Dave's Star Wars Transformers Rant: Wave 6 Luke Skywalker to Snowspeeder AT-AT Driver to AT-AT Clone Commander Cody to Turbotank Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/SW/Standard6 Also shipping with this wave are the old Obi-Wan Jedi Starfighter and the wave 4 Darth Vader Jedi Starfighter. CAPSULES Luke Skywalker: Nice vehicle mode, total shellformer backpackmaster robot, however. And he doesn't even have the stable joints in robot mode needed to make a backpacker work. The lightsaber has no storage spot. Very mildly recommended. $14.97 at Wal-Mart. AT-AT Driver: Nicely poseable AT-AT mode. Beast Wars quadruped transformation scheme reminiscent of TM Cheetor in how it deals with the legs. Good for a SWTF, so mildly recommended. $14.97 at Wal-Mart. Clone Commander Cody: He has the least iconic of the three for vehicle modes, and a somewhat shellmastery transform, but a solidly good robot mode. Recommended. $14.97 at Wal-Mart. RANTS Packaging: Same as wave 5. Catalog is updated, showing Mace, Saesee, Cody and the Death Star Vader on the last couple of pages. Otherwise all Star Wars product. LUKE SKYWALKER * Converts from Snowspeeder mode to Luke Skywalker! * 2 launching projectile missiles! * Included lightsaber fits in robot's hand! Faced with the nearly unstoppable onslaught of the Imperial AT-AT walkers, Luke Skywalker leads the fight to defend Echo Base in this modified T-47 snowspeeder. When blasters prove ineffective against the mighty AT-AT armor plating, he uses the power of the Force to morph into an incredible combat robot, and takes on the walkers toe to toe! Ah, the Force-morphing is back. Three H-connectors secure the rubber bands that hold the vehicle mode in package. The lightsaber is held in by one band, the pilot figure just by the blister. The instructions do not mention the lightsaber at all, nor can I find anything that looks designed to be storage. I wonder if this was supposed to be Wedge initially, then they tossed in a lightsaber to make it Luke. Pilot Figure: 33mm tall, the arms and legs are made of soft orange plastic, while the torso/head piece is rigid white plastic. The gloves, boots and base are painted gloss black. The chestpiece is painted gunmetal, and there's a somewhat too-bright orange paint on the lower torso and collar. The face is caucasian skin tone, the straps/belt on the torso are black, and there's red stripes along the crest of the helmet. Standard pilot figure articulation. Vehicle Mode: I've always liked the Snowspeeder design, partly out of nostalgia (it was the biggest original Star Wars vehicle my brother or I had as kids, and the sound and light gimmick was so cool for the day) and partly because it's simply a tight little fighter. While there's some too-obvious transformation seams, this is a very nice little reproduction. It's made almost entirely of an almost-white light gray plastic with clear plastic for the canopy. It's 6" (15cm) long and 5" (13cm) wide, making it about 1:36 scale. The canopy has good paint-match for the light gray parts. The engine in back is painted gunmetal, while the stripes at the front and on the airbrake sections are an orange-ish red. A sort of taupe color is used for blast scoring and other weathering effects, while there's a medium-light gray (about 30% or so) on the fronts of the laser cannon braces. There's no paint on the rear harpoon gun, which is featureless light gray. The canopy opens, the harpoon gun rotates, and a single landing skid can be pulled down from under the cockpit. The laser cannon barrels are actually firing missiles. There's no openable airbrakes. [Later note: reader Jason King pointed out that if you open one of the transformation panels on the leading edge of a wing, the lightsaber can be stored inside and easily removed later.] Transformation: Well, I was able to do it without the instructions. It's a total shellformer, with most of the vehicle mode ended up as a huge chunk on the back. I did look at the instructions, mainly to see if I'd missed something, like a way to get the kibble out of the way better. I did end up missing one bit, though...the lower legs telescope longer. Be sure to remember how the legs are oriented, though. Getting them back just right is paramount if you want the panels to all fold closed properly when you go back to vehicle mode. Robot Mode: Lots of kibble and spindly limbs make this a fairly typical SWTF robot mode. 6.5" (16.5cm) tall at the head, up to 7.5" (19cm) tall at the kibble, depending on how you point the harpoon gun. In a way, this reminds me of the original Rattrap toy, with the big mecha-pelt strapped onto the back. The body proportions are a little off, getting them just right would require lengthening the thighs and moving the hips up a bit. Otherwise, it looks okay from the front (from the side the hollow upper shins are a bit offputting). The cockpit area forms the torso, and the airbrake chunks are shoulderpads. EVERYTHING ELSE from the vehicle mode ends up as backpack kibble, making this a shellformer. The head and hands are made of white plastic, the forearms, boots and feet from medium gray plastic, and the upper arms, thighs and kneecap/upper shin pieces are orange plastic. The elbow and hip joints are the same light gray plastic as the vehicle parts. The visor on the helmet is clear amber plastic. Black plastic hose loops are accents on the flanks and on the laser cannons (which can be popped out to place in the hands, or left on the backpack). The lightsaber is clear medium blue plastic. Since it has no storage place, I've given it to the little orange "Kenny Bot" from Power Rangers Jungle Fury, it can hold the thing and I suppose makes for a squire to Luke. Most of the paint apps on this mode are on the head and collar area. The face is silver, there's yellow earpieces, red stripes on the helmet, red and black accents, a yellow forehead, and black chinstraps. The neck is painted orange, there's black hoses painted as a sort of collar, and the "ascot" is white with black and gray details. Very nice head work, anyway. Other paint apps are black hoses on the inner thighs and some white accents on the boots. The lightsaber has a silver handle and black pommel. The head turns, but the waist does not. The shoulders can lift to the sides a bit, but do not move forward...he cannot raise his arms forward at all. There's swivels at the shoulder roots for transformation, but they can't lift up, only down. There's a swivel just below the shoulder joint, a double hinge elbow, and swivel wrists. The hips are universal ratcheting joints, but are kinda weak considering how much backpack has to be supported. There's a loose swivel above each somewhat loose hinge knee. The ankles are reasonably stiff hinges with about 45 degrees of range. All in all, the jointing in the legs really needs to be beefier to support the vehicle hanging off this robot's back. Overall: I liked this a little better once I found the shin-lengthening part, but it's still a shellformer backpackmaster with slightly wonky proportions and a lightsaber just sort of tossed in after the fact. The main redeeming qualities are the vehicle mode and the good sculpt/paint work on the head. The robot mode is a little better than the original Jedi Starfighter robots, but they really should be designing stuff a LOT better than that by now. AT-AT DRIVER * Converts from AT-AT mode to AT-AT Driver! * Launching missile! * Articulated vehicle mode legs! Wherever the Empire's enemies dig in, this AT-AT is sure to show up, sooner or later. Armored against all but the most powerful weapons, it is nearly invincible in vehicle mode. When the Rebels bring out the really big lasers, thought, the driver triggers the special command that turns his walker into a massive assault robot! The wording implies that this may be a unique vehicle, that the Empire only has one transforming AT-AT. The package picture disagrees with the instructions on how to place the vehicle forelegs in robot mode. I prefer the instructions' version...more stable figure, and they look like jetpack nozzles. Four H-connector rubber bands, plus a separate mini-blister piece between the legs on the figure. One band on the missile, none on the figure. Pilot Figure: 33mm tall. The arms and legs are made of soft medium gray plastic, the torso/head piece is rigid white plastic. There's white paint on the boots, gloves, base, hip straps and shoulderpads. A good gray match paint is used on the lower torso and some of the chest armor details. Little bits of black, gray and red are accents on the helmet. Standard pilot figure articulation. Vehicle Mode: Well, it's an AT-AT, a four-legged troop transport and weapons platform (although it really only fires in a narrow forward arc, making it a pretty sad weapons platform for anything but a frontal assault against a foe who can't maneuver...good thing for the Empire that's what Hoth was!). 5.25" (13.5cm) tall at the camelhump, 6" (15cm) long if you don't count the missile stuck in its "mouth". The scale on this one, assuming it's the 15m tall of a standard AT-AT, is about 1:110. It's made of a light warm gray plastic (a little darker than the Snowspeeder) on the upper armor, a cool light gray on the legs and underbelly. The neck is a medium gray plastic. The warm gray is accentuated by a brownish wash and marbled light tan paint. There's some gunmetal details on the head cannons and a darker gray wash on the underside. The rather nice and even somewhat subtle paint on the body contrasts jarringly with the total lack of paint on the legs, though. The front hips are on soft-ratcheting hings that snap to 45 degree increments. The rear hips aren't as ratcheted, but can't move forward much. The knee joints on all legs are 45 degree soft ratchets that can move one click forward or one click backwards. All the ankles are ball joints, and the "toes" on the forelegs can click down (presumably for transformation, to look like thrust nozzles or something). The neck can swing up and down at its base, and swivel along the long axis where it meets the head. Unfortunately, the fact that the hip and knee joints all ratchet makes it hard to pose the figure in any sort of decent stance, even straight-legged doesn't work so well because it steps on its own feet. The missile is made of clear colorless plastic with red transparent paint over most of the surface. Frankly, it looks kinda stupid loaded in this mode, being more about looking like a rifle barrel for robot mode. Opening the cockpit hatch is a bit awkward unless you have long and strong nails. I have to turn the head sideways to get my fingernail under the little lip. Transformation: In rough form, it's like Transmetal Cheetor, with the rear legs becoming robot legs and the forelegs becoming a backpack. But the "beast" head folds down to form the torso, while arms emerge from concealment in the beast torso. There's a lot of panels which kibblize on the back as well. The gun "beard" detaches to become a hand weapon. There's some debate between instructions and package photo about what to do with the forelegs, as mentioned above. There's not enough range of motion to pull the feet forward far enough to act as shoulder cannons, although I suppose they could be mortars a la Longrack. But I think they work best kind of bracketing all the other backpack kibble and looking like jumpjet nozzles. Getting the armor hump into the right position for transforming back to vehicle mode is a bit tricky, as the origami involved has variably stiff joints. Also, when going to robot mode, the neck goes into the cockpit, which leaves barely enough room for the pilot. Robot Mode: Well, working with the AT-AT you're bound to get a spindly robot mode, and it also has significant backpackage. But it works pretty well within those constraints, and the forelegs turn the backpack into a rocket pack (if you thought Imperial Jump Marines were bad before...). 6.75" (17cm) tall, and apart from a somewhat tiny head the general proportions are good enough. The warm gray parts are now on torso and some big shoulderpads formed from the flank armor. There's also big armor flaps on the hips. The head, hands and shoulders are white plastic. The bicep, elbow, forearm and neck are medium gray plastic. The lower half of the figure is all cool light gray. The only paint apps on the purely robot mode parts are some black, gray and red details on the helmet. The total lack of shading paint on the legs throws the looks out of whack here as it does in AT-AT mode. The head is on a swivel joint, but tends to look up a little too much because it doesn't lock down in transformation. The waist turns for transformation, but the interlocking backpack kibble keeps it from turning unless you spread the kibble out. Shoulders are universal joints that ratchet 45 degrees at a time in the "lifting to the sides" direction. There's swivels at bicep and the middle of the forearm, hinges for elbows and wrists (the forearm swivel completes the range of motion for the hands). Hips are ball joints, but with only a little range of motion side to side. Hinge knees, ball ankles. The ankles are a bit limited in forward to back motion, but can move enough to let you place the feet farther back and better balance out the backpack. The gun is a little odd-looking, but does look impressively dangerous with four blaster cannon barrels and a missile. It doesn't really have anywhere to store other than in a hand, though, since it has to be removed from the head for the head to become the robot torso. Overall: In purely objective terms, there's nearly as much wrong with this toy as with the Snowspeeder...a little better balance of kibble, a little more spindliness, about the same amount of shellformering. But as a whole it works better. Not great, and it could stand more range of motion in a few key joints, but it's decent. CLONE COMMANDER CODY * Converts from Turbo Tank mode to Commander Cody! * Launching missile! * Hidden compartment stores blaster weapon! As one of the Republic's elite clone troopers, Clone Commander Cody is the natural choice to command this advanced turbo tank. Huge, fast, and bristling with weapons, the turbo tank is already an unstoppable force. Little do the Separatists suspect, however, that with a single order, Commander Cody can morph the tank into an awesome fighting robot with enough power to level a city! The blaster mentioned as being in the hidden compartment is not actually shown on the package. Also, the turret gun has a shorter barrel in the final product than on the package pics. Commander Cody is one of those guys who, strictly speaking, is in the movies...but most of his fandom comes from his appearances outside the movies. Two H-connector rubber bands on the vehicle, one on the missile, no band needed on the figure. Pilot Figure: 33mm tall, all white plastic (soft on limbs, rigid on torso). Medium gray paint around the waist and belt, extensive orange accents including shoulderpads, kneepads, elbowpads, glovebacks and visor. Black on the parts of the armor that are supposed to be flexible, as well as on the helmet. Gray stripes along the top of the helmet, and silver command antennae on the helmet. A little blue rank badge is on the chest. Standard pilot articulation. Oddly, the helmet design doesn't really match the robot mode's helmet. The difference is mainly around the mouth area. Unlike most SWTFs, the pilot ends up in the backpack rather than the chest in robot mode. Vehicle Mode: This is one of those "blink and you miss it" vehicles mainly seen in the battle for Kashyyyyyk in Episode 3, a 10-wheeled armored vehicle that's 49.4 meters long according to starwars.com. The toy is only 6.25" (16cm) long, making this smaller than 1:300 scale! You'd need to shrink Gundam MSIAs to 40% of their size to be in scale with this behemoth, although the Death Star will obviously never relinquish the title of "biggest scale issue". Unfortunately, this scale also means that most of the weapons systems are just little nubs on the surface, making it look like the rear turret (which can't really fire forward) is it's only weapon...a tank designed to fire while running away. Oops. The wheels are made of black palstic, as are a couple of visible joints. The turret and missile are gunmetal plastic, while the radio mast and front cockpit cover are a translucent gunmetal. The suspension area is also opaque gunmetal, although there's white plastic visible on the underside. The main armor shell is a dark taupe (brownish gray) with some dark gray and rust red paint details. The hubcaps are painted gunmetal with a central ring of very dark bronze. The turret is just pegged in, so it can swivel but also tends to fall off. The cockpit requires very strong nails, a pry too, or clever levering of the radio mast to open. All ten wheels roll freely. There's a peg hole on the front cockpit cover that can hold the main gun, but the geometry is wrong for it to actually go there and stay in. Transformation: Most of the robot is just the lower half of the vehicle de-bricked into limbs, with the head hidden under the armor shell. The front three quarters of the armor shell becomes wings, while the remainder folds into the backs of the boots. Little doors flip open on the middle pair of wheels, one holding a tiny pistol and the other...non-removable spare shells or something. The doors pop off way too easily, though. The second pair from the front opens up to reveal non-firing missiles, in a manner reminiscent of the shoulder-wheel missiles of one of the Lionforce Voltron lions. :) The radio mast removes and repegs on the shoulder. Robot Mode: Now THIS is a proper Transformer. Sure, a lot of the vehicle becomes shell bits (notably the "wings" formed by the hull, which can be rotated down to look more like beetle elytra), but the robot mode is made up of chunky rectangular solids, not spindly spars. It looks like a robot that turns into a vehicle rather than a robot that gets wrapped up in a vehicle shell, and all the pieces have a massiveness to them that says *giant* robot. Stands 6.25" (16cm) tall at the head, 7.5" (19cm) at the radio mast, and the total height can be increased by raising the wing shells. I prefer an angle that puts the tops of the wings about even with the radio mast and gives a wingspan of 7" (18cm). He has two hand weapons, the missile turret from vehicle mode and a little pistol hidden in one of the wheels. He holds the pistol a bit awkwardly, though. There's also shoulder missile launchers mentioned earlier, and the little guns molded into his hull point various directions from his wings. The head, inside halves of the shoulders, inside halves of the boots, and the entire forearms are white plastic. I think the torso is also white, but it could be painted over light gray, the white looks a little different from the forearms. The hands, shoulder joints, elbow joines, knee joints and toes are black plastic. Light gray plastic is used for the waist/belt and maybe the torso. The pelvis is gunmetal plastic. The small pistol is either silver plastic or entirely painted silver. The paint job does a great job of unifying things so that from the front it just looks like a white and orange Clone Trooper (albeit one with wheels hanging off everywhere, and wings). There's a nice complex pattern of white and orange on the visor of the helmet, plus silver, gray and black paint accents on the rest of the helmet. As for articulation, the chunkiness does extract a price there. A lot of the joints don't move very far because of the size of the pieces joined together. The shells on the backs of the boots impede things some too. Head turns 45 degrees either way, the waist ratchets with about 45 degrees per click. The shoulders are ball joints, there's a swivel just above each hinge elbow. The wrists are restricted ball joints, mainly swiveling or letting the hand dip down. This last bit is useful for the hand holding the small pistol, because the grip is at an angle but goes into the hand straight on, resulting in a barrel pointing up somewhat if you don't dip the hand. Ratcheting universal joint hips, soft-ratcheting swivels above the hinge knees. No meaningful ankle articulation. The armor chunks on the backs of the boots require spread-leg stances, because they keep the legs from coming together. Overall: Okay, so the vehicle mode is something of an also-ran, but it's a rare SWTF that escapes the "spindlybot" trap, and that counts for a lot. Definitely the best of the wave, and one of the better ones overall. Dave Van Domelen, managed to clear a shelf at the end of the hall for these by putting some Zoids in storage. Some very dusty Zoids, as it turned out.