Dave's Transformers Galactic Odyssey Rant: Encounter 5 Botropolis Rescue Mission Ironworks (redeco) Overair (Airwave redeco) Unnamed missile (Doubledealer accessory redeco) Fuzer (redeco) Autobot Blast Master (redeco) Moonrock (Direct-Hit redeco) Missile Master (Power Punch retool) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/GalOd5 Man, I am getting tired of typing "Odyssey" at this point. Anyway, while the Micron set went out of its way to avoid name reuse, this set just sort of gives up and reuses Overair anyway, plus keeping the original names for half the figures. TFWiki speculates that at least some of the intended names fell through on trademark checks, so Ironworks and Overair were fallback positions. I suppose one fan-naming trick would be to call them Barrage and Heave so that all six of the Astro Squad are in play. The decos of Fuzer and Blast Master seem to be an homage to Storm Jet (red and white). Overair doesn't seem to be a particular homage, other than "look kinda like the G1 box art without being the same colors as Airwave". Ironworks's new deco is inspired by Sky Lynx, which led at least one person to bodge together a Sky Lynx-ish combined form for Ironworks and Overair so they could claim falsely to have already found him. Suggested alternate names if you want all of the four reused-name ones to be new characters: Crucible (Ironworks), Launchpad (Overair), Stormer (Fuzer), Jetter (Blast Master). https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeE1 - Ironworks https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeE2 - Airwave https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/MicroE2 - Astro Squad https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/Micro5 - Battle Squad https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LDoubledealer - Doubledealer CAPSULES $60 price point, so you basically get the missile as a bonus. Kinda the reverse of the Exclusive Tax that some WfC sets have suffered under. Ironworks: Original mold was mildly recommended. This is an interesting new look, although I wish they'd come up with a new name. Overair: Original mold was recommended. This looks a bit out of place color-wise in robot mode, but works well in base modes. Fuzer and Autobot Blast Master: Original molds were mildly recommended. Okay looking redecos, too bad they didn't get new names. Moonrock and Missile Master: Original molds were recommended. Decent plastic choices, and a minor but important retool. Set overall: While a lot of the Galactic Odyssey sets felt like a place to dump a wave 4 that wouldn't make it to stores, this one actually works with the theme. No must-get figures, but a coherent set. Recommended. RANTS Packaging: The biggest of the five sets, since it has two Deluxes and two Micromaster pairs, plus the bonus missile. 14" (36cm) wide, 8" (20cm) tall, and 2.5" (6.5cm) deep. The Botropolis sigil is roughly hexagonal with a tower in the middle (with spiky bits that might be defense guns) flanked by two leaning towers. The map inside the lid isn't significantly bigger than the ones on sets 1 and 4, it just has a little more room around the edges. Inside, Overair is in the upper left, with Moonrock and Missile Master at its feet. Overair's second tower piece is to the right of Overair's legs, and Missile Master's missile is to the right of MM. Just off center along the top are Fuzer and Blast Master, with Ironworks below them and his gun to his left, next to Overair's tower bit. The Doubledealer missile is along the right edge. All of the figures are packaged in robot mode. The instructions have construction site, communications tower, and a new defense base mode for Ironworks. Ironworks gets most of the front side of the rather large sheet, with Missile Master and Moonrock along the bottom edge (they do get combined vehicle and weapon modes). Overair dominates the back, but just has the same three modes as on Airwave's instructions. Blast Master and Fuzer are in the lower left, and then they get a bit where they attach to the Doubledealer missile, and then to Overair's airport mode, which is then shown connecting to the construction site as a combined not-quite- Countdown Base. There's pictures around of a more unified space base mode, some from early official materials, some fan creations. Card info: Basically Gobotron according to the card. I guess the Go-Brillium bit is to explain how Go-Bots in the cartoon just sort of bent without needing joints. Roving Comet | >Terrain: Mobile and densely populated city >Sector: Outer Rim 1 >Coordinates: Zone 3, District [18,36], Aspect 4 >Known Hazards: Rogue mercenaries >Primary Lifeforms: Go-Bots >Resources: Go-Brillium, a flexible metallic element, detected >Key Data: Civilization built on a mobile comet...inhabitants serve as protectors for other planets in need. Amazon Entry: ENCOUNTER 5 - BOTROPOLIS RESCUE MISSION: Sky Lynx is in trouble and a team of Autobots are on a mission to rescue him; They encounter a roving comet called Botropolis and travel on it to search the universe for Sky Lynx. >> Sky Lynx is in trouble and, after being sucked through a volatile rift, could be anywhere in the Universe. Overair, Ironworks, and members of the Astro Squad are tasked with the mission to find an rescue the lost Sky Lynx. >> They encounter a roving comet called Botropolis, a constantly moving and densely populated city. They set up base on the traveling civilization and use its mobile nature to search the universe for signs of Sky Lynx. AUTOBOT: IRONWORKS Assortment: Galactic Odyssey 5 Altmodes: Battle Station, Construction Site Transformation Difficulty: Depends on what configuration you want. Previous Name Use: G1, Gen:ER Previous Mold Use: Gen:ER Packaging: Four ties on the robot, with the crane piece in place on the right arm. One tie on the combined gun. Color Swaps: Not simple, unfortunately. The ramp gray becomes more of a semimetallic gunmetal, but everything else plays mix and match. White plastic is used for the head, most of the torso shoulder joints, shoulders, left bicep and elbow joint, right forearm, gun back half, hips, thighs. Dark red plastic is used on the right bicep/elbow, the crane hook, the chest peg, the peg inside the chest, the shovel arm, the spine, and the base of the neck. Dark blue plastic is used on the left shoulder armor, left forearm/fist, gun front part, pelvis, and the boots aside from their ramp panels. Paint Apps: White on the left fist, and unexplicably on the rear of the pelvis. Gunmetal on most of the gun front, part of the gun back, details on the fronts of the shoulders, the faceplate, the outer face of the left forearm armor, and the hydraulic piston details on the right forearm. Very light gray paint on the centerlines of the toes, the vent detailing on the chest/shovel underside, and a bit on the right shoulder front. Dark red on the kneecaps and stripes flanking the head. There's details printed in black and dark red on the top of the torso, meant for construction base mode or any other where the shovel stays on top of the chest as a roof. The visor is bright blue. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. Other Notes: The instructions don't show the new mode from scratch, but rather starting from the communications tower mode, but it's easy enough to figure out from the diagrams. Like the comm tower, it has some connectors upside down, but they have the single-tab parts available so you can connect right-side-up AIRport ramps to them at an offset. Sadly, with just one copy, there's no other good way to attach the turret part aside from the construction base mode (the hook can sort of replace the rear part of the gun as a leg, but if you want any real stability you need to keep the front gun part as a brace on the tower. Overall: Interesting look, although I do kinda wish they'd found a new name for the new deco. AUTOBOT: OVERAIR Assortment: Galactic Odyssey 5 Altmode: Airport, Battle Station Transformation Difficulty: Depends on what configuration you want. Previous Name Use: Gen:Siege Previous Mold Use: Gen:ER Packaging: Four ties on the robot mode, plus some serious blister shaping around the shoulders. One tie on the spare tower piece. Color Swaps: Dark blue stays the same, but is a good mate to the dark blue on Ironworks. The ramp pieces and other light gray parts become a gunmetal that matches Ironwork's new look. The yellow-orange becomes a dark slightly metallic brownish gray, with the exception of the neck joint, the chest peg and the knee pegs. Those become a slightly golden yellow. The slightly metallic medium gray gets a little darker. Paint Apps: Gold paint on the tower pieces (aside from the pegs), the face, and the chest machinery. Dark red is used on the chest opening borders, the panels on the fronts of the thighs, and some stripes on the ramp pieces that are on the outer faces of the boots. The rest of the ramp pieces have canary yellow stripes and some details, and the insteps of the boots have black and yellow hazard stripes. The various tank treads are painted dark gunmetal. The underside of the torso is painted the same very light gray used on Ironworks. The eyes are bright blue, and there's a red and white Autobot symbol on the ramp bit that's shoulder armor. The other ramp bit on the left forearm has three yellow chevrons. Some of the windows molded on the back are painted bright blue. In airport mode, the hazard stripes end up together in the middle. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. A pity they didn't try to come up with a new base mode for this to go along with the new one for Ironworks. Other Notes: And here I put Decepticon symbols on my Overair Micromaster from the Target set.... Overall: On its own it doesn't really look like it goes with Sky Lynx, but it connects up okay to Ironworks in terms of colors. The Missile: Held into the blister with a single tie. Color Swaps: It's all white plastic. Paint Apps: The back 1.75" (4.5cm) is coated in dark gunmetal paint, and there's a red Autobot symbol on the nosecone, on the side opposite the 5mm pegs. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. Other Notes: Officially, it goes onto the fold-up peg on the roof of Overair's airport mode, but rotating the right arm piece under one ramp bit to bring a 5mm peg pointed up works better IMO. You don't launch your rocket from the control center roof, you offset it a bit. Space Station Modes: In theory, the two Modulators combine to form a space station or something like Countdown Base with the help of the Doubledealer missile. The official version just plugs the construction base to the airport and then flips up the peg on the roof of the airport to stick the missile. This seems unwise, so I fiddled with it and used the shoulder peg off to the side to hold the missile. Plus I swapped some parts on the construction base to make it a defense cannon. http://www.dvandom.com/images/botropolisbase.JPG for my version. Note, if you move the tower piece so it's held in Overair's left fist, you can take the original Astro Squad shuttle and mount it on the 3mm stud there. AUTOBOT: FUZER Assortment: Galactic Odyssey 5 Altmode: Space Shuttle Front Transformation Difficulty: 7 steps Previous Name Use: Gen:ER Previous Mold Use: Gen:ER Packaging: One tie around the waist. Color Swaps: Blue plastic becomes black, white becomes very light warm gray. Paint Apps: In robot mode, the helmet and guns are painted gloss black, the chest is silver with some dark red (close to the "spice red" paint I have) on the abdomen. The faceplate is silver (eyes left black), the toes are dark red. Vehicle mode has gloss black on the nose and a bit along the sides above the winglets, dark red on the winglets, and bright light yellow on the windows. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. Other Notes: The window color is a bad choice, it's almost invisible. Overall: Well, it's kinda different. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT BLAST MASTER Assortment: Galactic Odyssey 5 Altmode: Space Shuttle Rear Transformation Difficulty: 8 steps Previous Name Use: Gen:ER (G1 without the "Autobot" in front) Previous Mold Use: Gen:ER Packaging: One tie around the waist. Color Swaps: Blue becomes black, white becomes very light warm gray. Paint Apps: In robot mode, dark red on the forearms/fists and the helmet. The faceplate is black, with the eyes the same red as the helmet. Vehicle mode has dark red on the entire tail and most of the upper surfaces of the wings, leaging just small triangles into which the red Autobot symbols go. The red wraps around to the edges of the underside of the wings. Silver on the two main thruster nozzles, dark red on the one in between them. As with the original, no paint on the molded cockpit windows. Unlike the original, this one lacks the NASA worm logo on the thruster housings (or any logo at all). Maybe they got a call from NASA about the allowed usage of the logo. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. Other Notes: This one has the chest peg the right way around, confirming my suspicion on the original version that it was an assembly error. Overall: Again it's okay, if not exciting. Combined Shuttle Notes: It visually works out well enough, no weird gaps in colors or anything. Should've gone with gold windows to match Sky-Lynx, though. AUTOBOT: MOONROCK Assortment: Galactic Odyssey 5 Altmode: Truck Front Transformation Difficulty: 5 steps Previous Name Use: G1 Previous Mold Use: Gen:Siege, Gen:ER Packaging: One tie around the waist. Color Swaps: Black and magenta become a dark gunmetal (darker than the ramps on the two Modulators), blue becomes a dark red that's reasonably close to the paint color used on Fuzer and Blast Master. Paint Apps: The piece that has the pelvis, torso front and head is completely coated in light warm gray paint (same as on Ironworks). The abdomen is painted dark gunmetal over this, and the face is painted blue. In vehicle mode, the windows and a panel on the roof are painted light warm gray paint, while the vent details on the sides about halfway back are painted gunmetal. No paint on the molded rooftop turret. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. Other Notes: None. Overall: Definitely better-looking than the bright yellow one from the Micron set. AUTOBOT: MISSILE MASTER Assortment: Galactic Odyssey 5 Altmode: Missile Truck Rear Transformation Difficulty: 4 steps Previous Name Use: G1 Previous Mold Use: Gen:Siege, Gen:ER Packaging: One tie around the figure's waist, one tie around the missile. The launch rail is already attached to the figure, rather than being separate as the gun was for the Micron set's redeco. Color Swaps: Black and magenta become dark gunmetal, blue becomes dark red. Paint Apps: The round details on the chest and the face are painted dark blue (or maybe just regular blue with the dark plastic under it making it look darker). Gunmetal paint on the shins between the 5mm sockets. Vehicle mode has gunmetal on the details over the rear fenders, and light gray on the panels on the front end below the connection socket. Mold Changes: Hey, this one does have a retool, ooh. The gun is replaced by two pieces, a ladder-like rail that snaps into the same spot as the original's gun, and a missile that attaches to the peg on top of the rail and is stabilized by two little semicircular tabs. I get the feeling that the rail was actually intended for the Roadburner, since it would make the vehicle look a little more like a firetruck. Both new pieces are dark gunmetal plastic. The rail is a little more than an inch long (just under 3cm), the missile is 1.75" (4.5cm) long and covered almost entirely in light gray paint. The rail has a short 5mm peg on top at the back end. The missile has a 5mm socket to go on that peg, and a rectangular top fin. There's a 3mm stud at the back end of the missile. Other Notes: Some flash on the 3mm stud at the end of the missile. Overall: It's nice to get at least one retool for the set. Too bad we couldn't get the other pair of the Astro Squad somewhere, with a radar dish retool for the back end of the truck. Combined Missile Truck: Kinda lacking in paint, but the non-extreme plastic color at least lets the details of the mold come out. The instructions don't point out that you have to remove the missile for the vehicle's weapon mode, nor does it give any advice on where to put it. Too bad the 3mm stud wasn't on the end of a shallow 5mm peg, it could have been put into one of the 5mm sockets at the business end of the weapon mode. A couple of little clip-like details on the underside of the missile can sort of clamp around boot walls, but it's unstable and seems more accidental than anything else, they're mainly there to keep the missile aligned on the rail. The tab on top of it can wedge into some 5mm sockets, but it doesn't seem to have a dedicated home on any vehicle. It's a bit unstable in a 5mm socket anyway. It sort of fits inside the arm hollows of Missile Master's robot mode? Set Overall: So ends the Galactic Odyssey, on a decently thematic set. Sure, Biosfera had clones that made for an automatic theme, but that's not really trying. Micron was just a grab bag of influences, an while Paradron had a solid theme it also had a bad Arcee mold in it. Dominus really just felt like "we need somewhere to throw Barricade, who can we have him chasing?" Botropolis might've been a little stronger if they'd come up with a new name for Ironworks, though. Anyway, mostly okay-to-good molds in competent recolors and one little retool. Pricy, but worth considering. Dave Van Domelen, now done with Earthrise just in time for Kingdom wave 2 to start showing up...sigh.