Dave's PCC Commanders Rant: Wave 3 Steelshot with Beacon (Bombshock with Backwind) Windburn with Darkray (Searchlight with Caliburst) Darkstream with Razorbeam (Skyburst with Chopster) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/PCC/Commander3 This is an all-redeco wave, with the three Mini-Cons recolored and matched with the original Combiner core figures and the one Commander mold that didn't get to be a wave 3 Combiner core. There's no remolding as far as I know, but there's some changed modes for the Mini-Cons to take the new partners into consideration. It is, however, notable that none of these names have been used before in America ("Beacon" was a redecoed Mini-Con in Japan). http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/PCC/Commander1 - All of the Mini-Cons, Searchlight mold http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/PCC/Combiner1 - Skyburst and Bombshock CAPSULES Steelshot with Beacon: Original Commander figure almost Strongly Recommended, but probably the weakest of the original three Mini-Con partners (notable, though, for being molded with no clear plastic). Pretty good redeco, but Beacon is still a net loss. Recommended. $9.97 at Walmart. Windburn with Darkray: Weakest of the original Commander figures (although I'd call it about even with Skyburst), but the strongest of the Mini-Cons, sort of a mirror of Steelshot's set. Too bad they managed to make Darkray look bad. Mildly recommended. $9.97 at Walmart. Darkstream with Razorbeam: The other weak first wave Commander figure, a decent Mini-Con. Too bad the Commander can't really make use of this Mini-Con. Very mildly recommended. $9.97 RANTS Note, the PCC pegs always stay the same blue color, so I will not be discussing them in the individual reviews. Packaging: Same as previous waves, with the same rotating co-sells on the undersides. AUTOBOT: STEELSHOT Altmode: Mobile Artillery Previous Name Use: None (either name) Previous Mold Use: PCC Bombshock Mini-Con: Beacon Previous Mini-Con Use: PCC Backwind Function: Artillery Specialist Motto: "If you see me, you weren't my target." Even before becoming a Power Core commander, STEELSHOT was a master of long-range combat. Now, with BEACON acting as his spotter, he uses jis powerful cannon to pound targets up to 100 miles away, softening them up for an all-out AUTOBOT assault. STR 8 INT 5 SPD 5 END 8 RNK 6 COUR 9 FRB 10 SKL 8 Avg 7.375 Fanon techspec adjustments if Mini-Con is missing: -1 FRB, -1 SKL (I figure Beacon acting as a spotter improves the Skill stat). Packaging: Two rattan strings on Steelshot, one on Beacon. Steelshot is packaged with the turret turned down and the gun barrels behind his legs. Instructions show the torso mode combined with the Protectobots. The packaging shows Beacon in a sort of clear brown with black thighs and gun arm, while the vehicle mode art has colorless clear plastic with gray gun arm. The actual toy is opaque red instead of clear brown, the first PCC Mini-Con with no clear plastic. Color Swaps: Silvery gray becomes brown, black becomes a sort of dark gray brown. The green plastic that forms limb parts is now glossy black, while the green plastic that formed shell parts is a tan that very closely matches the "Swindle" drone that Bombshock came with. Beacon's clear green becomes opaque bright red, but the black stays black. Paint Applications: The gunbarrels, rocket pod openings (the bits that are yellow on Bombshock), and some details mostly visible on the thighs in combiner mode are painted dark gunmetal. The face, the upper outside corners of the chest and the top of his apron are painted silver. There's a silver Autobot symbol printed on the left forearm, which becomes a rear bumper. There's light tan paint in camo patterns on the robot chest and apron and on the roof of the vehicle cab. There's brown camo paint on the turret. The parts of the combiner chest that are silver on Bombshock are matte black here. The little rotary cannons on the waist are painted orange, there's gold on the "ears" of the robot helmet. Both the robot eyes and the combiner head's visor slit are painted bright blue. In an odd bit of deco whimsy, they made the faceplate of the combiner head camoflaged, in tan and brown leaving the underlying dark brown to complete the pattern. Beacon's gunbarrel and face are painted dark gunmetal, his light lenses are silver. Other Notes: This is Desert Bombshock, really. Okay, so the actual camo patterns aren't really desert-style, the general feel works out that way. I'm not sure if this is just bad luck on this one, but it took excessive force to transform the turret back from combiner mode to individual robot mode. If you want to display both Bombshock and Steelshot in commander robot mode and better differentiate them, having Steelshot as in-package with the turret pointed down (maybe fold the guns back up) makes a significant difference visually. Mini-Con: The official modes are...meh. It's like they go out of their way to keep Beacon's lights from being useful in vehicle mount mode, the robot weapon mode is still a loss, and the armor mode just has it clinging to Steelshot's back. Maybe just have Backwind and Beacon go off and be gun monkeys solo and forget about trying to make them work as partners. Also, the ball joints on Beacon pop apart very easily when I'm trying to wrestle the thing into something resembling...anything. Overall: It looks pretty good, and I rather like the mold to start with. Too bad it doesn't come with a Mini-Con partner. Mind you, given that you can probably still find Bombshock for $15 at Walmart or Target, a $10 redeco without drones isn't as attractive. But if you get both Bombshock and Steelshot, you can put the drones on Steelshot for a more tan-dominated scheme. DECEPTICON: WINDBURN Altmode: Helicopter Previous Name Use: None (either name) Previous Mold Use: PCC Searchlight Mini-Con: Darkray Previous Mini-Con Use: PCC Caliburst Function: Field Commander Motto: "It's a lot more complicated than 'Get there first with the most,' but that's a pretty good start." WINDBURN is a master of modern warfare, able to hold a real-time image of even the most vast battle space in his head. Together with his partner DARKRAY, he manages troop movements across the battlefield, ensuring they go where they are needed most to guarantee a DECEPTICON victory. STR 10 INT 8 SPD 6 END 8 RNK 8 COUR 10 FRB 7 SKL 7 Avg 8 Fanon techspec adjustments if Mini-Con is missing: -2 FRB Packaging: Two rattan strings hold Windburn in, one holds Darkray. As with Searchlight, the rotors are just stuck behind the robot, and the toes are pointed down. Instructions are pretty much the same as on Searchlight, but they show the combiner mode with the Destrons, the Decepticon combiner team that co-ships with these guys (more or less). The cardback and front art show Darkray in yellow clear plastic and the same sort of bluish gray as part of Windburn. The actual Darkray is vastly different. Color Swaps: There's a color split here, as not all of Searchlight's blue pieces were on a single sprue. The blue of the forearms, chest, head inner boots and toes is now a light silvery gray. The other blue parts become red. The very light gray plastic is a sort of light gray-teal color, similar to but not the same as the slate blue on Airburst. Black stays black, and the rotor blades become a sort of bronze. Darkray is black where Caliburst is silvery gray, and clear green where Caliburst is amber. Paint Applications: The windows are gold, as is the mouth/chin part of the face. A good match to the gray-teal paint is used on the rest of the face and on the middle of the upper chest (a bit sloppily applied on mine). There's lots of little red details, including the eyes, a bit on the forehead (making it look like he has a third eye), chest details, abdominal flanks and the front of the rear rotor engine section (left forearm). The side windows have gloss black outlines, and there's a matte black Decepticon symbol on the robot's pelvis, plus one more on each tail section (where Searchlight has "2015"). The combiner head has a silver face, gold forehead and chin, orange eyes. Darkray's face is painted black, and there's medium gray on his upper chest. The gears are not painted, which really detracts from the look. Other Notes: The shoulder struts for combiner mode weren't exactly graceful additions to vehicle mode on Searchlight, and making them red only exacerbates the problem. And the torso mode still suffers from the problem of finding a place for the rotors. Stuffed under the armpits may get them out of the way, but it looks ugly. If, instead, you position the Commander arms as if they were extensions of the chest crest, you can put the rotors in the undersides of the fists and give the combiner a way to fly. http://www.dvandom.com/images/windburncombo.JPG shows this with the Aerialbots attached, and using Razorbeam as armor. http://www.dvandom.com/images/AllHeliPCC.JPG shows Windburn with Razorbeam and all four existing helicopter drones as limbs. Maximum whirlybirdosity! Mini-Con: I make no bones about it, Caliburst is one of my favorite PCC Mini-Cons, if not the absolute favorite. Which is why it's kinda disappointing that they went with such a bland deco for Darkray. Just by themselves, the unpainted gears make it look a lot worse. Interestingly, the rotors on the forearms don't get in the way of letting Windburn hold Darkray with both hands at once. And armor mode doesn't really get in the way too much either, although it tends to sag. Unfortunately, all the problems that Searchlight had with vehicle mode Mini-Con are worse here, since Darkray's vehicle mode is even taller. Using something more like armor mode helps a little, but still looks bad. A modified version of the vehicle mode, with the hardpoints facing down, can be held two-handed by Darkray as a decent weapon, though. And Razorbeam in axe mode is a slightly better vehicle weapon for Windburn. A chopper with a Chopster? Overall: This is the only first wave Commander to get re-released as another Commander. And it's the weakest of the three, although I'd call it a toss up between Searchlight and Airburst for worst of wave 1. The new look for Windburn is a little more dynamic, but Darkray just looks worse. On the off chance you actually get both this and Darkstream, have them trade Mini-Cons. DECEPTICON: DARKSTREAM Altmode: Fighter Jet Previous Name Use: None (either name) Previous Mold Use: PCC Skyburst Mini-Con: Razorbeam Previous Mini-Con Use: PCC Chopster Function: Barnstormer Motto: "I have to gain altitude if I want to drop my landing gear." Even for most of the top DECEPTICON aces, low-altitude air combat is difficult and dangerous, but it's where DARKSTREAM excels. He prefers being close to the ground, where he can trick pursuing craft into a crash. His partner RAZORBEAM just makes him better at cutting dangerous maneuvers even closer. STR 5 INT 8 SPD 9 END 7 RNK 7 COUR 8 FRB 9 SKL 9 Avg 7.75 Fanon techspec adjustments if Mini-Con is missing: -1 STR, -1 FRB, -1 SKL (he loses some edge in flying without the extra airfoils provided by Razorbeam). Packaging: One rattan string on Darkstream's robot mode, one string on Razorbeam's robot mode. The instructions do have an armor mode for Razorbeam, although it has Darkstream wear it as a backpack. Or samurai banners, perhaps. The instructions show Darkstream combined with the Destrons here too. The only one to have the right Mini-Con colors in the cardback photo, although the package front art has the blue way too light. Color Swaps: Black stays black. The slate gray that makes up most of the jet mode is now a light faintly silvery gray, and the medium blue is a faintly metallic ruby red. The rubbery nose plastic is black. On Razorbeam, the clear plastic is now a medium to dark blue, the black stays black. Paint Applications: A faintly metallic orange dominates the paint applications. It's on the tops of the wings, the edges of the tail, the leading edges of the canards, some details on the forearms and the fronts of the robot shins. There's black Decepticon symbols printed on the wing tops. The cockpit windows and the "cravat" triangle are metallic purple. The face is mostly silver, and the toes are silver. The mouth and eyes are black, although it might be the underlying plastic. The jet intakes are gold. The combiner face is silver with metallic purple eyes and gold details on the "sideburns". Razorbeam's face and blade edges are painted silver. Other Notes: The torso mode looks nice, but it's no more stable than Airburst, with the hips being a major point of failure. Mini-Con: This was a poor choice of companion, really. The axe mode's handle requires a through-hole for the fist, and Darkstream doesn't have that, so the axe just sort of sits loosely in the fist hole. You can sort of fake it by plugging one of the cannon arms into Darkstream's fist, it's not all that secure but it's better than nothing. Furthermore, the official vehicle weapon mode looks bad on the jet. The axe mode makes a better vehicle mode weapon. In short, you're better off giving Razorbeam to Stakeout or Windburn. Overall: Well, it's an okay Commander and a good Mini-Con that just don't go together. If you're tempted by the Commander but didn't care for the Aerialbots (and, frankly, the combiner mode isn't much to brag about), you might consider picking this one up instead. Just trade Mini-Cons or something. Dave Van Domelen, now wondering if he should do Stakeout and Crankcase next, or skip to Grimstone and Steamhammer....