Dave's Transformers Animated Rant: Deluxe Wave 5

     Blurr (race car)
     Swindle (jeep)
     Blazing Lockdown (Redeco, minor remold)

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Deluxe5

     I ordered all three of these from HasbroToyShop.com, but since they went
up on the webpage at different times (and I had a "free shipping coupon code
that was reusable) they ended up being parts of three different orders.  So I
got three identical boxes on December 20th, each containing one toy but big
enough to hold all three.  Oops.  Box Day?
     You know, I've been getting spam lately with the subject line "love
lockdown", but I don't think they're talking about Hasbro's love of this
mold.  
     http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Deluxe1 - Lockdown original mold     


CAPSULES

     Blazing Lockdown: Original mold was Recommended.  This one has a
"chainsaw".  Yeah, the packaging puts it in quotes.  Looks decent, but
doesn't solve any of the mold's problems and the new weapon is badly
designed.  Mildly recommended.  $9.99 at HasbroToyShop.com.
     Blurr: Great vehicle mode aside from a few minor problems, challenging
and interesting transformation, great robot mode.  Strongly recommended.
$9.99 at HTS.
     Swindle: Shows a fair amount of personality in both modes, and has some
ambitious design elements, but the engineering isn't quite there to back them
up.  Might have worked better as a Voyager design.  Still, recommended.
$9.99 at HTS.

RANTS

     Packaging: Same as Wave 4.  Co-sells are for the other two in the wave,
plus someone from wave 4 (each one has a different guy).  No catalogs.


DECEPTICON: BLAZING LOCKDOWN
Altmode: Cruiser
Function: DECEPTICON Warrior
Previous Name Use: None (Lockdown, Bandit Lockdown and Stealth Lockdown do
     exist, though)
Previous Mold Use: TF:A Lockdown
Callouts: (front and back) "'Chainsaw' weapon!" (yeah, in quotes), (back)
     "Engine converts to blaster!"
Motto: "My sensors detect your fear."
Galactic Powers & Abilities:
     > Saw designed to cut through most armor.
     > Supercharged sensors detect even cloaked enemies.
     > Heated armor burns or melts whatever it touches.

     Exposed to an exotic form of energy, LOCKDOWN goes through remarkable
changes.  His systems are suddenly super energized so much that the excess
power leaks directly through his armor in a fiery glow.  Devoted more deeply
than ever to tracking and destroying his AUTOBOT prey, he no longer demands
payment for his work.  Now, he hunts simply for the joy of seeing the fear in
a victim's eyes.

     Okay, it's a good mold, but a third time through is a bit much, even if
they did give him a new weapon.  Also, the new personality pretty much
removes what set him apart and makes him just another sadistic Decepticon.
Feh. 
     
     Packaging: Two twist-ties hold the car in the blister, one more holds
the "chainsaw" in place.  A rubber band holds the engine block on.  There's
new art, of course, showing Lockdown with his "chainsaw".  Yes, I am mocking
the person who decided it needed quotes.  Swoop's the third co-sell.  
     The package photos show a bit of red paint on the "chainsaw" root that's
not present on the actual toy, plus extra paint on the front bumper that the
toy lacks.  It's hard to tell through all the photoshopping, but I think the
photos of the toy are of a repainted original Lockdown, as some of the pale
gold plastic is still silvery, and a few bits look more clearly painted (like
the wheel hubs).  Still, not as big a photo/reality disconnect as on Stealth
Lockdown.

     Mold Changes: The hook's been replaced with a chainsaw-like weapon.
However, where the hook just folds out, the saw has to be plugged in and does
not seem to store in vehicle mode.  It's molded to look kinda like the hand
flattens out and sprouts blade teeth.
     Has the same messed up wrists as the original.

     Color Swaps: The silvery gray has been replaced with pale gold.  That's
pretty much it.  Black is still black, clear red is unchanged.

     Paint Apps: A few bits of black over gold plastic, such as where the
weapon chunk connects to the hood, plus plenty of black on the roof.
Otherwise, it's all shades of gold.  A pale gold where the original is dark
green on the chest, and on the neck spikes.  Proper gold on the face.  And a
metallic yellow on the inner chest (almost an inverse of the original's
masking), shins/kneecaps, toes, and flames on the front fenders and roof.  A
gold Decepticon symbol is barely visible on the pale gold chest paint.  The
roof flames have a black Decepticon symbol in them.  No paint on the roof
spikes.  Well, black paint, but no paint accents.  Just like the original, no
paint on the rear window.
     The fender flames don't continue onto the center piece of the hood, and
the abrupt cutoff looks bad.  I may go at this with a gold leaf marker.

     Other Notes: While the chainsaw is badly designed because it can't stow
in vehicle mode, at least it makes sense hanging out in vehicle mode, unlike
the hook.  
     It is appropriate that I am watching Deathrace on DVD while reviewing
this car.

     Overall: Well, it's a more unified look than the original, but the
character is supposed to be a mishmash of upgrades taken from multiple
sources, so a unified scheme without remolding doesn't necessarily help.  I
ordered this online before I bought Stealth Lockdown, I think if I'd gotten
that first I wouldn't have ordered this.  Three copies of the same mold is a
bit on the overkill side.


AUTOBOT: BLURR
Altmode: Recon Racer
Function: Elite Recon
Previous Name Use: G1, Armada, Cybertron
Previous Mold Use: None
Callouts: (front) "Flip-out energy saw!" (back) "Shield converts to energy
     saw!" 
Motto: "Eat my dust, Decepticons! 
Galactic Powers & Abilities:
     > Possibly even faster than BUMBLEBEE.
     > Master spy.
     > Reaction time is too fast to measure.

     BLURR never stops moving.  It's a habit he's gained over centuries of
working as an undercover agent for the AUTOBOT Elite Guard.  Constant
mobility is the best way to avoid detection by DECEPTICON agents.  He is used
to remaining in vehicle mode for months or years at a time - as long as it
takes to complete his mission, learn what he needs to know, and escape.
Unfortunately, because he spends so much time alone, he's not really used to
talking so others can understand him.

     Packaging: Two twist-ties hold the vehicle mode in.  No rubber bands.
Elite Guard Bumblebee is the third co-sell.
     The photo of the vehicle mode is missing the "antenna" in back and has
the cyan on the wheel rims in a different place (inside slope rather than the
outer face).

     Vehicle Mode: It's the Mach 5 in blue!  Well, okay, only in the vaguest
sense.  Although the pop-out sawblade helps strengthen the resemblance.  :)
It's a hardtop rather than a convertible, the central hood part isn't as
pointy, and rather than rear fins the rear fenders come to points as well.
Oh, and it's blue rather than white.  But the similarity is great enough that
it had to have been an intentional homage.  Oh, and I'm told that the pointy
fenders could be called "enclosed flying fenders".
     5.75" (14.5cm) long, and mostly a pale blue (hexcode 66FFFF) with
accents in dark blue and a greenish cyan.  The cyan is mostly in strips like
those found on Soundwave, suggesting that glowing paint lines of that color
are to future Detroit what underbody neon lighting is to ricers of this
decade.  The rear wheels are of a hubless style, with the actual rotating
part being just a ring around the midsection of the wheel, kinda like those
rings you can buy with the spinny part.  In an homage to G1 Blurr, there's an
antenna at the rear that sweeps back.  About the only flaw with the
appearance of this mold is the big gap in back.
     Most of the toy is pale blue plastic.  The wheels and some of the
visible joints are black plastic.  The pointy tips of the front fenders and
the antenna are rubbery black plastic.  The headlights, windshield and saw
weapon (the front tip of which is visible along the front bumper) are made of
a clear aqua plastic with a strong UV glow.
     A dark blue paint is used on the front section of the hood, along the
bottom sides, and apparently in a thin layer on the inside of the
windshield.  The windshield has some kind of paint on the inside, anyway, as
it's so dark that it appears to be opaque black plastic unless you shine a
strong light in from the underside.  A red and white Elite Guard symbol is
printed at the front of the hood, the taillights are red, and there's the
aforementioned cyan piping.  The "whitewalls" parts of the tires are piped
cyan, as with Soundwave, plus strips along the hood and roof and some on the
side vents. 
     The toy rolls okay, although the rear wheels have friction issues.
Pressing a button in the middle of the hood releases a clear aqua energy
blade weapon that looks like an overly wide hedge trimmer.  It will not
deploy if the toy is resting on a surface, though.  The toy holds together
VERY firmly. 

     Transformation: Like a lot of toys in this line, it's cheaty in that the
chest is molded to look like car parts that don't actually form the chest
(the front end of the car becomes the shield and the windshield is on the
back, but the robot chest looks vaguely like hood and windshield).
     Anyway, when you look at the elongated pointy fenders, it's obvious that
they become limbs.  However, they totally swap places!  The head is at the
rear of the car (the antenna is a helmet crest), but the rear fenders become
boots and the front fenders become shoulders.  
     The whole thing is a bit of a puzzle to transform without the
instructions, because of how well it is pegged together.  Here's a hint, pull
the rear fenders away from the trunk first.  Even then, there's going to be a
few places where you have to wonder if you're really supposed to be pulling
it apart.
     The center hood becomes a shield, a nice homage to the G1 toy's
transformation (http://www.tfu.info/1986/Autobot/Blurr/blurr.htm if you've
never seen a G1 Blurr with the shield included).

     Robot Mode: Spindly and visually reminscent of an Evangelion unit, 7.25"
(18.5cm) tall at the antenna, 7.5" (19cm) at the shoulders.  He's got
Prowl-like wheel-ankles, very slender (but sturdy) legs, and clenched fists
that are slightly open but don't have holes that can actually hold anything
that comes with him (or with any modern Transformer).  The headlights flank
his head like diamond-shaped blasters or something, very nice visual effect. 
     The head is pale blue plastic with aqua lightpiping that comes in from
the sides of the helmet.  The torso front is pale blue, as are the toes.  The
shoulder joints, elbow joints, pelvis, knee joints and ankle joints are black
plastic.  Dark blue paint is used on the forearms (with the obligatory
"fingerless gloves" effect of leaving the fingers unpainted), goatee (well,
it looks like just a chin beard), abdomen and bits of the hip fronts.  This
last one is odd, since the thigh fronts below the hips are painted black, not
dark blue.  Black paint is also used on the faux windshield on the chest.
His face is painted pearly white and he has the obligatory black outlines
under his eyes.  There's an Elite Guard insignia printed on the middle of his
torso...which means it moved up off the dark blue part during
transformation.  Oops.  The cyan piping of the hood is absent from his chest
as well.  
     Blurr's neck is a hinged strut with a ball joint at the top, so the head
has a great range of motion, and can even recoil in shock.  The waist turns,
and the windshield has just enough wiggle room to avoid getting in the way of
the hips.  The shoulders are somewhat restricted ball joints while the elbows
are fairly unrestricted ball joints.  And here's a weird bit...there's also
an upper arm swivel.  Totally unnecessary to arm articulation, but it gets
some car panel bits out of the way, a nice touch.  Ball joint hips, hinge
knees, but no thigh swivels (there's a joint below the hip, but it's a
sideways hinge for transformation).  There are, however, mid-shin swivels to
get the wheels turned around, which helps in positioning the feet for more
stability.  The toes are on struts hinged at the base and ball-jointed at the
tip, while the heels are on ball joints.  All joints are nicely tight without
being overly stiff, and a great range of motion is possible.
     The hood shield pegs onto the arm guard on the back of either fist, and
popping out the blade turns it into a credible weapon.  He can also position
the off-arm to make it look like he's got it in a two-handed grip for
additional slicing power.

     Overall: A very good updating of the original toy, and an amazingly
solid toy in its own right.  Maybe I just got lucky on the quality control
roulette, but this one needed no modification from me to work in either mode,
holds together great, and presents an interesting challenge to transform
without falling apart during transformation.


DECEPTICON: SWINDLE
Altmode: Transport 
Function: DECEPTICON Weapons Specialist
Previous Name Use: G1, G2, Alternators, Armada, Universe, Cybertron, Movie
Previous Mold Use: None
Callouts: (front and back) "Launching gyro missile!" 
Motto: "Hey man.  Wanna buy a plasma cannon, cheap?"
Galactic Powers & Abilities:
     > Expert haggler and negotiator.
     > Skilled at weapon modification and invention.
     > Gyro missle disrupts enemy sensors and balance.

     SWINDLE is a one-robot black market.  He's only a DECEPTICON by default,
since they're the ones who most often take advantage of his unbeatable deals
on armor, weapons and combat systems.  If it shoots, explodes, or focuses
light into a beam intense enough to melt high-grade armor, SWINDLE will sell
it to anyone.  Anyone who can pay his price, that is.  Most of his inventory,
he scavenges from those who fall in battle, but he doesn't mind helping a
crippled AUTOBOT all the way to the scrap heap before stripping him of his
weapons. 

     Wacky weapon designer with a balance-disrupting weapon?  This Swindle's
like an evil G1 Wheeljack, isn't he?  I wonder if this cardback info was
written before Wheeljack was officially added to the line....

     Packaging: Two twist-ties hold the vehicle in place, another holds the
launcher.  The missile is just held in by the blister.  No rubber bands.
Sentinel Prime is the third co-sell.
     The package art doesn't show the "loaded missile" effect on the gun, and
it has the belly gun folded out of the front in vehicle mode...but the toy
can't roll if you do that, the gun pokes down below the level of the front
wheels. 

     Vehicle Mode: Picture a military Hummvee smooshed into the general
proportions of a Dodge Magnum...with a huge horkin' cannon mounted on the
roof (which is an homage to G1 Swindle).  Mainly olive drab green with black
accents and deep purple windows, grille and headlights.  The gun looks kinda
like a WWII bazooka with flared bells at both ends, but it has vents along
the top and sides.  The gun is mounted over the driver's side rather than on
the centerline.  4.75" (12cm) long and only 2" (5cm) tall if you don't count
the gun.  The gun is 3.75" (9.5cm) long, and has a very slightly hexagonal
peg where it connects to the roof.
     Mostly made of olive drab plastic.  The wheels, most of the gun, seams
around the front doors, some running board bits and the hood center are made
of black plastic.  Clear purple plastic is used for th emissile, the front
windows, the front grille and the headlights.
     Most of the hood center is painted olive green, a bit darker than the
plastic, with a big purple and white Decepticon symbol printed on the middle.
The side windows are painted metallic purple, a reasonably good match for the
clear purple plastic, although the front side windows are only partly painted
(there's three distinct pieces of plastic that each window crosses, and only
the rearmost one has paint).  A brighter reddish violet paint is used on the
foglamps and several accents on the gun.  The plastic inside the vents of the
gun is painted a dark purple that's hard to tell from black.  But when you
push the missile all the way in, it shoves back an internal piece to reveal
orange paint, so all the vents "light up".  No paint on the taillights or
rear windows (although, to be fair, the rear panel may not actually have
windows, just armor).
     As one might expect from an urbanized version of a military vehicle,
ground clearance is really bad, but it rolls along pretty well otherwise.
The rear wheels tend to collapse inward on transformation joints if you're
not careful, though.  The slight hexagonal shape of the gun peg lets it
soft-ratchet 60 degrees at a time.  
     There's a few tricks you can pull by abusing robot mode stuff in vehicle
mode.  The cannon can be pegged onto the right front side if you'd rather, or
plug in anything with a 5mm peg there.  The hood can separate in a way
reminscent of G-2 (the Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets race car) to reveal a
rotary cannon, although as earlier mentioned you can't really point it
forward without scraping the ground.

     Transformation: There's a real feel when transforming this that there's
supposed to be automorph springs here and there and I just couldn't find the
clever switches.  But, as far as I can tell, it's all manual, just with some
really loose transformation joints.
     Start transforming this one at the back, there's a lot of interlocking
tabs along the side that are fussy about order.  Pull back and up on the rear
to make the legs, and this will free up the middle panels (that become
backpack bits), which will in turn free up the front panels that become
shoulders.  Be sure to snap the shins into place.  The abdomen panel is on a
double hinge that needs to be folded down in a particular way to let the
abdomen fit into place.  Unfortunately, the abdomen piece doesn't lock into
place, despite tabs that seem designed to do just that.  Even several layers
of nail polish topcoat couldn't bring the tabs into contact with the slots in
the sides, so it's not just quality control.  It's a design oops.  The
forearm shields feel loose too, but they will lock down once you find where
the tabs go.
     Oh, and if you want to un-deploy the back guns, you can't just rotate
them down, there's a blockage.  You have to rotate them 270 degrees the other
way around to get the "wings" pointed down.
     You can leave the rear wheels un-folded to give Swindle roller skates.
He can even stand stably this way.

     Robot Mode: Believe it or not, this isn't the first Transformer to be
molded with a tie, although it is the first to have a bolo tie (the police
car mold from Sixturbo has a tie as part of its policeman motif).  
     In terms of proportions, it'd be hard to have a greater contrast between
Swindle and Blurr.  Where Blurr is spindly and graceful, Swindle is stumpy
and clumsy.  A salesman, not a warrior.  He stands 5" (13cm) tall and is
predominantly olive drab, no real color inversion during transformation.
There's more purple, but mostly in smaller areas.  The gun can either store
on the back or go on the right forearm.
     The head is black plastic except for the lightpiping.  Black is also
used on the torso core, elbow joint, backpack guns, belly gun and hip pods
(plus the wheels, of course).  The upper arms, fingers, thumbs and thighs are
CLEAR PURPLE PLASTIC, in addition to that plastic being used on the chest
windows and the eye lightpiping.  Extensive use of clear plastic on jointed
bits is always a cause for concern, as it has been known to get brittle.
Everything else is olive green plastic, although there's two slightly
different hues.  Whether this is a sign of separate sprues that can be split
up for redecos, or just a case of pieces taken from different runs I don't
know.  (For example, my Cybertron Defense Scattorshot has two different blue
plastics dispersed randomly enough that they must have been simply taken from
different plastic batches all dumped in the same parts bins.)
     [Later note: I'm not sure if this is intentional or just a side effect
of how the lightpiping is molded, but if you shine a bright enough light
through the back of Swindle's head you can see pupils in his eyes.  Places
where the plastic lets through a bit less light, so they're darker.]
     There's a fake vehicle front end molded into the abdomen piece, although
the bits shift around some and the grille is gunmetal instead of purple.
Gunmetal is also used on the pelvis armor, the face, and the stowed side of
the belly gun (so you get a nice vertical strip of gunmetal).  Metallic
purple is used on the fake headlights and along the bottom of the toes (sole
edges).  Reddish violet is used on the fake foglamps (the real ones are
covered up by the hood halves on the arms) and on the string tie.
     Swindle's head turns on a swivel, and he's got one of those pillar necks
that the string tie turns into a starched collar.  The waist does not turn.
Shoulders are ball joints, and the shoulder pads are on swivels for extra
range of motion.  There's upper arm swivels and hinge elbows, although the
huge forearms and tiny upper arms do tend to restrict things a little.  The
hands have "mitten fingers" with two hinges and thumb claws on a single
hinge.  The joints are stiff enough to let him hold larger objects, such as
the Megatron pistol that came with 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime.  The hips
are ball joints, and the hip pods are hinged to get out of the way.  Thigh
swivels are joints between two pieces of clear plastic, which worries me a
lot.  Hinged knees, no ankle articulation.  The knees are kinda weak, and
he'll kip over backwards pretty easily while you're trying to position his
feet. 
     Just as the animated version was able to pop out a bunch of weapons, so
can the toy.  A rotary cannon can be flipped out of the belly, and those
wings on the back can rotate up to point blasters at a target.  Not quite the
tentacle-mounted blasters of the show, but a good approximation.  Of course,
he's so awkward you have to imagine that the safest place to stand is
directly in front of him when all this ordnance goes off.

     Overall: A pretty ambitious design, but perhaps a little too packed with
features for its own good.  And that heavy use of clear plastic is a cause
for concern.

     Dave Van Domelen, gonna need to put some toys in storage soon.