Dave's Combiner Wars Rant: Deluxe Wave 4 Sunstreaker (Optimus Maximus 1, Breakdown retool) Mirage (Optimus Maximus 2, Dragstrip retool) Prowl (Optimus Maximus 4, Streetwise retool) Ironhide (Optimus Maximus 5, Offroad retool) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeC4 An all-retool wave. Prowl is a headswap on Streetwise, who was a Dead End shell retool. Strictly speaking, Optimus Maximus 3 is not the wave 1 Optimus Prime, it's his white redeco "Battle Core Optimus Prime" that is not yet out. But I'm not buying that mold again unless it's significantly remolded and preferably re-engineered. So these guys get to attach to the red version. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeC1 - Mirage base mold http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeC2 - Ironhide and Sunstreaker base molds, and root mold for Prowl http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeC3 - Prowl proximal mold To be honest, I was hoping that they'd use the First Aid retool of Offroad for Prowl, closer to his comic appearance as part of "Prowlstator". And then use Rook for a more fully militarized Ironhide. CAPSULES $15.29 at Target. Sunstreaker: Original mold was recommended. While not quite as good as the Classics interpretation of the character, this is pretty good. Recommended. Mirage: Original mold was mildly recommended. It actually works better for Mirage than for Dragstrip, though, even if they didn't fix any of the engineering issues. Mildly recommended. Prowl: Streetwise mold was mildly recommended. While not a lot different from that, this is pretty good. But unless you want to be able to make all your combiner teams at once, just getting Streetwise OR Prowl will do the job. Mildly recommended if you don't have Streetwise. Ironhide: Original mold was "not much to like". This doesn't really fix any of the problems with that, so...completists only. RANTS Packaging: Same as wave 3, including comics. The team accent is light gray. (Rodimus's packaging also uses the light gray.) Optimus Maximus is shown on the left side, both as photo and art, in addition to the stuff on the back of the card. Worth noting, "Combiner" is capitalized throughout the bio notes. Additionally, they seem to have gotten all the trademarks...nary an "Autobot (name)" in sight. Mold notes: The only changes on any of these are new heads. They do a pretty good job of using paint to make things look more different, though. And all of the new heads are pretty good molds, although Ironhide's feels a touch small. Color notes: All of the weapons and kibble pieces except for Prowl's triple barrelled shotgun are made from light gray plastic, with silver paint on the "back of the hand" piece of each kibble weapon. Well, those parts are entirely coated in silver, so I'm guessing at the underlying plastic. Also, rather than my usual trick of trying to map plastic changes, I'll just list the actual color uses. A lot of the recent Deluxe and bigger retools have non-simple mapping anyway. AUTOBOT: SUNSTREAKER Component: Right Arm Altmode: Sports Car Transformation Difficulty: 12 steps Previous Name Use: G1, Alt, Uni2 Previous Mold Use: Gen Weapon: Cyber machete, electron pulse cannon Function: Warrior Motto: "I'm the good-looking one." A Combiner robot needs contributions from every bot that forms it, and OPTIMUS MAXIMUS is no different. OPTIMUS PRIME can bring the courage. PROWL can provide the strategy. SUNSTREAKER? He makes this Combiner look goooood. Packaging: Four ties on the robot, although the one around the foot doesn't need to be cut. One tie each on the two weapons. The hood is up above the head in order to fit into the blister. Comic: In the indicia as Combiner Wars #14, it's a reprint of The Transformers (formerly Robots in Disguise) #38, the last issue before the actual Combiner Wars crossover kicked off. Plastic Colors: Black for the head, collar area, shoulder roots, elbow joints, pelvis, knee cores. Light gray is used on the thighs, heels (spoiler halves), hood hinge, struts inside the boots, and the peg cup on the right foot for attaching the combiner hand or foot. The rest of the toy is bright yellow plastic, a bit translucent. Fortunately, they don't need to paint any of the black plastic gray in vehicle mode, so there aren't any horrible mismatches. Paint Apps: The face is painted silver with metallic light blue eyes. The vents in the helmet "wings" are painted yellow. The lower chest is painted gloss black with a metallic light blue vent. The forearms are painted gloss black, as are the shin fronts. The fake wheels on the shoulders are painted red, and there's a tiny red Autobot symbol printed on the chest. The sword/gun is coated in silver. In vehicle mode, the windows are metallic light blue. The headlights and wheel hubs are silver, gloss black is used on the grille and the lower edge of the sides. To snazz things up a bit, they add bright red on the rear fenders, and a bright red Autobot symbol is printed on the hood. No paint on the rear window louvres. Other Notes: While the instructions don't say anything about weapon storage, the cardback shows the kibble gun attached to the vehicle using the thumb tab so that it looks kinda like the G1 engine. In arm mode, the elbow isn't stiff enough to hold up the forearm with a Legends-size figure as weapon. Fortunately, the screw can be tightened to fix that, at least for a while. Overall: If you just want a good Sunstreaker update, the Classics mold is a little better. But even loose ones on eBay are at $15 and up, and this is a decent version too. AUTOBOT: MIRAGE Component: Left Arm Altmode: Formula Racer Transformation Difficulty: 9 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: Gen Weapon: Armor-piercing rocket dart launcher Function: Infiltration Motto: "Let others be too fast for the eye to follow...the eye can't follow me when I'm standing still." Put the cloaking power of MIRAGE in the hands of a Combiner and look out - that's 30 tons of steel sneaking up behind you and walloping you with a punch you can't see coming. The DECEPTICONS won't know what hit them. Liokaiser is proof that invisible combiners are scary. Packaging: Four ties on the robot, one each on the weapons. A rubber band keeps the head from flipping backwards. Comic: Combiner Wars #16 in indicia, it's Windblade v2 #1, also known as part 2 of the actual Combiner Wars crossover. The comic back cover only mentions one weapon, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be the sword or the kibble weapon. Plastic Colors: The wheels are black. The fists, the shin-bones, and the backs of the boots are white plastic. Everything else is a sort of slightly teal-ish blue, but there's two distinct kinds. The type used on joints and the pelvis is a little lighter and softer. This is the one exception to the kibble piece plastics, with the blue-teal plastic used for the thumb joint. Paint Apps: Lots of white. The chest front "U" piece seems to be dipped in it, there's white paint on the tops of the forearms, and coating the thighs, plus more on the shins. The face and helmet vents are silver, with metallic light blue eyes. There's red vents on the biceps, and a small red Autobot symbol printed on the right chest. The toes are silver. No paint on the sword/gun. In vehicle mode, there's extensive white on the nose, the front struts, and along the upper sides, plus the bits on the rear fenders (forearms). The driver's compartment is black, the wheel hubs and spoiler are silver. A black 62 is printed on the nose, right behind a red Autobot symbol. Yeah, 62 instead of the G1 26. There's no real or fake corporate logos, just "Circuit Racing 62" on the sides. Other Notes: I've seen a few "car front on chest" transformations, although to look right they require swapping the arms. The paint on the thighs makes the swivel joint where the thigh meets the hip very stiff. Like, "leg pops off at the hip first" stiff. Overall: Despite having the front end on the backpack, I like the looks of this better than Classics Mirage. It's pretty clear this mold was designed to be Mirage, and then reused for Dragstrip. AUTOBOT: PROWL Component: Right leg Altmode: Pursuit cruiser Transformation Difficulty: 11 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: Gen Weapon: Dual missile launcher, blaster loaded with acid core rounds Function: Military strategist Motto: "Why does no one follow the PLAN?" The AUTOBOT military strategist is a critical part of OPTIMUS MAXIMUS. If his strategic skill can successfully combine with the courage of OPTIMUS PRIME, it would make OPTMIMUS [sic] MAXIMUS almost unstoppable in battle. That's a big if, given events in the comics. Packaging: Five ties on Prowl, you'd think he was in jail or something. One each on the blaster and kibble weapon. Comic: Combiner Wars #13, aka The Transformers #37, second to last part of the Onyx Interface. And yes, the bio note on the back cover mentions his prediliction for flipping tables. Plastic Colors: Light gray on the pelvis, combiner peg, knees, "exhaust pipe" combiner peg hole, and a strut for the hood. The collar, biceps, fists, thighs, wheels, and another strut for the hood are black plastic. The rest is a nice opaque white plastic. Paint Apps: In robot mode, there's some gloss black paint on the chest border as well as various vehicle shell parts. There's metallic light greenish blue on the shins (not sure if it's supposed to be different from the vehicle windows, or if this was a batch variation), metallic medium blue eyes, silver face, red helmet crest. A red Autobot symbol is printed on the center of the chestplate. The fake wheels on the shoulderpads are not painted. In vehicle mode, it generally evokes the G1 color scheme, but without the star and shield on front. The black plastic of the biceps section interrupts the looks of the doors, they don't really try to paint the rest to make it fit in. There's also gray bits on the back end, but they don't look too bad. There's gloss black on the front and the lower half of the sides, light metallic blue windows (including the rear window for once), silver headlights. Slightly metalflake red on the lightbar, printed red Autobot symbol on the hood. The doors have "HIGHWAY PATROL POLICE" printed on them, along with the classic yellow star on blue shield emblem. No paint on the hubs or on the foglamps. Mold Changes: Based on the Streetwise mold, so has most of the changes made for that version. They could probably put this new head on the Dead End mold and have Bluestreak (not that I'm keen on buying any more of that particular body shell). Other Notes: As with Streetwise, the problems I had with the rear of the car on the Dead End/Brake Neck version. However, the wrists are so stiff I can't get the fists out for robot mode without using a pry tool. Overall: Well, it doesn't look like G1 (Classics does a better job of that), or at all like the "Prowlstator" era design, but it's a decent representation. AUTOBOT: IRONHIDE Component: Left leg Altmode: Pickup truck Transformation Difficulty: 10 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: Gen Weapon: Dual blaster (molten lead and liquid nitrogen), axe Function: Security Motto: "This Titan ain't big enough fer the both of us." The most dependable AUTOBOT warrior, would sacrifice his own spark to defend the cause of freedom. With the COMBINER WARS raging, it doesn't take much to convince IRONHIDE to enter the battle as part of OPTIMUS MAXIMUS. Packaging: Six ties on the robot, although two don't need to be cut. The front end of the vehicle is raised up a bit to fit in the blister, as with Offroad. One tie each on the weapons. Comic: Listed as Combiner Wars #15, it's The Transformers #39, the start of the Combiner Wars crossover. And also the only one of these four saddled with Livio Ramondelli art. Plastic Colors: A lot of red, obviously. Black is used for the wheels, the shoulder roots, elbow joints, the combiner peg, the pelvis, and struts inside the boots. The Upper arms, thighs and knees are medium warm gray plastic, while the axe is the same light gray used on the kibble piece. The hinge of the thumb on the kibble piece is the medium warm gray plastic, so I guess Mirage isn't as much of a standout as I initially thought. Paint Apps: Face is silver with metallic blue eyes. The fake windows on the chest are painted metallic light blue, while the ribcage vents and shin shock absorbers are painted gunmetal. He has a silver Autobot symbol outline as a belt buckle. No paint on the axe. In vehicle mode, there's gunmetal on the front and rear bumpers, the grille, and the wheel hubs. The front and side windows are metallic light blue. A yellow stripe runs along near the top of the side, starting behind the front fenders and going all the way back. A silver outline Autobot symbol is printed on the hood. Other Notes: The instructions and package photos leave the doors down along the sides of the arms to better distinguish the toy from Offroad. But despite this and the decently molded new head, this really doesn't feel like Ironhide the way the other three manage to evoke their inspirations. Overall: While First Aid made significant improvements on the Offroad mold, Ironhide does not. Really just for completists. COMBINER: OPTIMUS MAXIMUS Yeah, supposed to be made with Battle Core Optimus Prime, but as noted above, I'm not buying another deco of this mold. I covered Optimus as a core and combiner in general previously, this is just some notes on how it looks overall with these four guys. I'll update with Rodimus once I open that. While it has all the proportion and stability issues of truck-core combiners, the aggressive mixing of colors actually looks pretty good. And while it may be unfair to compare a real thing to a photograph, I prefer the looks of using regular Optimus Prime as the core compared to Battle Core Optimus Prime. (Amusingly, thanks to my custom adapter, I can use Windcharger as a chestplate in an homage to the "Autobots fake being Menasor" episode of G1.) Granted, Rodimus doesn't stand out as much against a red torso as he would against a white one. [Later note: I prefer my custom Windcharger- adapted version to Rodimus as the chestplate.] Dave Van Domelen, would normally alternate lines to do the PRiD Deployers next, but Rodimus and Skywarp are a natural followup.