Dave's Robot Heroes Rant Decepticon Sneak Attack - walmart.com exclusive Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/123/RHX1 Well, we seem to have hit the point there stores can't even handle their own exclusives, and dump 'em to online-only. Granted, this state of affairs may be temporary, or the result of mis-labeling on the website combined with slow shipping to stores, but it does seem that this set is exclusive ONLY to Wal-Mart's webpage. Which is a pity, given how cool the packaging is. Later note: According to Zobovor, his store has some on order, so at least in theory it'll be available in brick and mortar. But that order might not be filled, who knows. CAPSULE Decepticon Sneak Attack: Five recolored Robot Heroes figures in really neat packaging. Two of the recolors are vastly superior, two are decent, and only one is so-so. Strongly recommended. $9.96 with free "site to store" shipping available in most of the U.S. RANT Packaging: This is a semi-cylindrical window box 12" (31cm) wide, 6" (15cm) deep and 5" (13cm) tall, with the round "side" being along the back. Most of the front and top sides are clear window, with the movie Transformers logo molded into the top window. The bottom front has the Robot Heroes logo with faction symbols, and "Featuring 5 exclusive figures!". The edge of the top border has the names of the characters, almost in the correct order to match up with the figures inside (Megatron and Skywarp are swapped). The bottom has co-sells of all 16 wave 1 and 2 figures. Around the back are drawings of the five character with their official names, with the storyline blurb in the middle over the logo. On the left of the blurb are "Hologram Mirage," Cliffjumper and Optimus Prime with Supermetal Finish. On the right of it are Megatron with Supermetal Finish and Skywarp. The blurb is: "OPTIMUS PRIME lays a trap for MEGATRON and the DECEPTICONS, and if all goes according to plan, the evil robots will be defeated once and for all. MIRAGE creates a holographic replica of an important rocket base to lure the DECEPTICONS in, but as the battle begins, the AUTOBOTS discover only a few of their enemies are real. MEGATRON has tricked them, and the real rocket base is under attack as they speak!" Yep, tweaking a scene from the original More Than Meets The Eye miniseries, only with Mirage making the hologram instead of Hound. None of this is what makes the packaging so cool, though. The inner card tray is. It's a diorama, with a mountainous landscape on the rounded backdrop, and several cardboard buildings around the edges. The five figures sit in a clear blister, held in with clear rubber bands, in a battle arrangement on the holographic metal deckplate of the false rocket base. A distant rocket is part of the backdrop. The figures do sort of hover a little, but it's still a really cool package. Not only are you getting five figures for ten bucks, you get a playset! Carefully opening non-taped tabs on the right front, left front and back bottom center lets you lift open the outer box like a weirdly shaped cake box to pull out the inner tray. The tabs along the top round side are all taped down for stability, so you'll need to cut those if you want to hold onto the outer box and store it flat. A standard movie-series catalog is underneath the diorama tray. Carefully cutting the tape between the blister and the tray (there's four tabs on the bottom in addition to the long tab on the front) lets you lift it away without damaging the diorama. The three buildings are a little loosely connected, but you can easily steady them by pressing on the tape underneath, or even retape them more securely if you want. Probably the easiest way to remove the figures is to just use a scissors and cut the rubber bands, but if you remove the blister part it's pretty easy to undo the bands without destroying anything. All the bands are pretty long, mostly running from one wrist to the other, or one ankle to the other. Skywarp and Cliffjumper only have one band each, the rest have two. Prime's right arm smokestack is somewhat bent in-package, the rest seem to have no problems. Figures: As is usual for store exclusives, these are all recolors. Prime and Megatron get "supermetal finish", which is far more obvious on Megatron. Mirage is made of clear blue plastic for "hologram" effect. Cliffjumper is just a red Bumblebee as in Classics, but the pose and smirk fit him better anyway. And poor Skywarp is once again a Starscream recolor. They all seem to be the same "thin peg" molds I got with the two-pack versions (a variation with thicker pegs for easier part-swapping exists), see the original reviews for physical details like size, expression and pose: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/123/RH1 - Prime, Mirage, Skywarp http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/123/RH2 - Megatron, Cliffjumper AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME with Supermetal Finish Previous Mold: Optimus Prime (wave 1) Plastic: Oddly, he's made of white plastic, all the way through, as far as I can tell. Paints: Pretty much the same scheme as the original. The red is a little deeper and glossier, the blue is a little more shiny, the silver a little brighter, and the black a little lighter due to "sequin" metallic inclusions (I say sequin because I have a "metallic sequin black" paint that dries to a similar finish). On mine, the applications are kinda sloppy in places, unfortunately as an online exclusive you can't just check boxes to make sure you get a better one. The Autobot symbol on the left shoulder is a little smaller, and he has yellow paint on the toes that's absent on the original. Overall: Eh. Doesn't really gain much from the "supermetal finish", and the paint job is a bit sloppy. Consider this one to be the "free with purchase" figure of the set. AUTOBOT: CLIFFJUMPER Previous Mold: Bumblebee (wave 2) Plastic: All a medium red plastic. Paints: The upper arms, hands, windows, back-mounted tires and the parts that are black on Bumblebee's feet are gloss black here. The forearms and legs are matte light gray. The face and headlights are silver, the eyes are metallic medium blue. He has a white outline Autobot symbol on his chest. Overall: Sadly, the softer plastic of these toys doesn't lend itself to reshaping very well, so I won't be kitbashing this. However, the smirk and "he's coming and bringing a beatin' with him" pose overall really fit Cliffjumper's personality better than Bumblebee's. A good recolor, although a head remold would have made it an excellent one. AUTOBOT: HOLOGRAM MIRAGE Previous Mold: Mirage (wave 1) Plastic: All made of a clear light blue plastic, to give the impression of being only partially visible. The surfacing of the toy is slightly frosted, so it looks less like blue ice and more like a hazy mist. Paints: They didn't just slap the original paint masks on this, oh no. Most importantly, he got his CITANES back! Well, CITA and part of the N. Close enough. He's missing the white strip on the back from the original, and his chest 26 is replaced by a red Autobot symbol and a smaller 26. The Autobot symbols from the original's arms are replaced by the CITA| bits. Otherwise, the same paint apps as the original. Overall: One of the reasons to get this set even if you have all the two-pack sets already. Really nice-looking, and it's rare to get a U.S. clear variant figure. :) DECEPTICON: MEGATRON with Supermetal Finish Previous Mold: Megatron (wave 2) Plastic: Also made of white plastic, probably co-molded with Prime. Paints: The Supermetal treatment is a LOT more obvious here, as he's all silvery and stuff. The red, black, purple and yellow paint app locations are the same as on the original, but with the glossier red and "sequin" black seen on Prime used instead (and with some of the same border sloppiness on the red paint as Prime had). The silver paint apps are the same, but everything left unpainted on the original is silver on this one. Overall: The other reason to get this set, IMO (well, plus the packaging). A striking rendition of the mold. Sure, it's not as show- accurate, but unlike a lot of metallic recolors that just look trashy, it looks GOOD. DECEPTICON: SKYWARP Previous Mold: Starscream (wave 1) Plastic: Black. Yes, collectors, this one uses the expensive black plastic! ;) Paints: A pearly gray on most of the torso, plus on his thrust cloud. His face is silver, noticeably different from the prealy gray, with yellow eyes. The chest intakes are left black, although the pearly gray paint has some sloppy borders. The cockpit is orange. He has a sort of dark reddish purple paint on the forearms, hands, toes, insides of the scoops and details on the boots, abdomen, thighs and wings. His thigh fronts have silver borders around the purple hourglass details, but he has *gold* border stripes on his wings, oddly. He has a purple and white Decepticon symbol printed on the back of each wing. Overall: Well, the black helmet and dark interior scoops make the weirdness with the head mold less obvious, at least. And once the rest of wave 2 comes out, we'll have all three original Seekers. Set Overall: If I were to rank the figures from best to worst (something I usually have trouble with), I'd go with: Mirage, Megatron, Cliffjumper, Skywarp and Prime. But there's a pretty big drop-off between Skywarp and Prime. Anyway, we get two really good recolors, two good recolors, one so-so recolor, and a nifty diorama, all for ten bucks. Presuming you can order online and get the site-to-store deal, snap this up post-haste. Even if you have to pay shipping because you're not in a served area, it's worth picking up anyway. And if you haven't bought the two-packs with these characters yet, you DEFINITELY should get this one. Dave Van Domelen, setting the diorama up where his Myclones are clustered and adding Starscream and Bumblebee to the scene for now. Jazz and Thundercracker will go in when he gets 'em.