Dave's Cyberverse Legions Rant: First Burst Bumblebee (new mold, not reviewed) Barricade (retool) Crankcase (Chevy Suburban, police variant) Autobot Topspin (NASCAR) Autobot Skids (retool) Sideswipe (convertible Stingray) Leadfoot (NASCAR, weapons out) Autobot Ratchet (Hummer H2) Crowbar (Police Car) Mudflap (Chevy Spark) Bumblebee (retool) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/DotM/Legion1 Disclaimer: this is all the stuff I found on shelves the first week of official release. They may make up two or even three official waves, but I'm not going to worry about sorting that out. :) At first, I thought six of these were redecos or retools, but three of those turned out to be entirely new molds. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Legend1 - Barricade http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Legends1 - 2007 Bumblebee http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Legends3 - Skids Note, I bought these at Walmart, Target AND K-Mart, they were all a few pennies shy of $5, so I'm not listing prices in the individual Capsules. Hm. There's three Decepticons in this set. They're ALL police vehicles. Subtle political commentary? [Later note: Turns out there's TWO Bumblebees in this burst. The first wave has a new mold, the second has the retool. I originally didn't plan to buy a Legion-pack version of the new mold, but the one in the Action Set was so disappointing I had to see if the badness was endemic to the mold or if maybe they were cutting corners on the Action Set figures. Thanks to a sale at Target, I gave into that temptation. CAPSULES Bumblebee: New mold. The version that comes in the Mobile Battle Bunker set is really disappointing, but the difference in plastics here helps a lot. Mildly recommended. Barricade: Original mold was recommended, although this is the third version I've bought. Coloration works better in vehicle mode than robot mode, which is a bit bland. Mildly recommended. Crankcase: Pretty good in both modes, but really shouldn't have done the "black windows on black plastic" trick. Recommended. Autobot Topspin: Looks very nice in vehicle mode, but is a shellformer and that hurts robot mode some. A lack of paint on the torso also detracts from the looks. Let's not go into the mullet. Mildly recommended. Autobot Skids: Original mold was "Avoid", curse my completism. This one is a slight improvement, although it too does the black windows on black plastic thing. The name of the altmode has changed, since the concept Beat became the production Spark. Mildly recommended. Sideswipe: New mold, as a convertible with the top down. I like this a lot more than the original, even though it cheats and puts the front end as chest instead of the rear. Recommended. Leadfoot: I love the "Car Wars" vehicle mode, but the stumpy old man robot mode leaves a lot to be desired. Mildly recommended. Autobot Ratchet: New mold, less chunky than the original. Robot mode is pretty good, transformation is decent, and the vehicle mode is much much much better than the original in pretty much every respect. Recommended. Crowbar: MOAR BLACK WINDOWS ON BLACK PLASTIC. Sigh. Other than that, though, it's got an impressive robot mode and a good vehicle mode, although transformation can involve some minor frustrations. Recommended. Mudflap: Yes, this is an entirely new mold, with a new altmode based on the same production vehicle as Skids. It still has the original's useless shoulders, unfortunately. Mildly recommended. Bumblebee: Original mold was mildly recommended and I almost need a box just for all of my Bumblebee Legends, gah. Still, there's a new mold for the Action Set, so this will hopefully be the only version of this mold that's 3mm peg compatible. Very mildly recommended. While none quite made it to "strongly recommended," I'd say Sideswipe and Crowbar are the best of the batch. Mudflap is the weakest of the new molds. RANTS Packaging: Small blister cards with a cylindrical front facing. The cardstock folds around the blister to leave a nearly circular window showing the robot mode inside. The card is 7" (18cm) tall and 4.25" (10.5 cm) wide, with the blister part being about 4" (10cm) tall. A rough measure of the radius of curvature got about 6cm, and doing some trigonometry using the law of sines and a couple of packages lined up to appear to be parts of the same circle got 5.6 cm...anyway, it's not a half-cylinder, more like two fifths of a cylinder. Yes, I am a geek. Cyberverse has its own subline logo, looking vaguely like a key. There's a green globe with yellow latitude/longitude lines in the background, with the CYBERVERSE logo itself offset so that the center of the globe is behind the "YBER" part. In smaller font under the "RVERSE" part is "COLLECT THE WORLD" in blue on yellow-green. The logo chunk and the globe are separately outlined in silver. The card front has a view of the Earth and Moon from space, with the Moon rising behind the Earth. The Moon is on the top, with the hanger hook cutting into it, and the "Transformers Dark of the Moon" logo in the shadowed part. The Earth is behind the figure itself. The card piece that wraps around has the Cyberverse logo at the top left, so it's not flat across the top but has the globe part poking up and potentially catching on things. A yellow-green swoosh comes out of the globe and wraps around the left and bottom edge of the round border of the window. Silver emerges from the globe to the left of the green and fills most of the left and all of the bottom. The upper right part of the boundary and a little of the upper left is the "Earth from space" view from the cardback, matching up pretty well. The Hasbro logo is in the silver part in the lower left, just above the faction loyalty text in black on green. The faction symbol is in silver on black in the lower right, and the character name is in black on a silver background along the bottom. The upper left corner has the transformation difficulty (there isn't really even room for anything but Easy) in black on silver, with the Level number in black on green below (1, 2 or 3...but they're all 1). The Ages 5+ is below that, along with the assortment number. The underside of the blister has the barcode and legalese. The card back is mostly a black background with a sparse starfield pattern, but a silver but along the bottom set off by a green swoosh. A sticker advertising the Hub is placed somewhere that hopefully doesn't obscure content, but things are pretty packed on these. At the top is "LEGION CLASS" along with series and number. Then there's the faction and name on a green and silver bar with black text, and the faction symbol on the upper right in silver on black in a silver ring. The middle half has the bio note, techspecs, photos of both modes and any licensing info. The silver section on the bottom has more legalese and a plug for Transformers Prime. Oddly, while each figure is now labeled with series and number, the first ten figures to hit shelves are Series 1 002 through 011, there's no 001. [Later note: 001 is the new-mold Bumblebee.] Inside, most figures are held by a single rattan string. A tiny set of instructions is folded up beneath their feet. They're single-sided (robot to vehicle) and use grayed out photos of the toy and accent shading in pink or purple as is appropriate to the faction of the toy. To open the package carefully involves cutting five pieces of tape and opening four tabs. Only the top side of the inner tray is glued down, so you can just lift it up to undo any strings. The advantage of doing it carefully is that it can be closed back up easily enough if you're that sort of collector. A quick but also reusable method is to use a knife to cut along the top of the inner blister and then just slide it out. As usual for the movie line, there's no official functions or mottos, so I've provided some. AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Altmode: Chevy Camaro Concept Series: 1 Number: 001 Licensor: GM Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: None Function: Morale Officer Motto: "Don't worry, be happy." BUMBLEBEE balances his strict sense of duty with a lighthearted sense of humor. The other AUTOBOTS know they can rely on him in even the most dangerous situations, both to watch their backs, and lighten the situation with a well-timed joke. STR 6 INT 8 SPD 6 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 3 SKL 9 Avg 6.5 I did not buy this one, in fact I didn't even notice there were two Bumblebees in the first burst initially. It's the same mold as the one included in the Bumblebee Mobile Battle Bunker set, review available here: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/DotM/Action1 Packaging: Just held in by the blister. Color Swaps: Black stays black, yellow is pretty much the same as that used in the retool Bumblebee covered later in this review. Paint Apps: Dark gunmetal on the windows and pelvis front. Black on the grille, lower front edge of the air dam, spoiler, rally stripes. Silver face and silver Autobot symbol on the hood/chest. Eyes are blue. Mold Changes: None Other Notes: While the masses are the same within half a gram (I don't own a scale more precise than that), it feels a lot more solid and the joints are a lot tighter. The car mode still feels a little eggshell-y, but the robot mode is just fine without needing any joint remediation. Overall: It's still not exactly a thrilling toy, but if you already got the Mobile Battle Bunker and want a less cruddy figure to go with it, you might want to pick this one up. DECEPTICON: BARRICADE Altmode: Saleen S281 Police Car Series: 1 Number: 002 Licensor: Ford, Saleen Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: G1, Energon, Movie1, RotF Previous Mold Use: Movie1 Function: Hunter Motto: "To punish and enslave." BARRICADE has been deactivated more times than he can count, but it has all been in service to MEGATRON. His leader gives him the opportunity to hunt, and that is all he asks. He will gladly suffer a thousand deactivations, as long as he is given leave to stalk his prey. STR 8 INT 5 SPD 8 END 6 RNK 5 COUR 5 FRB 5 SKL 4 Avg 5.75 Well, that's one way to explain why he keeps getting toys. Although you'd think someone willing to die repeatedly for Megatron would have a higher Courage. Packaging: Because Barricade is taller than the blister size, he's packaged with his legs folded in half at the knee, kinda Dorf-ing it. One rattan string around the waist. Color Swaps: The original was all black. Now it's mostly white plastic, with black on the wheels, bumpbar, shoulder struts, thighs and feet. Paint Apps: Dark gunmetal on the windows. Silver on the headlights, and printing of "POLICE" and a Decepticon symbol on each side. The taillights are faintly metallic red, as are the eyes and the lightbar. A medium gloss blue strip runs around the bottom edge of the airdam and the sides. Mold Changes: The left hand has been remolded to add a 3mm peg hole, making it into more of a claw. Other Notes: Coulda used paint on the helmet or face for contrast, but at least it's a distinct design from previous redecos. Overall: If you've never gotten this mold before, it's worth picking up, but the excess of white in robot mode makes it a bit bland, and it's not purpose-molded to interact with the Cyberverse stuff. DECEPTICON: CRANKCASE Altmode: Chevy Suburban Series: 1 Number: 003 Licensor: GM Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: G1, Movie1, PCC Previous Mold Use: None Function: Saboteur Motto: "The best victories happen before the battle even starts." CRANKCASE never fights if he can help it. He is a spy and saboteur, not a warrior. When he does fight, it is on his terms, and only when he is assured of swift victory. He prefers to lurk in the shadows, damaging his enemies' support network, while other DECEPTICONS tackle the combat. STR 8 INT 7 SPD 6 END 8 RNK 8 COUR 6 FRB 4 SKL 9 Avg 7 Packaging: Three strings. What, are they afraid he'll break out and sabotage the other toys in the case? Robot Mode: The simpler designs of this class usually prevent figures from having the "bayformer" digitigrade legs, but Crankcase manages it pretty well. He has an evil four-eyed look, and while the paint doesn't really pick most of them out, he has the robo-dreadlocks of his Deluxe version too. Oddly, there's details on his shins that look like they're supposed to be the driver and passenger seats, a detail the Deluxe lacks. Perhaps it's something that shows up in the CG model and they couldn't squeeze it onto the Deluxe. The character is supposed to have a long claw-spike for one of his fingers, which they manage here by having the door panel end in a long spike. The feet are molded to sit flat on the table when the legs are spread apart. The right hand is molded with a 3mm-gripping open fist, while the left has a rectangular peg 1/8" (a little more than 3mm) long and 1/16" thick (trapezoidal, though, so a little thicker at one end than the other). Not sure what the peg is for, it's not involved in stabilizing vehicle mode, and it's not the right shape to stably hold a c-clip. You can sort of wedge one onto it, though. The hood and roof of vehicle mode forms a sort of cape. All black plastic, 3" (7.5cm) tall at the head. There's a very dull brass paint on the upper section of the robo-dreds, on the sides of the abdomen and on the "seat cushions" on the shins. The jaws are silver and the eyes are red. Other paint (including the headlights on the chest) is vehicle mode stuff. Shoulders and hips are ball joints, knees are hinges, ankles have transformation hinges that have some use in posing. Transformation: The boots fold up to the knees, the chest swings up around the head, the arms become the sides and the "cape" becomes the roof. In principle, fairly standard. The actual execution is a little more complex than usual, though, and it took a couple of tries for me to get the hang of it. Vehicle Mode: A black Chevy Suburban 2.75" (7cm) long, with black windows. Yeah, in what's almost a cliche for this line, the toy is made of black plastic and has black paint on the windows (it'll show up again later in this review). It departs from the "Hot Wheels Scale" by being about 1:80, so looks a bit dinky next to the same-length fellow Decepticon Crowbar. There's some very subtle lightbars molded on the roof (the Deluxe version is a lot more obvious on this point), suggesting that this is a cop variant Suburban, and a supercharger bump on the hood that is also not exactly factory standard. The headlights are silver with amber turn signals. The front and back of the lead lightbar (over the driver) are painted silver, and the sides of both lightbars (there's one over the rear as well) are orange. As mentioned, the windows are painted black. The silver Decepticon symbol ends up on the driver's door. Seams aren't a huge problem, although being black always helps with that. It holds together moderately well, but twisting makes it fall apart very easily. It rolls pretty well, if not at Hot Wheels level then at least it's a lot more rolling than sliding (unlike some Legends). Overall: Pretty good, all around. It really just needs a window color other than black. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT TOPSPIN Altmode: Track (that's what the package says) Series: 1 Number: 004 Licensors: GM, Hendrick Motor Sports, NASCAR Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: None (Topspin alone was G1) Previous Mold Use: None Function: Wrecker Motto: "What's a little bumping between enemies?" The harder the job, the more AUTOBOT TOPSPIN likes it. If he doesn't return frmo a mission dented and leaking transmission fluid, he considers it a failure. Scratches and dings are badges of honor to him - signs that he has lived through all that life has to throw at him, and come out smiling. STR 8 INT 4 SPD 8 END 10 RNK 4 COUR 9 FRB 7 SKL 5 Avg 6.875 Note, this isn't the first NASCAR-style car in Transformers (Gearhead and his many redecos claim that honor), but Dark of the Moon does mark the first time they've licensed specific NASCAR vehicles and their drivers. Packaging: One string. There's an official NASCAR licensing foil sticker on the back, plus three chunks of licensing legalese, meaning that there was nowhere good for the Hub sticker to go. It ended up on the "Track Mode" label, so I had to peel it off to make sure what the official name was. Robot Mode: Big chunks of car shell hanging off the shoulders, and a mecha-mullet. The lack of paint apps on the chest makes him look shirtless, to complete the stereotype that the mullet starts. Most rednecks don't have big claws, though. This guy can give you the CLAMP. 2.5" (6.5cm) tall at the head, 3.25" (8cm) tall at the towering shoulderpads. A Rikti redneck. Mostly gray up top and blue down bottom and on the shells, with some bits of white and black. The torso front and the arms are light gray plastic. The torso back and pelvis (all one piece) and wheels are black plastic. All the rest is a dark blue. The mecha-mullet is painted blue, with light metallic blue sunglasses- ish visor. There's a silver Autobot symbol on the right boot (a part covered in vehicle mode) and the shins are covered in white from the vehicle mode. The shoulders just swing in and out for transformation, but the elbows are hinged and the left claw is hinged to open. The right claw is partially filled in and ends in a 3mm slot. He has to hold weapons sideways, though. The hips are ball joints, and the ankles are hinges (but can only tilt the toes up, not down past level). Transformation: Fold up the feet and peg the legs together. Fold the arms straight inside the shell pieces and make sure the claw is closed. Then just fold the two shell pieces together over the chest. To go back to robot mode you kinda have to crack it open as if you're trying to break it in half. Vehicle Mode: Jimmie Johnson's #48 Lowe's NASCAR car, with prominent Lowe's logo on the hood, large 48's on the doors, and tiny almost illegible) Sprint logos ahead of the 48's. 3" (7.5cm) long, at the usual Hot Wheels scale. It rolls pretty well so long as the surface is very flat and has decent friction. Too slick and the wheels slide rather than roll, too rough and the utter lack of ground clearance catches it. Other than the black wheels, all the body shell parts are dark blue plastic. Most of the upper side (other than the roof) is painted white, with the hood being left blank for the blue of the Lowe's logo (the name itself is in white, and there's a red border). The 48's on the sides are yellow with black borders, the Sprint logos are black. A white outline Chevy logo is at the hood ornament position, and the headlights are silver with black borders. The windows are all dark gunmetal, including the netting on the driver's side. Overall: I must say, it looks pretty slick in vehicle mode, despite the transformation seams. The shellmastery transformation works in the favor of the car mode, of course. The robot mode is okay, although a little but of paint on the chest would have helped a lot. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT SKIDS Altmode: Chevy Spark Concept Series: 1 Number: 005 Licensor: GM Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: Alternators, RotF Previous Mold Use: RotF Function: Warrior Motto: "Just lemme into the game!" AUTOBOT SKIDS has grown up a lot since the battle against THE FALLEN. He's learned a little bit about keeping his mouth shut, and more about how to handle himsel in a fight. IRONHIDE has spent months training him into an effective fighter. Now he's ready to get back on the battlefield. STR 4 INT 6 SPD 7 END 4 RNK 2 COUR 8 FRB 5 SKL 3 Avg 4.875 He's no longer a Chevy Beat, he's a Chevy Spark. The Spark is also known as the Daewoo Maitz, and the M300 Maitz is in fact based on the Beat concept. So, while the package calls it a Spark Concept, the Spark is actually the production version of the Beat...more or less, anyway. Packaging: One string. Color Swaps: None more black, baby. It's all black plastic. Probably two slightly different types, mind you. Paint Apps: In vehicle mode, there's twin thick chartreuse stripes running from front to back. There's either two shades of paint involved, or the paint interacts differently with different black plastics, because there's two segments where the green is duller. The windows are painted, but in a gloss metalflake black that almost entirely blends in with the plastic, d'oh. The headlights and taillights are silver, but the center of the left headlight is unpainted...not sure if it's intentional or sloppy apps. There's a silver Autobot symbol on the center front of the hood. In robot mode, chartreuse is added to the face, the pelvis and most of the fronts of the legs. The eyes are bright blue, the buck teeth are silver. Mold Changes: The left hand has been filled in a little to let it grasp 3mm pegs. Sadly, they didn't remold the thumb of the right hand to make it a 3mm rod, that would have been nice. Other Notes: This definitely holds together better than my original, but the design doesn't seem to have been changed in that respect...just production variations working in my favor this time. The head is also far less likely to pop off. It might just be that the black plastic expands ever so slightly after release, making all the connections tighter. Overall: It's still a pretty flawed mold, but an improvement over the original. Mind you, the original got an "avoid" recommendation. AUTOBOT: SIDESWIPE Altmode: Corvette Stingray Concept Series: 1 Number: 006 Licensor: GM Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: G1, G2, Alternators, Armada, Universe2, RotF Previous Mold Use: None Function: Warrior Motto: "I can make you a convertible too, easy." SIDESWIPE lives to test his skill against the DECEPTICONS. He has spent years perfecting his technique with the blades built into his arms. No one has ever beat him in a fair fight, but he continues to search for the enemy that can give him a true challenge. STR 8 INT 7 SPD 8 END 6 RNK 5 COUR 7 FRB 3 SKL 9 Avg 6.625 At first look, this appears to be a retool, but it's actually a completely new mold. Packaging: One string. Robot Mode: Compared to the original Legends class Sideswipe, this one moves the vehicle kibble up onto the torso. So the upper body is bulkier (although the actual abdomen area is no wider, it's just more covered by vehicle panels) but the legs are now much more movie-accurate. The chest is the front end of the car rather than the back, but on the plus side we get honest wheel-feet (with fold-out heel spurs). As with the previous mold, the swords are molded on the insides of the doors, with the arms being the entire sides of the vehicle between wheels. The right hand is molded to accept a 3mm peg, the left is just a closed fist-chunk. Tastes vary here, but I much prefer a bulkier torso and proper legs over the panel-ridden mess of a lower body seen on the original mold. 3" (7.5cm) tall at the head, a bit of panel rises a few millimeters above the back of the head. Predominantly silvery light gray plastic with black on the wheels, heel spurs, pelvis and shoulder struts. There's a bit of molded detail in front of the head that looks vaguely like a cravat, and it's painted gunmetal. There's also gunmetal on the inner thighs and the springs of his shins. The eyes are painted blue, the hood ornament Autobot symbol ends up in the center of the chest. Vehicle-specific paint apps will be covered later. Note, if you want to add paint to the sword blades yourself, there's a peg rising up in the middle of each blade that needs to wedge into the thighs for vehicle mode, so that'll have to stay unpainted. You might be better off painting black around the blades to pick them out. The shoulders and hips are ball joints. There's some hinges in the ankle area but they're only marginally useful for articulation. The shoulder struts are hinged and allow a little more range of arm motion. The car seats molded onto the backs of the thighs do not significantly reduce range of motion. Stability is about as good as you're going to get when wheels form part of the feet. Transformation: The chest lifts up to make the hood. The feet fold up and forward against the shins, folding in the heel spurs. Fold the back flap down and peg it onto the feet, then swing the arms around to make the doors. Vehicle Mode: It's an open-top Stingray with a spoiler on the back, about as long as the original and maybe a millimeter narrower. Not sure it's actually "convertible" per se, the design doesn't seem like it can put a top up in the first place. Seats are molded on the inside, but a transformation hinge prevents any console detail (the Deluxe seems to suffer from this as well). One odd bit of asymmetry is that there's a door hinge seam molded on the driver's side (and it interrupts the window paint app there), but it's not on the passenger side. 3" (7.5cm) long, all of the black plastic other than the wheels is hidden inside. The window is painted metallic light blue-gray, the seats are gunmetal. The front grille and some subsidiary slots further up the hood are painted black. The Autobot symbol is black and printed at the front of the hood. There's no paint on the taillights. Pretty good ground clearance for a Legion, comparable to a Hot Wheels car of the same form. Overall: My only real complaint is endemic to this size class, and that's the fact it could really benefit from even a little more paint. Given the movie design of the robot mode, this is about as good as you're going to get at the Legion size. But that's not damning with faint praise, I quite like this mold. AUTOBOT: LEADFOOT Altmode: Track Series: 1 Number: 007 Licensor: GM, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, NASCAR Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: G2, PCC Previous Mold Use: None Function: Wrecker Motto: "Whut? Speak up, mah audio sensors're still ringin'." LEADFOOT and his cohorts drive fast, have a thing for loud weapons and maintain a strong dislike for DECEPTICONS. But LEADFOOT is not all flash and show; while on CYBERTRON he was called a genius weapon designer! STR 6 INT 4 SPD 9 END 7 RNK 5 COUR 8 FRB 8 SKL 5 Avg 6.5 Given those mental stats, either he's a narrowly defined savant at weapons design, or he's taken a few hits to the cranial casing since Cybertron. Packaging: One string. So stumpy I checked to see if his legs were all folded up to fit, but nope...he's really got Bulkhead proportions. Robot Mode: So...stumpy legs, cyber-beard, huge gut overhang, visor that looks like biker sunglasses. I guess this is supposed to be the fat old shadetree mechanic sort of character, who you'd never believe could move faster than a waddle until you see him running away from something that's about to explode. His right hand is a 3mm clip, the left is a fist, and if his legs were twice as long everything would be more or less human in proportions. There's fake front windows molded into the top of his chest, with the hood of the car mode making his energon gut. The way the bottoms of his feet are molded requires he lean back a little to avoid falling over, another "fat guy" attribute. Despite all of the weapons festooning the vehicle mode, few are really pointed useful directions in this mode. The smoke dispensers on the shoulders will still work, and there's some machine guns on his shoulders that track the direction his arms are pointed, but the missile racks point down and the main cannon is on his back. 2.75" (7cm) tall at the head, with his waist below the midpoint. The wheels, hands, thighs and shoulder struts are black plastic, otherwise it's a warm dark gray. The head is silver and the visor metallic blue. Orange-red paint is on the collar area and upper chest, the rest of the paint apps are for vehicle mode. Shoulders and hips are ball joints, knees and wrists are hinges. The stumpy legs limit useful articulation, but some dynamic stances are possible. Transformation: Fairly standard. Legs fold up to become the back, chest flips up to be the hood, arms become the sides. You need to make sure to bend the wrists inward first. Going back to robot mode works best if you pull the arms out first (giving you a "grabby car" mode if you want). Vehicle Mode: This is a weapons-out "Car Wars" version of the Havoline #42 NASCAR car driven by Jamie McMurray, but the most of the licensing is missing on this version of it, since it's covered in weapons. (The Wreckers all have "regular" and weapons-out modes in the movie, reflected by having some toys with weapons out and some regular.) A six-barreled rotary cannon dominates the roof, a trio of rockets is racked on each side of the hood, a small trio of cannons pokes out of the fog lamp slots, machine guns over each door, a smoke screen generator at the back top corner of each door, rocket boosters on the rear fenders, apertures of some sort on the rear corners (spike throwers?) and armor plating on the windshield and rear window. Some armor panels also rise up to partially cover the side windows, but mesh is visible through the gaps. All of the body shell plastic is dark warm gray, just the wheels are black. Orangey-red paint is used on the parts that are supposed to be original paneling, leaving the armor bits unpainted. So there's a fair amount on the front fenders and roof, and a little but on the trunk area. The headlights and windshield are painted silver (the rear window is not painted). White tampographing is used for an off-center Chevy logo on the front, 42's on the sides just behind the wheels, the racing group logo on each door (barely readable) and an Autobot symbol on the rear left fender (which ends up on the robot's ankle). Not a lot of ground clearance, and the wheels don't roll all that smoothly. Overall: This is one you buy for vehicle mode. While I grant that the fatguy archetype can work for a Transformer in general, it translates poorly to the Legion scale. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT RATCHET Altmode: Hummer H2 Series: 1 Number: 008 Licensor: GM Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: Uni, Uni2, Movie1, RotF, TF:A Previous Mold Use: None Function: Autobot Medic Motto: "This may sting a bit..." The repair skills and medical prowess of AUTOBOT RATCHET were unrivaled on CYBERTRON and have yet to be matched on Earth. His razor-sharp mind has allowed him to develop healing tools that double as powerful weapons. STR 4 INT 9 SPD 6 END 9 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 3 SKL 10 Avg 7 Packaging: No strings, just held in by the blister. Robot Mode: Less blocky and kibbly than the original, and the actual vehicle front end forms the chest so it looks better than the fake front end on the original mold. On the other hand, the entire roof of the vehicle mode just hangs off as a cape...and if you try to fold it too flat against the back, it interferes with the legs. Unlike most Legion figures, it's the left hand that's molded to hold 3mm pegs, with the right hand being a closed fist. And while there's the usual lack of paint to pick them out, the molded details are pretty good in keeping with the Deluxe version of the toy. 3" (7.5cm) tall, a mix of chartreuse, black and white. The legs, forearms and cape are chartreuse plastic (a yellow-green that's closer to yellow). The chest front, upper arms, pelvis, wheels and roof mounted spare tire are black plastic. The head and the core pieces of the torso are white plastic. The helmet is painted chartreuse, but a little greener than the plastic. A somewhat dark (but not dark enough to count as gunmetal) silver paint is used on the face, shins and toe tops. A silver Autobot symbol is printed on the lower center chest. The head does not turn, although the transformation hinge lets him look down a bit. The shoulders are swivels, and the transformation hinges can be used to let the arms swing out to the sides, although it doesn't look all that good. The hips are ball joints. There's a hinge in the waist for transformation, but it's not much good for posing. The feet are fairly small, but despite the cape he doesn't have serious balance issues. Transformation: The head folds down into the chest (and it's really hard to get back out without a blade or strong fingernails...I had to scrape off a bit of plastic to make it easier to open back up). Lift up the cape to point straight back. Lift up the arms to point straight forward, twist the forearms around so the palms face outward, then fold the arms backwards to tab onto the cape/roof. Then just fold the entire lower body back and peg the heels onto the roof. Vehicle Mode: It's slightly smaller and less blocky than the previous Legends class version, but has about the same proportions and general shape. The hinge for the roof is cleverly repurposed as the lightbar, although the lights aren't painted. Lots of good molded detail, including firefighting tools (shove, axe, etc) molded onto the top corners of the roof. The rear bumper bars are molded, but not painted. And, like the original Legends mold, the spare tire on the roof is pinned into place and can be rotated, rather than being molded as part of the roof. The molding of the front end is much more detailed than the original's, much more accurate. A little under 2.75" (7cm) long, 8mm shorter than the original. Most of the cab area is white, with the back end mostly chartreuse and the front grille section black. The windows are painted metallic dark slate blue-gray. The roof rack is painted matte black. The sides (the parts that become arms) have a white stripe along the length and red "FIRE RESCUE" (small) over "E4" (big). The Autobot symbol ended up under the front bumper. The robot toes are the main barrier to ground clearance, but it rolls along nicely on a reasonably flat surface. It all pegs together very stably. Overall: Other than the usual "needs more paint," this is a pretty good toy, and a VAST improvement over the previous Legends Ratchet mold. A lot more detailed in both modes, and if the transformation isn't as interesting, at least it doesn't cripple the robot mode like the original's does. DECEPTICON: CROWBAR Altmode: Police Car Series: 1 Number: 009 Licensor: None Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: None Previous Mold Use: None Function: Covert Operative Motto: "Don't mistake a preference for subtlety for an inability to fight." CROWBAR infiltrates and observes AUTOBOT tactical movements with unmatched stealth and intellect. He has been trained in the most brutal DECEPTICON attack strategies for the unlikely event he is discovered. STR 8 INT 8 SPD 10 END 6 RNK 8 COUR 7 FRB 9 SKL 7 Avg 7.875 Packaging: One string. Like fellow bad cop Barricade, his legs are folded up in the package so that he'll fit. Robot Mode: If you go by the instructions, this is a digitigrade figure with fused knees and ankles that need to be bent as far as they'll go backwards for a "straight legged" pose. However, it's kinda hard to get it to stand that way, since the wheels on the calves force the feet apart. It throws the proportions of the legs off a bit if you treat the ankle joints as knee joints, but it allows much better stances. Regardless of how you configure the legs, though, this is one lanky figure, as tall as some of the Commanders, with Evangelion-reminiscent proportions (long limbs, big shoulder spines, long abdomen, hunched posture) and what appear to be the in-vogue robo-dredlocks. Like Ratchet, he's left-handed. Both hands have bumper pieces hooking in front of them, but they're not really molded to accept a 3mm clip unless you force it. 3.25" (8.5cm) tall at the head, and if the arms are down to the sides the shoulder spines (part of the car hood) are 4" (10cm) above the table. All black plastic, perhaps shooting for a "black as a crow" pun in there. A dark bronze paint is used on the robo-dreds, the upper arms and the front and sides of the abdomen (including the part that's hidden by the chest). The mouth area and antennae are silver, and the four eyes are red. The silver headlights end up on the chest front, and the silver printed Decepticon symbol is on the left arm. The head doesn't turn, but the waist does. The shoulders are somewhat oddly placed ball joints, and the hook-hands make it a little harder to get the arms around the legs. The hips are ball joints with swivels directly below them, and the ankles and toes (or knees and ankles if you ignore the digitigrade aspect) are hinges. Alternate Robot Mode: Swing the chest around to the back. This looks even MORE like an Eva unit, and the shoulders work a lot better this way. I actually suspect this was the intended altmode, but they changed it at the last minute. Transformation: The feet fold out to become the doors and the legs do a fairly complicated (for a Legion class) twisting move to become the rear of the car. The chest (or backpack, for alternate robot mode) swings up to become the front end, and then the arms fold over as almost the entire top surface of the car, locking around the knees quite securely. Going back to robot mode is REALLY tricky, in part because everything does lock together so tightly. The best way is to start by pulling the doors out, which gives you leverage to pop the arm pieces off the back end. Other methods are likely to pop a leg off at the hip. Vehicle Mode: Not licensed, but I agree with the TFwiki entry calling it a Carbon Motors E7 police car (http://www.carbonmotors.com/machine/overview). It's so close to that form that they may have legal issues later, despite rejiggering the front end details some. It is, of course, NONE MORE BLACK. All black plastic, and they didn't even use that dark bronze paint for the windows. No, the windows are painted black. On black. What is this, some kind of intergalactic hyper-hearse? Ahem. At 2.75" (7cm) long, it's 1:72 scale within my ability to accurately measure. In addition to the black windows, there's silver headlights and front grille and a silver Decepticon symbol on the passenger side of the roof. The taillighs are red. Rather than a top lightbar, the side mirrors have lights on the front: metallic blue on the passenger side, red on the driver's side. The real E7 uses LED red and blue flashers in place of the foglamps, so that'd be a quick touchup if you wanted to do it. Rolling is iffy, mainly due to cruddy axle pins. A little graphite in there might help, or some careful bending. Overall: Well-articulated, if a little blocked up top. Pretty impressively large robot mode, tight vehicle mode, but hard to transform to robot mode without popping legs off. Needs non-black windows, though. AUTOBOT: MUDFLAP Altmode: Chevy Spark Concept Series: 1 Number: 010 Licensor: GM Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: Cybertron, Movie1, RotF Previous Mold Use: None Function: Warrior Motto: "Goin' for the EXTREME, yo!" The energetic MUDFLAP is back and ready to take on the baddest DECEPTICONS yet. While his daredevil stunts appear brainless, MUDFLAP is a true AUTOBOT - courageous and loyal to the end. STR 4 INT 5 SPD 7 END 5 RNK 2 COUR 9 FRB 4 SKL 3 Avg 4.875 The Chevy Trax was the loser in the concept-off that the Beat won (and the never-got-to-be-a-Transformer Groove also lost), so I guess there's not much point in just redecoing the Trax mode. This is an entirely new mold that's also based on the Spark, although subtly different from Skids. Packaging: One string. Robot Mode: Similar in many ways to the original, including the doors as shoulder fronts, the oversized left hand (although it's not as big now) and the general look of the legs and face. However, it has the front windows as wings sticking out backwards rather than attached to the shoulders, the front end reflects the new Spark altmode, and the head is a bit wider and better detailed. Not that the face details are things I want to see more clearly in this case. The big fist is molded so it can hold 3mm pegs between the thumb and fingertips, rather daintily. The right hand is a smaller claw, not molded to hold anything in particular. 3" (7.5cm) tall. Like Skids, they inverted the colors and he's mostly black with orange details. All of the plastic is black. A slightly yellowish orange (rather than the burnt red-orange seen in RotF) paint is applied to the head, shins, and vehicle stripes. The headlights on the chest are silver, and a silver Autobot symbol is printed on the center top of the chest. The eyes are painted bright blue. The shoulders are the same sort of annoying swivel-to-the-sides stuck on back of the doors as in the previous Mudflap Legends mold. The elbows are ball joints, but it doesn't really help, since the upper arms angle back and the hands can barely reach past the shoulders. The hips are ball joints, no other articulation in the legs. Transformation: Fold the windshield up to stow the head, fold arms back to make the doors and the majority of the roof. The legs clip together and snap over the big fist in back. Unlike Skids or the original Mudflap, the entire back surface is the bottoms of the feet, so there's only a vertical seam in back. Vehicle Mode: Similar to Skids at first glance, but a lot of the little details are different...this is a much more accurate Spark than Skids is, since Skids is really the Beat concept, and there were changes between concept and production. Slightly different headlights, the grille area is very different. There's also a rally-style spoiler that strikes me as more of an option or aftermarket rather than a regular Spark design element. 2.5" (6.5cm) long, and all black plastic. With black windows, whee. Okay, maybe very dark blue. Functionally the same, though. Twin thick yellow-orange stripes run from front to back. As mentioned before, the headlights are silver, and so are the taillights. The Autobot symbol ends up at the center of the hood. Pretty stable. The ground clearance is on the low side, but the main impediment to rolling is the "iffy axles" issue again. Overall: It's different from the original, but shares all the same flaws. Definitely the most skippable of the new molds. AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Altmode: Camaro Concept Series: 1 Number: 011 Licensor: GM Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: RotF Function: Bodyguard Motto: "Everybody was Kung Fu Fightin'...." BUMBLEBEE charges into battle, engine roaring, ready to turn DECEPTICONS into scrap. His dogged bravery is idolized by the AUTOBOTS and feared by his enemies! STR 6 INT 8 SPD 6 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 3 SKL 9 Avg 6.5 Yes, I have a pile of this mold already. And to think, I kitbashed a classic Camaro Bumblebee into a concept version. At least the action playset Bumblebee is a different mold. [Later note: and if you want this different mold for $5 rather than $15, it's number 001.] Packaging: No strings. Color Swaps: The plastic colors are as close to the original pressing of this mold as can be accomplished within Hasbro's QC. Paint Apps: In vehicle mode, the hood and sides have black zigzag patterns with silver edging and silver speed lines through them. The large black Autobot symbol on the hood likewise has silver speed lines running through it. The windows are a metallic bluish slate gray, pretty desaturated compared to the original. The grille and headlights are either gunmetal, or that's what the window color looks like when it's applied in a too-thin layer. The Chevy logo does not have a distinct paint app this time. Robot mode adds gunmetal on the shins and face, the metallic slate gray for the eyes. Mold Changes: The right hand has been remolded to add a gripping fist with a 3mm peg slot. The left hand is still just a bas-relief of a closed fist. Other Notes: Well, at least they've got a new mold for the Action Set version of Bumblebee. Overall: I hope this is the last time I buy this mold. :) I bought the original, the NEST redeco and the Stealth redeco (although that was specifically to kitbash into Nightracer), although I think I managed to avoid Cyberfire. The new paint job is a decent break from the rally stripes without being blatantly ugly like some BB redecos. Dave Van Domelen, swarming his shelves with Cyberverse.