Dave's Transformers Rant: Cyber Slammers Wave 1
     
     Barricade
     Bumblebee (not reviewed)
     Optimus Prime (not reviewed)

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Slammer1

     This is one of those lines I don't plan to go completist on, sorry.
Might pick up the others if I see them on deep clearance, but don't count on
it.  Based on the co-sells, I suspect that this might be wave 1 and wave 1
rev 2 or something, since Barricade and Bumblebee don't show Prime on their
co-sells, but Prime shows both of them.
     I grabbed Barricade simply because Prime and Bumblebee are in every
slaggin' line for the movie, so if I'm just gonna get one it'll be one that's
NOT them.  :)  Mind you, I suspect the other two are scarier.

CAPSULE

     Barricade: Chibi, stands up to rough play, but about as simplistic as
you can get.  Only get for small children, or maybe one for the "horrifyingly
cute" novelty...but Barricade isn't the cutest of the lot.  $7.99 at Target.


RANT

     Packaging: This has the red and yellow packaging of the "kiddie line"
toys, as seen with the Cyber-Stompin' Bumblebee or the Nerf weapons.  It's on
a card a little over 8" (21cm) high and 7.5" (19cm) wide.  The bubble is
glued at top and bottom, and has taped tabs wrapping around the sides.  The
blister is roughly L-shaped so that the toy can sit in "robot" mode as if
rolling up a ramp.  In the crook of the L is a little card showing the
auto-transforming trick, "Slam it down and watch it go!"  In the upper left
is the "Easy Conversion" label, and an ages 3+ advisory.  Behind the toy is a
faded Decepticon symbol inside the eyeball.
     Co-sells are on the bottom.  As mentioned earlier, Bumblebee and
Barricade each have the other, while Prime has both of the other two.
     The back shows the slammer action in more frames: "Slam it down!"
"Watch it go!"  "Robot pops up!"  It also lists the vehicle mode, has
licensing logo where relevant, and the following copy:
     "Robot warriors from the other side of the galaxy are here!  Team up
with the heroic AUTOBOTS or race into action with the evil DECPTICONS as both
sides battle for the AllSpark!"  I've seen official sources spell it both
"Allspark" and "AllSpark" so far, I prefer the latter.
     Barricade is listed as a Saleen S281 Police Car.  Which, as I've stated
elsewhere, is a hot rod custom job on the Ford Mustang.  
     Inside the blister are the same catalog seen in Cyber-Stompin' Bumblebee
and some of the simplest instructions ever.  They do point out a switch that
lets you leave it in car mode, though.  Otherwise, it automatically pops back
up after it's gone through its cycle.
     There's no twist-ties, it's just held into the blister tray.

     "Robot" Mode: A very stumpy robot upper body sitting on a shortened car
chassis.  It's a Throttlebot, basically.  Or a cartaur.  4" (10cm) tall, 4"
(10cm) long, 2.75" (7cm) wide.  All black plastic except for the white switch
on the bottom.  There's silver paint on the face and some torso details,
metallic blue on the abdomen.  The other paint apps are vehicle-based, I'll
describe 'em there.
     Poseability.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  Ahem.  Okay, the head turns a little.
You can lift up the arms at the shoulder, but they're spring-loaded and pop
back down (for Police Brutality Beatdown Action!).  The elbows are molded as
bent 90 degrees, so that arms aren't quite as stumpy as they look.  But the
proportions of the upper part are still pretty chibi.  The horrifying wide
eyes seen on some of the prototypes are not there, though...oh, the eyes are
still kinda big, but mostly black so they don't look as weird.

     Transformation: You push the torso down, it snaps into place.  Then the
wheels spin and the torso pops back up for robot mode.  If you want it to
stay in vehicle mode, you need to move the switch on the bottom *before*
transformation, doing so after transformation won't help.  From vehicle mode,
flipping the switch back will cause it to enter the "spin wheels and pop
open" action.
     The abdomen folds up into the chest during transformation, and springs
back down in robot mode.

     Vehicle Mode: A chunky police car, 4.75" (12cm) long, 2.75" (7cm) wide,
2.25" (6cm) tall.  All black plastic.  The rear wheels have a rubberized
strip around them for traction on smooth surfaces.  The windows have a silver
fade down to black paint job which looks pretty snazzy.  The lightbar is half
blue and half red, plain gloss colors.  There's a silver "643" on the roof
and silver "POLICE" on the spoiler.  The headlights are silver, the
taillights gloss red.  The doors are white, with "POLICE" in black-bordered
silver.  There's a silver and blue-purple Decepticon symbol on each front
fender just ahead of the door.  On the bottom is a hair entanglement warning,
and a little bump that keeps the transformation switch from catching on
anything...clever addition.
     The wheels are on through-axles and roll very nicely.  The wind up motor
is strong enough to actually move it a few inches on my pile carpeting.  On
flatter carpeting like in my kitchen, it'll run about a meter.  Excuse me
while I run outside to try cement, since I have no tile floors...about a
meter and a half.  Not really that impressive.

     Overall: Well, a nice idea.  And little kids will probably enjoy 'em.
But it's not even weird enough to buy for that reason...I should repaint the
eyes to make them cuter.

     Dave Van Domelen, did this one first because he knew it would be FAST.