Dave's Transformers Generations Rant: Fall of Cybertron Wave 4 (Wreckers) 1 of 5: Impactor (Cybertronian Missile Carrier) 2 of 5: Autobot Topspin (Cybertronian Rocket Plane) 3 of 5: Autobot Whirl (Cybertronian Assault Chopper) 4 of 5: Roadbuster (Cybertronian Assault Transport) 5 of 5: Twintwist (Cybertronian Tank) permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeF4 Yeah, I've kinda been letting the Deluxes back up, what with moving and starting a new school year and so forth. This is the last wave of the Fall of Cybertron-themed Generations Deluxes, with the "Thrilling 30" series following them and returning to more of a neo-G1 approach (albeit with some other modern lines, like Beast Wars, mixed in). This wave is entirely retools of wave 2, turning Combaticons into Wreckers. As has been Hasbro's tendency of late, they passed some of the savings on to the consumer by adding new accessories to the figures, in the form of extra weapons. Unfortunately, the new weapons don't combine or anything, but it's still nice to have 'em. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/G2Bruticus - Original molds The Wreckers are a comics-continuity creation that has recently been adopted for other media, the premise is a sort of Black Sheep Squadron or Suicide Squad of Autobots who are really good at fighting but maybe not so good at living...both in the sense they get killed off, and the sense that when not fighting they don't really know how to live. This is the first version to make them a combiner, though, taking the name Ruination from one the Robots in Disguise redeco of the G1/G2 Combaticons, appropriately enough. There's even a secondary homage in the color schemes, often running closer to the colors of the members of the RiD Combaticons than to the G1 schemes of the Wreckers. CAPSULES $10-15 each. Not available in a gift set version, last I checked. Impactor: Original mold of Onslaught was neutral. This version looks a little better, mildly recommended if you don't have any other version yet. Autobot Topspin: Original mold of Blast Off was recommended despite a serious shoulder problem, and this improves on the mold (but doesn't fix the shoulders). Recommended. Autobot Whirl: Original mold of Vortex was neutral. This doesn't really improve on it, and the colors make for a poor Whirl homage. Roadbuster: Original mold of Swindle was mildly recommended. This is a little better, and more fitting to the character, but I dunno if it's enough to bump it up to recommended. Twintwist: Original mold of Decepticon Brawl was recommended. This is about as good, although I'm disappointed they didn't better integrate the new weapon in vehicle mode. Recommended. Ruination: The G2 deco I own was attractive mostly for nostalgia. This trips somewhat more recent nostalgia (Wreckers and RiD Ruination), but I don't regret re-buying this set. RANTS Packaging: Same as previous waves of FoXC Deluxes, ad like the Combaticons wave the main picture on the card back shows the combined mode with the colors of the other four figures desaturated. The official configuration has Topspin and Whirl as legs, Roadbuster and Twintwist has arms, a shuffle from Bruticus's official config. Other differences include a "BUILD GIANT ROBOT" sticker on the upper right corner of the blister, and a "PART X OF 5 RUINATION" tab at the upper right of the card front. The cosells only show two others from the wave, in a somewhat odd pattern (1 has 2 and 5, 2 has 3 and 4, 3 has 1 and 5, 4 has 1 and 3, 5 has 2 and 4). A sticker with art of Ruination from knees up is applied to the top of the right side of the blister. The instructions include robot, vehicle and component modes (only the canonical limbs, but you can combine these with the Bruticus instructions to get all the official instructions, since Ruination switches arms and legs), plushow to assemble the pieces into Ruination. The combined weapon is called the Phase Cannon, but no names are given to the new extra weapons each figure comes with (but they do get a single panel of instructions). There are no official functions or mottos, I used G1 where available, with some modifications. Also, I'll be comparing color swaps with the G2 deco, because that's the one I reviewed in full. :) Interestingly, the bio notes never mention the Wreckers, but the cardback images of Ruinations say "Other Wreckers sold separately" and "COMBINE WRECKERS TO FORM RUINATION!" DECEPTICON: IMPACTOR Altmode: Cybertronian Missile Carrier Ruination Part: 1 of 5 Series: 01 Number: 014 Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (2) Previous Name Use: None (comics only) Previous Mold Use: Gen Component: Torso Function: Wreckers Leader Motto: "Wreck and Rule!" IMPACTOR never hesitates to volunteer his team for the riskiest missions. It's not that he loves danger. He'd rather see every soldier under his command safe, but he also knows that his team is the best the AUTOBOTS have. When a mission absolutely must succeed, the AUTOBOTS know they can count on IMPACTOR and his team to get it done. STR 10 INT 8 SPD 4 END 9 RNK 9 COUR 10 FRB 9 SKL 5 Avg 8 Impactor was created for the UK comics, a battle-scarred veteran with a harpoon for a hand. To emphasize that Anyone Can Die, he got killed off after a while. The other four in this wave were members of the Wreckers (Roadbuster and Whirl had rights issues that kept them from being in the cartoon, while Topspin and Twin Twist weren't really used in the media either and fit the idea of the Wreckers), plus others who came and went and died. Most of the other Wreckers have recent toys of some sort, but we probably won't get Rack'n'Ruin any time soon, since they're conjoined.... Packaging: Four strings hold the robot in the blister, one holds the combined weapon (the Onslaught gun combined with the new harpoon-launcher weapon). Color Swaps: Very roughly, yellow becomes a slightly burnt orange and purple becomes gunmetal or dark blue, but it's not a simple swap. The chest, shoulderpads and boots are orange plastic. A dark blue plastic is used for the front of the regular head, the pelvis, the forearms, the fold-up spikes on the torso, and the gun. The missile of the new gun and its grip and trigger are a lighter gray plastic, the wheels are still black, everything else (including the Ruination head) is gunmetal gray. Probably the worst fit for the secondary homage of RiD Ruination, as Mega-Octane had very little orange and was mostly forest camo. Paint Apps: Black paint is used on the lower chest and on the hubs of the shoulder wheels. Dark blue paint (easy to mistake for black in a few places) is used on the shoulderpads, kneecaps, the Ruination forehead, and several details on the boots mainly visible when they're Ruination's thighs. Both faces are silver. AllSpark Blue is used as a highlight color on the shoulders, belt, and wheel hubs, for the eyes on both heads, and the vents on the sides of Impactor's head. There's an orange Autobot symbol printed on the black part of the chest, and an AllSpark Blue Wreckers symbol (like an Autobot symbol, but with a sledge hammer shape in the forehead/nose) on the upper chest. Oddly, Impactor is the only one to get a Wreckers symbol, the rest of the Wreckers just have regular Autobot symbols. Mold Changes: Both heads are new, and look pretty good. While not in Xaaron's gold, Ruination's head definitely looks like the Autobot Resistance leader, and Impactor's head looks right too. If there's any other changes to the figure, they're minor enough I missed them. New Weapon: A chunky missile launcher with a single main grip and two secondary pegs designed to fit onto the Onslaught dual cannon. It fires a missile that has barbed fins on three sides, so from one angle it looks kinda like a harpoon. 2.6" (6.5cm) long unloaded, 3.75" (9.5cm) loaded, and it more or less fits around the hand to make it look like a harpoon arm. Unfortunately, mine doesn't stay firmly in place, flopping about in the hand. It's a pity they didn't try to do anything combiner-y with these extra weapons. If nothing else, molding it so that it could go on Ruination's back in place of the Onslaught cannon would have been nice...it'd have let you make the completed Phase Cannon without having a gap on Ruination's back. Other Notes: The left side chest spine on mine is floppy. Overall: It looks better than the G2 Onslaught, and bonus points for being the first toy attempt at a comics-only character. It's still no great prize on its own, though. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT TOPSPIN Altmode: Cybertronian Rocket Plane Ruination Part: 2 of 5 Series: 1 Number: 16 (yes, number 15 is part 5 of 5) Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (2) Previous Name Use: DotM, BotShots (G1 was just "Topspin") Previous Mold Use: Gen Component: Right Leg Function: Wrecker Land & Sea Assault Motto: "The thrill is in the journey." The conquest of new territories is just as important to AUTOBOT TOPSPIN as the defeat of the DECEPTICONS. Whenever he's not charging into battle alongside his teammates, he can be found alone in the galaxy's wildest places. He is an explorer and adventurer at heart, with an unquenchable desire to see whatever mysteries lie behind the next mountain. STR 8 INT 7 SPD 9 END 8 RNK 5 COUR 9 FRB 6 SKL 8 Avg 7.5 Topspin was one of the few G1 Transformers I bought at the time they came out, and might have been the first one I spent my own money on rather than getting as a gift. So I have a soft spot for the character. Packaging: Four strings on the robot, one each on the new weapon and the paired old weapons. Color Swaps: Again, not quite a simple swap, but close. Most of the toy is white plastic, but a sort of gunmetal brown is found on the backpack (head cover in vehicle mode), shoulder struts, upper arms, limb connector socket, elbow joints, hip joints and thighs. The weapon uses the gunmetal brown on the outer casting and a faintly cool light gray on the internal stuff. While I can't be sure how the sprues divvy up, I guess they couldn't make the arms, legs, and head blue like G1 Topspin without also making the torso blue. Even if they were prioritizing a Movor homage in the colors, you'd still want darker legs. Paint Apps: While the head is the "wrong" color, they did go with silver face and bright blue visor in keeping with G1. The crest bit on top of the helmet is blue, rather than G1 yellow (or even the orange used elsewhere on the toy). The engine bits on the shoulderpads/thrusters are silver. There's a few bits of dark gunmetal on the torso and the shoulderpads. There's bright blue details on the chest, kneecaps and pelvis, plus a darker flat medium blue painted on the fronts of the shoulderpads and the sides of the legs (tops of the wings). Not at all in keeping with G1 is the extensive use of orange, on the chest, pelvis and forearms. The backpack has medium blue and an orange printed Autobot symbol (no Wrecker symbol). Mold Changes: The head, naturally, which is a pretty good "de- chunkification" of the G1 head (albeit in the wrong color, as previously mentioned). Also, the backpack piece that covers the head in vehicle mode has been retooled to add a 5mm peg hole so that the new weapon can be mounted in vehicle mode along the centerline. New Weapon: I almost wasn't able to properly review this...mine flew apart into pieces the first time I tried activating the gimmick, and it took me a while to even find all the pieces, much less figure out how they went back together. Someone forgot to put glue on the piece that holds it all together. In rifle mode, it's 3" (7.5cm) long and doesn't really resemble Topspin's G1 rifle, but it does have a G2-aesthetic to it that fits a Wrecker. There's 5mm peg holes on either side near the front (so you can plug both of the pistols into it) and a single handle grip 5mm peg in the back. The tip of the barrel is slightly wider than 5mm, so putting a sword in as a plug bayonet doesn't work very well. The actuator handle on the side is a little too wide to fit into a 5mm peg hole, so a proper two-handed grip isn't possible. Pulling back on the lever on the side (which might require a little jiggling to get past a stuck gear) makes a saw blade flip out while spinning. Really nice when it doesn't fly apart into pieces. It's not really a melee weapon per se in this mode, more of a rifle with a circular saw bayonet, but it's still pretty nice. The new weapon almost makes up for the crappy shoulder design on the figure. Other Notes: On mine, the elbow joints are so stiff that trying to move the forearms tends to pop the badly designed shoulders right off. In fact, it's pretty hard to avoid popping an arm off when playing with the toy, transforming it, etc. Overall: The main flaw of the original toy is, sadly, still present in spades. But the new weapon is good, the remolds are effective, and this is definitely better overall than Blast Off. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT WHIRL Altmode: Cybertronian Assault Chopper Ruination Part: 3 of 5 Series: 1 Number: 18 (now they're just messing with us) Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (2) Previous Name Use: Uni, Classics, Movie1, DotM (G1 was just "Whirl") Previous Mold Use: Gen Component: Left Leg Function: Wrecker Aerial Assault Motto: "If used logically, madness makes a great weapon!" No one has ever seen a helicopter pull the stunts that AUTOBOT WHIRL makes look simple. He twists easily through the air, nearly matching the speed and maneuverability of the numerous DECEPTICON jets. His flashy behavior makes him a target on the battlefield, but taking fire is all part of the job. If the DECEPTICONS are focused on him, after all, they won't see his teammates closing in. STR 6 INT 6 SPD 8 END 8 RNK 6 COUR 10 FRB 6 SKL 10 Avg 7.5 Packaging: Four strings hold the robot in the blister, one on the new weapon, one each on the swords. Color Swaps: Light blue becomes a very dark blue, black becomes gunmetal brown, the more matte/soft purple becomes bright orange, and the slightly darker glossier purple becomes very dark blue. I can understand not wanting to go with G1-Whirl-style blue, as that'd be awfully close to G2 Vortex, but they should have gone with a more medium blue like what was used on Ro-Tor. This blue is already really dark, and when contrasted with searingly bright orange it almost looks black. Paint Apps: Lots of orange paint on the front of the robot mode. Extensive use on the chest and shoulder fronts (although it's not thick enough to even come close to matching the plastic for vibrancy), and the skirt is dipped in orange plastic. There's some AllSpark blue on the narrowed eye detailing of the chest and on the skirt panels, as well as on the single optic of the new head. Some gunmetal brown paint on the rim over the eye. An orange regular Autobot symbol is printed on the left forearm armor. In vehicle mode, the AllSpark blue is on the windows and neon glow areas on the root of the tail. The Autobot symbol ends up on the left side of the rotor housing. Rather than try to paint over the orange plastic bits or integrate them somehow, there's irregular orange paint apps on the cockpit aft of the windows that make the orange plastic parts look like an intentional decorative thing. Additional small bits of orange paint probably intended to be lit sections are on the fronts of the skids and the sides of the tail. The swords have AllSpark blue on their blades, there's no paint on the new weapon. Mold Changes: The only thing I can find is the new head, which is modeled after the G1 head, your basic camera-head deal. There's no new peg holes to let the new weapon mount along the centerline. New Weapon: Another geared weapon. Sliding the lever on top forward makes the multi-barrel tip spin as it extends forward. As with Topspin's, it does sometimes stick a bit. 3" (7.5cm) long with the lever pulled back, 3.5" (9cm) with the lever pushed all the way forward. The outer housing and spinning tip are gunmetal brown, while the lever and internal gears are light gray. There's a single long 5mm rod grip in back, and two more on the underside near the front, too close together to let both swords plug onto them. I expect the intent is to let you mount the weapon onto either side's skid in vehicle mode. A two-handed grip is possible, to the extent that the rotor lets the left arm come into play at all. There's peg holes on either side near the front, which is where the swords are supposed to attach as a double bayonet, but the holes are a little too large. Interestingly, you can use the peg holes in the sword crosspiece to fit the sword snugly on the underside, giving it an effective sideways peg for an alternative vehicle mounting. You can't put both swords in this position, though, there's details around the grip peg that get in each other's way. While the package photos shows Whirl holding the weapon by the rear peg, the instructions offer an alternative, using one of the front pegs as the grip and having the rear peg hooked over the shoulder, making it a shoulder- mounted heavy weapon. Other Notes: To make the rotor more stable as the canonical leg mode, open it up and wrap around the nose cannon, so it's a very narrow X. Overall: Eh, it's really not an improvement on other versions. They really should have gone with a lighter blue and found an accent color other than orange. Making the rotor removable or adding some peg holes would have been nice too. AUTOBOT: ROADBUSTER Altmode: Cybertronian Assault Transport Ruination Part: 4 of 5 Series: 1 Number: 17 Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (2) Previous Name Use: G1, Uni2, DotM, BotShots Previous Mold Use: Gen Component: Right Arm Function: Wrecker Ground Assault Motto: "War is a dirty business...and I'm as dirty as they come." ROADBUSTER has never been anything but a soldier. When battle rages around him, he hacts with a quick certainty that is an inspiration to the other AUTOBOTS, but when the guns fall silent he withdraws into himself. Without a battle to fight, he doesn't know what to do with himself. So what he does is prepare constantly for the next fight - or he goes out and picks one. STR 7 INT 8 SPD 6 END 8 RNK 7 COUR 8 FRB 7 SKL 8 Avg 7.375 Note, the Universe2 Roadbuster is the only post-G1 version meant to be the G1 character, the rest are the movieverse NASCAR fan. Packaging: Four strings on the robot, one each on the new weapon and old pistol. A small blister segment is snapped over the chest to protect it. He's somewhat mistransformed in the package, with the shoulders too low and the shoulderpads rotated forward, a mistransformation forced by the shape of the blister. The package art of the vehicle mode taunts us with glowing wheels...the actual things are not only missing all the on-tread paint apps to match the art, they're also much lighter gray so even if you add the paint yourself it won't really stand out. And even the package photos show darker gray, so either they were more heavily photoshopped than usual, or they changed the mix between prototype and final. Color Swaps: Orange becomes a desaturated kelly green, but the black splits up into gunmetal brown and two shades of light silvery gray. The lighter silvery gray is used on the arm exhaust pipes, the toes, the combiner hands, and (unfortunately) the wheels. The slightly darker light silvery gray is used on the inner upper arm, the shoulder struts, the pelvis, the upper thighs and the collar area. That leaves the heads, pistol, lower thighs, head and torso core to be gunmetal brown. The new weapon is the usual gunmetal brown shell with light gray core. As with Whirl, putting Roadbuster closer to his G1 color balance of mostly orange with some green would make this toy too much like the G2 Swindle. On the other hand, you'd need a lot more orange on the chest to get RiD Rollbar, so it's not really that close to either. In any case, I'd rather have the black exhaust pipes and wheels of the G2 Swindle scheme than these silvery pipes and wheels. Paint Apps: Orange paint (more appropriate to this toy than to Whirl, that's for sure) is used on the chest and kneecaps. The AllSpark blue is a bit muted due to the color of plastic it's placed on, but stands out reasonably well on the shins and headlights, but it'd have been nice to have more than just the hubcap deco on the wheels. Those glowing wheels are nice in the package art. The visor is also AllSpark blue, with kelly green bits on the helmet side vents and centerline indent (good match with plastic). The engine cylinders flanking the head are painted silver, as are the exhaust pipes running down the shins. A large Autobot symbol is printed on the chest/hood. The hands are dipped somewhat sloppily in dark brown paint. Mold Changes: Just the new head, which is based more on the comics design than the toy. It's a little smaller overall than Swindle's which reinforces the "linebacker" look. New Weapon: A weird little gimmick on this one. Moving the core (which includes the main grip) in and out makes three stubby fingers flanking the barrel open up while the barrel itself recedes. It's reminiscent of weapons like the Gipsy Danger plasma cannon. I guess closed is for rapid fire weaker bursts, while opening it up allows for charging mah lazer and releasing a single huge blast. 2.5" (6cm) long closed, a tiny bit shorter when open. There's a single 5mm peg grip at the back, and a 5mm peg hole on the top if you really want to mount the old pistol on it. Other Notes: The rather linebacker-y look of this mold didn't really feel right for Swindle, but it's perfect for Roadbuster. Overall: The arms are still kinda puny for the rest of the toy, but it makes a decent update of Roadbuster. AUTOBOT: TWINTWIST Altmode: Cybertronian Tank Ruination Part: 5 of 5 Series: 1 Number: 15 Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (2) Previous Name Use: None ("Twin Twist" was the G1 character) Previous Mold Use: Gen Component: Left Arm Function: Wrecker Demolitions Motto: "War is wherever I want it to be." No one's really sure why TWINTWIST joined up with the AUTOBOTS instead of the DECEPTICONS. He's a barely contained ball of rage that lives for chaos and destruction. In battle, he engages the enemy without mercy. Back at base, he sulks, argues, and occasionally goes on a rampage and destroys things for no reason. STR 8 INT 4 SPD 5 END 7 RNK 3 COUR 8 FRB 9 SKL 4 Avg 6 Packaging: Four strings on the robot mode, one each on the new weapon and old pistol. Color Swaps: Green becomes a sort of dull teal-gray, black becomes the gunmetal brown common to so much of this wave. The teal-gray is noticeably different from Armorhide's light blue, but not quite Twin Twist's color either. Paint Apps: The usual orange is heavily represented, being on the shoulder fronts, shinguards and the center of the chest (with a negative space Autobot symbol). There's also a large orange Autobot symbol on the back of the left shoulder. Gunmetal (or maybe just dark silver) paint is on the face, the worm gears on the chest, and some vehicle details visible on the boots. The eyes are AllSpark blue, and the color is also used for small accent grilles on the abdomen and hips (plus vehicle bits). In tank mode, the AllSpark Blue and orange accents don't quite make it look like a Tron tank, but they head in that direction. The not-treads and the thruster housings in back are gunmetal, and the big orange Autobot symbol ends up on the left side armor. Mold Changes: The new head looks a lot more like a Megatron head than an adaptation of Twin Twist's helmet, further enhanced by the fact it's teal-gray (calling to mind Machine Wars Megatron or Megaplex) rather than G1 Twin Twist's white. New Weapon: This is a dual drill weapon where the rock-crusher bits (rather than screw bits) counter-rotate when you press down on the gun-shaped trigger. There's a peg hole next to the trigger so that the small pistol that comes with the figure can be put on top to balance it out. This lets the new and old weapons integrate pretty well. It's the usual gunmetal brown case and light gray trigger, drill bits and inner gears, 3.25" (8cm) long. There's just the one grip peg at the back, and only the one peg hole. The instructions just have it mounting on top of the barrels of the tank turret, rather than somehow wedging into the front to make a proper drill tank out of it. You can sort of get it to stay in the gap in the front, although the main gun barrels get in the way of the trigger mechanism. Pulling the fists out can help stabilize it some, and the final result looks ready to take on Manda. Other Notes: I think I pretty much covered it. Overall: Good mold, decent-looking retool, even if it looks more like a Megatron update than a Twin Twist update. My only real complaint is a squandered potential...a slight mold tweak to let the tabs on the front of the tank lock around the drill weapon would have really improved things and given us a proper drill tank. An Autobot Gotengo/Atragon, if you will. AUTOBOT: RUINATION Previous Name Use: RiD Function: Super Robot Wrecker Motto: "Sometimes we must entrust our fates to a single warrior." Aesthetics: Where purple was the color that ties together G2 Bruticus, the unifying color here is orange...which as noted above, doesn't always flatter. Well, there's also gunmetal brown, but that's more of a background color than a thematic one. And lacking the big snap-on chestpiece means that it doesn't really match RiD Ruination's appearance in combined mode, so all the orange was a bit for naught here. Mold Changes: Ruination gets a new head, which others have pointed out looks a lot like Emirate Xaaron, the Autobot resistance leader who also first showed up in the UK comics and assigned missions to the Wreckers. New Weapons: Well, if you don't mind it looking kind of packrat-ish, you can find somewhere for all the new weapons, but they don't really combine elegantly. However, if you have Metroplex, the unified colors (gunmetal brown and light gray) make them good accessories for him. Overall: Worth rebuying if you have one of the Bruticus decos? Marginally. It's nice to have a big Autobot combiner to stand with Metroplex, and to have Wreckers (although it'd have been better if all of them had Wreckers symbols and not just Impactor). Fortunately, most of the individual bots improve on the originals at least a tiny bit, making the combined more more of a bonus. Dave Van Domelen, back to Beast Hunters next.