout the toy, molded all over the place. It really needs some sort of ink or paint wash to bring out the details and make Vector Prime look aged. A number of paint applications seen on the Galaxy Force version (especially on the Key and the solar panels) are noticeably absent here, yay economizing measures. A custom docking port provides a place for Safeguard to sit, as a secondary gun battery. There's two more hardpoints, but they're not very accessible in vehicle mode. The wings can be positioned in several ways, and a couple of flaps flanking the Key slot (meant to be Gundam-like hip armor) can be raised to look like atmospheric braking flaps. The robot's shoulderpads can also be deployed as flaps, and the wings swung back for that as well, if Vector Prime needs to slow down in a hurry. The legs are more or less pegged into place in this mode, but come free easily. Inserting the Key simply triggers a sound effect, which is a sort of "space ship thrum" thing that follows what might be a missile launch sound. The Key can be held securely without triggering the sound, but it's okay to stick it all the way in, since the sound ends after about 5 seconds. The front missile has a simple trigger ahead of the cockpit, which is blocked by Safeguard's cannon (a nice 'safety' feature). Planet Key: He gets a unique one, made of aqua plastic with all four planet symbols plus a teeeeny Autobot symbol. The outer border is a jagged cog tooth pattern. The symbols are actually on a separate piece of brown plastic with chrome symbols. There's no paint on the front of the key, beancounters apparently don't allow more than X paint applications on a toy of $Y cost. The back of the brown piece has circuitry patterns and a molded Autobot symbol. I'm probably gonna paint mine, as some already have. Transformation: Pretty simple, really, and rather similar to Safeguard's. The entire front 2/3 of the ship and both of the "wings" become a cape hanging off the back. The legs flip out from under, and arms unpeg from the sides of the rear 1/3, and the head turns around. Not a toy you get for the transformation, and it clearly doesn't merit that "3" in its transformation difficulty. Barely a 2 out of 4. Robot Mode: 7.75" (19.5cm) tall, with shoulderpads 6.25" (16cm) wide. The shoulderpads, upper arms, forearm guards, torso, pelvis and boots are white plastic with various paint apps. The head, forearms, thighs and feet are red-brown plastic. The face is painted metallic blue with painted red eyes and silver cheekpieces on the helmet. His sword (which sheathes in the side of the nose end of the ship more) is soft clear aqua plastic. Each forearm-guard has a Mini-Con hardpoint near the back, but it's hard to get Safeguard onto them, since the guards slide around too easily. [Added later: Forgot to mention the chest. The chest has a sort of parabolic dish in the center of it, painted metallic blue with a red sphere at its center, that strikes me as being a likely source for a megablast. It gets covered by the Key when the Key is inserted.] The head turns, the shoulders are ratcheting universal joints, the elbows are ratcheting hinges, and there's a swivel between the elbow and the forearm. No upper arm swivels. The hips are lightly ratcheting universal joints, the knees are ratcheting hinges, and there's a swivel just above each knee. The toes point for transformation. The shoulderpads themselves ratchet lightly. No waist movement. The panels in front of each thigh are hinged to get out of the way when the legs are raised, although they can get caught in the knee joints. The cape can swing out the the way some, or be used as a third leg for trickier poses. The sound gimmick in this mode is activated by moving the right arm, which triggers in two positions. Looking at the arm from VP's right and calling straight up "north", it triggers when it drops to "northeast" from above, or rises to "southeast" from below. The main sound is a blaster firing effect. Plugging in the Key (which now covers the chest) triggers the same sound as in vehicle mode, but then changes the arm-motion sound to more of a sword slash followed by thrumming. Mini-Con: As far as I can tell, Safeguard's mold is identical to that of Kabaya Roots. However, the front barrel end of Safeguard is on Vector Prime's brown sprue, so it's painted to match (more or less) the rest of the toy. Safeguard is white where roots is gray, although the paint on the barrel section is more of a very ligth gray (and some brown is visible). The tolerances are better, as Safeguard's arms stay put better in vehicle mode. Also, the paint on the barrel helps bring out the panel lines better, since the paint doesn't fill the gaps as well as it covers the surface. Neither Roots nor Safeguard stay on VP's forearm hardpoints very well. Overall: Beautifully detailed mold with some really cool and unique design elements...that the paint job utterly fails to bring out. Simple transformation is a little of a detract, but the wiring for the sound gimmick kinda prevents too much complexity. A good toy, but it could have been better. Dave Van Domelen, gonna go nuts on VP with paints, metallic leaf and ink washes soon.