Dave's Transformers Animated Rant: Target Ultra Packs Sunstorm with Autobot Ratchet (Voyager Starscream, Activators Ratchet) Shockwave with Bumblebee (Voyager Shockwave/Longarm, Activators BB) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Ultra1 As with the Target "Mega" packs, I'm arbitrarily calling these Ultras because the shelf price is $24.99, so there. :) I wasn't going to get them at all, but when a computer error pur them on sale for $4.99 each for a few days, I snapped 'em up. These are recolored Voyagers packaged with non-recolored (or imperceptibly recolored) Activators. Sunstorm is based on the second color scheme seen on the sycophantic Starscream clone, while Shockwave gets a more G1-appropriate purple redeco (there are very few purple Autobots, so being purple as Longarm would've been a bad disguise). http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Basic1 - Activators Bumblebee http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Basic2 - Activators Ratchet http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Voyager1 - Starscream http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Voyager4 - Shockwave As near as I can tell, there are no intentional differences between the Activators and their original solo-pack versions. I have since learned that Ratchet's light gray plastic is not amenable to dyeing, so no Channel kitbash from that. Also, for those who didn't read the Waspinator review, Activators Bumblebee's head fits nicely in Waspinator's claw. Anyway, there will be no reviews of the Activators here. CAPSULES Sunstorm with Ratchet: Starscream mold was recommended, as was the Ratchet mold. However, quality control on Sunstorm is a total crapshoot, with an emphasis on the crap part. I got one of the best-looking ones on the shelf, and it still won't transform completely, to give you some idea. Not even really worth the five bucks I paid. $24.99 regular price, $4.99 accidental sale, $23.99 intended sale. Shockwave with Bumblebee: Shockwave mold was recommended, Bumblebee mildly recommended. There's some quality control issues here as well, but nowhere near as bad (the only endemic one I've heard of is a floppy neck), and it looks pretty good. Worth picking up on clearance if you already have the original. If you don't have the original, recommended. Same price structure. RANTS Packaging: Rather than repurpose existing boxes like they did with the "Mega" packs, Target got custom boxes made for this. Both sides have the inward dented shape of the left side of a typical Voyager box for Animated. The maximum width is 11" (28cm), the minimum width at the "waist" of the box is 9.5" (24cm). The box is 9" (23cm) tall and 3" (8cm) deep (significantly shallower than Voyager boxes). All figures are packaged in robot mode, with Shockwave in Decepticon robot mode. There's an Only At (o) sticker in the upper right of the window. Along the sides of the front are narrow borders with carets showing "Voyager Class" on the left and "Activators Class" on the right. Recycled and recolored box art is used along the bottom right and left (Voyager on the left in each case) with the TF:A logo between them, and a "VS" between the individual names along the bottom. The Activators "Push-button conversion" inset is above the art of each Activator. The top reuses the art from the front and the TF:A logo, the bottom has a co-sell for the other set. The side panels have large static-pose art of each character, recolored as relevant, along with their size class and name. On the back are photos of both toys, Voyager on the left. a repeat of the Activators call-out, a unified bio note and individual functions and Galactic Powers & Abilities. The Activators use the GP&As and functions from their Deluxe incarnations, and Shockwave uses the GP&As and function from his original deco. Oddly, two of Bumblebee's GP&As are swapped around...and, of course, he doesn't come with the rocket boosters referred to in them. There's no mottos listed, so I made one up for Sunstorm and used gray Shockwave's. The shape of the box means there's no easy side to open, but the side with the Activator has the instructions folded up in a compartment. The instructions for Shockwave are still wrong, not showing how to transform his head to Decepticon mode (or even indicating he has a different head in Spy mode). You have to either use wirecutters or separate the plastic blister from the cardboard tray, as most of the twist-ties do not go all the way through the cardboard. DECEPTICON: SUNSTORM Altmode: Fighter Jet Function: Energy absorbing warrior Previous Name Use: Universe1, Cybertron, Titanium Previous Mold Use: TF:A Starscream, TF:A Skywarp Callouts: "Hidden arm lasers!" "Flip-down missile launchers!" "2 firing missiles!" Motto: "Never have I seen anyone go down to defeat as graciously and elegantly as you did! Truly inspiring!" Galactic Powers & Abilities: > Absorbs energy to use as powerful laser blasts. > Can generate blinding flashes of light. > Fastest clone of STARSCREAM Yet another clone of STARSCREAM has appeared on Earth to threaten the AUTOBOTS. SUNSTORM is a cackling madman, determined to destroy everything in his path. He is also a living power battery, absorbing any energy directed at him, from sunlight to high-powered lasers. Only AUTOBOT RATCHET has the scientific know-how to develop a device capable of defeating such a powerful new enemy. It's worth noting that the animated sycophant clone has never exhibited these abilities, they're taken from the G1-redeco Sunstorm introduced in the Dreamwave comics. Not to mention, the orange clone is a suckup, not a destructive madman...they used the Dreamwave Sunstorm personality as well. Packaging: Eight twist ties on Sunstorm, one of which goes through to the cardboard tray, two of which are on the semi-loaded missiles. Three twist-ties on Ratchet. To pull the plastic tray away you have to undo one twist-tie and cut the tape on five tabs. The feet and back vanes are deliberately mistransformed to fit into the box. This can be confusing, since the first step in the instructions is to move the back vanes into the position they're packed in. Oops. Color Swaps: Clear dark red becomes clear orange red, slate blue becomes yellow-orange (although there's two slightly different shades of it). The black on the head, forearms, rear landing gear and feet becomes white. All the internal and jointing black becomes a maroon red. There's some clear plastic on the automorph gearing and the ankle joints too. The pop-out panels on the forearms (slide the launchers forward to trigger them) are white plastic, but all the gearing and struts inside are yellow-orange. The yellow-orange plastic used on some of the joints is slightly lighter, but really stands out under UV, as the main yellow-orange plastic barely glows at all while the joint plastic turns bright yellow. Paint Apps: The helmet is painted on black, and the paint quality is very variable. Even the best ones I found looked pretty iffy, and I've heard the head described as looking like a S'more. Fortunately, this is pretty easy to fix, even if all you have is a Sharpie and a steady hand. White paint on the thruster intakes, wing stripes, upper arm stripes and cockpit border. Maroon paint (a pretty good, if matte, match for the plastic color) is on the missile launchers, the front intakes, the trailing edge of the wings, the tail and the top of the rear part, plus details on the feet. Purple Decepticon symbols are printed on the wings. Other Notes: As fiddly and fall-apart-y as Starscream was, Sunstorm is ten times worse. Some of this can probably be blamed on mold rot given that this is the third use of the mold, but I suspect it's mostly attributable to poor quality control on the exclusives run. It's so bad that I can't get it to stay in vehicle mode, period. The boots simply will NOT stay pegged onto the wings by any means short of gluing them there. I can get one to stay, but then trying to connect the other will force the first off. Mine also has some mold flash around the chin, which I noticed when I was touching up the black paint with a Sharpie. By the way, I didn't just grab the first one I saw. There were half a dozen on the shelf when I bought mine, and I got the two (one for Wonkimus Major) with the least obvious defects. Several were at the knockoff level of quality, with seams bulging open on the shins. Overall: If you're a big Sunstorm fan, or simply must have all the clones, then you probably already have this one. Otherwise, it's not really worth getting. Pick up one of the other versions of the mold, the dicey quality control makes the $3-5 savings over buying the molds separately not worth it. In fact, I almost feel cheated having paid five bucks for it. DECEPTICON: SHOCKWAVE Altmodes: Spy (Shockwave robot), Infiltrator (Longarm robot), Autobot Crane, Decepticon Tank Function: Deep cover spy Previous Name Use: G1, Cybertron Previous Mold Use: TF:A Shockwave Callouts: "4 modes!" "Switches from AUTOBOT to DECEPTICON!" Motto: "Secrets are the foundation of power." Galactic Powers and Abilities: > Expert code breaker and thief. > Enjoys blackmailing AUTOBOTS in positions of power. > Stole his AUTOBOT identity from old historical files. Because of his job operating deep undercover in the AUTOBOT ranks, SHOCKWAVE very rarely lets his emotions get the better of hinm. There's something about BUMBLEBEE, though, that just bugs him. The hyperactive young AUTOBOT annoys him enough that he lets his cover slip, converts into his DECEPTICON combat mode, and attacks! So, Bumblebee has Super Irritant as a Galactic Power & Ability? The Leeroy Jenkins of Transformers, he aggros wherever he goes. Packaging: Shockwave is held in by nine twist-ties (two on the head alone!), one of which goes through to the cardstock but the rest connect only to the plastic blister. There's a rubber band around the top of each shoulder to keep the shoulder details from flipping down. There's tape over each claw, but I'm not sure what good it does. A plastic shield is held over each boot. Bumblebee is held to the blister by three twist-ties. Same removal requirements for the blister tray. Shockwave is sort of mistransformed in the package, but only because there's an undocumented feature to that robot mode (which I can't claim credit for discovering, I read about it on LiveJournal). If you bend him forward one click at the joint between chest and abdomen. Also, his cannon is in crane mode and his heel spurs aren't pushed back, but these seem to simply be matters of fitting better into the limited space. Color Swaps: Gray becomes a darkish purple, rubbery ghost gray becomes even lighter gray. Black stays black, clear red stays clear red. Paint Apps: The paint masks are essentially the same for the most part, with ghost gray replaced by almost-white, metallic blue replaced by bluish silver and a good plastic-match purple replacing gray where necessary. Longarm's eyes are gold. The chest symbol is no longer chromed, instead being almost-white with either red or purple paint as relevant. There's no paint on the horns/chinstrap or on the turret top, the metallic blue on the turret vents and the head cover is now red. Also, the new toy has black paint on the toes. Other Notes: The neck is very floppy, which seems to be endemic to this redeco from what I'm hearing. Probably fixable with the usual nail polish or superglue treatments, though. A few panels seem to pop off more easily than on the original, but it's nowhere near as bad as Sunstorm. They left the Decepticon symbol off the turret, so if Longarm gets past the whole purple deco thing, he can better pass himself off as an Autobot. :) When you stand the two next to each other, with one deco in Spy mode and the other in Infiltrator mode, it really shows how different the two robot modes are. Overall: A "proper" Shockwave update, it looks good enough to be worth getting even if you have the original, so that the original can be left as Longarm. I still don't think it's worth dropping $25 on, but on the off chance any remain in your area by the time they go on $17 clearance, it's worth that much. Dave Van Domelen, notes his store sold out after one day and never restocked, even after the price was fixed.