Dave's Transformers Animated Rant: Deluxe Wave 3 Oil Slick (motorcycle) Autobot Jazz (sportscar) Soundwave (audio-thumper SUV) Snarl (triceratops) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Deluxe3 There's no official reason given for why they changed the character name to Snarl instead of Slag, although it's theorized that Hasbro finally discovered that 'slag' is somewhat rude slang in Britain. CAPSULES Oil Slick: Decent motorcycle mode, fairly interesting transformation, spindly but good robot mode. Recommended. $9.96 at Wal-Mart. Autobot Jazz: Somewhat odd sports car, good twist on the standard car transform, very nice robot mode. Recommended. $9.96 at Wal-Mart. Soundwave: Pretty good vehicle mode, interesting transformation, squat and slightly floppy robot mode but more articulated than you'd expect to look at it. Recommended. $9.96 at Wal-Mart. Snarl: Nice robo-dino, pretty good transformation except for a lack of some locking bits, robot mode is chunky but looks good from the front. Club needs paint. Recommended. $9.96 at Wal-Mart. If you insist on ranking, it's a near call and depends a lot on my mood. About the only sure thing is that Snarl's at the bottom of the list for me. Jazz is at the top, but with only a thin margin, then Soundwave and Oil Slick. But I'm basing a lot of this on idiosyncratic aesthetics that I don't expect everyone will share. RANTS Packaging: Same as Wave 1, but with a sticker on the upper right of the blister proclaiming that TF Animated is new to DVD. Co-sells are the other three in the wave. There's finally a catalog, which is in matte finish and mostly concentrates on Animated, but there's one panel for Universe, showing Prowl and Onslaught (who brings the Ultra class back). There's a coupon code TF2009 to gte 10% off Transformers purchases on hasbrotoyshop.com. The front page features Roll Out Command Optimus Prime. On the main side, from left to right: Autobot Jazz representing Deluxes, Power Bots Bumblebee (the Cyber Stomper style, non-transforming big and durable), the Battle Begins pack, Batle Blasters Optimus Prime (which seems to take the same basic structure as the movie transform-to-nerf-gun Prime toy and remolds it as animated Prime), Leader Class Megatron, Voyager Class Starscream, Bumper Battlers Autobot Ratchet (even simpler design than Cyber Slammers, but with sound gimmick added), Shift Tech Optimus Prime (handheld LCD game that 'transforms' by having some bits pull out), Activators Bumblebee, and an ad for the upcoming (October 2008) TF:A computer game. The back side leads off with the Universe toys, and then has two panels' worth of "artifacts". A bike helmet, various books and activity books, bubble bath, dishware, a lamp, lunchbox (which I already have), backpack, shirts and shoes. The coupon code is on this side as well, as is the Roll Out Command Prime cover. DECEPTICON: OIL SLICK Altmode: Motorcycle Function: Anarchist Road Warrior Previous Name Use: Universe, Classic Previous Mold Use: None Callouts: (front and back) "Jagged canister 'chain' weapon!" (back) "Detachable canisters!" Motto: "Fear is my ally." Galactic Powers & Abilities: > Talented chemist and mechanic. > Trained in Circuit-Su with PROWL. > Immune to chemical attacks. Vehicle to vehicle combat is something all TRANSFORMERS are skilled in, but with OIL SLICK, it's a particular specialty. He knows more about how to disable and destroy a vehicle than almost anyone else in the galaxy. He knows that if he can break down the robot inside, the vehicle will come screeching to a halt. Canisters attached to his sides dump special chemicals that unlock the deepest fears of any robot exposed to them, while at the same time rotting wheels and burning through axles. Once the vehicle mode is destroyed, OIL SLICK moves in close to finish off with his chain weapon. Yeah, there's a missing "them" in the last sentence. Oil Slick is an odd case, having not appeared in the first two seasons of the cartoon. There's still plenty of characters who have appeared in the first two seasons that have yet to get toys (including ones already designed as Deluxes, like Sentinel Prime, but that haven't shipped), so it's odd to see Oil Slick jump ahead in line. I guess anarchists are just like that. [Later note: I'm told that Oil Slick was designed for the toy line and not intended for the cartoon at all, although the cartoon people like it and may work him into season 3 now that they've seen it. Also, he's likely to appear in the comics.] [Another later note: Yes, he studied Circuit-Su, but I get more of a drifter feel off him...like an evil Kwai-Chang Caine who runs a meth lab on ths side.] [You know the drill. :) He's on the cover of Transformers Animated: The Arrival #3.] Packaging: Two twist-ties hold the motorcycle into the blister, the canisters are just pressed into the blister. No rubber bands. The picture on the cardback shows a metal chain connecting the halves of the weapon, but the actual toy has a plastic chain. Vehicle Mode: A customized "chopper" style motorcycle, with a ram's head on place of a headlight and optional saddlebags formed from barrels strapped under panels that can fold up. They don't go for the full "ape-hanger" handlebars, though, but there's numerous spikes to give a similar design aesthetic to Lockdown. There's actually four wheels, paired side-by-side wheels in front and back. The whole thing is 6.25" (16cm) long and mostly light and dark olive green, plus light cool gray and black, plus a little metallic olive green on the tailpipes. The scale is close to GIJoe, but the short handlebars make it hard for any figure to sit on Oil Slick and still hold the handlebars. [Later note: there's precedent for a four-wheeled motorcycle, by the way. The Dodge Tomahawk pulled that trick, although the paired wheels are about all that design has in common with Oil Slick.] The wheels, barrels and ram's head are made of black plastic. The forks, seat, saddlebag tops and much of the vehicle under the seat are a dark olive green. The fuel tank and some connector bits are light yellowish olive green plastic. Some robot kibble visible in his mode is an even lighter yellowish olive green. The handlebars and ram horns are soft cool gray plastic. There's black paint on the fuel cap and gauge borders, the seat, the handlebar grips and some tattoo-like patterns on the sides of the tank, plus on the engine cover (well, the robot knee sides). A sort of metallic yellow-green paint is on the sides of the forks, along the flanks and on the tailpipes. A chartreuse paint with a strong UV glow is used for the ram eyes, the gauges, and some bits on the sides of the seat. A cool icy gray paint is on the rims of the barrels. The front fork turns a little bit on the robot shoulder joints, enough to kinda fake steering. The handlebars lift up and down on transformation joints. One of the barrels can open up as if discharging chemicals out onto the road. Transformation: The front wheel and fork splits into the arms, with the ram's head staying on one shoulder, and claws folding out from inside the wheels. The rear section splits into legs, with the tailpipes bending to become toes. The fuel tank pops open to let the head fold out. Fairly simple, but thanks to letting the vehicle mode have double wheels it's allowed to be somewhat different from the usual motorcycles (but not as innovative as Prowl). The shoulders are made to peg together, but the pegs don't hold very well. Vehicle Attack Mode: This is an official waypoint in transformation. Basically, you stop before transforming the feet, and leave the figure leaned over on the wrist and ankle wheels. Kinda unstable...okay, REALLY unstable. Seems more like a case of the designers realizing that having four wheels could be used for a less motorcycly mode. Robot Mode: Spindly and spiky with big claws and a Mr. Freeze sort of dome head. Probably supposed to represent an hazmat helmet for his chemical work. 6.25" (16cm) tall, symmetric except for the ram's head ending up on his left shoulder. He can keep his barrels on his ankles, or hold them by pegs on his palms. Dark olive green on upper arms, forearms, palms and boots. Lighter yellow-olive green on the torso. A paler green is on the elbow joints, thumb claws and thighs. The finger claws are that light icy cool gray soft plastic. His head is black plastic under a clear yellow-green "lipstick shaped" helmet, and that plastic is also used for lightpiping. I think the face is painted that day-glo chartreuse, but it's hard to tell through the helmet. Moving aside the ram's head reveals a chartreuse painted headlight on the right shoulder, but the similar one on the left shoulder is mostly carved away to make room for the ram's head's strut. Green-gold paint is on the forehead circle, the toes and the inside surfaces of the boots. The tattoo pattern continues around onto his abdomen, and a black Decepticon symbol is printed on his chest. One of the barrels splits open into two pieces connected by a light gray plastic chain, presumably a flail weapon. Fully extended the weapon is 4.5 (12cm) long. The other barrel just flips open to be a chemical brew (or a mug to drink from). [Later note: the flail barrel can have the ends pop away from the staves as well, making for a more "bunch of junk on a chain" weapon. Mainly useful for reassembly, so you can mess with the stave halves without the chain having to be shoved between 'em.] The head turns, but the waist doesn't. The shoulders are on ball joints, with some extra range when the transformation joints come undone. There's hinge elbows, plus extra transformation joints just below each elbow that let the forearms turn inward. The thumbs are on ball joints, and the trio of finger claws on a single hinge for each hand. The wheels on the hands still spin, so he can add a little road rash to his punches. Ball joint hips, hinge knees, and a swivel just below each hip. The ankles are hinged, and the wheels in the ankles don't touch down. Some of the leg joints are a bit loose, making the figure sag over if you try too extreme a pose. [Later note: To go into a little more detail about the boots, they look like either cowboy boots with spurs, or maybe biker boots.] Overall: They seem to be shooting for a "bounty hunter" aesthetic here, continuing on from Lockdown. If you like the spindly-and-spiky look, you'll like this toy. It lacks the sort of safety-mod engineering issues that plagued earlier toys, and the loose hips are easily fixed if yours are a problem. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT JAZZ Altmode: Sports Car Function: Elite Ninja Previous Name Use: Universe, Titanium, Movie (as Autobot Jazz, also G1 and G2 as just "Jazz") Previous Mold Use: None Callouts: (front) "Double energy-chucks!" (back) "Exhaust pipes convert to energy-chucks!" Motto: "Cybertron is cool, but Earth rules." Galactic Powers & Abilities: > Master of Circuit-Su even more powerful than PROWL. > Prefers hand-to-hand combat to fighting at a distance. > Member of CYBERTRON Elite Guard. AUTOBOT JAZZ has studied Earth culture since he first became aware of it. He loves everything about it - the music, the movies, the vehicles, and - of course - the style. He's usually a pretty chill guy, being a cyber-ninja and all, but he can barely contain his excitement at finally getting to check out Earth and give his new vehicle mode a spin. His excitement won't make him forget his duty, however. He is a master of hand-to-hand combat, with the fastest fists on CYBERTRON. Packaging: Two twist-ties, plus a rubber band around the middle of the car. No loose accessories. Vehicle Mode: A future/fantasy sportscar in colors evoking G1 Jazz without exactly copying. It has some weird elements, like 50's style fins with conical tail lights, plus slender cone side mirrors. 4.75" (12cm) long and very low-slung, almost like a "Drop Top" Hot Wheels car. [My car info source later pointed out it's mostly 1954 Corvette with some Porsche 911 on the front and roofline. So future/retro.] Most of the toy is white plastic. The headlights and front turn signals are clear aqua blue. The bumper, trunk, side mirrors and side pipes are a slightly metallic cool gray plastic that's a little on the soft side. The wheels are black plastic. The front window is also aqua blue but painted almost entirely in gloss black...suggesting the possibility of leaving it clear for a future recolor. The windows are painted gloss black. A more metallic cool steel color paint is used on most of the side view mirror pieces, the front end of the side pipes, and on the tail light section. The tail lights themselves are painted glossy red. A matte black paint is used for the "eyelids" of the headlights and a stripe down the middle of the trunk (which is mostly painted white for matching). The hood stripe is matte blue-red-blue, with an Elite Guard symbol (Autobot symbol flanked by \\\ /// wings) in red at the front. The front grille and hubcaps are painted silver. The wheels roll freely, and you can lift the trunk on a transformation joint, but that's not really meant as a car mode feature. Transformation: To a rough approximation, it's the Standard Autobot Car Transform: front end as chest, head where the engine should be, front wheels on shoulders, rear section unfolds into legs. But the entire roof becomes part of the boots, and the front wheels actually store under the chest despite being attached to the shoulders. The doors spin around and then the exhaust pipes also spin, to make them elbow spurs when not detached as weapons. About my only quibbles with the transform is that the rear wheels don't really do anything and the chest doesn't lock down (although there is a nice panel that folds down to fill a gap). Robot Mode: Tall, slender and graceful, much like Prowl, he manages 6" (15.5cm) in height despite being fairly small in vehicle mode. The side mirrors become shoulderpads of a sort, although he lacks the wings of the G1 version. Again, mostly white plastic. The upper arms, torso core and the inside panels of the boots are black plastic. The visor has aqua lightpiping. The Elite Guard symbol ends up on the chest. The face is painted gray and most of the rest of the head is matte black, just leaving the top white. There's matte black paint down the center of the abdomen, on the insides of the hips, and a little bit on the shoulders to match up to the upper arms. There's red paint on the belt buckle area, an = over a downward pointing triangle. The head is on a ball joint, the waist turns smoothly. The shoulders are ball joints and get a little extra range from a transformation strut that goes backwards. Swivel just below the shoulders, double hinged elbows, ball joint wrists. The hands are partially open but set up to accept 5mm pegs. Ball joint hips, an angled swivel above each knee (so turning it sort of bends the leg), hinge knees, hinged toes. The side pipes come out of holders on his arms and separate into his energy chucks connected by 14mm of white string. To put the energy chucks in the hands, put the string between thumb and fingers and then pull through. Overall: A cool ninja-bot folded into a surprisingly small car mode. Some minor engineering issues, but again, no blatant "we had to change this at the last minute because we failed the drop test" stuff. DECEPTICON: SOUNDWAVE Altmode: SUV Function: DECEPTICON Sonic Warrior Previous Name Use: G1, G2, Cybertron, Titanium Previous Mold Use: None Callouts: (front and back) "Guitar converts to LASERBEAK!" (back) "Guitar attaches to roof!" Motto: "You ain't heard nothin' yet!" Galactic Powrs & Abilities: > Sonic attacks can fry circuitry. > Sonic shielding can deflect attacks. > LASERBEAK can acoustically hack any computer. SOUNDWAVE has only been around for a little while, but he knows that if there's one thing he loves, it's noise! Sound is like clay that he sculpts to his purpose. The more noise there is around him, the more elaborate he can get in how he uses it. He can imitate voices, make humans fall asleep, and even take control of simple robots with sound. He hopes the AUTOBOTS are ready, because he's about to rock them harder than they've ever been rocked before. Packaging: Two twist-ties hold the vehicle into the blister, and Laserbeak is attached to the roof (with the neck in bird mode so as to be shorter), held on firmly by one of the ties. No rubber bands. The package photo has been adjusted to make the blue look a bit lighter than in person, and there's paint on the hubcaps that's not present on the actual toy. Vehicle Mode: Well, it's called an SUV, but it's clearly meant to be more of a Scion xB descendant, which is a compact. However, the roof isn't very high above the hood, which gives an impression of being bigger, so... whatever. :) 4.5" (11.5cm) long, 2.25" (5.5cm) wide and 2" (5cm) tall if you ignore the roof-rack guitar. Assuming it's meant to be an xB at its core (the 2008 model, http://wikicars.org/en/Scion_xB comes pretty close), making this about 1:36 to 1:38 scale. Like many Scions, it's got a decidedly non-staid paint job, the dark blue base color covered in neon light teal patterns. There's numerous cassette deck patterns molded into the toy, from the classic Soundwave control button set (two triangles flanking three rectangles) on the front end, cassette tape spool patterns on the doors, and a graphic equalized molded into the rear. Most of the toy is a dark "Soundwave Blue" plastic, the tires and all of Laserbeak are black plastic, and the upper piece is a clear smoky plastic. A very good dark blue paint match is used on the smokey part, with the windows left unpainted and patterned in a frosted surface. You need a really strong light to tell that the front windows are clear, under room lighting they appear to be painted black. This is why a laser is part of my reviewing kit. Pale gold paint highlights the front end buttons and is printed in a more modern on switch pattern (the zero with a one coming out from the middle) on the roof. A gold Decepticon symbol is printed on the passenger side of the hood. The main paint of note, though, is a sort of robin's egg neon blue that is literally dayglo, in that UV light makes it light up like neon. This emphasizes the cassette patterns on the doors, and has various F- and E-like shapes on the hood, sides and roof. The "whitewalls" of the tires are also painted in this color. There's no paint on the equalizer at the back, though, nor is there any paint in the molded license plate indent on the rear bumper or on the headlights. There's a rectangular notch on the roof where Laserbeak's pegs fit in. They can also clip around the tabs on the doors, but there isn't enough clearance to let the wheels rest on the ground if you do that. The van rolls along nicely on its wheels, but there's no other gimmicks or tricks in this mode. And the guitar is 18 feet long at scale. :) Transformation: The front end splits into the legs, and there's a rather imaginative use of folding panels (the buttons-grille pieces fold over to become shins, opening space for the legs to emerge, while the front roof pieces flip around to make the feet). The rear lower part pulls apart to form the shoulders, with the doors becoming arms. Some underside panels fold up, with a little excessive force, to make the chest, and the head folds out of the backpack-leftovers of the roof chunk. Getting the head out can require storng fingernails or a tool, though. The hands fold out of the forearms and the rear wheels flip around to face front as speakers, a nice touch. Robot Mode: 5" (12.5cm) tall at the head, 5.5" (14cm) tall at the backpack top. Rather stocky and squat in proportions, very evocative of the G1 design albeit with neon light blue accents and a more conical head. It's also a bit floppy in the legs (knees and a transformation joint inside the boot are rather loose on mine). Many of the joints are black plastic, as are the thighs. The chest plate is made of smoky clear plastic. The rest is dark blue, including the head, hands and torso core. Most of the chest is painted dark blue with a very good paint match, with pale gold borders around the "cassette door" style window and on the control buttons. A pale gold Decepticon symbol is printed on the center of the chest, and that paint is also used on the toes and the faceplate. There's some neon light blue accents on his waist, forearms and kneecaps, plus circles on the front side of his backpack to add tweeters to the woofers formed by his rear wheels. The date of manufacture stamp (81301 on mine, meaning 2008, 131st day of the year, first shift) is on the right shin rather than somewhere a bit less visible. Also, on mine and on some others I've heard of, there's bad sprue-detachment marks on the rotating parts of the shins as well as on the tips of the toes. The visor (which, like Prowl's, has a sort of Gurren Lagann look to it) is painted red. The head is on a highly restricted ball joint, the waist turns smoothly. The shoulders are slightly kibble-restricted universal joints, plus shrugging possible from transformation struts. The elbows are ball joints, taking the place of an upper arm swivel, plus there's a swivel below each elbow so the forearm can turn. The hands are open-palmed and can fold inward (they're meant to strum the guitar). Ball joint hips and knees, plus a transformation joint below the knee that bends sideways. The ankles tilt back and forth a little, but the hinge at the rear from transformation isn't so good for articulation as that makes 'em separate too much from the shins. While the big panels on the arms hinder posing, he can still get a fair range out of the arms, for both rocking out and holding Laserbeak on his wrist. The tape deck chest opens up, although there's no storage to speak of, since the back is partly open and the space inside is minimal. Laserbeak: All black plastic with deep red paint on the body and headstock. In guitar mode it's 6" (15cm) long. The body has a roughly A-like shape to it, with the bottom points curving in a little. The headstock is a flattened V with six tuning keys, and there's five grooves along the neck to separate it into six strings. It has a symmetric pickguard, so can be played left-handed or right-handed, although the electronic dials are configured for right-handed use. The connecting pegs are knurled to look like oversized control knobs. A pair of mini-speakers are molded flanking where the neck joins the body. In this mode, it pegs to either forearm, with the hand being over the strings. The other hand can be posed to cradle the neck. To transform, pull the halves of the body apart and away to become wings. The neck collapses into the body and the headboard slides along the neck so that the headboard and tip of the neck become a three "feathered" tail for the bird mode. As a bird, the wingspan is 5.5" (14cm) and the total length is 3.75" (9cm). There's no paint on the head, and it really could use at least some eyes, if not also a beak. While the colors are right for Laserbeak, the mold looks more like Squawktalk. No particular articulation, the wings just sweep forward for transformation. In either mode, there's a couple of claws on the underside that look a lot like the G1 Laserbeak's feet, if daintier. These can either clip inside a rectangle on the roof of Soundwave's SUV mode, or around raised bits on either forearm for perching. They're angled so that the bird is tipped slightly upward, or the guitar has its neck angled slightly downward. It's worth noting that unless there's some size-shifting going on, Laserbeak has a wingspan of about 16 feet (about 4.5 meters), quite capable of carrying off any human. Overall: The leg looseness is fixable and may not even be present in all copies of the toy, and the squat-body proportions don't sing to me, but otherwise Soundwave is f'in metal. AUTOBOT: SNARL Altmode: Triceratops Function: DINOBOT Smasher (as in, a Dinobot who smashes, not one who smashes Dinobots, although he may not be too picky) Previous Name Use: G1, BW, BMac Previous Mold Use: None Callouts: (front) "Pop out armor flames!" (back) "Pop out flames!" "Club fits in hand!" Motto: "SNARL SMASH!" Galactic Powers & Abilities: > Strong enough to smash boulders to powder. > Flame breath hot enough to melt a garbage truck. > Horns fire powerful tri-lasers. One of the first robots brought to life on Earth by the power of the AllSpark, SNARL has a lot in common with the dinosaur whose form he takes in beast mode. He's almost impossible to hurt, first of all, and he really likes smashing stuff with his tail, or ramming it with the horns on his head. He prefers his beast mode to his robot mode, because he has more options for how to smash stuff as a triceratops. He doesn't take delight in random destruction the way some DECEPTICONS do - he just really likes being strong, and breaking stuff seems like the best way to enjoy it. Packaging: Two twist-ties on the dinosaur, the club is just held in by the blister. The photo on the back shows the club with paint job to make it look more like magma, rather than the unpainted clear plastic we got. As with a lot of these, the picture has been lightened a bit, to make the dark red look bright. Also, the center of the frill is unpainted on the photo, but has been painted to match the rest of the frill on the actual toy. Beast Mode: A robotic triceratops in red, gray and gold 6.25" (16cm) from snout to tail tip. The proportions are more in line with real Triceratops(es?) than Slag was, a bit slimmer and with the proper "hind legs are longer than forelegs" bit, although not as anatomically accurate as Guiledart. But certainly within the Animated style's usual tricks. About the only problem with the looks of this mode is that there's a horned lump in the middle of the back, where his robot head sticks up a little in the way Cybertron Red Alert's does. The central third of the torso is a bright red rigid plastic. The front and rear thirds, the hip armor plates, the lower legs and the head are a cool medium gray plastic. The upper legs and some of the internal struts are black plastic. The frill, horns (including the ones on the robot head) and beak are a soft translucent red plastic. The robot eye lightpiping and the shoulder flame pieces, both of which are visible in this mode, are made of a clear orange rigid plastic with a VERY strong UV glow (no other plastic on the toy has much of a response). The front of the frill is painted in cool medium gray, a very good paint match for the plastic. The face, toes and tail are painted gold. There's black stripes on the face, black rims around the light blue eyes, a black ring around the base of the tail, and black hexagonal jewels on the hip armor. The jewels are outlined in dark red borders. There's a silver Autobot symbol on the center of the face on a raised pentagonal shield, but silver on gold is so low-contrast that you almost have to know it's there in order to see it. The mouth opens on a very stiff hinge (it can clamp onto a small enough projection and hang from its mouth). The head can lift up on a transformation hinge, but a bunch of gaps open up when you do. The front hips can splay out to the sides, but can't rotate. The knees can bend backwards, but not forwards (Trike forelegs have digitigrade action going on, so their apparent knees are really ankles). In effect, not a lot of useful articulation in the forelegs. The rear hips swivel, and the rear "knees" bend a little. The tail is fixed in place, they didn't try to give him any sort of tail-thrashing action. The flame club looks like it should be able to act as fire breath in this mode, but there's no slot for its tab to fit into, nor any other way to secure the club in the mouth that looks remotely good. Aside from using poster putty, that is. Transformation: The forelegs become robot legs, the red part of the torso spreads apart into a wider chest, the tail separates into backpack wings. The rear legs become arms, and the beast head sort of settles into the front of the chest, but it's sort of arbitrary. There's no locking down for the beast head, it just sort of rests wherever you think it looks least bad, thanks to a stiff strut joint. There's a nice mid-shin joint that straightens the foot out so he can stand straight up without needing to have a flimsy-looking ankle. Heel spurs and hands fold out from the beast feet. The pelvis halves have tabs that suggest it was meant to lock together, but the pieces do not even come close to locking, and swing apart freely. As an optional move, you can press little buttons on the backs of the shoulder panels to make short flames pop out. Only a few millimeters all told, not too impressive, but a nice detail. Robot Mode: 5" (13cm) tall and very stocky, although ironically not quite as squat as Soundwave. His dome-like (Sontaran-ish) head enhances the overall "squat and powerful" look, though. The general color balance is about the same as beast mode, with a mainly red core, black and gray limbs, and various bits of gold accents. It looks quite good from the front, not as good from the sides or back due to the way the abdomen is put together from a thin strut and a front panel. In addition to the obvious homologous parts, the head is gray plastic with soft red plastic horns (two "Cliffjumper horns" and a forehead horn) and orange plastic lightpiping. The hands and heels are black plastic. There's gold paint on the middle of the face, red on the chin and face sides, and light blue eyes rimmed in black. The front of the abdomen panel is painted red, with a sort of winged U shape in black. The head turns, but the waist does not. The butt cracks open, but this is not an intentional design, it's an annoying side effect of the fact the pelvis halves don't lock together. He ends up pigeon-toed a lot as a result of this. The shoulders are swivels. Instead of an upper arm swivel, he has an upper arm hinge that lets the arms move out to the sides by about 40 degrees. The elbow hinge also bends about 40 degrees, paying for a lack of big gaps in his arms by losing range of motion (a la a Hulk action figure). The thumbs and finger-chunks are on hinges and can grab onto things. This helps, since the tab that's meant to hold the club into the palm is a bit weak. Universal joint hips, hinge knees that bend 90 degrees (and do have a gap as a result), and a mid-shin transformation joint that gives you a sort of ankle articulation in some cases. Fairly good articulation for a toy meant to be really bulky and strong-looking. The club is 3.25" (8cm) long, hollow clear orange plastic molded to look like a club-shaped chunk of magma. It doesn't have any gimmicks or any paint, it's just sort of there. I'm tempted to kitbash something so that it can clip inside one of the tail halves for dino flame farts. I am 38 going on 12, you see. :) Overall: The torso construction in robot mode has problems, especially the butt crack. The lack of paint on the club is also a mark in the debit column. It's otherwise a decent design, looking good in both modes from at least some angles, but not all. Worth getting, but if you have to prioritize and not get all four toys in this wave, Snarl's the first one to go unless you have an attachment to the character. ONLINE CONTENT As of July 27, there's only online content for Snarl and Soundwave, and it's the same as on the cardbacks. Dave Van Domelen, has a huge pile of new toys to go at next, but will probably start with Crossovers Spider-Man in order to finish off that wave's review before moving on to a new chunk.