Dave's Transformers Energon Rant: Deluxe Wave 2 Snow Cat Rodimus Prowl Well, I did manage to get them all on the same shopping trip...the Autobots at the beginning of an afternoon in Topeka, Snow Cat at the very end. CAPSULES Snow Cat: Nice looking but unstable vehicle mode, okay transformation, good if pot-bellied robot mode. Recommended. $9.99 at K-Mart Rodimus: Good vehicle, good robot mode, good transformation. Powerlinx leg mode good, arms mode not good. Recommended. $9.87 at Wal-Mart Prowl: Good vehicle mode, okay transformation, okay robot mode, good legs mode, excellent arms mode (if you ignore some of the instructions). Strongly recommended. $9.87 at Wal-Mart RANTS Packaging is the same as Waves 1.0 and 1.5, with the non-Fleer techspec cards, and the first comic/catalog. My Rodimus and Prowl also came with a Xevoz sticker in with the comic, although Snow Cat did not. Not that either store that I bought these at sells Xevoz (a Stikfas-type action figure fighting game that's about as complex as Medabot's minifig game, but with much nicer figures). They all have the other two new Deluxes as co-sells. Prowl and Snow Cat also feature Landmine, Rodimus features Jetfire. Hasbro's on the ball lately, so I have bio notes to go with the techspecs. I've added function and altmode notes (based on the bio notes where possible). DECEPTICON: Snow Cat Altmode: Snowcat (specifically, a GIJoe snowcat) Function: All-Terrain Warrior Motto: "There is no terrain, or opponent, that I cannot conquer." SNOW CAT is a powerful DECEPTICON who can overcome any environment. He transforms into an all-terrain vehicle and has given his DECEPTICON allies a strategic advantage in battle on many occasions. Though unruly at times, SNOW CAT has proven to be one of MEGATRON'S most valued warriors. His insane fighting tactics are feared by his enemies, and sometimes, his allies. STR 8 INT 6 SPD 6 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 6 FRB 7 SKL 7 Avg 6.25 Two twist-ties hold the vehicle mode into the bubble, with a minitray over the top to keep the Mini-Con hardpoint from flopping around. Each missile secured by its own twist-tie. Vehicle Mode: 5.5" long halftrack "snow cat" style of vehicle in white, pale blue-gray and maroon, with pale green transparent plastic bits, and some orange and gold paint. The treads are a sort of gray-tan taupe color. And yes, as some of you may be chomping at the bit to point out, this is a very close homage to the G.I. Joe Snow Cat vehicle, albeit much smaller. It even has the windshield wiper piece and "frosted except in the wiper sweep" canopy plastic of that Joe vehicle. The front wheels roll freely, the rear treads are supported by little knobbly wheels that don't roll well on slick surfaces. The vehicle mode isn't very stable, the top and bottom halves of the rear 2/3 do not lock together. The canopy is clear green plastic, but sadly does not open. Inside are nicely detailed chairs (about the right size for a 25mm miniature) and controls. The maroon wiper blade is free to move 180 degrees, on a joint that's tight enough to not flop around, but not so tight that you worry about snapping it off. A dead hardpoint can be found on a flat bit pegged to the top of the vehicle, and it's supposed to be swung around to put the peg on the centerline. It does not lock into place there, unfortunately. The spark crystal/energon star holder is at the middle of the front, looking like a searchlight between the clear green headlights. A small raised Decepticon symbol painted purple is molded into the passenger side just behind the canopy. Hyper Mode involves swinging fenders down as skis on the wheels and treads, then flipping up the missile launchers that normally remain concealed inside the vehicle. The rear skis require a little fiddling to get into a good position. Also, with the rear skis down and the launchers up, you can see the robot head clearly and the whole rear section looks empty. I recommend putting the rear skis back up as sidewalls in Hyper Mode, it looks a little better. Transformation: The rear bottom folds down and rotates to become the legs. The instructions say to position the sidewall skis on the sides of the legs, but pictures show them at the backs of the legs. The former allows better posing, the latter looks a lot better. Up to you, I suppose. The upper part of the back becomes the arms and backpack. Positioning the arms is a little counter-intuitive. The head locks into place and the missile launchers pretty easily fold into backpack mode. Robot Mode: 5.5" (14cm) at the head, 6" (15cm) at the missile launchers poking up from the back. The head is a white helmet with neon purple goggles, dark blue painted details and a maroon breathing mask. The head looks a little like that of G2 Darkwing aka BB from Beast Wars II, prompting the following picture: http://www.protoformproject.com/dvd/images/roger.JPG Your basic potbelly robot with an "outie" belly button thanks to the canopy sticking straight out, Snow Cat otherwise has good proportions in robot mode. The shoulders are universal joints, the upper arms have swivels, the elbows are hinged. The fists have 5mm pegholes for Energon weapons and the one hardpoint is now on the left forearm. The waist swivels, the hips are ball joints, the knees are hinges, and the neck is a very restricted ball joint. For Hyper Mode, the missile launchers fold up to point forward on either side of the head, and skis fold out at the front and back of each foot. Total ski length is 5.5" (14cm), missiles are clear green plastic just under 3" (7cm) and painted bronze at the fronts. When the missile launchers are deployed, the reveal a pair of 5mm pegholes each, one on either side of the trigger. Overall: A lot of neat bits on this toy, although the lack of stability in vehicle mode hurts it. A good homage for GIJoe fans, and an ironic partner for Starscream at this price point, given the resemblance to BB (Smokescreen/Smokejumper was named Starscrem (no "a", although many take that as a typo on the order of "Minelba") in BWII). AUTOBOT: RODIMUS Altmode: Race-Modified Semitractor Function: Omnicon Foreman Motto: "I can take down any Decepticon without getting a scratch." RODIMUS is a wild, rebellious young AUTOBOT and foreman to the OMNICONS. His taste for danger is almost greater than his sense of style. He is an aggressive, headstrong young warrior who will not think twice about rushing into battle. RODMIUS is able to powerlinx with his AUTOBOT brother, Inferno. In vehicle mode, he becomes a semi-truck capable of great speeds. RODIMUS's primary weapon is a powerful energon cannon, which he often uses to teach the DECEPTICONS two very important battle maneuvers...run and hide. STR 8 INT 8 SPD 9 END 7 RNK 8 COUR 9 FRB 8 SKL 8 Avg 8.125 Two twist-ties hold the truck in, plus there's two mini-trays held on with a rubber band each to keep the spoiler and other bits together. The missile and rifle are individually twist-tied in. Vehicle Mode: This is a red and dark gray race-modified semitractor with gold and silver paint and slightly bluish silver windows. A few bits of orange are visible, and the Energon Weapon is clear orange. The spark crystal/energon star holder is on the driver's side spoiler strut in back, with the passenger side strut having a raised cylinder just a TINY bit too small to firmly hold energon stars. A silver cog Autobot symbol is on the driver's side door. A dead hardpoint is mounted slightly off-center on the spoiler, intended to hold the cannon. The front wheels are slightly larger than the two pairs of rear wheels, and the usual trailer hitch is replaced by two jet engines (with the energon cannon becoming a third when attached). There is a small 5mm hole hitch at the rear, but it's kinda blocked from above by the jets, so trailers can't really attach here. But if it can't haul a trailer, what DOES it haul? As someone said on the AllSpark, it hauls ASS. This is a racing vehicle, after all. The smokestacks look a little like hardpoints, but aren't quite wide enough (and the center shafts do not depress, they're part of the hinges for the side flaps). The only real flaw in this mode is the spoiler, which doesn't really hold together very well. Trying to attach the energon weapon or remove it usually disarrays it in a major way. [Update: Tony Li discovered that Rodimus can tow the Apex Bomber (Godbomber) trailer mode. Takes a little fiddling, but works well. Rodimus's gun even fits on the trailer.] [Another update: The jet-powered racing semi named Shockwave (which I saw on Monster Nation) is almost definitely the inspiration for this altmode.] Transformation: In some ways, this is how Combat Hero Prime should have transformed. The entire cab front becomes the boots, with the head hidden between the rear halves that split to become arms and big shoulderpads. Reverse transformation is a little tricky because the upper legs fold up oddly inside the cab. This is unsurprising, since this is a typical "blossoming" transformation, where getting to robot mode mostly involves pulling out everything that can be pulled out, willy-nilly. Robot Mode: Just a shade over 5.5" (14cm) tall, the colors really do scream Rodimus Prime, with the orange fists and thighs added to the overall mix and gold flames on the chest around a tampographed Autobot symbol. The card art brings this out even more. There's a very nice touch on the back, where all the joints and stuff are detailed to make it look more integral to the design of the robot mode. The shoulders are connected like short legs by ball joints. Mostly they just swivel, but some odd other poses are possible. The upper arms are almost nonexistent, with ball joint elbows right below the wide wheeled shoulderpads (Rodimus is as wide at the shoulders as he is tall!). Spoiler bits get in the way on the forearms a bit, but can mostly be rotated out of the way or used as shields. The head is on a very limited ball joint, and as with other silver-cog Deluxes there's no waist joint. The hips are ratchet universal joints and the knees are ratchet hinges. There's no upper leg swivels. The feet...are huge. They're 4" (10cm) long thanks to long orange heel spurs, and you can't really stand the figure up with the spurs undeployed. One nice touch is that the flaps that covered up leg bits in vehicle mode fold over to make the bottoms of the feet solid. The grille of the truck forms huge kneepads. It's notable that unlike most other silver cogs, the legs are already exactly the way they need to be for Powerlinx Legs mode (Inferno does a lot of folding, Hot Shot lengthens his legs, Prowl swings 'em down). The energon rifle looks good, but the trigger is right over the peg, so it's hard to get it into Rodimus's fist without launching the missile (so, um, unload the missile first). The handle is a dead hardpoint, and there's an off-centerline 5mm peghole (not Mini-Con connector) on the bottom of the rifle so that it can connect to the hardpoint in vehicle mode. Powerlinx Legs Mode: This is mostly a matter of popping open the torso and getting the upper half out of the way. The arms and shoulderpads make for hip-mounted wings or something. I've found an alternate way to do this, see below under Powerlinx Prowl for a link to pictures. In any case, the heel spurs make this a VERY stable legs mode, and Rodimus makes generally decent legs. Powerlinx Arms Mode: Pretty bad. The head is tiny for regular robot mode, and an absolute pinhead now. The arms look okay, especially how the heelspurs become shoulder flares, but they don't really move well (all the joints are hidden inside and unusable). The instructions are missing an important bit, you should rotate the fists in and jet engines out so that the regular robot arms become over the shoulder cannons. Sadly, they don't really lock into any position, and the spoiler bits get in the way. Generally looks decent, but has play value issues. Powerlinx Rodimus: Standing on Prowl Legs, he stands a little under 7" (18cm) tall at the pinhead, a bit taller at the overtheshoulder cannons. Due to Prowl's shorter heel spurs and the large amount of backpackage, it's not too terribly stable. I recommend not putting Prowl's spoiler as a skirt, it looks better flipped up as a chest. Overall: Very nice vehicle mode, good robot mode, but not so great as an upper-body Powerlinxer. A good homage to a classic character. AUTOBOT: PROWL Altmode: Formula One Police Car Function: Security Chief Motto: "You can run from justice, but it'll catch you!" PROWL is an AUTOBOT and head of security for several strategic bases. He is faster than any of his comrades in both robot and vehicle mode. His powerful cannon can fire weapons of restraint on his enemies, such as energon nets and cages. In vehicle mode, he is a Formula One police car capable of great speed and maneuverability. Any DECEPTICON that has tried to escape his pursuit has met with failure. Prowl is able to powerlinx with INFERNO. He is a true team player but his suspicious nature prevents him from completely trusting any of his AUTOBOT teammates. STR 7 INT 8 SPD 10 END 5 RNK 7 COUR 8 FRB 7 SKL 8 Avg 7.5 Three twist-ties hold this in, plus one mini-tray over the spoiler held by a rubber band. The launcher and missile are each held by their own twist- ties. Vehicle Mode: A heavily modified Formula-1 racer 6" (15cm) long to the end of the tailpipes and 3.5" (9cm) wide. The proportions give the impression of a "missing link" between Energon and GoBots, especially given the chunky large rear wheels. It's mostly blue with white stripes at the front, extensive silver paint, dark gray tires with gold hubs, and a gray and blue plastic spoiler with clear blue and red plastic police flasher bars. The spark crystal is on the spoiler, with a molded Autobot symbol just ahead of it. "Police" is written in black at the leading edges of the spoiler and in silver on each flank. The sides of the car have the Japanese words seen on Mach Alert (RiD Prowl) in silver. These flank pieces also have 5mm pegholes. A silver cog Autobot symbol is on the left side just ahead of the rear wheel. The robot head is snugged up against the rear of the vehicle (yes, Prowl really does now have his head up his...reactor linkage) with the exhaust pipes sticking out perhaps a little too far. The driver's compartment is covered in clear blue plastic with very pale gold paint that's almost silver. The missile launcher can be fitted into either side peghole by its one usable peg. It has another peg on top, but that gets in the way of the trigger. The launcher itself is clear blue plastic, the missile is moderately dark gray. There are Mini-Con connectors on either side of the gun above the handle. There are no hardpoints on the gun, nor any hardpoints anywhere on the main toy. Transformation: Similar in many ways to Swindle/Zapmaster the Mini-Con, although with more little details (such as the head positioning, or how the driver's canopy folds down to be shinguards). The shoulder jointing is a bit troublesome during transformation, and sometimes pops apart. It takes excessive force to lengthen the legs all the way, but if you don't do this, the knees won't bend all the way. Robot Mode: 5.5" (14cm) tall at the head, tack on an extra half inch (centimeter) or so for the shoulderpad wheels. The fists are black and the upper legs are a combination of light and medium gray. The head is one of the biggest of the silver cog Autobots. The head is on a very limited ball joint. The shoulders are universal joints (two swivels), but it's hard to get them to turn without messing with the transformation joint inside the wheels. The upper arms are extremely short and end in ball joint elbows. The "true" hips are actually between the shoulders, as there's no way to lock the Powerlinx mode legs to the pelvis. At the effective hips, you can ratchet the legs forward and back or side to side, but not turn them. There's a hip swivel just below the true hips that allows turning the feet awkwardly. The knees are ratchet hinges and bend both ways up to 90 degrees. The Arms mode fist plates act as short heel spurs. This isn't a big problem for regular robot mode, as there's no real backpack kibble, but it's an issue in Legs mode. Legs Mode: The arms and shoulders backpack out of the way, the head just sort of hangs betwen the legs, and the torso turns 90 degrees to bring the full length of the legs into play. The spoiler is supposed to fold down and have its "wings" retract to become a skirt. It looks better if you leave the wings open and fold it up to be a new chest armor. Because of the previously mentioned short heel spurs, however, Powerlinxers building on Prowl are less stable than I'd like. Arms Mode: The instrutions need to be ignored a LOT here. Don't shorten the robot legs. Turn the robot forearms around so that the writing on them is visible from the front, they make better wings this way. Also, if you leave the robot arms all the way out, they become full wings and integrate better with the modified Rodimus Legs mode mentioned above. The fists are flat panels as with Hot Shot, but look a little better on their own. It's still best to follow the instructions here, though, and fold up the front airdams to complete the hands. Powerlinx Prowl: By the instructions, it's okay. With some tinkering and the ignoring of many instructions, it's pretty cool. It's also very tricky to get the arms in exactly the right configuration, given all the swivel joints built into them. You want the joints closest to the head to be screw forward, the next joint to be bronze paint forward. All versions are only 6.5" (16.5cm) tall. Mine has a wingspan of 8.5" (22cm) supported by hip-mounted thrusters. Mine has universal joint shoulders, ratchet hinged elbows, limited ball joint head, univeral ratchet hips, ratchet hinge knees. The arms of my version are a little long proportionally speaking, but the official ones have no real upper arms and look even worse. The wings provide two 5mm pegholes each, so you can mount the two rifles either pointed up or pointed forward. The wings can shorten a little via folding to fit into tight spaces, but cannot be totally folded away in my version. Pictures below: http://www.protoformproject.com/dvd/images/pxprowl.JPG Overall: The separate robot mode has some problems, although not as serious as Hot Shot's. The vehicle mode is pretty good, the Legs mode looks good but isn't stable, and the arms mode rules. Dave Van Domelen, likes what he's seen of double-Prowl combiners, but there was only one Prowl on the shelf when he found it.