Dave's Transformers Prime Rant: Legion Wave 2 Breakdown (Armored Truck) Soundwave (DotM redeco) Mirage (RotF Sideways retool, bought on clearance) Evac (Supercar) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Prime/Legion2 This is a weird hybrid wave with only one actual TF:Prime character in it, but all sold in TFP packaging with the clear rubbery plastic weapons. Soundwave and Mirage are repackaged leftovers from Series 1 Cyberverse (probably held back because Hasbro realized none of the stores would bother ordering tail-end DotM toys), and Evac is a tie-in to Transformers: the Ride at Universal Studios theme park. I didn't find Mirage with the other three, but wasn't too broken up about that. [Later note: found it, decided not to buy it, but took pictures of the packaging and filled out the basics of a review.] [Even later note: Found it for $2.50 on clearance, and finally picked it up.] http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Legends3 - Sideways mold http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/DotM/Legion3 - Soundwave mold CAPSULES All are $5-6 price point. Breakdown: Very interesting transformation, somewhat bricky robot mode (pretty standard for bulky designs, though) and vehicle mode. Main flaw is that it's way too small to be a credible opponent for Commander Class Bulkhead. Recommended if you don't mind the size. Soundwave: Original mold was Recommended. The retool adds more weapon connection points, but the color choices are so dark they look black under normal lighting. Mildly recommended. Mirage: Original mold was mildly recommended. Minor retool with changes to the hands and addition of peg holes, it was more or less worth the $2.50 clearance price I paid. Doesn't really fix any of the issues of the original toy. Evac: It's not often when a character created for some specific tie-in (in this case, the Universal Studios ride) gets a toy in wide release, so it's worth grabbing this purely on the novelty level. The design is pretty standard in terms of the engineering, but the visuals are fairly distinctive. Recommended. RANTS Packaging: Same as wave 1. Oddly, Soundwave has no bio note. Note that Evac and Soundwave lack the word "Prime" on their packaging, although the trade dress is otherwise identical to TF:Prime packaging. While I don't have Mirage, I suspect it also lacks "Prime" on the card. Weapons: They continue to reuse weapon molds, although the naming is a bit haphazard. Evac gets the red Snap-On Blaster based on Bumblebee's weapon, but Breakdown gets a new weapon that's also called a Snap-On Blaster, and Soundwave gets the purple Blaster but has it called a Snap-On Hacking Tool. DECEPTICON: BREAKDOWN Altmode: Armored Truck Weapon: Snap-On Blaster (triangle barrel) Series: 2 Number: 006 Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: G1, TFA (not to be confused with Brakedown) Previous Mold Use: None Function: Demolitions Expert Motto: "I really REALLY hate humans." BREAKDOWN is more than happy to take any mission MEGATRON asigns him - especially if it means a chance to take on BULKHEAD. The two big bruisers have had a beef for a long time, but BREAKDOWN means for it to end on Earth, once and for all. STR 9 INT 4 SPD 4 END 9 RNK 4 COUR 7 FRB 6 SKL 5 Avg 6 Packaging: Two rubber bands, with the weapon secured in the right hand by one of them. Robot Mode: Kinda puny. I mean, for the guy who's supposed to be Bulkhead's one-on-one partner, he's not that big. I can understand that there's limited slots in the Commander line, but really. If there wasn't a Commander class, he'd look appropriately bulky, with wide shoulders and a deep chest, but he stands about level with the middle of Bulkhead's chest. He's a knuckldragger of sorts, thanks to roof kibble on his arms that nearly touches the ground while he's standing straight. The vehicle spare tire ends up on the back. 2.5" (6.5cm) tall at the head, add a bit for the shoulder spines. Mostly dark metalswirl sapphire with black and silver, plus an orange face. The true wheels, thighs and shoulder struts are black plastic. Otherwise it's made of a metalswirl dark sapphire plastic. Dark silver paint is used on the top of the head, fronts of the shoulders and most of the abdomen. Orange face, yellow eyes, purple Decepticon symbol on the center of the chest. The spare tire is painted matte black. Ball joint shoulders and hips. The elbows bend inward rather than upward, and the upper arms are short enough that the joint isn't too useful, even for a kinda-sorta salute. The knees bend backwards for transformation, but not in the correct direction. You can use the transformation joint of the chest to bring the spare tire (and its peg hole) over the head for a sort of assault mode. In addition to the backpack peg hole, there's holes on the backs of the hands (vehicle roof) and loose-fitting ones on the tops of the shoulders. The hands can hold 3mm pegs as well. [Later note: mounting the gun on the shoulder is the most show-accurate configuration.] Weapon: This one isn't made of rubbery plastic, but neither is it quite the polished rigid plastic of the Commander class weapons. Light clear purple, 2" (5cm) long, it's a rifle with a triangular barrel. The main peg grip is only a little behind the middle point, and there's peg holes on the sides a couple millimeters behind the grip. The rear end is another peg, and while I suppose you could have it held as a club, I think this is mostly for connecting the LED hoses from the vehicle sets. [Later note: d'oh, forgot to actually say this is based on his show-model cannon, in the same way the red Snap-On Blaster is based on Bumblebee's weapons.] Transformation: Rotate the backpack over the head, fold the arms back on panels, then merge the legs and fold them up against the chest a la Powermaster Optimus Prime's inner bot. The arms do a complicated dance to form the front end. If you stop with just the rear part transformed and arrange the arms properly, you can make a small gun emplacement mode. Leaving the arms open will make it look less like a car crash, but closing them up for front of vehicle configuration is a bit more compact. http://www.dvandom.com/images/breakdownbase.JPG Vehicle Mode: If the robot mode looked kinda small next to Bulkhead, this mode looks downright puny. It's definitely not Hot Wheels scale, it's like a monster truck version of a Range Rover or something, closer to 1:80 or even 1:100 scale. 2.5" (6.5cm) long including the spare tire on back, with a lot more of the blue than robot mode. The windows are painted gloss black, the grille and front bumper are dark silver. There's two peg holes on the roof of the cab, a bit far forward for elegan mounting of the rifle. The spare tire hole diesn't work that well in this mode, at least not for the rifle. It's just high enough up that you could put the rifle there pointed up and not have the stock peg dragging, at least. Overall: It has the usual tradeoff of bulk for articulation, but the only real problem is that it's too small for the story role. If you can get past that, it's a decent Legion class toy. DECEPTICON: SOUNDWAVE Altmode: Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Weapon: Snap-on Hacking Tool (Blaster) Series: 2 Number: 007 Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: G1, G2, BW, BW, MW, Cyb, TF:A, RotF, DotM Previous Mold Use: None Function: Intelligence Specialist Motto: "I seem to be in the wrong place." (No bio note, so no indication if they're even trying to pass this off as the TF:Prime Soundwave. However, note that his tech spec numbers are identical to the DotM version, and are markedly different from the recon drone toy's techspecs. Plus, of course, there's the lack of the word "Prime" on his packaging.) STR 4 INT 9 SPD 8 END 5 RNK 8 COUR 7 FRB 9 SKL 9 Avg 7.375 Packaging: Two rubber bands. The "Hacking Tool" is held backwards in the right hand. Color Swaps: Black stays black, gray becomes an indigo so dark you need to put it under a strong light to be sure it's not black. Paint Apps: In vehicle mode, the windows, headlights, grille trim (the BMW logo and the horizontal line through it) and some trim on the door vents are painted silver. The taillights are red. Robot mode adds silver face and red eyes, light blue circles on the arms (a bolder color than the original), and a lot of dark blue on the thigh fronts and the front of the torso/head piece. Again, you need a pretty strong light to tell it's not black. A purple Decepticon symbol is printed almost invisibly on the right shoulder. Weapon: Same purple blaster that came with Vehicon. And as with that toy, it's not very rubbery. Mold Changes: 3mm peg holes have been added to the doors and roof. Other Notes: Paint on the thighs can make the hip swivels very stiff if the application slops over a bit (as it did on mine), resulting in the legs popping off during transformation. The arm can be held so that the weapon looks vaguely like a half- Laserbeak perched on it. Overall: They really should have used a lighter shade of blue, so that it wouldn't appear to be black at first look. If they meant black, they should have used black. AUTOBOT: MIRAGE Altmode: Sports car Weapon: Battle Blades Series: 2 Number: 008 Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: G1, G2, MW, Alt, Classic, RiD, Armada, Energon, BMac Previous Mold Use: RotF Sideways Function: Stealth Fighter Motto: "Silent, but deadly. Hey, why're you laughing?" With his incredible talent for stealth, MIRAGE would be the ultimate spy. But he'd much rather be in the thick of a fight, moving silent [sic] and invisible [sic] through a deadly melee to strike where the enemy is weakest. STR 4 INT 8 SPD 9 END 3 RNK 4 COUR 7 FRB 5 SKL 9 Avg 6.125 Note, I decided not to buy this, but I took pictures of the toy in packaging so I could fill out the basics. Packaging: Erroneously claims to have "Snap-on Blaster" in the blister banner. Held in with two rubber bands. Color Swaps: Black stays black, gray replaced with bright red. Paint Apps: Black paint on the outer thighs and upper arms in robot mode. The face is gunmetal with blue eyes. There's a silver outline Autobot symbol on the chest, and another one partially melted down onto the right side of the grille. The package photo shows no symbols visible in robot mode. In vehicle mode, black on the grille, hood vents, windows and the engine block technogreebles in back. Silver headlights, unpainted taillights. The chest Autobot symbols end up on the hood and grille, but this disagrees with the packaging photo, that puts the one symbol farther back on the hood and omits the grille one entirely. Weapon: The red Battle Blade based on Ratchet's scalpels. Mold Changes: Altered to hold 3mm pegs in the hands and on the doors (forearms). In vehicle mode, you can't see any differences beyond peg holes in the doors unless you look at the underside. In robot mode, the only difference is the remolded hands (and the forearm/door pegs, of course). They didn't change the roof hinge area, and my Sideways has a nastily bent bit on the roof from where the section got caught badly in transformation and folded (big white stress mark). So far I've managed to avoid replicating that damage on Mirage. Transformation continues to be very fiddly, though. Overall: Wasn't impressed by the original, not really wanting to pay $5.47 for a retool. But it was worth $2.50, if barely. AUTOBOT: EVAC Altmode: Supercar Weapon: Snap-On Blaster Series: 2 Number: 009 Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: Cyb, Movie1, RotF Previous Mold Use: None Function: Autobot Commando Motto: "Hang on, this is gonna be a bumpy ride!" Blistering speed and lightning-fast reflexes make EVAC more than an effective courier - they make him a frighteningly powerful warrior. His speed often catches DECEPTICONS by surprise, allowing him to strike and move before they can return fire. STR 7 INT 8 SPD 7 END 9 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 5 SKL 8 Avg 7.25 Yeah, first non-helicopter Evac. This is the character who patrons ride in for Transformers: the Ride at Universal Studios, and the aesthetic is more like the War for Cybertron video game series than Transformers: Prime. Again, no "Prime" on the package. [Later note: the full-sized Evac design definitely has a movie aesthetic to it (and a surplus of guns), but at the Legion scale most of that is muted. And thus we're left with the unrealism of the vehicle mode giving it that WfC/FoC look.] Packaging: Two rubber bands, blaster in right hand. Robot Mode: Definitely made for war, with a trio of cannon barrels sticking out of the chest. The doors of vehicle mode form a sort of cloak appearance, and he has the usual wheels at shoulders and knees. 2.75" (7cm) tall at the head, slightly higher at the shoulders. Blue, black and silver with some odd flashes of red. The thighs, wheels and shoulder struts are black, the rest is bright blue. A dull very light gray paint is used on the abdomen and face. Silver is on the thruster halves on the insides of the boots. Blue eyes, gunmetal chest cannons, bright red biceps, and amber bits on the boots (turn signals). A small red Autobot symbol is printed on the right side of the chest. Ball joint shoulders and hips. The knees bend, but bend them more than a little and huge gaps open up. The shoulder joints are a lot stiffer than the torso's transformation hinge, so lifting an arm is likely to just lift the chest up instead. The hands can hold 3mm pegs, and there's peg holes on the outsides of the upper arms and the boots. Weapon: Regular red Snap-On Blaster. The plastic is less rubbery this time out, closer to the stiffness of the Decepticon weapons. It's hard to mount it on any of the four available pegs in vehicle mode without interfering with a wheel, although the rear pair is a bit easier. The toy really needs a weapon with a longer peg or otherwise less likely to lie flat. Transformation: Pretty much the archetypical Autobot car transformation. The legs fold up to make the rear of the vehicle, the chest lifts up for form the front end, the arms become the doors. Vehicle Mode: Like a cross between the Back to the Future DeLorean and the Hot Wheels Vandetta (http://hotwheels.wikia.com/wiki/Vandetta). The three chest cannons are joined by two more barrels in the foglamp positions (which stuck straight up in robot mode and were more decoration than weapon), and a big thruster is in the back. Despite the lack of rear fenders, it's blocked from doing wheelies by the kneecap pieces sticking out the back underside. 2.5" (6.5cm) long, it's about the size of the Vandetta. The amber bits are now on the rear spoiler struts and probably intended to be turn signals. The thruster silver is unified, all the guns are painted gunmetal, and the large windshield is gloss black. The peg holes end up above the rear wheels and behind-and-above the front wheels, but there's nothing on the roof or hood. Overall: It's cool to have the occasional Cybertronian combat car mode, and while there's not much innovation in this design, it's a solid toy. A pity it got stuck with a weapon that doesn't work very well with it, but I suppose it's too much to expect them to create a new one just for this toy when it's not a character people are going to be seeing on TV every week. Dave Van Domelen, tempted to drill a hole near the top edge of Evac's windscreen for mounting the gun.