Dave's Recolored Transformers Rant: Energon: Rapid Run with Nightcruz and Nightscream Universe: Depthcharge Energon: Tidal Wave with Ramjet Okay, I'm weak. I broke down and got a bunch of recolors (although I'm still passing on the Scavenger recolor). It helped that Target had Energon on sale. Here's the original reviews: Rapid Run (Sideways): http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/Deluxe2 Depthcharge: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Phase2/UTMet2 Tidal Wave: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/Ultra3 CAPSULES Rapid Run: Looks pretty, with a nifty hornet color scheme and clear green plastic parts. But the design is still pretty bad, and what little enthusiasm I had for it initially (in the review above) has faded. Neutral. $8.99 at Target. Depthcharge: Good color scheme, but can no longer hold his sword firmly, so it kinda balances out. Recommended if you lack the original Depth Charge, mildly recommended otherwise. $19.99 at Target. Tidal Wave: The clear green parts make it look purty, and molding's a little better in places. Recommended if you don't have the original Tidal Wave, mildly recommended otherwise. RANTS DECEPTICON: RAPID RUN Altmode: Motorcycle Mini-Cons: Nightcruz (Autobot), Nightscream (Decepticon) STR 5 INT 6 SPD 7 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 8 FRB 6 SKL 8 Avg 6.25 Wow, the recolors just don't get the love in the stats department. The packaging doesn't use the split logo that Sideways had, simply proclaiming Rapid Run to be a Decepticon. I suppose that makes him more like a reverse Punch/Counterpunch, a Decepticon who spies as an Autobot. The cardback has Sideways's photos, so I don't have to dig out Sideways to do the color comparison. }-> The instructions still do not name the combined rider mode of the two Mini-Cons. The new colors are clearly meant to evoke Waspinator/BMac Thrust, with lots of yellow and black stripes. Here's the mold color swaps, from Sideways to Rapid Run: Purple to yellow, light silver gray to dark blue-gray, black to maroon, colorless clear to green clear. The yellow body has black stripes, the headlights are now red and the seat cushions brown. The Mini-Cons have new paint apps as well, with yellow stripes on Nightscream's legs (which are the Rider's arms) being the most obvious. Rider has yellow eyes and mouth and has a generally darker look than the original. They did not change the mold to put Mini-Con symbols on. Physically, the toy hasn't changed. The heads still activate the different faction symbols, although they're not as visible through the green plastic. Quality control variations left me with a front end that doesn't stay pegged together very well. I like the looks better than the original, but still find the mold itself to be seriously flawed. Especially when trying to transform the arms back into motorcycle mode. AUTOBOT/MAXIMAL: DEPTHCHARGE Altmode: Manta Ray No techspecs or bio, see the old review for the original version. Packaged in a standard Universe Ultra box, with more twist-ties than the original and a few rubber bands to boot. It just hit me that this is Wal-Mart Depthcharge...his colors are the "not quite red, white and blue" of Wal-Mart stores. All he needs is a happyface button and he's ready to greet customers. Still, it's less garish than the blue-green-yellow-chrome of the original. The head, pelvis, wings, shoulderpads, forearms, trigger and kneespikes in robot mode are cream-colored, as is most of "Aquabrawn" (the shark-gun). The torso and trigger, tail, knee joints, shoulder joints, feet and triggers on Aquabrawn are Wal-Mart blue. The hinges for the wings, the upper arms and inner thighs are a sort of spice red. There's also spice red paint on the face and the trailing edges of the wings. The area around the neck, the manta face, outer thighs, boots and fists are a glossy black that looks a lot better than chrome IMO. There's also black paint on Aquabrawn and a lot of black airbrushing on the wings. The missiles and "energy pizza" discs are a medium blue. The face is painted silver with cream eyes, and the manta eyes on the robot chest are painted cream, but those on the robot legs are silver. The tops of the wings also have blue and red paint in a very nice pattern. The Maximal symbols are still molded into the wings, but are not painted. However, there's an Autobot symbol on the manta head (robot skirt). One serious flaw with this recolor is that for some reason the fist holes are bigger (maybe because they didn't chrome the black pieces but didn't make the molds larger to compensate), and the sword segment of the tail just sits loosely in them. Aquabrawn fits well, but its peg (and entire underside) is painted silver, which might be what makes the difference. On the subject of Aquabrawn, while the original's tail is fixed in place, this one can be popped off, rotated, etc. Probably a late safety mod. While the robot mode looks like a very dangerous greeter, the colors make for a beautiful beast mode. I'm tempted to paint over the Autobot symbol because it stands out too much on an otherwise niecly blended color scheme. My only problem with this mode is that Aquabrawn doesn't stay attached. Overall, I don't regret picking this one up, even though my original is still in good condition. And if you missed out on the original, you might want to give this one a try. [Later note: Justin Anderson points out that the new launcher discs are slightly thicker, and one less is included as a result. I'd guess that this was an attempt to address "snap in half" concerns.] DECEPTICON: TIDAL WAVE Altmode: Dark Fleet Mini-Con: Ramjet STR 10 INT 6 SPD 4 END 5 RNK 4 COUR 7 FRB 9 SKL 8 Avg 6.625 Definitely no stat-love for the recolors. I can't remember the last time I saw such a low Rank. And I guess this version lacks space flight capacity? Packaged in a standard Energon Ultra box, a little more compactly than the original. Minimal twist-ties, and a couple rubber bands here and there. Easy to free from the box. The instructions are the originals (with minor mods), including the instructions for linking up to Megatron/Galvatron. Wonder if the upcoming huge Galvatron will be able to link up with any Tidal Wave parts? The mold color swaps are a little tricky, because it seems that the three vehicles (Flattop, Gunboat and Seawing as I named 'em) are spread across multiple mold trays. Flattop: Light gray becoms dark gray *except* for the elbow joints and control tower, which become white (and must be on the mold with the other two). Dark gray and green both become clear light green plastic. Orange (on ratchetbits) becomes black. Decepticon symbol is still purple, gold lightning details painted on the deck. The orange dead hardpoint on top of the control tower becomes dark blue-gray, meaning it was on the same mold chunk as the missiles (their orange became blue-gray). Gunboat: Green pieces become clear green, purple becomes light gray, dark gray becomes white. The light gray bridge becomes dakr gray, but the light gray joint pieces and live hardpoint are white. The orange inside of the live hardpoint becomes dark blue-gray. The large turrets have gold paint on their domes, the small ones get neon green paint stripes, as does the front of the bridge. Blue paint graces the robot chest and shoulders. The tops of the twin hulls are painted black with gold lightnings. The face in robot mode is dark gray, with gold and red bits on the helmet. Seawing: The main dark gray plastic becomes white, and the purple parts are now light gray with black airbrushing. The top deck is dark blue-gray with gold lightnings, and there's blue on what end up being the robot's kneecaps. The light gray thrusters are now dark gray. The orange jump seats inside are clear green plastic, with an underdeck in gold. The Decepticon symbol on the left robot toe stands out because it's inserted after the airbrushing. There's gold and dark gray paint along the sides and wings. Gunboat has something that's not so much a mold change as a better implementation of the old mold. There's gaps that are supposed to let the triggers of the missile launchers settle in without firing, but this was so poorly done on the original that neither I no any of the scores of people I saw asking about missile storage realized they were there. On my eTidal Wave, one arm transformed without launching the missile, and the other just needed a little knife work to remove mold flash before it'd work as well. I then went back to my original Tidal Wave, and while it took a lot more carving, I can now leave the missiles in place on either when transforming to robot mode, yay! Ramjet: Purple becomes light gray, orange becomes dark blue-gray, light gray becomes dark gray. The cockpit is painted orange. There is NO paint on the head, but the chest has gold paint. Overall: I like the looks, although having more visible clear green on the legs would have been nice. Maybe replacing the purple with clear green, for energon feet and thighs. And the new version even helped me find a feature that didn't work on the original. Dave Van Domelen, leaving Depthcharge in beast mode now, and giving Aquabrawn to Alternator Smokescreen as a backup weapon.