Dave's TF: Cybertron Rant - Voyager Wave 3 Evac So far, it looks like just Evac for this wave, although it may be shipping with Leobreaker and Mudflap (i.e. two Evac and one each of the others per box), or may later ship with a future Voyager. [Later note: this case assortment has been confirmed.] Anyway, I got mine from the TFCC online store, but it has hit some brick and mortars already. CAPSULE Evac: Really fun vehicle mode. Transformation is interesting, but a little painful at times. Good robot mode. Strongly recommened. $20.00 price point. RANT Packaging: Standard Voyager Autobot. The back shows the robot mode prominently, plus two shots of the vehicle mode (one emphasizing the winch gimmick, the other the spinning "energon" blades that look pretty opaque to me). Co-sells on the bottom are Mudflap, Snarl, Sideways and Leobreaker. The Earth Planet text on the right side panel is the same one as on Jetfire. Oddly, mine comes with the Speed Planet Map. You'd think the exemplar of Earth would get the Earth Map. Only three twist-ties hold the vehicle into the box, with the two missiles held down by rubber bands. However, there's another twist-tie just around the midsection, that holds on a plastic shield designed to keep the rotor blades from flopping around. There's also two multiply-wrapped rubber bands holding the shield onto the rotors. Another band holds the tail together. AUTOBOT: EVAC Planet: Earth (Key Guardian) Altmode: Dauphin rescue helicopter Planet Key Code: v49u EVAC loves flying on Earth almost as much as he loved roaring over the epic skylines of CYBERTRON. He's been hiding on Earth since guardianship of the Planet Key was passed on to him millions of years ago. He feels a keen affection for the people of Earth, whose history he has observed from its very beginnings. It frustrates him that the TRANSFORMERS must keep their presence on Earth a secret, because he recognizes the potential value of the humans as allies. Courageous, determined and gentle, EVAC avoids fighting when he can, but if forced into combat, he can be a very tough opponent. He is dedicated to the protection of other life in all its forms. STR 7 INT 8 SPD 8 END 7.5 RNK 9 COUR 9 FRB 6 SKL 8 Avg 7.81 Key code info: Evac is commander of the hidden Earth Cyber Planet key and he and his partner Crosswise have been hiding here on Earth for hundreds of years! Evac has changed his vehicle mode at least a dozen times over the years so he wouldn't be found. He has taken the form of a bi-plane, a small army jet, a super-fast stealth jet, a propeller plane, a blimp and at lest 14 different types of helicopters! Talk about being a robot in disguise! (The bonus art is of concept sketches of Evac, showing a more Sci-Fi-ish helicopter. It has a fenestron, but is clearly nowhere near the Dauphin design finally settled on. Crosswise is called Smokescreen in the cartoon, so the toy might be renamed too, although pics in packaging have shown up with the Crosswise name, hmm.) [Later note: I'm told they're redubbing to change Smokesreen to Crosswise.] Planet Key: Earth Key with gold paint, same as Supreme Starscream's. This planet ain't big enough for the two of 'em.... Vehicle Mode: This is a rescue helicopter that is essentially a Eurocopter Dauphin, notable for is dolphin-bottlenose front and the angular tail with fenestron tail rotor (from Latin fenestre or window, the tail rotors are in a window of the tail, rather than exposed). It's 10" (25cm) long, 3" (7.5cm) tall and with a rotorspan of 7.75" (19.5cm). There's a winch unit on the right side. If it is to scale with a Dauphin (fuselage length about 12-13 meters), it's roughly 1/48 scale and should have a rotor span of closer to 10". Shortened rotors are a common feature of toy helicopters, though, for safety reasons (and, in the case of a TF, to keep the rotors from being too long in robot mode!). A human being to scale with Evac would be 3-4cm tall...in other words, a Lego person. Thus, Lego rescue accessories, like stretchers and carry buckets, can be attached to the winch and be to the right scale. Heh. Okay, the chairs in the cockpit are too small for a Lego guy, but they're likely not to scale (and Lego guys are a lot wider than humans, proportionally). [Later note: I am told that Lego men are officially 1/24. That would make them three feet tall, to scale. Suuuuure. They're 1/48 by height and comparison to actual people. Maybe the Jack Stone figures are 1/24.] Most of the body is made of orangeish yellow plastic (rather than the canary yellow in the Legends version), with dark blue plastic on the rotors, wheels, the tips of the missile launchers and winch, the missiles and the hook, plus some connective bits. The body of the winch, the bodies of hte launchers, the Key chunk and hte roof of the cockpit are a light blue plastic. The windows are light blue clear plastic, but the predominance of orange-yellow plastic inside makes the windows look amber at first look. A few of the connectors, as well as the trigger buttons and levers, are red plastic. Much of the top half is painted the same shade of light blue as the light blue plastic, but the painted bits are distinguishable because they have metalflakes embedded in the paint. The belly and most of the tail are painted white, and there's a white "RESCUE" on the left side. There's also a few accents of red paint. There's a red and white Autobot symbol printed on the side of the winch housing. The top of the Key chamber has some orange- yellow paint which meshes well with the plastic color. There are fold-down wheels of dark blue plastic that hide away reasonably well. They do not roll, however. The tail rotors (one on each side of the fenestron) spin, but not very well. The main rotor spins freely (usually, see below) or can be pumped up to speed using a 11mm long press-in button on the left side of the engine housing. The rotors themselves are snapped into place with nubs that let them swing together to form a single line or a regular four-rotor cross. However, be careful, if you accidentally pop one out, the joint is weakened and may pop out more easily thereafter. The entire assembly can also be lifted off the engine. By using my TV as a strobe, I think I got the rotor up to about 12 revolutions per second (720 rpm!), although this speed can only be attained while tilting the body so that the trigger is pointing more or less up. Why? Because there's a gravity-triggered catch that engages a ratched when the engine is tilted that way. This gives you more oomph as gear teeth catch, and also prevents the rotor from spinning backwards (try it yourself: set the rotor spinning the wrong way and then slowly tilt the helicopter over to its right...the rotor will sproing back). I expect this is a clever way of making it spin freely in vehicle mode but not in robot mode. The rotors come out of position pretty easily, which is a moderate nuisance. [Later note: correction, I goofed on calculating the rotor speed. It was closer to 3 revs per second, or 180 rpm. What can I say, I was a bit loopy last night.] The winch is built like a retracting sewing tape measure. You can pull the hook out to reveal up to 3" (8cm) of white nylon string, and it will stay at whatever length you pull it to. Pressing the red button on the side of the winch, even VERY lightly, will make the cord reel back in. The spring is not strong enough to let the figure rise up on the line, but can lift about 45g, which is enough to pick up just about any Mini-Con or G1 Mini-Bot (to be specific, it picked up my BotCon Europe Rook with keychain, plus a small Christmas ornament). The hook is a little too large to snugly hold a Mini-Con hardpoint, though. The main body of the winch is on a ratcheting swivel, so it can be pointed down to pick things up. I built a stretcher out of Lego bits and a jump ring made of twist-tie. http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/evaclego.JPG (and the whole thing is light enough to be reeled in quite quickly, so it's important that the little Lego guy grip one of the railings!). Finally, there's the Key gimmick. The Key slot is behind the rotor, and if left unloaded the launchers resemble jet thrusters. Inserting the Key makes the launchers swing around to face forward. If the winch is pointed up or down at the time, the left launcher will hit it and stop. The missiles don't fire very far, maybe eight inches if pointed straight up. There is no place to put the Key other than its slot, but like most, it can rest halfway in securely without popping out the launchers. You know, this is a pretty cool toy even WITHOUT the robot mode. Maybe not $20 worth of cool, but at least $10 worth just as a vehicle. Transformation: If you have the Legends version, that's pretty accurate as far as it goes. The winch ends up on one arm, the rotor and engine on the other. The Key assembly is a backpack, and most of the front end becomes legs, with the bottlenose part becoming feet. The tail splits to form wide shoulderpads, which can be folded down into a cape. Sliding the backpack up makes the head emerge. However, there are some issues with the actual mechanics. The force required to snap the shoulders to the torso is excessive, and the first time I did it my hands were numb from the shock for about a minute...I can see small kids being unable to get it together. Once I knew to press the shoulders together with the heels of my hands the pain was pretty much eliminated, but it was a sensation like hitting a baseball on the wrong part of the bat. Also, the heel spurs have no easy raised but to pull on, and I had to go in with a tool to get them out the first time, although I later managed to get the peg and hole that hold them together to act as sufficient purchase points. The tail is very firmly held together, and the first time I separated it I needed to use a knife. Despite these very stiff bits, there are also some looser parts that could stand to hold together better, like the backpack, which is weakly held in place. Finally, if you have the rear landing gear up when you start transforming, fold them down to straight out to the sides (halfway between up and down). If you leave them up, the shoulders will lock them in place, and they need to come down as hip armor once the legs are in the right position. [Later note: undocumented feature - his legs can pull down about 7mm and lock, giving him longer thighs and a tiny bit more knee-bending range.] Robot Mode: 6.75" (17cm) tall and fairly well proportioned. His shins look way too long at first, but they're only a little over-long in reality. The kneeguards of his boots simply rise halfway up his thighs. The cockpit halves are on the outsides of the ankles, which is probably the only iffy bit of vehicle kibble, and it's reasonably well balanced by other bits. In default mode, the guns are undeployed and the tail halves are folded down to form a white cape. The head turns, as does the ratcheting waist (although the landing gear limits the range). The shoulders are universal joints, there's a swivel just above the elbow, and the elbow is a hinge. All arm joints except the swivel are ratcheting. There is no hand poseability, and the fists have standard 5mm holes. The legs follow the same plan: ratcheting universal hips, smooth swivel above the knee, ratcheting hinge knee. The toes and heels can point on transformation joints. The toy can stand stably in some fairly dynamic poses. The boots, torso, pelvis and forearms are orange-yellow plastic, although the chest is painted dark and light blue. The upper arms, belt, thighs and knees are dark blue plastic. The forearm panels that hide the fists are dark blue plastic, but hte fists themselves are yellow painted dark blue. The head and shoulder armor pieces are light blue plastic. The shoulders have red accents, the face is yellow (not orange-yellow with light blue light-piped eyes. The visor part of the helmet is painted dark blue with a red central tablet, and resembles a princely crown. The winch is a lasso weapon on the right arm, the rotors a spinning blade weapon on the left arm. Due to its positioning in robot mode, the ratchet mentioned earlier is usually engaged. The face is kinda odd. The nose is flat and wide, and the whole face slopes to a jutting chin. Within the serious limits of the angular robotic molding, I'd say it's almost African in cast. At least, that's the closest human skull/face shape I can think of. Folding the tail sections up forms what the instructions call Attack Mode, and this gives him a flightpack wingspan of 8.5" (22cm). Ironically, it's harder to actually attack with the rotors in Attack Mode, since the tail gets in the way. Triggering the Key gimmick gives the toy a total height of 9" (23cm). The backpack can't really be positioned to fire forward as the head gets in the way, but it can come close if you fiddle a bit. It doesn't lock in this position, though. Figure these to be off-bore homing missiles or something. [Later note: yes, you can get them to point forward if he wears the missile rack as a hat, but I wasn't counting that as valid. :)] Overall: Whoever designed this deserves a tasty, tasty biscuit. While it has some flaws, it ranks up with Mudflap as a most excellent Voyager. Dave Van Domelen, is currently watching a History Channel show on the first serious use of the Sikorsky rescue helicopter, ironically.