Dave's Revenge of the Fallen Rant: Scout Wave 3 Ejector (Toaster, 93055) Nightbeat (Sports Car, 93056) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Scout3 Nightbeat is a redeco of Dead End, who is reviewed here: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Scout1 CAPSULES Ejector: Okay, a toaster altmode won't thrill the kids, but it's a pretty well designed toy and certainly has fan appeal, plus a transformation that's complex for the size without being frustrating. Recommended. $7.44 at Walmart. Nightbeat: Original mold was Recommended, and of course, there's a fair amount of fan appeal to bringing back a version of this character that doesn't require convention exclusive pricing. There's some potential joint looseness issues, but otherwise recommended. $7.44 at Walmart. [Later note: TFCC Nightbeat wasn't a convention exclusive, merely priced like one.] RANTS Packaging: Same as wave 1. As before, I'll review altmode first, despite these being packaged in robot mode, and I'll supply function and motto. DECEPTICON: Ejector Altmode: Toaster Licensor: None Previous Name Use: None Previous Mold Use: None Function: Arsonist Motto: "Fire, fire, FIRE! Hehehehehehe!" Born mindless and riven by the heat pulsing in his tiny body, EJECTOR knows nothing but how to burn. Even when he was a simple toaster burning things was what he did best. Now that he's got a simple mind of his own, and flamethrowers to go with it, he lives to torch everything around him. STR 2 INT 1 SPD 3 END 3 RNK 1 COUR 10 FRB 5 SKL 2 Avg 3.375 Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Beavis. Cyb.Scourge's secondary heads may have grinned like Beavis, but this guy thinks like Beavis. Packaging: Two twist ties around chest and legs, a rubber band linking the main hands together behind the blister, plus a rubber band double- wrapped around each shoulder to keep it together. Toaster Mode: Ejector's not 100% complete, one end is truncated to avoid the need for an extra panel that would end up as a buttflap or something, but it's not as incomplete as symmetry would suggest. In fact, it appears to be a "not quite licensed" version of the Dualit 4-slice toaster, a $300 model (http://www.dvandom.com/images/dualit4slice.JPG is the image I grabbed off Amazon, I'd link there directly but I'd rather not rish linkrot). It rests on stubby plastic legs, which I'd paint black to match the Dualit if I do go ahead with some ideas for touching this up, but which are currently unpainted gray plastic. Quite compact, it's only 2.25" (6cm) long, 1.5" (4cm) tall and 1.25" (3cm) wide. If you filled out the symmetry at the other side, it'd be 3" (7.5cm) long. It's almost entirely painted over in silver (except for the truncated part) with a black heat control dial and red on-off switch. The plunger is reduced to a little disc that is not painted black, so you almost miss it. The Dualit is available in a dull metallic silver scheme that better matches Ejector's paint. [Later note: the Dualit is 15.3" long, so it's about 1:6 scale.] Since it's so paint-covered, I'll go into the actual plastics under robot mode, where the plastic is actually visible. His power cord is made of white string with a medium gray plug at the end. Oddly, he uses a Type I plug, either the Australian 10A/240V version or the Chinese 10A/250V version. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AS_3112 to see what I mean. There is no articulation. Did you expect any? Transformation: Very dense, packing everything into the toaster form. You really have to do everything in the right order or the arms pop off a lot. Once you do have the correct order figured out (or read the instructions), it's a pretty low-frustration transformation. "Tricky to figure out but easy to do once you figure it out" is the mark of a good design, to me (the other end being "obvious but a pain in the butt because nothing wants to move correctly or stay in place"). One subtle point not really covered in the instructions is that when you go back to toaster mode, you need to put the primary forearms flat in their storage spot and then slide the hinge joint back to get the wide part of the ball joint of the elbow as far "down" as you can manage. Otherwise, the covers don't seat properly and the shoulders won't connect well. Robot Mode: He's a robotic imp, complete with cloven hooves and a forked (well, plugged) tail. His face is more in his chest...not quite at the level of a Gunmen from Gurren Lagann, but in the neighborhood. His main colored details are meant to resemble heating elements, glowing orange-red in preparation for toasting things. He has four arms, sort of. He has two upper arms, but four forearms. If you don't like the look, it's easy enough to stow the secondary forearms up in the shoulders and just use the main ones. He's about 3.75" (9.5cm) tall, although his satyr-legged posture and chest-face make it difficult to get an exact height. Mostly medium gray, with the silver painted parts de-emphasized and folded back, plus the aforementioned orange-red heating elements and some darker gray on his forearms and toes. Almost the entire toy is made of medium gray plastic. A slightly darker gray is most noticeable on the toes and all four forearms, but it's also used on the inside parts of the thighs (where shadows make it less obvious) and the hinge piece connecting the upper face to the torso. The main part of the tail is white string...I may ink it black and paint most of the plug black with silver "tines". The eyes and several of the molded heating element pieces are painted a dull reddish orange, and a black Decepticon symbol is printed on the right shoulder. Otherwise, just silver paint from the toaster mode. He has no neck to speak of, but his upper face can swing up on a transformation joint to let the mouth open...his lower jaw is roughly at the line where the bottom of the pectoral muscles would be on a human, and is immobile. No waist joint. The shoulders are restricted ball joints, but there's a couple of extra hinges from transformation that give a little more wiggle room. His primary (inner) forearms are mounted on ball joints that are themselves on hinged struts, giving a pretty good range of motion to the forearms. His thumbs are part of the forearm piece, but his claw-chunks are on a hinge that folds all the way flat for storage. The ball joint at the elbow is looser than the strut hinge, and it's not necessarily immediately obvious that the strut even bends, but it's an important joint. The legs are digitigrade, or satyr-like, with the true knees permanently bent at 90 degrees. The hips are ball joints and the ankles (false knees) are hinges. There's a transformation swivel below each ankle that lets you get the feet better positioned, and the toes are hinged but have little real effect. Overall: Okay, the altmode lacks the excitement factor that gets kids interested, making this a pretty obvious case of throwing the adult collectors a bone. I mean, we tend to eat up this kind of weirdness. A kid would likely be a bit disappointed by both the size and static nature of the altmode, but if you're a Transformers fan over the age of 14, you'll probably get a kick out of this one. Especially if you own a Dualit. [Later note: http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/ejectorbuttplate.JPG is something I put together to "complete" the toaster mode.] AUTOBOT: NIGHTBEAT Altmode: Sports Car Licensor: None Previous Name Use: G1, Armada, Universe (Movie1 was "Night Beat") Previous Mold Use: RotF Function: Detective Motto: "I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble." The universe is full of puzzles. NIGHTBEAT lives to solve them. Highly intelligent and curious, he prefers to work independently of the other AUTOBOTS, since they usually just get in his way. He is a master of investigative techniques who prefers the boredom of a stakeout to the frantic pointlessness of a battle any day. STR 4 INT 9 SPD 6 END 5 RNK 7 COUR 8 FRB 5 SKL 9 Avg 6.625 While the Armada/Universe version was just name reuse with no real character (although there was some very nice fan art of the Mini-Con in a trenchcoat), and Night Beat 7 had elements of the detective in him, this is the first "real" update of the G1 Headmaster. His stats here are not quite the G1 numbers, but they're close. Also, if this were the Cybertron Enquirer, Stakeout would object to that bio note. Packaging: Same "two twist ties and a rubber band" trick used on Dead End. Color Swaps: Replace red with bright blue, bronze with silvery light gray, and most of the black with a pale gold. The wheels remain black. Paint Apps: In vehicle mode, the windows are a sort of dark tan gloss paint. The engine details, the exhaust pipe and bits around the exhaust are gunmetal. Silver is used on the hubcaps and tha gascap, and a silver Autobot symbol is printed on the driver's side of the trunk (more or less balancing the gascap). The headlights and some stylized flames on the doors are bright yellow (G1 Nightbeat's door flames were more traditionally flame-like, and included red). The taillighs are red, the license plate is white with a small black Autobot symbol followed by "NGTB34T". The front end has a dark metallic airbrushed color, either gunmetal or a dark metallic blue, it's hard to be sure. The only paint specific to robot mode is on the head: pale gold skullcap, light blue eyes. Other Notes: While I think Dead End works better if you lever up his lower jaw and emphasize the vampiric look, Nightbeat is better if you stick to the jawless "Batman" head I initially thought Dead End had. I found this a little harder to get properly into vehicle mode than Dead End, and I've heard others have problems, so either I got an exceptionally good Dead End or the plastics don't quite perform the same way here as on DE. The gold plastic parts (no swirls, so Gold Plastic Syndrome seems unlikely) are looser-fitting on mine, and I've had reports of the hands simply falling out. On mine, the loose wrists are acceptable, but I disassembled the left foot in order to put some nail polish on the heel piece's connection, as it was a "sag and fall over" problem. Fixed it just fine. Overall: It's nice to have a new Nightbeat that isn't a $40+ convention exclusive (I'm guessing here, there's not currently any on eBay to see what they're going for separately), but a head remold would have been nice, or a hand remold...something to dampen out the whole "evil monster" look. Hmmm, I suppose you could repaint the top of the head to look more like a fedora, though. Anyway, it's a good mold and a good recolor, the only real concern is whether the loose joints are endemic or just bad luck on my part and the part of those who have contacted me. Dave Van Domelen, pondering vampiric Nightbeat as being the Gotham by Gaslight version....