Dave's Transformers Capsules: Robot Replicas Waves 2-3

     Sideswipe (89878)
     Megatron (89879)
     Bumblebee (92220)
     Jetfire (92221)
     Autobot Skids (92222)
     The Fallen (92743)

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/RR2

     Due to a general lack of interest on the part of my readers in the
entire Robot Replica line and a "to be reviewed" stack that refuses to go
away, I've decided to only do Capsules on the second and third waves as a
bunch, with their bio notes listed afterward for future reference.  Assume
unless I comment otherwise that the general packaging and mechanical aspects
of the line are the same as in wave one, reviewed here:

     http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/RR1

     I've since lost track of which ones I bought at what stores.  Toys R Us
was charging $11.99 at the time I got these (I think it was all but Skids and
the Fallen) and Walmart charged $12.88.


CAPSULES

     Sideswipe: A very nice-looking toy, making the most out of a limited
paint application budget.  The shoulder kibble isn't as much of a problem as
you might think, and the wheelfeet have good spurs to lend stability.  The
arms end in swords (something that 2007 Robot Replicas would have let you
replace with regular arms, alas) with thumbs visible.  Oddly, his swords are
painted silver on the bottom and metallic light blue on top.  Recommended.
     Megatron: His design has a number of sharp-yet-organic details that
really need to be crisp or he ends up looking like he's half-melted, and this
toy suffers from meltylooks, especially in the withered left arm.  The big
tread feet work well, at least, and he's got more knee articulation than he
can really make use of.  Mildly recommended.
     Bumblebee: He has weird elbows that have to be bent in order to
straighten the arms.  Basically, there's ball joints on struts at his elbows,
but the balls go in perpendicular to the forearm rather than into the end,
which improves his arm-bending ability at the cost of making his straight
arms look weird.  While almost entirely made of very dark metallic blue
plastic, his torso side pieces are bright yellow, but the yellow paint match
is better than usually seen in such a case.  His right hand is in cannon
mode, his mask is not deployed.  He has another case of double-hinged knees
without the ability to bend them much.  Mildly recommended.
     Jetfire: This is one of the designs that gets the most "cheating" in the
movie, departing from what a toy could manage and still transform.  Freed
from the need to actually transform, this toy does a very good job of
capturing the "crotchety old man" mech, including the ability to shake his
cane angrily at those turbo-revving young punks.  The kibble cloak blocks arm
motion a little and the digitigrade legs spend most of their range of motion
getting down into a crouch, but Jetfire's not reknown for articulation as a
character.  Recommended.
     Autobot Skids: One of the greatest departures from the general design
theory of the RotF Robot replicas in terms of proportions and the like.  His
torso side pieces are huge, reaching down to his hips.  His arms are out on
bent struts that don't have actual jointing at the molded hinges, and the
massive forearms inhibit range of motion somewhat.  His legs are stumpy and
his hips partly blocked by those torso side pieces.  On the other hand, he
captures the "pile of junk" look of the character without being as fragile
and finicky as the Deluxe version.  And he has a big machine gun mounted on
his right forearm.  Back to the downside, he has an accurate head.  Mildly
recommended. 
     The Fallen: Possibly the smallest of the Robot Replicas, both short and
skinny.  More in scale with the Legends toys.  It has the option to hook
those bits from hips to arms and kill all upper body articulation, or leave
things unconnected and have struts hanging from his flanks for no good
reason.  The colors are decent and most of the panel lines are painted
orange, but like other versions it's lacking paint on the "beard".  Probably
the weakest of this bunch.  Very mildly recommended.


BIO NOTES (and comments thereon)

     Sideswipe: SIDESWIPE trained for years to fight as a competitor in the
gladatorial arenas on CYBERTRON.  He viewed fencing as an art rather than a
lethal skill; a talent to be celebrated in the glory of ritual combat.  It
wasn't until the war began that he realized the true nature of his gift for
battle.  Even so, he was horrified by the joy the DECEPTICONS took in
destruction.  From then on, he vowed to use his expertise with a blade to
defend the weak, and stop the DECEPTICONS.

     Hm, I guess they've shifted his name's meaning from the traffic maneuver
to a swordplay maneuver.

     Megatron: MEGATRON is power.  He has fought too long to be terminated by
a single gesture of a human worm.  His devoted DECEPTICONS know this, and
searched long and hard to find him, and bring him back.  Once again, he
lives, and hungers for revenge against the puny creatures that thought to
destroy him and his chassis at the bottom of the sea.

     Heh, his bio note is arguing with the first movie's ending.

     Bumblebee: Though BUMBLEBEE has lived and fought alongside his fellow
AUTOBOTS for millions of years, his best friends are humans.  He loves
everything about Earth, and the humans with whom he shares it - from the
music, to the television, and even the strange landscape.  He will fight to
protect the Earth and its inhabitants, to the very last pulse of energy in
his body.

     Someone didn't get the memo about the revised movie timescale, I see.
The Fallen didn't even fall until a few tens of thousands of years ago.
     Gah, you have to practically turn the blister inside out to get this one
out of the package.  Mine left some paint on the blister, but it doesn't seem
to have been lost by the toy.

     Jetfire: JETFIRE swore many years ago that he would never fight again,
unless he was fighting to put a final end to the mad war between the AUTOBOTS
and DECEPTICONS.  He retreated into deep space, and concealed himself on a
distant, unknown world.  Now the war has come to his adopted home world, and
he finally has a chance to fight the last fight of his ancient promise.

     His packaging deco has Autobot symbols, not Decepticon, but the toy has
a scratched-out Decepticon symbol on his hump.  His cane is held in
separately, threaded through the blister as an accessory.

     Autobot Skids: AUTOBOT SKDIS is so star-struck by the older AUTOBOTS,
and so desperate to impress them, that he almost never shuts his mouth when
they're around.  It's impossible to launch any kind of stealth attack with
him chattering away.  Most of the time, he and his brother MUDFLAP are
assigned to causing a diversion, somewhere far away from IRONHIDE, and his
team. 

     Total fanboy.

     The Fallen: Since even before history was recorded on CYBERTRON, THE
FALLEN lurked in the shadows, guiding the fate of his fellow machines.  His
is the hand in the darkness that drives the engines of fate.  It was him that
engineered the civil war on CYBERTRON; him that drove the DECEPTICONS to
slaughter their AUTOBOT counterparts.  Now, on Earth, for the first time, he
has stepped out of the shadows to finally seize the power he has sought for
millennia.

     Yeah, that worked out pretty well for him, the stepping out thing.
Also, "It was he" is grammatically correct, not "it was him".
Is/was/etc. link subject to subject, not subject to object.  Yes, yes,
ancient force of darkness from before history, he no doubt sneers at my puny
human grammar.  But I can remove his face, so there.

     Dave Van Domelen, still thinks we should've gotten a Bionicle version of
the Fallen.  Not only does he look Bionicle-ish, the face would automatically
be removable.