Dave's Alternators Rant: 23. Autobot Camshaft See http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Alt/Prowl for my review of the original mold. This review will focus on changes. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Alt/Camshaft will have the most up-to- date version of this review, please check there before posting or emailing corrections, in case the matter has already been dealt with. [Later note: Yes, I know this is essentially the same shape as the blue "civilian" Prowl that came out in Binaltech, and have known for months. For reasons that don't bear belaboring, I don't think that changes any of the points I make in this review.] CAPSULE Autobot Camshaft: An okay recolor and remold of Prowl, but not as good as the original. If they'd called it Bluestreak it would at least have that going for it, but unless you're an Omnibot fan, the name doesn't really help here. Mildly recommended. $19.99 at Target RANT Packaging: Standard fishbowl. However, unlike most fishbowl-packaged figures, there's the old-style plastic band around the midsection of the car to keep it together. Yes, it's "Autobot Camshaft", they either couldn't get or didn't think they could keep Camshaft on its own. The Acura logo is only found on the front end of the box and the middle of the underside (plus a smaller "official licensed product" logo in with the legalese), contrasting with the plastering that some logos get. The package art shows the nightstick plugged into the forearm rather than held in the hand, interestingly. As far as I can tell, you can't actually do this unless you drill your own hole in the forearm. On the underside are the usual heavily retouched photos, with the inset of features and another with the motto. The inset points out the following things: "Nightstick hand weapon!" "Engine becomes a laser pistol!" and "Detailed interior and tricked out body!" While the packaging only calls it an Acura RSX, the legal indicia notes that "Type-S" is one of Honda's trademarks, so I'd guess that this is an RSX Type-S. :) The photos differ from the actual toy in a few important ways, but the big one is that the shoulders are on backwards. It's not just that the paint apps on the shoulders are on the wrong sides, there's pegs on the front of the toy's shoulders that are not visible in the pic. A simple arm-swap won't work, you need to take apart the upper arms and swap just those. Motto: The fallen will be remembered as Cybertron's finest. Wow, dark motto. Name Reuse: Camshaft was one of the Omnibots, a trio of mailaway Autobots available from 1985-88. The Omnibots were notable for having flip-out weapons in vehicle mode, although Camshaft's was probably the least convincing of the lot. His head looks nothing like the Prowl head mold the Alternators version has, though. The car mode is silver, though. Downshift was the first of the Omnibots to get their name reused, ironically also as a replacement name for a clear G1 homage (Energon Downshift is basically an update of G1 Wheeljack). Also ironically, the one Alternator probably meant as a visual update of an Omnibot (at least in the head sculpt) ended up being named something else (Alt.Windcharger's head looks a lot like Omnibot Overdrive's head, and the toy was named Overdrive in Binaltech) and that Omnibot name has not yet been reused in the U.S. as far as I can recall. Some early solicitations for this mold listed it as Bluestreak, suggesting Hasbro was at least thinking of getting the trademark back. Some early shots of the toy even had "BLU STRK" as the license plate, but by the time it actually went into production it was solidly Autobot Camshaft. I don't doubt that "Rare Alternator Bluestreak" toys will join the legendary "Blue G1 Bluestreak" on and off on eBay, though. Mocked up license plate stickers, maybe one or two stolen test shots with actual BLU STRK plates, etc. Mold Changes: The main one is that the lightbar is removed from the roof. The spoiler at the back is larger, and the rims have a different (but still five-fold symmetric) mold. The head is not remolded, lending further credence to the idea that this was meant to be named Bluestreak. After all, previous remolds have generally also remolded the head. Color Swaps: Replace the pale blue on Prowl with black on Camshaft. Pearly white becomes a sort of metalflake gray plastic. Light gray becomes a bright blue. The black plastic on Prowl's body shell becomes metalflake gray as well. The clear red on the taillights remains clear red, but the nightstick is now clear blue. The black bits on the heels, the hip flaps and the fold-up parts that provide sidewalls to the torso stay black, although there's some gray paint on the edges of Camshaft's to blend with the doors. The dark gray of the pistol barrel and grip remain the same. The rims are likely different base plastic, and are chromed. Paint Apps: Mostly confined to metalflake gray (not even really a dull silver) on the clear bits and black trim around the windows. The front Acura symbol, the rims, exhaust and side mirrors are chromed. The license plate is in Rhode Island colors and wording (Hasbro company car?) with "CAM SHFT" as the personalized plate, no Autobot symbol on the plate. Above the plate, the Acura symbol is in silver on a white background. The top of the engine is mostly metalflake gray. There is no paint on the interior, it's just all black. In robot mode, the face is gold with bright blue eyes. The helmet crest is metallic blue, front and back, so it was actually two paint apps (note that Prowl's crest is only painted on the front). The backs of the shoulders (which should be the front) have a V-pattern in metalflake gray and gold on metallic blue. There's some bits of gold and metalflake gray on the front of the hips. More metalflake gray graces the front of the pelvis and the toe fronts (there may also be some on the helmet, it's hard to tell). There's an Autobot symbol printed in red and silver on the left boot front, perhaps a subtle way of saying, "Yes, we mean for this to be the front of the boot, not the back." I still may do the leg swap, not sure. Even without the swap, I think the rear bumper halves work better as wheel covers than as kneecaps. In fact, now that I look at the instructions and the package photo more carefully, I see they agree with me. Somewhere between red-box Prowl and Autobot Camshaft, that became the official place to put the rear bumper pieces, huh. And since tfu.info shows it this way on Prowl, maybe they changed it for fishbowl Prowl. Innnteresting. [Later note: a running change in the red-box Prowl had the revised instructions showing the rear bumper pieces as wheel covers.] Other Comments: The pop-off shoulder roots continue to be a major problem with this mold, I had both arms pop off during transformation. If it wouldn't involve insane amounts of work, I'd be tempted to do a parts swap so that Prowl had black instead of that pale blue. But I think some repainting would also be required. Overall: It doesn't fix any of the problems Prowl had, and adds a new one with the shoulders. I might be a little more warm towards it if they named it Bluestreak (Bluestreak was my first Transformer, so the nostalgia strings get plucked). It's not bad, but since Prowl is still in many stores, you'd be better off with that one. Dave Van Domelen, "Don't look the monkey in the eye." - Steve Carrell