Dave's Movie Deluxe TF Rant - Wave 5 Stealth Bumblebee Salvage Overcast (not reviewed) Premium Jazz (not reviewed) Premium Barricade (not reviewed) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Deluxe5 Almost purely recolors, with Stealth Bumblebee being a head remold on Concept Camaro Bumblebee. Salvage is a recolor of Dropkick, Overcast is a recolor of Dreadwing, Premium Jazz is a recolor of either the original Jazz or the G1 Jazz mod. In any case, it has the "sword" weapon, not the shield blaster used for Final Battle Jazz. While the Premium repaints look nice, I've already got three versions of the Jazz mold and don't really want another Barricade. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Deluxe2 - Concept Camaro BB http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Deluxe3 - Dropkick CAPSULES Stealth Bumblebee: Original mold was Recommended. While there's some quality control issues, it's a good looking repaint that's not just "make it black", plus it has a new head mold. Recommended. $6.99 at Target (Deluxes on sale for several weeks). Salvage: Original mold was Recommended. It's a nice character idea, but it doesn't really fit what amounts to a street riced truck. And the quality control on mine is very low. Mildly recommended. $6.99 at Target. Overcast: Original mold was Mildly Recommended, and the new color scheme doesn't thrill me, not even at $6.99. Passed on this. Premium Jazz: Original mold has been used way too much, pass. Premium Barricade: Likewise. RANTS Packaging: Same AllSpark Power Deluxe packaging as the previous wave. Co-sells are Cliffjumper, Overcast, Stockade, Jungle Bonecrusher and either Salvage or Stealth Bumblebee...at least on the two I got. I didn't check the Premiums. Comes with the Nightwatch Prime, TF Animated, Iron Man catalog. As always, the functions and mottos are mine, the actual packaging doesn't include them explicitly. AUTOBOT: STEALTH BUMBLEBEE Altmode: 2009 Concept Camaro Licensor: GM Previous Name Use: None Previous Mold Use: Bumblebee (Concept Camaro) Package Callouts: "Cannon converts to blade!" Function: Sneak Attack Motto: "Black is the new black, baby." With pictures of him all over the internet in robot and vehicle mode, BUMBLEBEE began to feel a little bit uncomfortable. People recognized him everywhere. More importantly, new DECEPTICONS arriving on Earth found him easily, which put Sam and others in danger. With Mikaela's help, he picked out a new color scheme for his armor plating that made him harder to spot, and also made it easier to sneak up on any DECEPTICONS that wandered into the range of his plasma cannon. STR 6 INT 8 SPD 6 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 3 SKL 9 Avg 6.5 Still has that crappy 3 Fireblast to go with his supposedly impressive plasma cannon. Twist-Ties: One tie, no rubber bands. Color Swaps: You'd think it'd be "yellow becomes black" in general, but not quite. The yellow bits on the original's hood and front bumper, and the rear bumper/fender become black plastic. All the other yellow plastic is replaced by a slightly less bright yellow, much of which is painted black. The original's black plastic, aside from the tires, becomes a slightly metallic blue-gray, which is also used for the new head mold. The clear plastic is a slightly paler blue. Paint Apps: Lots of black. In Camaro mode, the only yellow parts are dark yellow stripes in the place where the original has black stripes, otherwise it's all painted over black with silver accents (door handles, foglamps, Camaro logos on the sides, exhaust pipes, hubcaps, Chevy symbol on the grille) and red taillights. In robot mode, there's a lot of darkish yellow on the forearms, battle helmet and waist. Additionally, the insides of the yellow body panels are unpainted yellow, adding enough color that this isn't just a Black Repaint Bore. Of course, it's an AllSpark Power toy, so there's AllSpark blue on the helmet details, some bits on the forearms, and the collarbone area. A black Autobot symbol is inside the blue badge shape on the collarbone. There's no license plate printed on the pelvis. Other Comments: The big thing that makes this more than just a black recolor, though, is the new head. It's the first Deluxe version with the Battle Helmet, previously seen in smoothed out form on a Robot Heroes BB. The blue paint accents bring out details on the grating over the optics, and gives the head a slightly "Jack Kirby" feel that I like. As with the original use of the mold, the yellow pieces on the upper arms aren't glued on, and may fall out. One was almost out in-package, in fact, despite the fact that it's partly held in by other robot bits in car mode. Overall: It's a generally strong mold, and this isn't just a simple black recolor, it's got some personality to it. I like the new head. However, in addition to my own, I'm hearing of other quality control issues, so it's probably for the best that I got it on sale. AUTOBOT: SALVAGE Altmode: Pickup Truck Licensor: None Previous Name Use: None Previous Mold Use: Dropkick Package Callouts: "Bed cover converts to crusher claw!" Function: Salvage Motto: (Radio playing the Sanford & Son theme song) Another of the new AUTOBOTS brought to life by the final, energetic bursts from the AllSpark, SALVAGE doesn't really have a lot of ambition. Before being brought to life, he worked with Sparkplug & Son Salvage, and he's pretty sure he was happy then. He's certain he's happy now, with a load of scrap in the back, and Sparkplug's hands in their accustomed place on his worn old steering wheel. It's a simple life, but it's one he prefers to hunting DECEPTICONS and fighting all the time. STR 8 INT 3 SPD 4 END 8 RNK 1 COUR 5 FRB 4 SKL 4 Avg 4.375 Heh, no rank at all to speak of. Rank 1 means the other Autobots probably don't even know he EXISTS. Now, while a salvage truck might have made more sense as a Longarm recolor, this isn't too bad once you remove the bed cover (it just looks too street-racer with the bed cover and spoiler in place). And the color...well, time for an anecdote. When I was a kid growing up in Wisconsin in the 1970s, there was this spray-on rust-inhibitor that got popular one winter. It came out of the can looking like rust, either because that was just the color of the compound, or maybe to blend in with the existing rust. Not sure, don't really care at this point. :) Anyway, Salvage looks like someone used up a half dozen cans of that stuff to do his paint job. And I intend to enhance the look at some point by adding some dents, rust-through holes and general dinginess. And, if I'm feeling really ambitious, a new weapon that looks like a load of trash in the bed. At the very least I'll remove the spoiler from the bed cover. Twist-Ties: 2, no rubber bands. Probably coulda used one on the hood, though. Color Swaps: This is one of those aggressively non-trivial swaps where it's easier to just describe from scratch. The clear plastic is light blue, the tires are a slightly lighter gray than on Dropkick. The control knob for the bed cover weapon is bronze colored plastic. All the rest of the plastic visible in vehicle mode is a darkish "primer red", not quite rust. The bronze plastic is also used on the chest and pelvis front, plus the underside of the bed cover piece. A metallic gunmetal plastic is used on the collar area, upper arms, thighs, the middle joint of the lower legs, the heel spurs and the pelvis. A lighter silvery gray is seen on the arm cannons, antennae, heel "wings" and some of the internal struts. A brighter coppery plastic is used on the forearms and most of the lower legs and feet. The head and thigh armor are primer red and the lightpiping is light blue. Paint Apps: The front grille and bumper is painted gunmetal with yellow turn signals. The hubcaps, doorhandles, rear bumper, side mirrors and robot toes are also gunmetal. The taillights are red. Printed in white on each door are an Autobot symbol surrounded by the "Sparkplug & Son Salvage" logo. The robot faceplate is bronze and silver, with some AllSpark Blue accents. ASB is also splashed on the chest, forearms, pelvis, upper thighs and bits at the top of the helmet. There's some primer red on the pelvis and abdomen. Other Comments: The front end didn't hold together so well even right out of package, and I wasn't able to get it to go flush later either. The left arm kept coming off at the shoulder, the shoulder pads don't stay pegged in, and the antenna won't point in the same (or at least mirror imaged) directions. I know this is a junker truck, but come ON! Low quality control really hurts this one, and I wanted to like it more than I do. Ah well, I'm already planning on doing some modding, maybe I can fix some of this up, and even yank the antennae entirely to further separate it from Dropkick. Overall: I'm told there are copies without such low quality control, which I suppose means that I can't blame the problems purely on mold damage or change in plastic. I like the general idea of this character, but it really would have worked better as a recolor of Longarm. Dave Van Domelen, off to kitbash....