Dave's Super Wings Rant Transform-A-Bots Wave 2 Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/123/SuperWings2 SuperWings toys finally made it to stores other than Toys R Us, months after TRU pulled them from the endcap and buried them in among other TV-tie-in toys like Scooby Doo. Walmart got not only the first wave stuff, but the second assortment of Legion-sized Transform-A-Bots. CAPSULE $10 at Walmart, $12 if it shows up at TRU. Transform-A-Bots Wave 2: Four decent little toys for $10, some of them require strong fingernails to transform, but otherwise a decent value for the money. Recommended if you have any affection for kiddie-level toys like Rescue Bots. RANT Packaging: Same as the first set, including the mini-playset insert. Donnie is the one to get the "instructions" in the form of a couple of extra insets showing steps for transformation. DONNIE Altmode: Cargo Jet Function: Inventor/Engineer Motto: "I'm ready to make things happen!" Donnie is a genius when it comes to inventing things. His professional engineering skills come in handy and often help him and his Super Wings friends when they get into trouble. He can fix anything with his toolbox. No, he does not come with a toolbox accessory, any more than the Deluxe size one did. Robot Mode: Similar to the Deluxe, but with less articulation. The propellers are made of some sort of fuzzy fabric, like a polyester felt with a stiff woven center layer. I guess so that if they pop off and get eaten, they will pass relatively harmlessly through the digestive tract. Still has the vaguely moose-like appearance of the bigger toy. Articulation is limited as is typical of this size class, with arms that flap and a waist that can tilt back for transformation. A bit over 2" (about 5.5cm) tall and bulky in build, it's the same mix of golden yellow, blue, white, and accent colors as the bigger version. The wheels are made of medium gray plastic. The nose, windshield, and under-wing tanks are made of medium blue plastic. The propellers are made of the aforementioned white fabric. The rest of the toy is golden yellow plastic. There's medium blue paint (pretty good match) on the wingtips and tail, orange stripes along the sides that look like goggle straps, white eyes with brown irises and light blue eyelids, medium gray toes (but not heels) and hands, white cheek dimples, and his wrench logo is printed in blue on each arm. Transformation: Tail lifts up, legs fold back, arms fold down to the sides. The little notch for lifting the arms out for robot mode is too small and smooth, it takes me a lot of trying or a knife to get the arms out. The toes are visible at the back, otherwise no robot kibble aside from the face. Vehicle mode: A propeller-driven cargo plane with wings that curve up significantly at the tips. Propellers don't really spin, due to being fabric, and it's kinda squeaky rolling along on the tricycle landing gear. 2.5" (6cm) long with a slightly over 2.5" (6.5cm) wingspan. The propellers are trivially easy to pull off, so if you give this toy to a small child, the propellers will be gone within nanoseconds. Overall: Okay, but it'd have been nicer if they had the budget to pin rigid plastic propellers into place, as the ones it has are easily removed and lost. BELLO Altmode: Bush Plane Function: Animal Rescue Motto: "Got Animals With Problems? I Can Solve 'Em!" Bello is a free-thinking nature expert. He can communicate with any kind of animal. He comes to help when there's an issue to resolve between humans and animals. Bello believes that many problems can be solved by playing and having fun, so he often comes up with problem-solving games that the animals can participate in. I'm guessing his name comes from the idea of "look below at all the animals!" And man, if there is Super Wings fanfic, he must be involved in some of the worst grimdark stuff, given that his appearance suggests he spends a lot of time flying over Poacher Country. Anyway, this is the only toy in the set that I don't have at the larger size class. Robot Mode: Similar to Grand Albert in that he seems unbalanced with his tail functioning as legs and the top-heavy wings. Transforms into a single engine propeller plane with the single wing on top, curving upwards slightly on either end. In other respects, he's fairly standard, with the flapping arms made from his side doors, windshield as eyes, etc. I wonder if the curved wings are meant to evoke a sort of horned appearance, as if he were a flying wildebeest. A little over 2" (5cm) tall, mostly light beiege with medium brown and dark brown details. The propeller on his nose is white rigid plastic and spins nicely, the wheels (tricycle arrangement) are medium gray plastic, the rest is beige plastic. He has medium brown paint on the top of his nose, his hands, and the top of his "head". Dark brown paint is used for the tip of the propeller center, the front end of his nose, his feet, and the zebra striping on most of his body and wings. The eyes are painted white with olive green eyelids, teal irises, and black pupils with white reflection highlights. Transformation: Leg chunk swings back to be the tail, arms fold against the body. I'm barely able to get the arms back out with my short fingernails. Vehicle Mode: Airplane as described above, the vertical tail is painted dark brown. Total length is 2.75" (7cm), wingspan 2.75" (7cm). Rolls okay on the tricycle landing gear, propeller spins freely. Overall: A decent figure, if a little awkward looking in robot mode. JEROME Altmode: Stunt Jet Function: Stunt Flyer Motto: "It's My Time To Shine!" Jerome is a stunt flyer and he performs in the air shows. he enjoys the spotlight and loves to compete with his friend Jett. But whenever Jett needs help, Jerome is always there for him! Previously available in a NYC-based playset. Robot Mode: Not as unbalanced-looking as Bellow, in part because the wings fold up and give the figure more of a vertical line. As with Donnie, it's basically a less articulated and less detailed version of the deluxe sized toy. The shoulders are swivels rather than flaps, but the wing roots block the arms from moving higher than about 45 degrees down from forward (they can swing all they way pointing back for transformation, of course). He doesn't look too bad bending at the hips to look up, though, so you can get a little more arm lift out of that. 2" (5cm) tall at the head, add a centimeter for the wings sticking up above the top of the head. Predominantly blue with some yellow and white "blue angels" accents. The wheels are medium gray, the goggles are a separate piece of plastic but completely painted over so I can't see if it's blue or gray plastic. The rest of the toy is medium blue plastic. The goggles are painted over in golden yellow, then white eyes with dark green irises and black pupils. The toes (but not heels) and hands are painted medium gray, and the nose is a darker shade of blue. There's pale yellow designs printed on the top of the head and inner faces of the wings, white wingtips (just the top surface), and golden yellow intakes on top of the shoulders. The masking of the yellow lightning bolts on the wings is iffy. Transformation: Swing the arms back, fold the legs back, fold the wings down. Nothing requires long fingernails or a prying tool in either direction. Vehicle Mode: A stunt flyer jet based on the F-15, more or less, and in a color scheme reminiscent of the Blue Angels. 2.5" (6.5cm) long with a swept back wingspan of 3" (7.5cm). It rolls decently on tricycle landing gear. Overall: Well, it's the only one that doesn't require long fingernails to transform, so it has that going for it. And if someone sold knockoffs of this mold I'd probably stock up on them and make all the Seekers (assuming at least some of the knockoffs were white or light gray...I can always make Donnie himself into Thundercracker and dye one black for Skywarp, but Starscream is harder). DIZZY Altmode: Helicopter Function: Search and Rescue Motto: "I'm Dizzy and I'm Rescue Ready!" Dizzy is a very tough rescue helicopter! She treats Jett as her little brother and is always happy to help him out when he is in a difficult situation. If these characters weren't obviously robotic little kids (I did watch a couple of episodes), I'd suggest shipping Dizzy and Blades. Robot Mode: Basically a less-articulated version of the $10 size, with the arms just flapping up and down and the legs functionally static. A chunky little helicopter girl. A little over 2" (5cm) tall at the rotors, but with shorter legs than the guys and generally feeling shorter even if she isn't really. Dominated by pink and white, with a little raspberry. All of the plastic is medium pink, there's white paint on the rotors, intake borders, eyes, lower part of the head/torso, and boots. The intakes are painted raspberry, as is the border of her windshield/goggles and the tuft of hair poking out at the top. Her eyelids are painted a slightly lighter pink than the plastic, and the eyes and nose are a slightly darker shade of pink than the plastic. She has her winged heart logo printed in white on each arm. Transformation: fold the arms in, lift the tail up, fold the legs back. The landing skids prevent me from getting my fingernails to the doors to lift them up for transformation to robot mode, I needed to use a knife. Vehicle Mode: Chibi helicopter with no tail rotor and negligible robot kibble (other than, you know, the FACE). They didn't bother putting wheels on the landing struts, but the rotor spins freely. 2.75" (7cm) long with a tiny rotor circle 34mm across, barely clearing the sides. No new colors, the revealed tail is just unpainted pink plastic. Overall: The blockage of the door transformation is a significant flaw in an otherwise nice toy. Dave Van Domelen, brought these to the office to review during lulls.