Dave's Transformers "Screen Battles" Wave 1 Rant Final Stand First Encounter (not reviewed, but I'll make a few comments) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Screen1 The premise of the Screen Battles sets is to tweak existing Deluxe molds, add some accessories and swank packaging, and sell at a Voyager price. Each set is meant to help kids re-enact some scene from the movie, with the help of human figures and other bits. I don't expect to be buying more than Final Stand, as it's the only one with a mold I'm willing to re-buy at this point, plus it has an accessory almost worth ten bucks. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Deluxe3 has the review of the solo Longarm. CAPSULES Final Stand: Reworked Longarm, and Longarm is Love. Plus you get a Bumblebee that's been cut off at the knees and is designed to hook onto Longarm's wrecker hook. If you don't have Longarm yet, strongly recommended. Otherwise, recommended if a tad pricey. $19.99 at Target. First Encounter: Barricade reworked so that Frenzy doesn't pop out (although some work with a screwdriver can free him), plus minifigs of Sam, Mikaela and Frenzy. Barricade's an okay mold, and you do get a special Nemesis Frenzy once you do some unscrewing and modding (he's in black plastic now), but it's not enough to get me to drop $20 or recommend anyone else do so. $19.99 at Target. RANT Packaging: Diorama style boxes that are essentially half a cardboard box with the cut made diagonally so you have a bottom, a back and two triangular sides. The interior of the cardboard part has scenery from the relevant part of the movie (the devastated street scene in the case of Final Stand, the construction site for First Encounter). The top/front half of the box is clear plastic, with a truncated top edge that has the set name molded onto it. The box is 11.5" (29cm) wide at the bottom and 10" (25cm) wide at the top. The right and left sides taper in slightly, but the front and back are vertical. Height is 6.5" (16.5cm) and depth is 5.5" (14cm). I don't have First Encounter, so all remaining details will apply only to Final Stand. Inside the box, Longarm is twist-tied down on the left side in vehicle mode, with Battle-Damage Bumblebee sitting on the right side, firing to the front-right. However, Brawl/Devastator is shown to the rear-right approaching, so Bumblebee's aim's a touch off. On the outside left is one of the standard CG movie images of Bumblebee, and on the outside right is "SCREEN BATTLES FINAL STAND" at the top and a big Autobot symbol. The top just has the Transformers logo. On the bottom are co-sells for both waves of Screen Battles. Desert Attack with Scorponok and three desert soldiers, First Encounter as mentioned above, and Capture of Bumblebee with Concept Camaro Bumblebee and a trio of Sector 7 guys (one agent, two soldiers). The back has a photo of Longarm's robot mode in the middle, flanked along the bottom by truck mode on the left and Bumblebee on the right. Techspecs on upper left, bio note on upper right. Upper middle gives the transformation difficulty as 3, same as on separately-packaged Longarm. Callouts are "Quagma cannon with firing missile!", and "Bumblebee with Battle-Damage (does not convert)". There's no licensor info, since while the Mike's Towing truck in the movie is a real truck model, the Longarm toy is sufficiently generic to not need licensing. Cutting the tape on either the front or top side of the outer cardboard shell lets you pull out the entire inner piece with diorama and blister as a piece. The instructions are just loose between these two pieces, no bag or anything. Cutting the tape at top back and bottom front releases the plastic shell, leaving just the diorama piece. The support blisters are glued to the base, and all five of the twist-ties go through to the bottom, so you can leave the supports in place for later display. There's also a rubber band holding the hook onto Bumblebee, and another one holds the lightbar closed. As usual, the Function and Motto are my creations. Bumblebee doesn't get a techspec, but since they've been pretty good about keeping everything the same between versions, I just pasted in his other one. AUTOBOT: LONGARM Altmode: Towtruck Licensor: None Previous Name Use: Armada (many recolors, though) Function: Support Motto: "I'm here to help!" Techspec: STR8 INT4 SPD5 END9 RNK4 COUR8 FRB8 SKL6 Avg 6.5 AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Altmode: 2009 Camaro Concept Licensor: GM Previous Name Use: G1, G2, Classic Function: Not as much as he'd like right now Motto: "She drives like crazy...." Techspec: STR6 INT8 SPD6* END5 RNK5 END10 FRB3 SKL9 Avg 6.5 * Not really capable of independent movement at the moment His legs badly damaged by the DECEPTICON onslaught, BUMBLEBEE continues to fight. Luckily, LONGARM is there, and ready to lend a hand. Even though he just came to life a few minutes ago, as the AllSpark passed from hand to hand near where he was parked, LONGARM knows a good guy when he sees one, and BUMBLEBEE is it. Hitching his tow arm up to the disabled AUTOBOT, he hauls BUMBLEBEE down the street at top speed, with Mikaela driving, while the AUTOBOT warrior blasts away at the charging DECEPTICONS. I guess Longarm hasn't learned to drive himself yet? Color Swaps: As far as I can tell, aside from some possible batch variations, the plastic colors are the same as the original. Paint Apps: They're pretty careful about keeping this mostly like the original, but with a few important details. Orson's Towing is replaced by Mike's Towing and the phone number 800-555-0199. The panels behind the doors get new paint apps as well, with the AAA-like Autobot symbol in oval moved down a bit, "24HR" above it, and alternating red white and blue hazard stripes along the bottom. The robot-specific paint apps are the same. Mikaela: Attached over the screwhole on the driver's side inside the cab is a black piece of plastic molded to look kindasorta like Mikaela's head and arms holding a steering wheel. The face and arms are painted caucasian fleshtone, the hair is brown, and they even painted in eyes and eyebrows...a good paint job, all told. Her shirt is left unpainted black. While you can open the doors gullwing-style, she's not removable without disassembling the toy. Since this is a later add-on, there's no funky engineering like on Voyager Prime to make the driver vanish in robot mode. Bumblebee: Not quite as detailed as Robot Replica Bumblebee, nor as articulated, but a good accessory. The feet and much of the right shin have been blown off, and the door wings are gone. Made entirely of medium gray plastic with bright yellow paint on the armor pieces. There's silver on the abdomen, face and various details. The eyes are painted bright blue, and the interior of the solar cannon barrel is orange. Also a bit of black on the tires on his back, and a red dot on his forehead to suggest an Autobot symbol (or that he's got a sniper targeting him). The left arm is bent 45 degrees at the elbow and the hand is wide open. The right arm is straight and ends in its cannon form. The legs are bent about 90 degrees at the knee and spread slightly for a sitting position. The head turns, the left shoulder is a simple swivel, as are the hips. The right shoulder is a universal joint. No articulation at knees, waist or elbows. There's a slot in his back where the wrecking hook fits quite securely. And the "elbow" joint on the hook is stiff enough to let Longarm keep Bumblebee suspended in the air, whee! http://www.dvandom.com/images/finalstand.JPG Overall: If you don't have Longarm, you need one. And even if you have one, this is a nice remold that adds something to it (unlike Barricade, where they remolded it to remove play value). The Bumblebee figure is a lot more impressive than the human figures that come with the other sets, so if you only get one Screen Battles toy, get this one. Dave Van Domelen, not sure what significance 0199 has, if any.