Dave's Transformers Cyberverse Rant: Scout Wave 3 Stealth Sniper Shot Shadow Striker (cartaur) Grapple Grab Autobot Ratchet (cartaur) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cyberverse/Scout3 Just two new molds mixed in with reships. (Wave 4 will be a retool of wave 1's Optimus, plus a Scraplet...I'll get the Scraplet but probably pass on Optimus.) CAPSULES Still significantly overpriced at $8. Stealth Sniper Shot Shadow Striker: Looks okay, solid if uninspiring altmode, gimmick works without interfering with the rest of the toy. Mildly recommended if you want a version of the character in toy form, but I am definitely damning it with faint praise here. Grapple Grab Autobot Ratcher: Really feels like a knockoff toy, the gimmick is mediocre at best, and the altmode is at the sad end of cartaurs. Neutral. RANTS Packaging: Same as wave 1. Note, while these aren't BAD toys per se, for this price point I'd much rather if they had made a neo-Actionmaster sort of toy, with good articulation and a show-accurate robot mode, but no transformation at all. Leave the spring-loaded gimmicks for the bigger size classes (or ditch them entirely, almost none of them have been at all impressive or even passable). DECEPTICON: SHADOW STRIKER Assortment: E3633 Altmode: Car with a head Transformation Difficulty: 6 steps Previous Name Use: RotF/NEST, Cyberverse Previous Mold Use: None Epithet/Gimmick: Stealth Sniper Shot Function: Vengeful Warrior (from Ultra package) Packaging: Held into the package just by the blister, properly transformed in-package. So...this is a case of someone being pretty lazy. They should have come up with a new epithet for this toy, because there's nothing "sniper shot" about her. That epithet was appropriate for the Ultra class toy, but this one does not have any sort of shooting gimmick. It has a turbo-rocket sort of deal in vehicle-ish mode. Robot Mode: Not too bad-looking at first glance, from the front. No massive gimmick kibble (something that dominated the Ultra), and the minimal paint apps nonetheless manage to give a decent impression of the character's show model. Add some silver paint on the abdomen and shins, more red detailing in various places, and move the inexplicable blue paint on the thighs to the windows on the arms and it'd be dead on. The details aren't even too badly changed from the show model, you could definitely use this as a painting project to get something that looks pretty close to the show model...well, the show model before she got Frankensteined back together by Shockwave. But I don't really expect a toy of how she now looks, it's a bit too "Autobot X" for mass market. She does have the sniper-scope left eye, though. 3.5" (9cm) tall and mostly purple with some light blue and black. The wheels on the shoulders and ankles are black plastic, the rest is made from two shades of slightly metalflake purple plastic. The darker shade is found on the arms, abdomen, shoulderblades and most of the back. Slightly metalflake light blue paint is used for her face, chest headlights, and armor panels on her thighs (which are left purple in the show model). Red paint is used for both eyes and some foglamp-like details on the center of her chest. A tiny purple on white Decepticon symbol is printed on the hood ornament position on her chest. Not much articulation. The arms are swivels, the hips are ball joints. Technically the head can lean back on a transformation joint. There's 5mm sockets on the backs of her hands, as part of the door panels. There's a slightly too-big 3mm socket in the small of her back. Transformation: Peg the legs together. Lift up the butt, the head coming along with it, and then fold a hinge inside the chest so that the legs end up pointing back. Then rotate the arms so that tabs on their inner faces go into slots on the thighs. Action Attack Mode: So, this is basically a car that has popped the roof so that Shadow Striker could poke her head and upper torso out to have a look around. There is nothing "sniper" about it. Everything is pegged together pretty solidly except for the robot upper body piece, which is meant to move up and down to hit the triggers for the afterburner gimmick. While officially you press down on her head or back, it's basically her butt that triggers the gimmick. A bit over 3" (8cm) long, the thrusters add about a centimeter. The darker purple ends up on the front fenders/door pieces, the upper arms, the butt, and the trigger tabs. The wheels are still black, the rest is the slightly more sparkly medium purple. The head paint is still visible, as is the paint from the chest (although the headlights end up only half-painted in light blue, as the part that's on top of the actual shoulders in robot mode is left unpainted). The thruster pieces are the medium purple plastic, with hot magenta paint on the "flames" and silver on the thruster nozzles. Note, they can be manually popped out in robot mode for jet boot effects. If the wheels weren't so crappy, it might roll well, as the axles are parallel and stable. No paint on the side windows, which are the only windows molded into this mode. Overall: Within the massive budgetary and design-space constraints of the Scouts, this isn't too bad. I'd still rather have an $8 Actionmaster. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT RATCHET Assortment: E3634 Altmode: Vantaur Transformation Difficulty: 6 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: None Epithet/Gimmick: Grapple Grab Function: (No other version so far, and no function on the Scout cards, but probably "Autobot Medic" or maybe even "Crotchety Medic.") Packaging: Just held in by the blister, properly transformed into robot mode. Robot Mode: Not too bad looking, saving the hollowness for the inner faces of the limbs. The back is a little hollow, but not too bad. The colors are so-so, with the black right toe standing out as weird. 3.5" (9cm) tall in mostly white with some red, bright blue, and black. Black plastic is used for the snap-on wheels, the shoulder struts, the right toe and its trigger, and some internal bits. Everything else is a very slightly yellowed white plastic. The chest window is painted bright blue with a red Autobot symbol printed in the center. Bright red paint is used on the top of the torso, the "ribs" under the windshield, the shoulder fronts, the outer faces of the forearms, and the chin and horns of the helmet. The face is painted silver, as is the abdomen. The eyes are bright blue, while a darker blue is painted on the molded lightbar bits on the collarbones. Ball joint shoulders and hips, and that's it. There's a waist joint used in transformation, but it's locked down by the backpack snapping into place. If you trigger the gimmick in this mode, it's as if a second smaller leg emerges from the shin to kick someone. The fists can hold 5mm pegs. Transformation: Pull the backpack down so that the torso can rotate 180 degrees at the waist. Snap the boots together and lift the legs 90 degrees. Push the torso down so it slots into place facing the new forwards. Action Attack Mode: A vehicle frame with a robot torso sticking out the top. Reasonably stable once everything is settled into place, but unimpressive. 3.25" (8cm) long, no new plastic revealed until the gimmick is triggered. The ambulance front end is molded but has no paint on it at all. The arms retain full range of motion, and if you lift the torso up the waist can flop around loosely. Pushing back on the torso a bit may or may not trigger the gimmick, which is a wrecker hook that just sort of rests over the left shoulder and is too short to do anything. The strut is black plastic, the hook is white plastic. Overall: Unimpressive altmode and gimmick, robot mode would be decent if it had elbows and knees, but as it is the whole thing feels like a Dollar Tree toy. Dave Van Domelen, just got the Battle Class Spark Armor figures, and their base bots look to be about what Scout Class should've been.