Dave's Transformers NEST Rant: NEST Alliance Pack Battlefield Bumblebee (remold of Cannon Bumblebee) Infiltration Soundwave (redeco) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/NESTAlliance1 Okay, I broke down and got this, despite already having too many Bumblebees and not really being thrilled by the Ravage mailaway. I'm a sucker for patches, I guess. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Deluxe3 - Cannon Bumblebee http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Deluxe0 - Soundwave I can't find my Stealth Bumblebee (ironically) to compare the head molds in person. TFWiki.net suggests there's slight differences between the two, but comparing photos I can't see anything. Thanks to people on the AllSpark for checking their own copies and confirming that there's no mold differences. CAPSULES Battlefield Bumblebee: Original mold was mildly recommended, but come ON, enough with redecos and tweaks of this mold already! Infiltration Soundwave: Original mold was mildly recommended, and this is floppier. If they'd added better pegs as a mold tweak, it might be worthwhile, but at best you'll get something equivalent to the original and with a so-so color scheme. Set as a whole: Eh, not really worth it unless you have neither of the molds yet...and even then you might be better off seeing if you can get other versions cheaply. The mailaway Ravage doesn't even look all that impressive. The patch is nice, but not twenty bucks' worth of nice. Don't bother unless you have a pressing drive to get a Ravage redeco. $19.99 at Target. RANTS Packaging: A non-standard box, wider than Voyagers but less deep, I suppose with the intention of not getting mixed in with the Voyagers. Instead, I keep seeing it mixed in with the left over Fury of Fearswoop sets in the "clearance and other stuff that's not on the planogram" aisle at Walmart (but at full price). Target's a bit better about displaying them properly, though. The window box is 12.5" (32cm) wide, 8" (20cm) tall and 3" (7.5cm) deep with both of the top corners truncated and no dents in either side...take the left side of a Voyager box and mirror it to the right, essentially. Both figures are in robot mode, Bumblebee on the left and Soundwave on the right, with headshot art in the appropriate bottom corners of the window. The NEST shield pokes up between them over the window. Hidden behind this shield but still visible inside the bottom of the box is a NEST patch, and on the back between the figures is the NEST Global Mission Guide. The left side of the front proclaims these to be "SPECIAL EDITION FIGURES!" and its mirror position has a green chunk with a red arrow and the command to "SEE SIDE PANEL FOR OFFER DETAILS!" At the bottom center in somewhat hard to read red on green is "MISSION GUIDE INSIDE! EXCLUSIVE FIGURE OFFER!" The box top has a narrow window and the usual logo stuff. The bottom has cosells of Dirge, Bludgeon and Recon Ironhide. The left side is bright green with blurbs about the mission guide and agent patch, while the right side is more bright green with an explanation of the Ravage mailaway. On the back are photos of both figures in both modes (Soundwave only has Robot and Satellite shown), individual techspec numbers and a combined bio note. Their official names are Battlefield Bumblebee and Infiltration Soundwave (what's he infiltrating, a black light poster display?) but the bio note just calls them Bumblebee and Soundwave. The instruction sheet is loose behind the cardboard tray inside. It's double-sided grayscale only, with Bumblebee on one side and Soundwave on the other. He does get his "I guess it's a jet, sorta" instructions. The agent patch and mailaway sticker are in a baggie taped to the card tray. The mission guide is clipped into the cardstock, but if you want to remove it without cutting the card tray apart it requires a little finesse. The card tray wraps around the plastic blister, and some of the twist-ties don't go all the way through, so you need to either dismantle the card border or apply wire cutters to get the figures out. Mission Guide: A fairly unimpressive catalog made from a folded over cardstock page and a folded flimsy gloss page to look kinda like a tiny file folder. But since you have to cut the back cover off to mail away for Ravage, even that little bit of potential niftiness is negated. Inside front cover: Defender Optimus Prime (yet another redeco of the Voyager mold), Recon Ironhide (remold), Tuner Mudflap (ick) and Autobot Ratchet (Deluxe version). Page 1: "The AUTOBOTS are working to track down RAVAGE - the shadowy DECEPTICON spy!" Alliance Bumblebee (Deluxe redeco), Strike Mission Sideswipe (ditto), Evac (redeco of Blazemaster), Brawn (new mold), Armorhide (Deluxe redeco). Page 2: "The DECEPTICONS need RAVAGE to help them destroy N.E.S.T. Global Alliance!" Dirge (new mold), Lockdown (new mold), Rampage (red redeco), Decepticon Bludgeon (new mold). Page 3: Shadow Command Megatron (darker redeco of Leader Megatron), Mindwipe (F-117 Voyager), Ravage mailaway. Page 4: Mini movie poster/ad. Mailaway offer: With the back cover of the guide (lots of little spaces to fill out), three NEST stickers and $4.95 S&H, you get a "free" Ravage with red and silver paint deco (the "Black Lion Voltron" deco as some have called it). Must be postmarked by April 30. U.S. addresses only, and they make no promises about when the things will actually ship. [Later note: The checks started being cashed in mid-March. Also, Canada and Australia are getting this as a TRU exclusive, it started hitting stores in Australia in late March 2010.] Ties: These aren't wire ties! They're twisted paper string, tied together in back rather than twisted. So they're a lot easier to cut if you don't feel like messing with separating the cardboard and plastic trays. You may want to save a few intact to use as toy-scale rope, though. Not that I would know anyone who would have reason to want to tie up action figures in realistic-looking scale rope. Patch: This is a fairly nice sew-on patch. 2.5" (6.5cm) tall and wide in a shield shape, it's the full NEST shield logo. Black fabric, thread in green, red, white and silver. This is definitely getting stitched onto a hat at some point. Shared Bio: When SOUNDWAVE discovered the human operatives of N.E.S.T. GLOBAL ALLIANCE tracking him with their primitive radar, he decided to take care of the intrusion personally. He plummets through the atmosphere, his wings glowing red from the heat of reentry. Little does he know, however, that the humans' primary defender - BUMBLEBEE - waits below him, his cannons charged, and eager for a fight. Not the best-written bio note, is it? AUTOBOT: BATTLEFIELD BUMBLEBEE Altmode: Camaro Concept Licensor: GM Previous Name Use: TFA (one of the Activators redecos) Previous Mold Use: Movie1, RotF (bits and pieces, this specific combo is new) Gimmick: Pop-out cannons Function: Defender of Humanity Motto: "Catch a wave and you're sittin' on top of the world!" STR 6 INT 8 SPD 6 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 3 SKL 9 Avg 6.5 Same numbers as always. Packaging: 5 ties total, 1 band keeping his cannon flaps up, legs a bit mistransformed to fit in the box. Or maybe just to make him look shorter, since he kinda towers over Soundwave normally. Color Swaps: Metalswirl blue becomes clear medium blue. The other plastics all appear to be the same. Paint Apps: Nearly the same as on Cannon Bumblebee (other than the head, of course). The fronts of the cannons are NEST Red instead of black, the Autobot symbol is moved to the hood ornament position, and instead of white on the abdominal license plate there's silver on the crotchplate and the abdominal cylinders. Mold Changes: A new head, taken from the Premium Bumblebee/Stealth Bumblebee mold of 2008's AllSpark Battles line. It's smaller than Cannon Bumblebee's head, done in the Battle Mask style. It's made of yellow plastic, with blue-silver paint around the chinstrap, on the eyeslits and on the various "shaved" parts of the helmet. The eyes (four to a side) and the centerline bumps are bright red. Other Notes: In transforming my Cannon Bumblebee for comparison, I seriously stressed the part of the hood that ends up behind the head. As in, white line across it and everything. So, expect that to be a problem on this redeco as well. Joint stiffness is comparable between both versions, not great but not horrible. Overall: It's okay. The obligatory NEST Red isn't too tacky here, pretty much just on the cannons that can be left undeployed. Still, unless you've been avoiding Bumblebees very carefully, you probably have at least one version of this mold already. DECEPTICON: INFILTRATION SOUNDWAVE Altmode: Satellite Licensor: None Previous Name Use: None ("Soundwave" alone G1, G2, BW, Cyb, RotF) Previous Mold Use: RotF Gimmick: Launching Ravage projectile Function: Surveillance Motto: "I look down on all of you from above. Which is as it should be." STR 4 INT 9 SPD 8 END 5 RNK 8 COUR 7 FRB 9 SKL 9 Avg 7.375 Same numbers as the preview version. Note, this is the third color scheme of the mold, there was a Toys R Us multipack that had a G1 homage redeco of Soundwave as its selling point. And I think there's supposed to be another single-pack redeco coming, but I'll pass on that. Packaging: 7 ties total, 1 band around chest. The Ravage missile is in the launcher but not cocked. Color Swaps: It's not a simple swap, as the original Soundwave had several sprues of gray and several of blue. Most of the light gray becomes a dull slightly grayish medium blue, but the solar panel pieces become a very dark brown. Most of the dark blue becomes a dull darkish red, but the head becomes the medium gray-blue. Black becomes a very dark bronze brown, slightly lighter than the solar panels. The rubbery red is a little lighter than the non-rubbery red. Clear blue becomes clear medium red. Paint Apps: The faceplate is silver, but they left the eyeslit unpainted so that the weak lightpiping can work. The red and silver on the abdomen is roughly the same as on the original. The gold lower borders on the chest become yellow, and the upper borders change to yellow flames. The kneecaps and "dickie" collar are burnt orange. The gold shin dots are now yellow. Red paint on the wrists fades back in an airbrush-like fashion to give the impression of a heated leading edge. The satellite head's crest is still silver. The parts of the solar panels that were silver on the original are silver fading down to red at the tips on this, further trying to give the whole "re-entry heat" look. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. They could have added some pegs to increase the stability of the "because we say so" modes, but they didn't. Other Notes: Apparently this is not supposed to be an actual color change, just the way Soundwave looks right after de-orbiting, with various parts glowing dull red, and yellow flames wreathing his chest. But the dull dark blue doesn't really fit with that. Overall: Eh. There's some nice changes to the look, but they're balanced by dull changes. This remains a toy with a kibble-hobbled robot mode and no clear altmode of any kind. It's an explosion of Bayformer kibble in search of an altmode. Set overall: Eh. If you're buying other NEST toys already, it's basically $27 (including tax and a stamp to mail the form in) for three Deluxe redecos. You can do nearly as well just waiting for the right sale at Target or Walmart. I really can't think of a compelling reason to get this instead of single-purchases of other versions of the same toys, especially since only Ravage rose above mildly recommended (and that, just to "recommended"). I suppose if Bee is easily dyed that might give me something to do with yet another copy of the mold, but there's too much pinned together or involving springs for me to really want to try it (although a Waspinator redeco would be intersting, take advantage of that battle mask and how you can turn his roof into a sort of stinger). Dave Van Domelen, might try painting dye onto Battlefield Bumblebee to see if that works.