Dave's TF:A Activators Rant: Wave 5 Cliffjumper (remold of Bumblebee) Dirge (redeco of Starscream) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Basic5 http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Basic1 - Starscream and Bumblebee molds Another all-reuse wave, although they at least made a new head for Cliffjumper. Oddly, they made up a new color scheme for Dirge rather than making a toy from one of the as-yet-unreleased canonical clones (Sunstorm the sycophant is slated for a store exclusive Voyager redeco through Target, Skywarp the coward is an existing Voyager, Thundercracker the egomaniac is an existing Activator in wave 3, "Shescream" and the liar with Ramjet colors don't have toys). CAPSULES Dirge: Original mold recommended. This is a pretty ugly redeco, though, and you should only bother with it if you're a Dirge fan or a completist. $7.99 at HasbroToyShop.com Cliffjumper: Original mold mildly recommended. This isn't really any better, but neither is it worse, and they gave it a new head that matches his brief show appearance. Mildly recommended. $7.99 at HTS.com RANT Packaging: Same as previous waves, co-sells are the other new character plus Grimlock on Dirge and Bandit Lockdown on Cliffjumper, suggesting the full wave includes those two as reships. No catalog, the twist-tie counts are the same as the original versions. The instructions for Cliffjumper have been modified to show the new head. As usual, the function and motto are mine. DECEPTICON: DIRGE Altmode: Fighter Jet Function: Acquisitions Previous Name Use: G1, Universe2 Previous Mold Use: Activators Starscream Motto: "What's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine!" Greedy, grasping, and never satisfied, DIRGE always hungers for more. More power. More fuel. More altitude. Whatever it is, DIRGE wants all of it. He's another clone of STARSCREAM who reveals the worst aspect of that fighter ace's ambition - the inability to ever be content with what he has. As mentioned, this is a new clone not seen in the cartoon. The color scheme is loosely based on G1 Dirge, although the balance is vastly different. Color Swaps: Black stays black, but the slate blue-gray plastic is split up. They tried to split it to get brownish wings and blue everywhere else, but the sprues apparently didn't quite work that way. There's two new colors here. A greenish medium blue (closest to 006699 on the RGB hexcode) and a sort of yellow tan (somewhere betwee 999900 and CCCC00). Neither is a particularly attractive hue. The wings, central fuselage top except for trigger, back halves of the boots and vertical tail fins are yellow tan, as is the internal bit of the jet that ends up right behind the head in robot mode. The other gray parts of Starscream become blue-green. Paint Apps: He has the same silver face and red wing/tail stripes as Starscream. The eyes and cockpit windows are also red, and so are the jet intakes (the bits that are black on Starscream). His trigger button is not red, instead it has yellow on it to make for an arrowhead shape of the unpainted blue-green. The pecs and cockpit borders are gloss black. No paint on shoulderpads of hands. The Decepticon symbols printed on the wings are matte black. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. Other Notes: None. Overall: At this point, Dirge is really just completist bait. It's kinda ugly, it's a non-show character, and it's the third deco version of this mold with no remolding. Yeah, I'm being all completeist on the smaller clones, so sue me. AUTOBOT: CLIFFJUMPER Altmode: Sports Car Function: Data Analyst Previous Name Use: G1, Armada, Cybertron, Classics, Movie Previous Mold Use: Activators Bumblebee, with new head Motto: "In a deciclick, this installation will be swarming with Elite Guard, Decepticon! Would you believe a squad of trainee CyberNinjas? An ill-tempered protoform?" Because of his temper, CLIFFJUMPER has never been much of a spy. Even though he works in intelligence, he doesn't interact much with the enemy. Instead, he collects information from field agents and finds the important bits for his superiors. Of course, knowing everything there is to know about the DECEPTICONS makes him a little tense, which is why he's always ready for a fight. Cliffy got about ten seconds of screen time in Autoboot Camp, so most of his personality above comes from assuming a similarity to the G1 version while trying to make it fit his intel assignment. The whole desk job thing makes me think he's also partly modeled after Steve Carrell's Maxwell Smart (hence my motto for him), albeit with rage issues. Color Swaps: Yellow becomes a slightly dark red. The black of the upper arms, upper thighs and wheels stays black, the rest becomes medium cool gray. Paint Apps: Hubcaps, windows, front grille and headlights same as Bumblebee. The activation button is painted blue, the taillights are yellow, and the space between the headlights is silver. A black Autobot symbol is prined on the roof/chest. The face is silver with light blue eyes and black outlining, plus medium gray on the top of the helmet and on the "muttonchops" on the sides. Mold Changes: Well, he has a new head, which is nice. It has curved horns, a big chin and a rather miffed expression. The chin's even bigger than seen in the animation model, almost looking like he's wearing an ascot or something. Other Notes: The black upper thighs make it look like he's wearing bicycling pants. Overall: Well, it's not the greatest mold to start with, and the movie line has gotten me used to the idea that we're likely to get Cliffjumper redecos of every Bumblebee from now on, but at least this time they took the extra step of making a new head, one that captures what little personality he showed on the cartoon. Dave Van Domelen, notes that all-redeco waves make for quick reviews.