Dave's R.E.V.s Rant - Roaring Thunder Class

     Rumblefist
     Steelrain

     Haven't even seen all of the stuff that's on the CDROM for Series 1, and
there's already toys out that aren't on it!  
     Spotted the Arsenal Assault toys, they're at the $30 price point and
pretty big...I'm gonna wait a bit on them.  The Roaring Thunder class fills
the "Basic" niche (with Marauders as Deluxe, Street Strikers as Mega, and
Arsenal Assault as Ultra/Super).  Unlike the Marauders, there are two
distinct molds for this class: a mini-jet and a dirtbike.
     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/misc/REV2 (REV1 for the
Marauder review).

CAPSULES

     Rumblefist - Has some engineering problems in combined vehicle mode, and
would benefit a lot from wrists, but a decent toy otherwise.  Recommended.
$6.97 at Wal-Mart.
     Steelrain - A slight engineering issue with the vehicle shell, but
easily worked around.  Definitely more of what I think the line is really
shooting for.  Recommended, but better than Rumblefist.  $6.97 at Wal-Mart.


RANTS

     Packaging: Pretty much the same as the Marauders, but smaller.  Card is
9" (23cm) tall and 6" (15cm) wide.  The blister is 6.5" (16cm) tall, 5.5"
(14cm) wide and 3" (8cm) deep.  The blister is attached in the same way as on
the Marauders, and the general appearance is also the same, except that the
bit across the back bottom shows all four classes.
     The catalog and CDROM inside are the same as with the Marauder, meaning
they don't show the Roaring Thunder figures.  The dirt bike has 12 pieces,
the jet has 13.  The instructions have two sheets as with the Marauder, one
for the toy inside, and one for a combiner (both have the Big P/Crux/Six Gun
instructions, so it's starting to look like that's the only one they'll
provide instructions for).
     The two Roaring Thunder R.E.V.s I didn't get are both MavWrecks: Riproar
(dark and light green robot, green and white motorcycle) and Hightail (green
and black robot, yellow and brown jet).  Yes, there was a Hightail R.E.V. on
the shelf across the aisle from the Hightail Transformer.  At least the
R.E.V. isn't also a motorcycle.  :)

     Note: there is no motor gimmick on either of these, just a missile
launcher.  


SYNDICATE: RUMBLEFIST
Class: Roaring Thunder
Altmode: Dirtbike
Epithet: Throttle-heavy Bomb Expert!

     "RUMBLEFIST" says it all.  Whether he's maxing out his throttle or
building bombs on the battlefield, this mud-driver loves to make a mess of
things.  Armed with a highly unstable magma missile and a keen sense of
explosives, RUMBLEFIST has become a fine protege to his firebug friend,
Infernix! 

     Packaging Notes: Four twist-ties hold the robot in, four on the cycle,
and one on the gun.  A rubber band holds a cycle piece to the left forearm of
the robot (although that's not where it goes in Assault Mode), two more keep
the cycle together.

     Inner Robot: Just over 4" (10.5cm) tall, more angular and robotic in
appearance than the Marauder robot.  The joints are all black plastic, the
rest of the toy is a cool light gray that glows faintly under UV.  The head
evokes a knight's helmet with a Y-shaped visor slit painted green and a
medium warm gray strip across the back of the head.  There's a sort of
gem-like blue paint on the collar, forearms and knees, and medium warm gray
on the forearms and thighs (mostly the back of the thighs).  A silver
Syndicate symbol is on the chest.
     The neck is a swivel atop a hinge, but the swivel is not a removable peg
as in the Marauders (I expect this is because there's no plans for making it
part of a combiner).  The waist is a very restricted ball joint that is
either not intended to pop apart, or takes more force than I'm willing to
exert.  The shoulders are universal joints, and the elbows are hinges that
will bend 135 degrees or so.  The hips are double ball joints (a rod with two
balls on it stuck into sockets at both ends), but this only allows some
wiggling on what is otherwise a V-joint style of hips.  The knees are a
restricted ball joint (which can pop out pretty easily) above a hinge, and
the ankles are hinges with about 90 degrees of range (roughly symmetric about
flatfooted).  Notable for not moving are the wrists, which keeps the robot
from holding onto the dirtbike handlebars.
     While not as peg-and-hole-covered as the Marauder robot, there's still
plenty on this mold.  There's two 1/8" pegs along the spine (a black plastic
one at top pointing a bit up, and one molded from the torso plastic at
mid-back pointing a bit down).  There's a hexagonal 1/8" hole in the abdomen,
and round holes in the forearm sides, forearm backs, hip fronts, shin fronts,
calf backs, both sides of the shins, and both feet.  There's also a peg hole
in the right palm, and the left hand can hold a peg.  Two pegs, 19 holes.
     The rifle has four pegs on it.  One as a pistol grip, for holding in the
left hand.  One sticks out from a molded grip pointing straight back, so that
it can be plugged into the right hand.  There's two more on the sides for
plugging into the forearms, hips, etc.  There is a hole in one side, but it's
smaller than 1/8" and just for decoration.  The rifle made of brown plastic
and is marked as piece 2.  :) It's 2.25" (6.5cm) long and fires a red missile
just as long.

     Motorcycle Shell: A little under 4.5" (11cm) long, this is a pretty
standard dirtbike.  The core is medium gray plastic.  The front shell is
clear green plastic painted blue except on the windscreen section.  This
plastic glows brightly under UV.  The rest of the shell, plus a piece over
the transmission, is a medium blue plastic that glows brightly under UV.  The
seat is painted black.  The handlebars and kickstand are black plastic.  The
wheels are the same color brown as the rifle, and the tires are painted neon
green.  The Syndicate symbol is painted on the left side rear in silver.  
     There are arm holes on either side of the gas tank and a head hole in
the windscreen, and pegs on either side of the rear wheel to hold the robot
legs.  There's also pegs on either side of the fork to hold the robot arms.
All in all, though, it looks pretty good on its own.  There is a peg hole on
the front fender for the rifle.
     The handlebar piece doesn't stay on very firmly, unfortunately.  And the
robot can't really ride it securely.  It is possible to peg one leg onto the
rear and pose the robot getting on or off, though.

     Combined Vehicle: You pretty much have to take the whole thing apart and
rebuild it around the robot.  Take off all the top parts, peg the robot
around the gray frame, and then rebuild the top around it.  While the rifle
can be pegged onto the front fender, it looks better attached to one of the
robot forearms.
     However, no matter what I do, I can't get all the pegs and tabs to line
up all at the same time.  Even after lots of fiddling, I still have to choose
between the front and the rear connecting...or the middle coming apart.

     Assault Mode: The official mode has the seat halves on the forearms,
where they really get in the way.  It also has the entire gray strut section
stuck to the back, making it likely the figure will simply fall over
backwards.  However, if you take the fuel tank halves and put them on the
insides of the calves and use the seat halves on the outsides of the calves
as big boot spurs, this makes for a much more stable assault mode.  In any
case, the handlebars become a weak melee weapon, and the bike wheels touch so
that if you spin one, the other spins in a gear-like fashion.
     Mind you, even in official mode, the poseability isn't too terribly
hampered.  I just like my mod better.

     Overall: A lot better than the Marauder class, but not without problems.
I didn't see Riproar on the shelves (or the floor, where a lot of toys were on
Dec 24), so I didn't get a chance to decide which I liked better, but I don't
regret getting this one, as it is fairly nifty.  If they gave it wrists so
the robot could ride the bike fixed the combined vehicle issues, I'd actually
strongly recommend this one.  [Later note: I saw Riproar (not Uproar) a
couple of days later, it's not bad, but not good enough for me to want to get
two of the mold.]


SYNDICATE: STEELRAIN
Class: Roaring Thunder
Altmode: MiniJet
Epithet: Slithery after-burnin' amateur!

     Known for the chip on his shoulder, STEELRAIN is one Syndicate-minded
'bot that redefines "flying the friendly skies."  A relatively new model,
this jet-engine rookie often tries to prove himself by taking unnecessary
risks, putting himself and his teammates in danger.  Being a bit of a loose-
cannon, Anarkist knows to keep this hothead away from the others and in the
skies where he belongs.

     (Aside: I think they probably meant to say "flying the unfriendly
skies.") 

     Packaging Notes: 4 ties on the robot, 1 on the gun, 2 on the jet.  The
wing and thruster on the robot are not rubber banded.  A single rubber band
holds the jet shell together.

     Inner Robot: Same size and poseability as Rumblefist, the only mold
difference is the head.  Also, the rifle is identical, but in black rather
than brown.  The robot is made of medium blue plastic that glows moderately
under UV, except for the feet, which are black.  The joints are black as with
Rumblefist.  The wrists and hands are painted black, and the Syndicate symbol
is on his chest in black.  The head is molded like a sort of slimmed down
Stormtrooper helmet.  The goggles are black with red trim, the top of the
head is black, and the chin is red.  The top peg on the back is black.

     Jet Shell: Not really as impressive on its own as the dirtbike shell,
especially since the tail section tends to fall off.  It works better if you
attach the tail spar to the peg hole at the rear of the wheel chunk, as
opposed to the official position on the canopy.   
     5.25" (13cm) long with a swept-back wingspan of 4.25" (11cm), it very
vaguely resembles an F-86 Sabre, but with turned-down wingtips and oversized
underwing thruster.  The canopy section is made of clear blue plastic with
only a little yellow paint at the nose.  The wheels (single at the nose,
molded to look like pairs of wheels at the back) are black plastic.  The rest
is medium gray plastic.  The wing leading edges are painted red, and there's
yellow patterns on the wings in a sort of shockwave pattern.  The Syndicate
symbol is printed on the right wing.
     The inside is hollow to accomodate the robot, and there's a hole in the
top of the canopy for the robot head to poke out.  There's a peg hole on the
left wingtip to hold the rifle.  The tail spar aside, it's held together
pretty firmly, with the underwing thrusters keeping the wing sections
together.  There's a small hook on the underside behind the nosewheel strut,
suggesting you could hook a rubber band on for launching.  Not that it
actually flies.  :)

     Combined Vehicle: Combination is pretty easy for this one.  Pop off the
bottom pieces, put the robot in, put the bottom pieces back on.  Also, the
tail pegs onto the backs of the legs, which helps keep things together
better, although the tail-to-canopy link is still pretty weak.  It's solid,
and reminds me of "Jet-Man", the guy who skydives wearing a jetpack wing
unit.  

     Assault Mode: I believe the relevant phrase here is, "That's more like
it!"  Okay, it cheats a little by having the lower fuselage piece turn into a
rocket skateboard instead of trying to strap it onto the body somewhere, but
the overall result is an Assault Mode that isn't overly kibbly, where none of
the joints is impeded.  The only real problem is that the tail spar, which is
supposed to clip onto the rifle, does not stay in place.  However, I found it
coulf attach to the inside of the shield formed from the canopy.  
     The wing roots become shin armor, and while it looks at first like this
might negate the knee poseability, it doesn't.  The thrusters help secure the
wing roots to the shins while also filling in some gaps as seen from the
side.  The wingtips peg onto part of the tail as a winged backpack.  The rest
of the tail pegs onto the skateboard as a thruster, although it doesn't peg
on as solidly as I'd like.

     Overall: I did get to compare this to Hightail, and this one looks
better.  But either one is worth getting, it's a good mold.  Okay, it's not
as good as some of the better Transformers at the same price, but it's pretty
good for Playmates, and it's not really trying to be a Transformer, it's a
different sort of thing.

     Dave Van Domelen, now provides a picture of the tweaked Assault Modes:
http://www.dvandom.com/images/rev2.JPG