Dave's Prime:RiD Rant - Legion Wave 2 Grimlock (T.rex) Sideswipe (sportscar) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/PRiD/Legion2 Yes, this wave and wave 3 (supposed to be Fixit and Underbite) are both 2-figure waves, so expect some intermix of older figures in the case lots. I got mine from HTS, though. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/PRiD/TradeDress for discussion of packaging and general class-level stuff. CAPSULES $6 price point. Grimlock: Clever transformation, looks pretty good in both modes. Strongly recommended. Sideswipe: Fairly generic transformation, unstable in car mode, kinda flat in robot mode, but decently articulated. Mildly recommended. RANTS: Packaging: Same as wave 1, including the lack of ties. Note, when I say "Yes" after Previous Name Use, it usually means that the listing on tfu.info fills a page or more with just instances of that character name, although sometimes it's just aggressive use in a single show or movie (i.e. Sideswipe has a LOT of movie uses, despite only really being a bit player in one movie). AUTOBOT: GRIMLOCK Assortment: B0895 Altmode: T.rex Transformation Difficulty: 5 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: None Function: Reformed Decepticon Motto: "I am a tiny godzilla." Packaging: The front blister picture of T.rex mode is cut poorly so as to remove his chin, oops. Otherwise, photos match the actual toy as far as I can tell from the teeeeeny pictures. Robot Mode: Battlemasked like most Legion class, with the dino tail as a backpack and the dino forearms attached to the boots. The proportions look right, the only "problem" is that it's not to scale with the other Legion figures (except maybe Optimus Prime). 2.75" (7cm) tall at the head, the root of the tail sticks up another half inch (about a centimeter) above the head. Mostly bold green and black with a little bit of other colors. The torso/head piece, boots, and attached dino forearms are black plastic, the rest of the toy is bold green plastic. The faceplate is painted brown (shooting for copper, but not very metallic) with blue eyes, and the code circle/faction symbol is on the right shoulderpad. There's green paint (very good match) on the chest, black on the shoulders and the dino toes below the wrists. Shoulders and hips are ball joints, and that's it for useful articulation. The hands can hold 3mm pegs, and there's hexagonal 3mm peg holes in the elbows. Transformation: The tail flips up to cover the head, and the arms become hind legs, fairly obvious. But then the legs peg together and the boots hinge out to the sides and towards the waist to reveal the dino head and form the dino chest. Rather clever design. It all clips together solidly, leaving very few gaps or even signs of having been a robot. Beast Mode: While the colors are more separated than on larger versions (head and tail almost totally green, torso almost totally black), it looks pretty good for the size, and can stand with the torso nearly horizontal. The back plates extend all the way down the tail in three sections. 3.75" (9cm) from snout to tail tip. The forehead is painted sorta metallic brown, the teeth are silver. No paint on the solid black forelimbs. The robot shoulders are the rear hips, and the forelimb shoulders are swivels. No neck joint, but the transformation pretty much prevents that. Overall: Not as cool as Strongarm, but definitely one of the better Legion figures in the line. AUTOBOT: SIDESWIPE Assortment: B0896 Altmode: Sportscar Transformation Difficulty: 5 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: None Function: Turbo-Revving Young Punk Motto: "Whatever, old man." Packaging: Photos, allowing for the usual image adjustment, seem to match the actual toy. Robot Mode: Another battlemask, and unfortunately an overall "smooshed" look. It just looks like the robot got flattened from front to back, particularly the torso. Plus a big backpack formed by the front end of the car. The toes stick out disproportionately by comparison to the torso, though. There's serrations of a sort on the forearms. 3" (7.5cm) tall, mostly dark red and black with a silver faceplate. The wheels (cheapo snap-on types), shoulder struts, and thighs are black plastic, the rest of the toy is dark red plastic. There's metallic black paint on the forearms, toes, and abdomen. The faceplate is silver, and there's metallic light blue fake headlights on the chest, and used for the eyes as well. The code circle is on the left forearm armor. The shoulders are ball joints on shrugging struts, the hips are regular ball joints, and there's hinge knees and ankles. A good range of articulation is this figure's main positive (and the only reason it didn't drop below mildly recommended). The hands can hold 3mm pegs. Transformation: Backpack flips up over the head, arms shrug up against the sides, legs fold up to become the rear part of the car. Pretty standard. At least on mine, the legs don't really lock into position or tab properly to each other, leading to a warped and gappy vehicle mode unless I do a lot of careful massaging. Vehicle Mode: It's not a Lamborghini, but it evokes that family of cars pretty well. If not exactly Hot Wheels scale, it's close enough as to not really matter, and the code circle ends up on the driver's side door. 2.75" (7cm) long, dark red with metallic black windows, black wheels, and metallic light blue headlights. Getting the wheels to roll requires avoiding a warped transformation, good luck with that. Overall: The problems I have seem to be largely based on quality control and whether there's uncleared mold flash, others might get luckier. But it's a marked contrast to Blackjack's "make sure everything pegs firmly" design, and if the PRiD design team is distinct from the Generations one, they could stand to copy their in-house compatriots. Dave Van Domelen, recovering pretty well from gall bladder removal.