Dave's Transformers Rant: Real Gear Robots Wave 3 Highline 1070 (83753, Speed Dial recolor) Hacker X-3 (83754, Power Up recolor) Photon T-34 (83755, Spy Shot recolor) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/RGR4 Another all-recolor wave. I've heard that the Real Gear molds were designed before the movie line, which is why the Paramount logo isn't on them, and Hasbro doesn't have to pay any cut to Paramount for them (as they have to for all the other movie line toys, even molds and color schemes that weren't in the movie). This may be why they're milking the recolors so hard, since any new molds generated at this point might fall under the Paramount agreement. Anyway, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/RGR1 has all three original mold reviews. CAPSULES Highline 1070: A red recolor of Speed Dial. Original of the mold was Recommended, but by this point odds are you have at least one of this mold already. This one is somewhat dull, probably the weakest of the three phones. Only get this if you really like red. $7.44 at Wal-Mart. Hacker X-3: An Autobot recolor of Power Up, I was mostly sold on the bio note's personality, since it wasn't a mold I liked all that much, despite it being Recommended (my ardor cooled quickly). Looks like an AllSpark Power recolor, and has a cool personality. Mildly recommended if you have Power Up VT6, recommended if you don't. $7.44 at Wal-Mart. Photon T-34: Evil black and gold camera. My favorite mold of the original six, and in a dynamic color scheme (although not necessarily a realistic one). Recommended if you have Spyshot 6, strongly recommended if you don't. $7.44 at Wal-Mart. RANTS Packaging: Same as previous waves, with the usual "Not a working phone/music player" bits. Identical strapping and so forth to the originals of the molds. Co-sells are kinda weird. Highline has Hacker and Photon, but then Booster X-10. Hacker has Photon and Highline, but then High Score. Photon has Hacker and Highline, then Night Beat 7. I guess they figure a lot of older product may still be on the shelves. AUTOBOT: HIGHLINE 1070 Altmode: Cellphone G1 Homage: No strong homage Previous Mold Use: Speed Dial 800, Wire Tap V20 Motto: Track * Trick * Destroy HIGHLINE 1070 knows where you're at. Any creature he establishes a connection with, either physically, or through his communications system is saved in his extensive target list. Those that get labeled as DECEPTICONS, he tracks continually, waiting for them to be in a perfect spot for an ambush. Then, he lays traps designed specifically for each enemy, and moves in to finish them off. STR 8 INT 6 SPD 6 END 8 RNK 4 COUR 9 FRB 6 SKL 6 Avg 6.625 Color Swaps: Replace the cool gray of the main phone case with red. That's it. The inner warm gray bits are the same, and the "eye" is still colorless clear. Paint Apps: He follows Wiretap's lead by having an Autobot symbol printed on the top of his chest, in silver here. The keypad is printed in white, using the same font as on Speed Dial. His control pad uses all white characters on silver buttons (two dots in upper left, three dots in upper right, SEND in lower left, MENU in lower right) and the roller switch in the middle of the control pad is painted dark gray. His face, forearms and toes are also silver (meaning he has obvious toe blocks in phone mode). The phone lid is silver where Speed Dial is metallic blue, and also silver where Speed Dial is silver. The main screen is bordered in medium-dark gray. No paint on the buttons on the sides of the phone. The sticker on the cover has an Autobot symbol in red on a white background with a partial "reflection" below it, and says in black-outlined white letters, "1 missed call". The main screen sticker has an Autobot symbol dominating, on a techie brownish and white background. A red battery strength bar is at the top, voice mail icon at upper right, ringer-on icon upper right. Above the Autobot symbol is "TF4EVER", and below it is 10:38 PM. Dunno what significance the time has, but there's no date. A menu bar is at the bottom. Oddly, no signal strength indicator. Other Comments: No mold changes I noticed. Overall: Eh, it's the third phone, and it doesn't really look any better than Speed Dial. If you only get one phone (and, really, you only need one), get Wire Tap. AUTOBOT: HACKER X-3 Altmode: Portable Game System G1 Homage: None Previous Mold Use: Power Up VT6 Motto: Seek * Crack * Share According to HACKER X-3, there's no such thing as secret information. He looks at computer security as a personal challenge, not because he wants whatever's behind it for himself, but because he likes to share the things he discovers with the world. The DECEPTICONS are fond of secrets, which bugs him, so he goes out of his way to share their private plans with as many AUTOBOTS as possible. STR 3 INT 10 SPD 2 END 2 RNK 6 COUR 6 FRB 4 SKL 10 Avg 5.375 Total couch potato stats. Color Swaps: Replace light gray with dark blue, replace black with very light bluish gray, replace purple with AllSpark Blue, leave the ABCD button colors alone. In robot mode, further replace black with light gray (not quite as light as the gray on Power Up) and the lightpiping is light blue. Paint Apps: Uses almost exactly the same masks as Power Up. He has dark blue on his light gray bits as necessary to match up in game mode, gunmetal gray where Power Up has black, and AllSpark Blue on the boots where Power Up has neon green. The only difference is that his forehead is black and his face is light gray...same mask patterns, but the "simple swap" breaks down. He does have some printing on the front, though. A black Autobot symbol above the D-pad, and "HACKER X3" in black above the four colored buttons. His sticker looks a lot less like a game screenshot. It shows Optimus Prime in the foreground battling Megatron in the background, with an Autobot symbol in the upper right, but no gamestat stuff. It may be an actual game screenshot, though. Other Comments: The autotransform is kinda annoying me now. :) You really have to move everything symmetrically or you click gears and it ends up lopsided. Overall: Well, he looks like he belongs with the AllSpark Power toys, at least. It's a decent mold, if a little small to be a real portable game system. What sold me on it was the personality...this is the kinda guy who'd be putting up torrents of TF: Animated eps as soon as they air, if not sooner. Information wants to be free...especially Decepticon information. DECEPTICON: PHOTON T-34 Altmode: Digital Camera G1 Homage: Reflector Previous Mold Use: Spy Shot 6 Motto: Scout * Shoot * Sabotage PHOTON T-34 works alone. He doesn't like other robots getting in the way of his work, which is sabotaging AUTOBOT structures. Special sensors in his lenses let him target and analyze the worst weaknesses of any structure. He uses this data to plan the dramatic destruction of roads, bridges and buildings when the AUTOBOTS least expect it. STR 7 INT 8 SPD 5 END 8 RNK 7 COUR 8 FRB 6 SKL 8 Avg 7.125 Early solicits for this called it Foton T-34. Color Swaps: Replace the french gray with black, leave the clear colorless plastic alone. Looks like Spyshot had a painted black lens housing. The parts that are definitely black on Spyshot (clicky button, controls on the back, right elbow and left toe) are now a medium cool gray. The head is also medium cool gray. All the slate blue bits other than the head are replaced with a pale gold plastic. No swirls, so it shouldn't be vulnerable to Gold Plastic Syndrome. Paint Apps: The helmet front is painted gold, with a blue and black forehead. The eyes are covered with blue paint as well, a bit on the thick side, as even a laser can't make the lightpiping work (it shines through the cracks around the eyes, though). The silver mask on the front of Spyshot's camera mode is medium cool gray now, and there's also that color on the shins. He has blue accents on the shins and kneecaps, plus on the left toe, and a white Decepticon symbol on the front above the lens. His name is printed on the lower left of the camera front in white. His sticker shows a photo of Frenzy being taken, but his battery is down to one bar despite this being just photo 012. He's in low-light mode with no flash. Other Comments: No mold changes that I noticed. Overall: It's a great mold, and I like these colors even better than on Spyshot, although they may be a bit less realistic [Later note: I'm told that despite the fact I can't recall ever seeing any, there are plenty of black-cased small digicams on the market]. Even if you already have Spyshot, you may want this one...and if you passed on Spyshot, snap this guy up! Dave Van Domelen, forgot to put in a signature here when initially posting the review.