Dave's Transformers Siege Rant: Deluxe Wave 2 Chromia (ground vehicle, massive retool of Moonracer) Ironhide (ground vehicle) Autobot Sixgun (airship) Prowl (pursuit ground vehicle) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeS2 While Chromia is strongly based on the Moonracer mold, they removed the combiner aspects, so even with the upcoming Walgreens exclusive redeco of Moonracer, we're still a character short of Elita-1 having a full combiner team of ladies. https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeP2 - Moonracer mold [Later note: QC seems to be highly variable in this wave. Others report no problem with Ironhide's panels, but more problems with Chromia. And, of course, there's the whole glue issue on one of my Sixguns.] CAPSULES $20 price point. Chromia: Based on a recommended mold, but significantly altered. Some improvements, some losses (notably, no longer a combiner limb, but also the tendency to drop her panties), but still worth picking up. Recommended. Ironhide: A decent update, but there's some panels that just won't stay on, and some of the connection points are less compatible with Weaponizer parts than they could be. On the low end of Recommended. Autobot Sixgun: A pretty good update of one of the odder parts of G1. A few bits are disappointing, and it doesn't attach well to all figures, but this Weaponizer is still worth picking up. Recommended. Prowl: Nothing too fancy, and the weapon is barely a COMBAT accessory, but solid in both modes with a decent transformation. A good mold to use as a redeco workhorse, that's for sure. Recommended. RANTS Odd how they ended up with an entirely Autobot wave here. Granted, G1 was lopsided in favor of Autobots too, but it's pretty bad already here. Wave 3 promises Refraktor army-building, at least. Packaging: Same as wave 1. The cosells are mostly for wave 2 Battle Masters, with the included Deluxe wielding Pteraxadon. However, Sixgun's has Ironhide wearing Sixgun parts, with no Battle Masters. All four have the standard Autobot sigil core, all but Chromia have the standard building-like topper. Chromia has four twisted spines that look like they're maybe supposed to be feathers of a robotic wing? The rank squiggles on the bottom put Chromia and Sixgun at second lowest rank, Ironhide one above them, and Prowl one about Ironhide. Note, while I will be referring to changes from the Moonracer mold, Chromia is different enough that I'll review it as a new mold. AUTOBOT: CHROMIA Assortment: WFC-S20 Altmode: Cybertronian car Transformation Difficulty: 15 steps Previous Name Use: Energon, Gen(T30), Gen(CW), RotF Previous Mold Use: Gen(PP) Fireblast: None Weapons: RT-5 Anti-thermo Blaster with SR Hushfuze silencer, EMP Grenades Function: Bodyguard Division: Ground Command Unit: Special Ops Rank: Sergeant RT-5 Anti-thermo Blaster: DAM 16, PRE 18, RNG 13 (no stats for the SR Hushfuze) EMP Grenades: DAM 20, PRE 5, RNG 9 As usual, no stats for the combined weapon, formed by putting the EMP grenades between the RT-5 and the SR. However, unlike other combined weapons in wave 1, it doesn't even get a name. (Ironhide and Prowl get single reconfigurable weapons rather than combining weapons.) Packaging: Four ties on the robot, which is slightly mistransformed (the rear fender pieces are flat like wings, when the instructions and package pictures show them folded back). Two ties hold the EMP grenades in place, and one holds the combined RT-5 and SR. The photo on the back shows her holding the RT-5 with the SR as a scope rather than as a silencer, something the instructions only use for the vehicle mode storage. The photo and art show the SR as being the medium-light blue, with some paint on the RT-5. But the actual toy has the SR made from the super-pale blue plastic, and no paint on the RT-5. While there's a lot of similarities in how the transformation works, the only actual pieces that are the same are the hands, thighs, hips, wheels, and maybe the neck. Robot Mode: So, it kinda looks like someone took the pre-Prime Wars Chromia (the one that's a heavy retool of Prime Arcee) and Moonracer and morphed them together, then added a bunch of Siege greebles. The colors and some of the fine details, along with the big clear backpack, are very close to the old Generations Chromia, while the general lines are similar to (but not the same as) Moonracer's. She has more pinned joints than even Moonracer (who already has so many it's been my bane in trying to kitbash the mold into other characters), although ironically her pelvis front is just clipped on and pops off easily (and MAN does that lend itself to indelicate jokes). A shellmaster to a slightly greater extent than Moonracer (the feet are no longer part of the vehicle body), with the roof and rear fenders folded up into a backpack and the front fenders attached to the boots (but able to rotate, unlike Moonracer's fixed fenders). Folding out the rear fenders as wings is not recommended, because A) they peg onto the core of the backpack for stability, and B) the wheels are part of them now, rather than staying on the center piece. There is a BIG empty space in the back where they removed the combiner peg and only replaced it with a strut. Basically, Micromaster and some Battle Masters can sit in her backpack like a Master/Blaster or B'Nee/C'Cil deal (depending on your flavor of nerdity). 5" (12.5cm) tall in a mix of white, very light blue, desaturated somewhat light blue, and some accents in red (plus black tires). The wheels are black plastic and the core of the backpack is clear colorless plastic. Very pale blue plastic is used on the torso back (and the struts inside the backpack), shoulder cores, upper arms, hands, pelvis core, hip sockets, thighs, and the Hushfuze silencer. Everything else is a sort somewhat light and desaturated blue plastic, including the clip-on pelvis front. The EMP Grenades seem to be a slightly warmer shade of this, but I don't know if that's just batch variation, as it has the same UV response as the rest of the blue...but oops, the torso front doesn't. Turns out the torso front is actually clear colorless plastic with a LOT of paint. Good match under normal room lighting, though. So, the torso front is mostly painted medium-light blue, as is a lot of the backpack core. The "ascot" area, face, abdomen, and "whitewalls" of the tires are painted very pale blue, a pretty good color match but noticeably glossier than the plastic. Gloss white paint is on the center chunk of the helmet, the kneecaps, and "spats" on the feet. There's gloss red accents on the forehead, ascot, and abdomen (it glows strongly under UV, as long as I had the flashlight out for testing the grenades). Not really sure what's up with the eyes, all I really get from close examination is that the paint on the face and helmet is REALLY sloppy. It almost looks like lightpiping was intended and they just didn't paint the eyes at all. The only Autobot symbol is on the backpack, meant for vehicle mode. Notably, there's no battle damage silver in this mode. The neck is a ball joint, and while the waist is a smooth swivel you can't turn it more than a few degrees without popping the pelvis armor off, as it's attached to a belt section that can only turn during transformation. The shoulders are pinned universal joints, there's upper arm swivels and pinned hinge elbows. The wrists bend inwards on transformation joints. The hips are ball joints with swivels right below them, the knees are hinges, the ankles are hinges that tilt side to side for keeping the feet flat. There's also transformation hinges above the ankles, but bending them makes the shins look broken. The hands can hold 5mm pegs, and there's 5mm sockets on the forearms, the backpack sides, the center of the backpack (this one's a bit loose, feels like it was intended to be painted), and on the fenders attached to the boots. There's also 5mm sockets on the soles of the feet so that Cog's or Sixgun's elevator shoes can be attached. There's a 3mm socket on the underside of the pelvis. There's 3mm studs on the kneecaps, the rest of the studs are in vehicle mode. The RT-5 is a heavy pistol or small SMG in appearance, 3.1cm long (about 1.25") and made of medium-light blue plastic. It has a 5mm grip, a 3mm muzzle, and a small non-standard rectangular indent on top for the Hushfuze. The Hushfuze is a 2.2cm (under an inch) long piece of very pale blue plastic with patterning that at first glance looks like the air cooling jacket on a machine gun barrel, plus a little iron sight at the front end. It has a 3mm socket in back, a 3mm stud in front, and a small rectangular tab on the underside. It can attach on top of the RT-5 (shown in the vehicle mode instructions) as a laser sight, or on the front as a silencer. The grenades are 1.8cm (0.75") long with four connection points. The top is a 3mm stud, the bottom is a 5mm peg with a 3mm socket inside it, so the grenades can be attached end to end or become barrel extensions for the RT-5. There's a 5mm long rectangular tab on one side and a matching slot on the other side, so the grenades can be connected side by side as well (now I want a whole bunch to make into a bandolier). Their default storage is in the 5mm sockets on the backpack, but the tabs can be shoved into the wheel hubs as well. The combined rifle is made by attaching both grenades end-to-end on the barrel tip of the RT-5, then place the Hushfuze on the end of that. The length is 3.25" (8cm) in total. It can be held dual-handed if you turn one of the grenade sections so that its side tab points down, her hand can grip it fairly firmly. Transformation: Similar to Moonracer's, but with several significant differences. The head goes all the way back to fill part of the gap in the back, revealing a pair of 3mm studs for the grenade storage. Getting the upper waist to turn without popping the pelvis front off is tricky, the rear fender parts need to be in just the right position to let this work (basically straight out to the sides). The feet fold up between the front fenders, which rotate around to face towards the foot end. A front "hood" piece folds out from inside the backpack (you don't need to do this to get the thing to transform, but if you lock the front together first, you can't fold this piece out and it looks incomplete). Getting all the bits of the front end pegged together is tricky (it includes shallow pegs going into the sockets on the soles of the feet), but the result is quite solid once they're all in place. The back end isn't as solid, and looks more obviously like robot bits, but the modified rear fenders to keep the waist from turning in vehicle mode (something of a problem with the original version of the mold). The grenades go on the back as exhaust pipes, explaining their molding, and the RT-5 goes onto a socket uncovered when the head tilted back. Altmode: This isn't just Moonracer's altmode with more Siege-greebles, the new back fenders have the wheels on the inner faces rather than exposed. (Amusing side note: all of the wheels have paint on them, even the ones that are barely visible at all. I presume that it was cheaper to just keep painting all the wheels rather than change the masks more...or they decided that their visibility in robot mode made it worth the paint.) I get a Car Wars vibe from the armored fenders, not to mention the headlights replaced by pairs of 3mm studs. The back end is still disappointingly hollow, but the grenades help a little in distracting from this. 5.25" (13cm) long and mostly medium-light blue, most of the pale blue and white parts are concealed in this mode. The driver's compartment piece AND the hood section connected to it are both clear colorless plastic, with lots of medium blue paint on the sides and front. The tabs on the sides that the rear fenders attach to are left unpainted. The hood also has a flattened V shape in white paint. There's pale blue paint on the not-headlight 3mm studs and on some details at the fronts of the rear fenders. As mentioned earlier, there's a red Autobot symbol on the canopy. There's a little silver battle damage paint on the very front end, but that's it. I can accept a little battle damage in a sensible location. It rolls reasonably well and has decent ground clearance as long as you have the thighs even. The small amount that the robot waist can turn does let one kneecap drop lower than the other, which reduces clearance. There's a fairly loose 5mm socket on the top of the clear canopy, a better one on the rear top (revealed by swinging the head back), one at the rear of each fender (four total on fenders, side-facing), and technically the hands can hold things sticking out the back. There's 3mm studs in back intended for the grenades (and the grenades supply two new studs if you want to put Firedrive's Fire Blasts there for exhaust plumes), one on top of the canopy to the left of center, and two pairs in front in place of headlights. The 3mm socket from robot mode is not accessible in this mode unless you use an Allen Wrench shaped 3mm rod with no widening (it has to fit between the thighs). Overall: Robot mode is backpack-intensive and the vehicle mode has big gaps in front and back, but it's a decent retool of a decent mold. The only serious flaw is the pelvis plate. Worth getting. AUTOBOT: IRONHIDE Assortment: WFC-S21 Altmode: Cybertronian truck Transformation Difficulty: 14 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: None Fireblast: None Weapon: W-35 LR Doomblast Forge Launcher (dual mode) Function: Security Division: Ground Command Unit: Infantry Rank: Captain Note, the W-35 transforms via a hinge between the two parts. It can be configured as a rifle or as a hammer, depending on how it's folded. W-35 Rifle Mode: DAM 18, PRE 15, RNG 19 W-35 Hammer Mode: DAM 17, PRE 5, HEFT 17 Yeah, that "ton" symbol seen on Optimus's axe is back, the one I call Heft. I have to wonder if it's meant to be a sort of defensive stat or something, since the hammer mode is otherwise an inferior weapon to the rifle mode. [Later note: turns out it really is called Heft.] Packaging: Five ties hold the robot into the blister, two more hold the rifle mode W-35. Robot Mode: It's a pretty good reimagining of the classic Ironhide look, albeit with a weirdly hollow chest (that Reprolabels addresses with a cel-shaded cover). The hollow isn't big enough for a Battle Master or even an unfolded Titan Master, but it will hold some stuff, like a little Jack-Jack figure (http:///www.dvandom.com/images/ironhidejackjack.JPG) or a folded up Prime Master or Titan Master. It's not quite wide enough to fit one of the Matrix holders from the Prime Wars Leaders, but it is deep enough to hold an Enigma. Speaking of hollows, the back isn't too bad in that respect, with what looks like back-mounted dual mortars at the top of the back and a not-to-horrible gap inside the small of the back. The undersides of the forearms are hollow, but otherwise this mold does a good job of closing up the gaps. On the down side, the panels on the outer faces of the boots don't really stay in place, I had to shave some of the tabs down to get them to even think about staying put. And they're connected via non-pinned joints that pop off eay too easily. Still, even with them off, the boots are still complete-looking. All in all it looks decent, which is good, since we're getting it again as Ratchet (as seen in the current comics). 6" (15cm) tall, a bit on the tall side for a modern Deluxe, as befits his role. A mix of bright red, medium gray, light gray, and silver, overall a little darker than the G1 scheme thanks to the darker gray. The chest panel is colorless clear plastic. A light gray plastic is used on the hips, thighs, collar area, and joint pieces inside the shoulders. The outer shell of each shoulder is medium gray plastic, also found on the fists, back, pelvis, wheels, and weapon. The rest of the toy is bright red plastic. Most of the paint on this toy is silver. The face, the inside of the chest, stripes on the shins, and the obligatory battle damage (just the feet and the gun). The border of the chest front is painted red (good match), and there's a bit of red on the top of the pelvis piece as a sort of belt buckle surrogate. A silver outline Autobot symbol is printed on the bottom border of the chestplate. The eyes are painted bright blue. The neck is a restricted ball joint, mostly turning but able to nod up and down a little. The waist is a smooth swivel. Shoulders and hips are both pinned universal joints. Upper arm swivels, hinge elbows, swivel wrists. Swivels just below the hips, hinge knees, and the Siege-standard sideways hinges for the ankles. The fists can hold 5mm pegs, there's four 4mm sockets on the top of the backpack, one on the outer face of each shoulder, one on the outer face of each forearm, one on the center of the back, one on the outer facing of each boot, and a hexagonal 5mm socket on the sole of each foot. There's a 3mm socket in the back of the pelvis. 3mm studs are on the front of each shoulder, the left "collarbone". The W-35 is a bit of an oddball, a multi-rocket launcher with what looks like an upside-down rifle stock. 3.75" (9.5cm) long in rifle mode and made of two pieces of medium gray plastic pinned together. There's extensive battle damage paint on it, red around the front end in a stripe, and silver on the tips of the six molded warheads. The main grip is forwards of the midpoint, just under the hinge. There's another 5mm grip in a carrying handle position, and one that's in the stock section mostly for the melee mode. There's two 3mm studs in front, in between the rocket tips. Bending the hinge results in a warhammer 3.25" (8cm) long. There's a couple of studs under the hammerhead, but they're not quite 3mm. While the hammer can be held by the grip near the middle, it looks better held at the stock end. Held backwards, the rifle mode looks like a sort of assault rifle with the stock being a blunt bayonet. Transformation: Open up the chest and stow the head inside it, then pull the backpack back to unlock the torso. The front (red and clear) part rotates around on an axis that's nearly horizontal so that it turns upside down. The arms swing back and the boots open up to cover the hands. Then the panels on the sides of the boots fall off, and you snap them back in place to fill in the sides of the vehicle. Altmode: A stretched out van with feet on the back. It also has the upper arms as part of the roof, but they're blocky enough to work as part of a Cybertronian vehicle. The feet, though, really don't work well, especially since they have the only battle damage paint and they're in the back. The wheels are all snap-on and pretty wobbly and cheap-feeling. 5.25" (13.5cm) long and mostly red, a lot of the gray is tucked away inside, but it gains a splash of gold. The front end has some extra paint that while visible in robot mode was less obvious, including silver rims on the "mortar" barrels, and actual headlights with white paint on the lenses and medium gray borders. There's a wide gold stripe on either side from that pop-off panel, and the silver shin stripes look like side windows for the rear compartment. It rolls poorly on the snap-on wheels. The shoulder and forearm 5mm sockets are all on the roof, the soles of the feet are in the back, and the mortal barrels are front mounted cannons (socketable Fire Blasts go in them quite nicely). The 3mm studs are now on the sides of the cab and the top of the windshield. The 3mm socket on the pelvis and the 5mm socket on the robot's back are now on the underside, for use in dynamic mounting. The W-35 is meant to go on the roof, but the carry handle can go in the front bumper too. While probably not intentional, 5mm peg-style Fire Blasts can also wedge into details under the toes. Overall: A few panel issues, and it rolls badly in altmode, but it looks pretty good in both modes and the weapon suits Ironhide. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT SIXGUN Assortment: WFC-S22 Altmode: Weapons, sort of airship Transformation Difficulty: 16 steps Previous Name Use: None as a separate toy Previous Mold Use: None Weapons: MTX-42 Anti-Gravity Cannon (x2), MTX-S2A Guided Missile Launcher, MTX-50 Dual-Flank Boost Launcher, MTX-LR Ion-Pulse Blaster (x2), W-5 Gyro Blaster (x2) Function: Weaponizer Division: Ground Unit: Infantry (not Artillery, unlike most Weaponizer types) Rank: Sergeant I suspect W-5 breaks the MTX pattern because they are the only pieces not integral to the robot mode, they're just shoulder cannons for the robot. MTX-42 Anti-Gravity Cannon: DAM 3, PRE 10, RNG 14 MTX-S2A Guided Missile Launcher: DAM 17, PRE 17, RNG 20 MTX-50 Dual-Flank Boost Launcher: DAM 17, PRE 12, RNG 19 MTX-LR Ion-Pulse Blaster: DAM 18, PRE 10, RNG 20 W-5 Gyro Blaster: DAM 6, PRE 16, RNG 11 It's a good thing I got two copies so I could do the double fist trick, because the first one I got had glue escape into the hips and fuse the swivel part of each joint. Even weeks of soaking in Simple Green didn't soften the glue enough to turn the joints. I ended up having to cut the piece open and sand down the glue gunkiness before carefully gluing it back together. Packaging: Five ties hold the robot mode into the blister, no separate weapon pieces. Robot Mode: The canonical loadout puts the W-5 Gyro Blasters on top of the backpack pipes and keeps the gun parts of the MTX-LR's attached behind the elbows. However, I prefer the look of removing the black guns and putting them on back to flank the W-5's. Either way, while there's definite vehicle kibble (most notably the cockpit on the chest and the turbofans on the shoulders), it still looks like a guy made of weapons. And while it does clearly look like it's based on Six-Gun, Sixgun is a much better robot in every possible respect. (Brief aside: it's weird how TFU.info currently has pages for Six-Gun, Cog, Brunt, et al, but they don't show up in the alphabetical listings, you have to go to the main toy's entry first.) Of course, unlike a lot of G1 standards, there isn't a recent previous version to compare it to, this is the first attempt at updating the character. There's the 1986 mold (and a redeco a few years later in Japan), and then this. Well, okay, TFWiki mentions a Kreon version, but that doesn't really count. The closest "modern" point of comparison would be Turrets from Iron Factory, which is small-Legends size. (As long as I'm thinking about that set, we don't have a Slammer update yet...the Generations Metroplex came with Scamper, and now we have Sixgun for Six-Gun, but no Slammer yet...maybe he'll come out as a Micromaster or something in 2020?) Six-Gun was "well, if we add a piece that can be a torso with a head, we can sort of make a robot out of all these guns," but Sixgun is much more clearly an on-purpose robot. 5" (12.5cm) tall at the head, the shoulders rise a bit above that, and depending on how you arrange guns on the backpack, they can go significantly taller. Like, samurai war banner height. The main colors are white, dark red, and dark gray, with some black, silver, and a blue eyeslit. Dark red plastic is used for the head, the torso core, the backpack pipes, the W-5 pistols, and everything from the waist down. Dark gray plastic is used on the elbows, the torso top, the shoulder connection pegs, the gun parts of the MTX-LR, and hinges between the torso core and the backpack and the pelvis. The rest of each arm is white plastic, as are the torso sides, the chest cockpit front, and a chunk behind the head. There's a lot of matte black paint detailing on the upper arms (the turbing blades and a bit on top), the fists, rocket pods on the side torso pieces, and thrusters hidden under the arms. There's also black around the ankles, although the silver battle damage paint spread out a bit and makes it look at first glance to be dark gray paint. The faceplate is painted gloss white with bright blue on the vision slit. The window of the chest cockpit is silver, as are window-like details on the toes. The only battle damage silver streaks are on the ankles and toes, which works okay in robot mode (wading through wreckage), but like Ironhide these parts are at the rear of the vehicle mode and look kinda weird all scraped up. A red Autobot symbol is printed at the top front of the chest cockpit, basically the top of the sternum if it were a human. There's fewer peg-based joints than I expected. Basically just the shoulders and the upper-thigh swivels. Almost all the other joints are pinned or otherwise very secure, although the toes can be popped off without too much effort (the upper arm swivels can be popped out in principle, but it's quite difficult). And yes, there's pegs on the outer faces of the shoulders, so if you get multiple copies you could give all the arms to one for an Octus update or something. The neck and waist are both swivels. The shoulders are soft-ratcheting peg swivels on hinged pegs, for a decent range of motion. Upper arm swivels, hinge elbows, no wrist articulation. The hips are universal joints, the upper thigh swivels are pegs, the knees are hinges. The ankles are the standard "keep the feet flat" hinges, plus the toes can bend down in a Don Martin style on transformation joints. Soooo many connection points, plus a few things that look like 5mm or 3mm pegs but aren't. I'll start with the false connectors. There's some cannon barrels at the bottoms of the torso side pieces that are not actual 5mm or 3mm connectors, despite initially looking like they might be. There's four small jet nozzles on the underside of each foot that are not connectors either, at least not for the two standard sizes. 5mm pegs: Front of each shoulder, side of each shoulder, side of each lower boot, on upper arm behind each elbow (intended places for guns), fold-out pegs on the back of each boot (intended to letting the legs be held as guns). 5mm sockets: Both fists, both biceps, one on the bottom of each foot, top of each shoulder, three on the back (each side, plus small of the back), tip of each of the four "mortar" tubes sticking up behind the head. Also, lifting up a panel on the sternum reveals another socket, but tends to cover the face. 3mm studs: Front of each shoulder top, one on the chunk behind the head pointed up, on at the top left of the cockpit chest (pointing forwards), one at the bottom right of the cockpit (pointing forwards), plus one under each arm that's not really accessible unless you lift the arm up (facing out to the sides). 3mm socket: Back of the pelvis, as usual. There's four "handheld" guns available to the robot mode: the W-5's (based on Six-Gun's dual cannon backpack, but split into two pistols), and the gun parts of the MTX-LR arm pieces (based on Six-Gun's black guns). The W-5's are pistols made of dark red plastic, 1.5" (3.8cm) long. They have 3mm studs at front and back, 5mm peg grips near the back end, and the "not long enough to be a stock" bit in back is also a 5mm peg so that the W-5 can be mounted in the backpack pipes. The gun parts of the MTX-LR's are stockless rifles made of dark gray plastic, 2.5" (6cm) long. The back end has a 5mm socket, while the very tip narrows to a 3mm stud. The standard 5mm peg grip is near the back end. The 5mm socket is a bit on the loose side, but when placed on their intended spots they're locked in place by gaps in the forearms fitting over the 5mm peg grips. Transformation: Very much a partsformer, I'll briefly cover assembly of each mode in its entry. Official Components: I've already covered the W-5 pistols, nothing more to say about their official Part Modes. MTX-LR: While the gun part alone covers most of the look of Six-Gun's black rifles, the fins on the top are absent, moved to the shoulderpad pieces of the robot mode. Combined, each of these looks like a larger rifle with an underslung fist launcher. Yeah, about the only effort made to hide the fists is that they're painted black. Mirror images of each other, they're a little over 4" (10cm) long. The pegs and sockets on the front of the shoulder and upper arm in robot mode are now on the underside, with the center of the shoulder connection area having a 5mm peg on one side and a 5mm socket on the other. This makes it easy to mount them in various ways onto the city mode of Metroplex or any other Titan. MTX-M2: Each leg is basically a stubby cannon (Anti-Gravity Cannon, to be specific). The weapon spec listing doesn't show the 5mm pegs folded out, but they kinda need to be for anyone to hold them. They look a little more properly gun-like if you insert the W-5's into the muzzles (something the instructions say to do in Defensive Loadout), but I ran into a problem with that. The pegs they connect to on the robot hips are slightly wider than the back-end pegs of the W-5's, so the fit is pretty loose (the W-5 back end pegs fit firmly into other 5mm sockets on this toy, so the problem does seem to be specific to the MTX-M2's). 3" (7.5cm) long with the fold-down underside peg being nearly at the midpoint. The outer-ankle 5mm pegs are on mirror-image sides for the two, and there's 5mm sockets opposite them. MTX-50: The head turns around 180 degrees and tucks into the block behind it, the chest lifts up to hide the back of the head, and the torso sides fold up, to make what's basically a passable mini-vehicle on its own out of the bits that fold around the torso core. As a weapon, it looks more like a shield with some missile racks than a dedicated ranged weapon. It has a "wingspan" of 3.5" (9cm), with all the front-mounted weapons being incompatible with the COMBAT system (the not-3mm studs, etc). The shoulder pegs are now pointed up at the wing roots, there's 5mm sockets at each wingtip, the big thrusters molded into the winglets hae 5mm sockets (suitable for using Fire Blasts as thrust effects), and a 5mm peg on the underside. There's five 3mm studs, all of which point up rather than forwards, reinforcing the idea of using this as a shield rather than a weapon. This is named the Dual-Flank Boost Launcher, which I suppose is correct, since it has both the robot flanks, has boosters, and has molded missile launchers. MTX-S2A: And finally, the Leftover Chunk. It's the torso core, hips and the four tubes of the backpack. So it can kinda be held (thanks to a fold-out 5mm peg that's inaccessible in robot mode) as a kind of four- barrelled shotgun weapon. It's called a guided missile launcher, so I guess they're missile tubes. Moving the hip pieces can make them a little less obtrusive than the official positioning, but nothing is going to make this look good as a hand weapon. The Offensive and Defensive Loadouts just make it the core of something else. It does do okay at turning into a big combiner-sized hand, albeit with unconvincing thumbs. Vehicle Mode: This...exists? I mean, the cockpit and turbofans are clearly meant to go with this mode, and it's a more convincing Cybertronian vehicle than a lot of Pretenders in G1, but it looks more like something you'd make with RoboLink parts. The torso core is just a chunk on the underside like it's carrying a cargo container. To get this, attach the MTX-LR (arm) pieces to the tips of the MTX-50 (shield-like thing) with the arms pointed backwards. Place the W-5 pistols in the pegs on the tops of the shoulders. The rest of the robot, turn the waist 180 degrees and then bend the hips so that tabs on the thigh front go onto tabs on the torso chunk, bend the knees and flatten the toes. There's no pegs for locking the boots together, though. Place the glider bit onto the small of the back 5mm socket. There's not really anything you can do with the arms that won't block the main thrusters on the wings. The wingspan is 6.5" (16.5cm), total length is 5.5" (14cm), and the general shape vaguely M-like...or a wide H with a third vertical in the middle but not quite as tall as the outer ones. It's basically, "Well, they tried." Now that I've reviewed this mode, however, it's unlikely either of my Sixguns will remain in it. The robot mode is much nicer, as are the loadouts. Weapon Modes: Defensive and Offensive loadouts as Cog had, plus "High Precision Launcher Gauntlet" aka MegaFist. I strongly suspect someone mixed up the first two, as the "defensive" loadout is basically a huge weapons pack, while the "offensive" one has an obvious shield and far fewer weapons used as actual weapons. "Defensive" Loadout: To do this according to the instructions requires two copies of the toys...the robot leg pieces are part of the backpack but also used as elevator shoes. Clearly a "typo" in the instructions that grabbed the wrong base drawing of Sideswipe. I expect it's not really supposed to have the elevator shoes. Everything turns into a huge backpack. The robot legs go on the shield piece, with the pistols plugged loosely into the tips, and this goes on the wearer's back (note: Ironhide is not a good fit here, because his mortar pack prevents the peg from going all the way in). Then the thigh pegs of the torso chunk go into the 5mm sockets just ahead of the main grips of the arm cannons. The cockpit angles forwards a bit to expose the 5mm socket, and the torso chunk plugs into this. It's the entire toy reconfigured into a beweaponed mess, depending on a single peg to attach to the wearer, and forcing the figure to lean forwards unless it has truly epic heel spurs. "Offensive" Loadout: The MTX-50 goes on the shoulder as a shield. Depending on the shape of the shoulder, the cockpit part can be folded inwards to reveal one more socket for other stuff. The W-5s go into the wingtips, but if you leave them out the MTX-50 looks pretty good with one wing folded down onto the shoulder top. The torso chunk goes on as a backpack with the missile tubes pointing down, and the thigh pegs used to mount the arm guns as shoulder cannons (the thickness of the thigh pegs does cause problems here). The leg guns become elevator shoes. Since none of the pieces are officially hand-held in this loadout, the W-5's can be moved to the hands if desired, or other native sockets on the figure. High-Precision Launcher Gauntlet: AKA Megafist, and the reason I bought two. This doesn't use all the pieces, only the two torso pieces. The MTX-50 folds around the user's forearm, with the cockpit folding over the fist to create a new wrist socket. Unfortunately, if the figure has too long of a forearm and its fist doesn't stow, this doesn't quite fit (i.e. Ironhide again is a bad one to use). The thigh peg makes for a very stubby thumb, and whichever one isn't a thumb can be folded back. While portrayed as a red right fist, it can go on either side. Note, Sixgun himself lacks the required forearm socket. The arm guns can be easily added to the forearm of the gauntlet, and there's room for the W-5's. Just have the user stand on platform shoes. http://www.dvandom.com/images/overkillsideswipe.JPG for the results of Sideswipe going all G2 comic and loaded up with two Sixguns. Overall: Nice robot, so-so vehicle, decent assortment of weapons. The Mega Fists are a little disappointing, though. Still, definitely worth picking up one. AUTOBOT: PROWL Assortment: WFC-S23 Altmode: Cyebrtronian police cruiser Transformation Difficulty: 14 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: None Fireblast: None Weapons: W-45 Acid Pellet Strikeblaster (dual mode) Function: Strategist Division: Ground Command Unit: Infantry Rank: Major Hm, as with Ironhide, he has one weapon that has two modes (ranged and melee). Unlike Ironhide's, this is made of two separate pieces, one of which is the lightbar. Except...it doesn't really work as an axe. More on that below. This is going to be one of the most heavily reused molds in the line, with Bluestreak, Smokescreen (apparently a limited access figure), and Barricade being based on it. Gonna need a lotta Seekers to beat that (which might happen, Starscream's getting Thundercracker in wide release and obscure backgrounder Redwing in the same release pattern as Smokescreen). W-45 Axe Mode: DAM 12, PRE 18, HEFT 8 W-45 Blaster Mode: DAM 18, PRE 16, RNG 15 I wonder if the Heft represents the weapon's ability to help the user stand their ground against being pushed? That'd make it a decent riot control thing. Packaging: Five ties on the robot, one tie holding both of the W-45 pieces. The feet are mistransformed. Robot Mode: Well, it definitely looks like a more articulated version of the G1 Prowl toy, albeit with clear light blue wheels instead of black, and missing the shoulder launchers. Oh, there's definitely slots for such, and the Smokescreen retool will have launchers to plug in there (amusingly, the official pictures as of June 2019 have launchers that are clearly 3D printed). It's missing some of the sticker details and the thighs are black rather than silver, but within the limits of modern paint app budgets it does a pretty good job. They even printed "POLICE" on the doors, albeit in Cybertronian characters. The main omission, aesthetically speaking, is the blue and yellow shield motif that G1 has on the shoulders, doors, and hood. 5" (12.5cm) tall in mostly black and white with some silver and clear blue, plus the red helmet crest. Clear light blue plastic is used on all four wheels, the roof on the backpack, and the non-foot parts of the boots. Black plastic is found on the upper arms, forearms, abdomen, pelvis, and thighs (but not the hips). The lightbar piece of the weapon seems to be colorless clear plastic, but it could be light blue and I can't tell thanks to the contrast with the paint on it. Everything else is white plastic. Extensive black paint on the chest (including the classic Japanese highway patrol peak) and the lower third of each door wing, plus the lower part of each foot. The doors have POLICE printed on them in Cybertronian script. The shins are backed by silver paint (including on parts that aren't visible on the front facing, they just blew silver paint into the entire interior), and have gloss white on the parts that aren't supposed to be pseudo-windows. Same deal with the backpack. The wheel hubs are painted silver. The lightbar has dark gunmetal at its center and sorta translucent red paint on the underside on the side bits. The face is silver with bright blue eyes, and the helmet crest "horns" are bright red. There's a lot of little yellow details, including the belt details, the chevrons on the biceps, and teeeeny little triangles on the chest above the molded not-headlights. I wouldn't have spotted those last bits except I was checking the toy out with a UV flashlight, and the yellow paint lights up brilliantly. Red Autobot symbols are printed on the right side of the chest and over the left knee, the printed red glows under UV while the red on the helmet doesn't. Oh, and Prowl has NO battle damage paint. I guess he just scowls at his paint job and it immediately reconstructs itself. The neck is a restricted ball joint, the waist is a swivel. The shoulders are universal joints, and the outer shell of the shoulder is hinged so that it can be rotated down to put the 5mm socket on the side. A lot of COMBAT stuff needs a side peg, but vehicle mode needs the shoulder piece on top in order to fit, and the instructions don't even show the piece folded down at any point. Upper arm swivels, hinge elbows, swivel wrists. Universal joint hips with the hip pieces mostly concealed inside thigh shell on their swivel joints. Hinge knees, and the usual sideways hinge to let the feet stay flat. Unfortunately, the 5mm sockets on the bottoms of the feet are way back in the heel spurs, so it's kinda awkward to have Prowl stand on "platform shoe" pieces. The ankles also have forwards/backwards hinges as part of transformation, giving the feet a lot better range of motion than on most Transformers. The fists can hold 5mm pegs, there's also 5mm sockets on the tops of the shoulders (adjustable), the outer faces of the boots, the outer faces of the forearms, and the bottom of the backpack (the lightbar stores there). There's 3mm studs on the fronts of the shoulders and the top of the left forearm. The connection pegs on the backs of the door wings are also 3mm, so you could attach thrust-like Fire Blasts there for weird jetpack action. The 3mm socket is in the small of the back rather than on the pelvis. The W-45 is basically a white version of the G1 rifle, toned down a bit in terms of protrusions. 2" (5cm) long and made of a single piece of white plastic, with a 5mm peg grip at the very back and a 5mm socket on top at the back. The muzzle ends in the usual 3mm stud. There's also a rectangular peg on the underside where a magazine or energy cell might go. The lightbar is 1.25" (3cm) wide and made of a single piece of clear plastic. It has a 5mm peg on the bottom, and a rectangular slot on top. The canonical "Axe Mode" involves putting the lightbar into the 5mm socket on top...and that's it. A bad joke, really, as the muzzle flares out to more than 5mm so the weapon can't even be held by any other location, much less in a way that actually looks like an axe. The lightbar can attach on the underside using the rectangular peg, this is how the rifle stores in vehicle mode. Either way, there's no real reason to take the lightbar off the back, unless you want to use it on the forearm as a buckler. It feels kinda like they designed this one early on before the whole COMBAT idea was solidified. Transformation: Unhitch the abdomen and pull the chest up off the head, closing the panel that the head poked through. The arms fold in on the sides with the head betweeh the shoulders. Rotate the waist and fold up the legs, then snap the doors shut to lock the rear half in place. It takes a little practice to do it smoothly, but nothing threatened to fall off. Going back to robot mode is equally easy for the most part, but it takes uncomfortably high force to pop open the panel in the center of the hood. Not "more than a kid can exert," more like "Am I pushing in the right direction or am I about to snap it off?" Altmode: A sleek cruiser with the sort of not-windows seen on Optimus Prime. A very long front end, to the point that the windshield starts barely forwards of the halfway point. There's no actual roof, the silver-backed clear plastic just goes all the way over the top, with the lightbar plugging into it. 4.75" (12cm) long, mostly white on top and black along the bottom edge. Unlike a LOT of Transformers with a duotone scheme, there's no unpleasant unpainted gaps in the black stripe due to "unpaintable plastic". The interface between the white plastic and the white paint on edges of the clear pieces is noticeable, but not horribly so. The Velocitron-ish clear wheels are a nice touch, and while it still looks mostly like an Earth vehicle with some odd paint on it, it's a little more plausible than Sideswipe or Optimus Prime (or a lot of the MicroMasters). No new paint, but all the colors line up nicely in this mode. Still no battle damage paint, yay! The only standard connector is the 5mm socket on the roof for the lightbar, but the rifle is designed to connect on top of the lightbar. The non-standard vent-detailed slots from the upper torso are now on the edges of the hood. The 3mm socket from the back is concealed, but the forearm 5mm sockets are accessible for mounting on some action bases. No 3mm studs aside from the rifle muzzle, so no one's tagging him with squibs. The ground clearance is nearly zero, so it slides as much as it rolls. The snap-in wheels are not to blame, they spin okay. Overall: While not terribly fancy, it's a good solid mold...fortunate given how many copies of it are going to be put out. Nothing falls off, good stability in both modes. Even the weapon isn't really a problem as long as you accept that it's not really COMBAT-style. Dave Van Domelen, spent way too long on this review, thanks to a few weeks of not really feeling review-y (including nearly a week of passing a small gallstone, ick). Now to Galaxy Force Optimus Prime.