Dave's Movie Deluxe TF Rant - "Wave 1" Wreckage - 8 wheeled personnel carrier Swindle - Saturn Ion (sorta maybe) Scorponok - HUGZ! Er, mecha-scorpion Autobot Jazz - Pontiac Solstice Bonecrusher - Buffalo mineclearing vehicle Bumblebee - 1976 Chevy Camaro (2009 version comes later) Barricade - Saleen S281 Mustang Police Model Brawl - M-1 Abrams fantasy mod Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Deluxe1 Update 6/8/07: Review completed. Update 6/9: Bonecrusher notes. Update 7/2: Added scale references for several vehicle modes. wikicars.org was helpful in this. Update 7/3: No change to the review, just noting that Brawl self- identifies as Devastator in the movie. But the voice credit at the end is for Brawl. Oops. Update 7/10: Whoa. Undocumented feature on Wreckage...the swords combine! WARNING: I'm hearing about an assembly problem with a lot of Bumblebees. Not sure yet if it's an issue with every toy, or just some waves, or just bad luck with quality control. Note, as far as Hasbro is concerned, these eight toys come out in different combinations as Wave 2, Wave 2 rev 1, Wave 3, and Wave 3 rev 1. But thanks to shipping compression caused by the street date thing (even though the June 2 street date was later waived for these), they all pretty much hit at the same time anyway. And I consider the Protoforms to be Wave 0. Hence, this is all Wave 1 to me, and I will be "incorrect" in future waves as well. Just call me a Wave Crusher. ;) CAPSULES Wreckage: Good vehicle, fairly simple transformation, very nice robot mode. Strongly recommended. $12.99 at Kay Bee (ow). (Later note: got it while in Wisconsin visiting my parents, there's still no Kay Bees anywhere near where I now live.) Swindle: Iffy (and unlicensed) vehicle mode, good transformation and interesting robot mode. Recommended. $9.96 at Wal-Mart. Scorponok: Very cool beast mode. Simplistic transformation and the robot mode is pretty much a write-off. Still, recommended for the beast mode alone. $9.99 from Amazon. Autobot Jazz: Good vehicle mode. Transformation tries something new, at least, but the robot mode suffers for it. Wait for the G1-style recolor. Mildly recommended. $9.99 from Amazon. Bonecrusher: Nice, real but weird vehicle mode, okay transformation, very weird but good robot mode. I don't like it quite as much as Wreckage, but strongly recommended. $9.99 from Amazon. Bumblebee: Tolerance issues in vehicle mode, interesting transformation, good robot mode. WARNING: many defective ones are floating around. With that caveat, recommended. $9.99 from Amazon. Barricade: Good vehicle, good robot, somewhat dodgy spring gimmick, rather hard to get back into vehicle mode. Comes with mini-Frenzy. Recommended. $9.99 from Amazon. Brawl: Really good vehicle mode, decent transformation. Robot mode could be good, but hobbled by some engineering flaws. Still, recommended. $9.99 from Amazon. RANTS Packaging: The same basic layout as the Protoforms, but with exceptions, of course. Instead of "Movie Preview Figure" along the top of the blister on the front, it says "Automorph Technology" (more on that in a bit). The Decepticons all have movie-style Decepticon symbols molded into the right side of the blister, with the four-sided eyes (some Protoform Starscreams reportedly had G1-style triangular eyes). The card front has the eye closeup used on the Legends toys. Next to the name on the blister front is a closeup of the face that only a mother could love. They're all ugly, it's the aesthetic. The co-sells on the back vary, what with the two waves and two revisions. Presumably the co-sells are accurate for a given wave, but no guarantees. However, given that I didn't see Bonecrusher or Swindle at Kay Bee where I got Wreckage, and neither of those are on his package back, it seems a reasonable bet. Where the vehicle is officially licensed, that is noted on the cardback. However, not all are licensed...I *really* hope there was nowhere to license Scorponok from, to be honest. ;) And while Wreckage may be closely based on a real vehicle, it's not licensed. As mentioned in Swindle's entry, I suspect that they didn't make separate licensing deals for any non-movie toys. All toys in this set have the "Advanced Conversion" level 3 transformation difficulty, which means pretty much nothing. Scorponok, for instance, is simpler than some McDonald's Happy Meal toys. Automorph Technology: In theory, this means that there's some bit on the toy you push or pull or otherwise manipulate in order to auto-transform some of the toy. These aren't total auto-transforming toys, we're talking stuff like a leg or an arm detail. However, I'm told by others that these features aren't always mentioned in the instructions, even if the package says they have automorph. So I'll be including a separate section in each review about the Automorph Feature once I find it or get told about it. The packaging does not list function or motto, so I'll make up my own based on the bio note. DECEPTICON: WRECKAGE Altmode: Personnel Carrier Licensor: None Previous Name Use: Armada (Mini-Con), Energon (Mini-Con) Package Callouts: Extending Cannon!, Spring-Loaded Blades! Function: Warrior Motto: "Why settle for seeing an enemy die when you can FEEL it?" Just as DECEPTICON BRAWL is the hot-blooded, indiscriminate destroyer among the DECEPTICONS, WRECKAGE is the stone-cold fighter. Though he is as capable as any DECEPTICON of wholesale destruction, he carries twin blades for a reason. That is, he likes to be up close to a target. He lives to hear the shriek of metal on metal as his swords tear through AUTOBOT armor, and the sparking sizzle of shorting electronics as wires and conduits are severed. STR 7 INT 6 SPD 4 END 8 RNK 6 COUR 7 FRB 6 SKL 7 Avg 6.375 The swords are held in just by the blister shape. The vehicle is held in with two twist ties. You really only need to undo the front one to get the toy out, though. No rubber bands. Aside: while there was an APC in the team with the original Armada Wreckage, that Wreckage was the tank-tread guy. Ah well. Close enough. Of course, the second Wreckage was an aircraft. Vehicle Mode: Bears a strong resemblance to the Light Armored Vehicle "LAV-C2" variant, Command and Control, since that variant is one of the few LAV-25s without a turret. Howeverm the sides are more vertical and the rear higher: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/lav-c2.htm. Or maybe a LAV-M mortar configuration. 5" (12.5cm) long, 2.25" (5cm) wide and 2.25" (5cm) tall if you count to gun mounted on top. Most of the armor is white plastic, or at least a VERY light gray, with medium gray camo patterns painted on it. A bit of clear ruby red plastic is behind the driver's compartment, and behind that is the light gray plastic gun. Probably meant to be a 7.62mm machine gun, but I'd also accept flamethrower, based on the venting pattern on the barrel. A bit of light gray plastic is also visible as hinges on the sides, but they blend in with the camo reasonably well. The wheels are all very dark gray plastic 19mm in diameter and 10mm thick counting the rims. A silver Decepticon symbol is printed on the front armor, and is very suble next to the gray camo pattern. The hubcaps are silver as well. A certain amount of robot kibble is visible from the sides, but the actual armored part is well put together to avoid much in the way of seams or holes. The stowed swords poke out a bit, but are molded to look like seecondary gun barrels. There's what look to be exhaust pipes at the back from some shin detailing. As this is a non-turretted LAV, there's not much in the way of posability. The gun can tip forward on its transformation joint and the wheels all roll, but that's it. It's kinda hard to get all eight wheels on the surface at once, though. The rear door does open, but it folds up instead of down, and there's no interior to speak of, just robot kneecaps. Anyway, once you get all the myriad pegs in the proper places, it's a very solid vehicle mode. The swords cannot be deployed in this mode, nor do they really stay clipped into their slots when the blades are out (but they do look kinda like gunbarrels while stowed). It could use a touch of paint on the driver's vision slits and maybe a dirty brown spray wash around the bottom, but these are minor quibbles. Transformation: Start with the Automorph (see below). Then the rear armor deck folds up to let the legs unfold. The swords will probably fall out along the way unless you're really careful, but there's not much reason to be, since they don't look all that good "holstered" in robot mode anyway. Pretty simple transform, all told. Automorph: While not picked out as such in the instructions, they do show the Automorph. Once the arms are cleared to the sides, just push the vehicle's gun down into the clear red block, this will auto-transform the torso and head. Robot Mode: 5.5" (13.5cm) tall, good for a Deluxe, and no bizarre proportioning. A bit of a backpack from the rear armor chunk, but it's not aesthetically a big deal. It's also possible to use the transformation jointing to make him more "digitigrade" and thus a little shorter. The torso and shins are made of white plastic, and the vehicle armor bits end up on the shoulders, thighs and backpack. The head, some of the inner torso, the elbow joints, the hands, the pelvis, the knee joints and the feet are light gray. The upper arms, lower arms and thighs are a slightly metallic dark orange-red plastic. The body of each sword is the same dark gray as the wheels (oh, and there's 2 wheels each on the forearms and boots). Clear red plastic is used for the rear of the head (and lightpiped eyes), belly gun and sword blades. Yes, he has a belly gun. The red block that pushes forward for the Automorph pokes out as a cannon from his belly. And he IS happy to see you, for that matter. Other moldings of interest include semi-open hands with 5mm peg gaps in 3/4 circle, oddly shaped feet, a sort of crystal blade effect on the swords, and a head that could pass for Megatron or maybe Bludgeon (and I've already seen a digibash of Wreckage into Bludgeon). While the face mold looks like the character portrait on the package, it's significantly simplified and non-movied, a big improvement. There's some gold paint on the pelvis and feet, and some gold details around the face on the helmet. The face itself is painted silver, but it's really hard to tell, since it's close to the light gray of the helmet plastic itself. The vents on the abdomen flanking the gun are painted silver as well. There's no paint on any of the red parts, it may be a plastic that doesn't take paint well. Poseability is good, although several of the joints are limited. The head is on a ball joint, but a piece behind it keeps the head from looking up or even straight across, so he's always looking down on someone. The waist turns, but only a little because of his "tail". Shoulders are ball joints, but you have to be careful moving them to avoid un-Automorphing. The elbows are double hinges, so the arms can bend 180 degrees. The wrists turn, but only a little. Hips are ball joints, knees are hinges. There's a reverse hinge below the knee for transformation, useful for digitgrading. The ankles are restricted ball joints. The panels that hold the blades in vehicle mode need to be moved out of the way to get full knee bending. Pulling a light gray button back on the sword piece makes the blade spring out...in "Head Punch Luthor" style, it's trivial for him to cut himself when the blade springs out. It has a notch for the trigger, otherwise looks like a bundle of energy rods. It has a 5mm peg on the side of the dark gray part, which is meant to go in a 5mm hole on the bottom side of the forearm, but can also be held in the hands. Undeployed and held in the hand it looks more like a pistol. The main disad of the Automorph feature is that the upper body isn't really stable. If the backpack piece actually pegged solidly onto the shoulders instead of just resting there, it would be a big improvement. There's pieces that mesh together well, but don't quite hold together. A pity, it would be trivial to re-engineer this to click together without really impacting the look of the vehicle mode. Despite the lack of upper arm or thigh swivels, it's a very posable figure. The oddly shaped feet support a variety of poses, too. [Later note: undocumented feature! The swords combine, like yin-yang into a double-ended sword staff. It can't fold closed while combined, of course. See Jin Saotome's repaint of Wreckage, next to last pic: http://www.angelfire.com/mech/jinsaotome/JinsDangerousToys/Wreckage.html And it's also been pointed out to me that this combined blade can be pegged into the center of one of the forearm wheels to become a spinning blade! Does Wreckage's mojo never cease?] Overall: Has some stability issues, and it can be tough getting everything aligned when transforming back to vehicle mode, but it's a well-designed toy and looks good despite the movie aesthetic. Pick this one up for sure. DECEPTICON: SWINDLE Altmode: "Saturn Ion" Licensor: None Previous Name Use: G1, G2, Armada, Cybetron, Alternator, Universe Railbot Package Callouts: "Extending Torso Cannon!" Function: Distraction Motto: (Beavis-like laughter) SWINDLE is just one of many DECEPTICONS brought to Earth by MEGATRON to cause as much trouble as possible for the AUTOBOTS. He's not a great fighter, but he makes up for it in the amount of pleasure he takes in blowing stuff up. His extending torso cannon fires explosive rounds, and he leaps around like a madman, firing randomly in a fight. Battling SWINDLE is like battling a crazy bundle of living dynamite! STR 6 INT 1 SPD 8 END 6 RNK 2 COUR 5 FRB 9 SKL 3 Avg 5 The packaging, instead of having "Automorph Technology" listed above the blister, has "As seen in the TRANSFORMERS Video Game!" with a note at the bottom saying he's not in all versions. Also, while this has been identified as a Saturn Ion, there's no official licensing. Checking a picture of the Ion coupe I can see how they did the "almost but not quite" treatment here. I initially thought it was clearly meant to be an Ion, but there's differences here and there, just enough to avoid needing the license. A reader has pointed me to the Chevy Cobalt, which does look to be a closer match (although still not exact), but that brings up more issues. Saturn, while part of GM, at least maintains the illusion of being a separate company, and may well have decided not to get in on the movie tie-in stuff. But Chevy is at the forefront of GM's TF movie tie-in stuff...so why would Hasbro need to make a not-quite-Cobalt? An idea that occurred to me was that the tie-in deal was *only* for cars that actually appear in the movie, so for stuff like video games or toys that only appear as toys, Hasbro is on its own. Paramount arranged the deal with GM et al, not Hasbro, and Hasbro lacks the clout, cash or desire to swing new deals for non-movie toys. Anyway, both the Ion and the Cobalt share a lot of parts, so it could be either if you want. :) The logo positioning on hood instead of grille does seem more Saturn than Chevy. Altmode quibbles aside, Swindle can be outsmarted by a Scrapmetal. That, combined with the head, screams "drone trooper!" to me. It also screams, "We needed to put the Swindle name on SOMETHING this year to avoid losing it," as this name makes no sense for the character. I have to wonder if Frenzy or Runamuck was suggested by the designers, but overridden by the IP lawyers. Two twist-ties and an Alternators-like band around the center. Vehicle Mode: More or less a Saturn Ion or Chevy Cobalt coupe (two-door) in red with silver "ricer" decaling on the doors. 5.5" (14cm) long (Later note: and therefore 1:32 scale), it looks...cheap. The color match between the red plastic and the red paint on clear plastic pieces is pretty bad, and there's ugly seams on the hood and trunk where pieces are screwed together. The trunk doesn't stay closed very well, at least on mine. The center front of the hood flips as an automorph feature, so it doesn't really lock in place and there's a big seam at the rear part of it that makes it appear to have a weird pseudo-supercharger. Basically, there's a lot of little quality issues that make this feel like the red-headed stepchild of the wave. Anyway, the front and back are red plastic. The roof and doors are clear light blue plastic with red paint over most of the parts...at least the UV response of the red paint and the red plastic are the same. The headlights are also clear light blue plastic. The wheels are black plastic, and the trunk hinge and gimmick trigger are light gray plastic. The trunk cannon that pops out the back is clear light blue plastic, and has the same "bundle of rods" appearance as Wreckage's swords. Nice to see a consistent aesthetic, especially on non-movie toys. Silver paint/printing is used for decos on the sides and Decepticon symbols on the rear side fenders...makes me think of My Little Pony brands. The grille is painted black, but not very well, and the seam isn't painted over well. The hood ornament is raised and painted in purple and white as a Decepticon symbol. The license plate is a flat molded raised bit, but no paint. If you press the button on the rear window, the cannon pops out of the trunk, presumably as a booster engine (although the instructions call it a cannon in both modes). Okay, and I just managed to get the trunk to close all the way without trying. Yay inconsistency! The doors sort of open, but doing so keeps the front wheels from turning, and it's not like this is an Alternator with seats inside. I may do some auto body work on this guy. At least touch up the grille paint, put on a license plate, and maybe see if I can "bondo" out the seams. Transformation: Pull the doors straight out and pop down the front end, the head automorphs. The right and left thirds of the rear swing apart and unfold into legs. And the massive robowang in the middle swings up and around to become the belly. Oh, and the waist spins 180 degrees too. The torso just sort of hinge-frictions together, there's no pegs or other locking mechanisms. There's a few other details and tweaks, such as the rear window sections swinging 45 degrees to become thigh armor. The roof makes a sort of half-cape, and has to be pulled up to access the gimmick button. Automorph: Head flips out as soon as the hood is dropped a little. Robot Mode: He's happy to see you. Especially if you don't transform his belly gun properly. :) Enough innuendo. A somewhat hunchbacked looking 5.5" (14cm) tall, thanks to the fact that the head is short and there's really no neck to speak of. The proportions in general are deliberately not quite human, further emphasizing the drone-like nature of the character. The car doors form wings off the elbows, and he has big high heel boot feet. The arms, thighs, abdomen and some of the inner bits are medium gray plastic, as is the eye ring. One classy touch is that the armor pieces aren't limited to just car kibble...there's little red plastic armor plates on the hips too. Visually matching this are red-painted armor plates on the forearms (but these aren't separate plastic pieces). The trunk gun is now on the abdomen, with the trunk back flap folded down as pelvis armor. He has lightpiping for his single Shockwave-like eye. In fact, there's been some suggestions we might get a Shockwave recolor of this mold later on. Between the inhuman "camera" head, the shape of the hands, the akimbo arms, the high heel boots and the belly gun, I really get an "Archer" (Classic Battletech) mech feel from this. AKA the Spartan in Robotech. The head is actually on a ball joint, but it has almost no freedom to move at all. The only reason I know it's a ball joint is because I was pulling up on the head to see if the neck telescoped up, and the head popped up. :) The shoulders are ball joints, but the upper arms are a weird shape that precludes any sort of straight-arm pose. The elbows are swivels, and the wrists are restricted ball joints. The waist turns, the hips are ball joints, the knees and ankle are swivels. The button for the belly gun is in the small of the back now, and you have to flip up the roof a little to get at it. Ooh, and I just noticed that the underside of the roof piece is covered in circuit greebling details visible in robot mode. Might need to pick those out with paint too. Note that, unlike Wreckage, Swindle does not have hands that can carry a weapon. He totally relies on his belly gun. But he's a mook anyway, and so stupid he'd probably lose a hand weapon anyway. Or try to eat it, despite his total lack of a mouth. Overall: Vehicle mode is something of a writeoff, a beater. But the transformation is interesting, the robot mode neat in a miniony way, and rife with innuendo possibilities. Worth getting. DECEPTICON: SCORPONOK Altmode: Scorpion mech Licensor: Yeah, right. Previous Name Use: G1, BW, Energon Package Callouts: "Roll To Spin Drilling Fingers!" "Spring-loaded Stinger Attack!" Function: Hunter-Killer Motto: "NOMNOMNOM!" SCORPONOK is barely what the other TRANSFORMERS would even call alive. His core programming is only a tiny bit more complex than pure instinct. In most things, he acts almost entirely as an animal. He never speaks, and lives only to hunt and destroy. Unlike most of his fellow robots, he prefers his alternate mode with its energized stringer and drill-claws to his robot mode. Capable of burrowing through solid earth at nearly eighty miles per houw, he can be a terrifying opponent as he springs suddenly upon his target in a shower of dirt from the ground. STR 5 INT 2 SPD 6 END 8 RNK 3 COUR 6 FRB 5 SKL 3 Avg 4.75 And yet, he's still smarter than Swindle. I should note that Scorponok's transformation in the movie seems to be from scorpion to part of Blackout, with no actual humanoid mode, and the ad-hoc nature of his robot mode here really shows. There's no note on the front about Automorph technology, nor is there anything at all in that part of the blister. Doesn't come with the catalog, just instructions, which I suspect may be a feature of Wave 1. Two twist-ties hold the beast mode in place. Beast Mode: Called vehicle mode in the instructions. :) Being a curved beast sort of thing it's hard to give a size to, but if you flatten it out as much as possible, claws all the way forward, and stinger deployed, it reaches 12" (30cm) long. In a more regular pose, and ignoring the stinger shaft sticking back, it's 6.5" (16cm) long, 4.5" (11cm) wide and the stinger sits about 3" (8cm) high. In general, it looks like a robot scorpion wrapped around a jet turbine engine. (Later note: based on assumptions outlined in my review of Blackout, I think this Scorponok toy is about 1:30 scale. However, according to the official Movie Guide he's only 8' 8" long, which would make him 1:16 scale.) The bulk of it is various shades of metallic and non-metallic gray, with bronze little-legs, claws, front roller (under the head) and stinger shaft, and copper plastic on the head, turbine shaft, shoulders and "palms" of the claws. There's paint details in brass, copper and gold, plus red eyes on the head and red pseudo-eyes on the stinger. There's numerous decals printed in black and white, such as "NO STEP" on either side of the back just behind the head, "CAUTION [FUEL] FLAMMABLE" on either side of the head, and "RESCUE" on the flanks. Basically, the decos reinforce the idea that Scorponok's deal disguise mode is as part of Blackout, and that the scorpion is his "robot" mode. There's also a black Decepticon symbol right behind the head. The main gimmick involves rolling the toy along against rubberized wheels near the base of the tail. This makes the turbine shaft in the torso spin, which in turn spins the claws. A gearing ratio of a little more than 4:1 exists between the main shaft and the claws (i.e. turning the wheel once makes the claws turn a little more than four times). The secondary gimmick is the stinger, which is what we call a "prodder" in Attacktix parlance...a missile that can't actually leave its launcher, just shooting forward by part of its length. As with most scorpion TFs, it doesn't have the range to attack anything in front of it, just above it. Poseability is pretty good. The claws have universal shoulders, upper arm swivels and hinge elbows...and all the gearing inside lets things stay connected regardless of the pose. Some posing motions will make the claws spin, in fact. Makes for nifty gesturing. The claws can be bent back 90 degrees, but only if the "palm" is in the right position, lining the claw up with a gap in the "cuff". It also takes a fair amount of force to bend them back. Once this is done, the spinners are locked, and you can strip the gears pretty fast if you try to force it. Each little leg (he has three pairs of them, which is within the range of limbs for real scorpions) is on a restricted ball joint at its base, but that's it for posing. The head can nod up and down. The tail has a swivel at its base, two hinges spaced equally along the length, and then a combination of swivel and hinge at the tip to let the stinger "aim". Bonus Gimmick: There's two peg-holes on the back and a hexagonal bronze peg at the root of the tail that plug into the underside of Blackout, so that when you trigger Blackout's spinning rotor gimmick, Scorpy's claws spin. As some have already put it, Scorponok is a giant Mini-Con. Transformation: The flanks with the little scorpion legs fold down to become stubby robot legs. Fold the head down. Front claws become arms. That's it. Automorph: None. Barely any morph. Robot Mode: Well, they did what they could, given that Scorponok doesn't really transform in the movie and they wanted the beast mode to be as good as possible. Stands 4.75" (12cm) tall with stubby legs and big Popeye arms. Arms and head poseable as per beast mode. The hips are ball joints, there's swivels just below the hips, and the knees are hinges...and the tail simply can't get out of the way enough for this to matter much. Oh, some poses are possible and stable, but nothing really looks good. The spinning claws still work, but the tail stinger is effectively useless in this mode. Other Modes: Like BMac Scavenger, the fact he doesn't quite look like anything lets him look like everything, sorta. This may be the next inkblot toy. For instance, if you fold the robot legs down only halfway, fold the claws open and bend the claw-arms down so that the claws are toes, and turn the stinger around, you have a sort of dino mode. http://www.dvandom.com/images/scorpdino.JPG Alternately, use the opened claws as feet for a bipedal mode, the official robot legs as stumpy arms, and the tail as head for something like the dragonman Stikfas guy. Overall: A really good beast mode, but the transformation is pretty much just there so they can call it a Transformer. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT JAZZ Altmode: Pontiac Solstice Licensor: GM Previous Name Use: Heroes of Cybertron if you want to be strict; just "Jazz" is G1, G2, Universe Spychanger Package Callouts: "Telescoping Sword" "Spoiler Becomes Shield!" Function: Warrior Motto: "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing with style!" If it's worth doing, it's worth doing with style, thinks AUTOBOT JAZ. The coolest of the AUTOBOTS, he rolls into battle against the DECEPTICONS with slick moves and a banging sound system. There's no limit to his courage, and nothing he won't do in defense of Earth and the AllSpark. Drawing his blade, he prepares to bring the fight up close and personal with MEGATRON and his evil, metal soldiers. STR 6 INT 6 SPD 9 END 7 RNK 8 COUR 9 FRB 6 SKL 5 Avg 7 Hey, sometimes the motto's pretty much there already. :) Two twist-ties hold the car in place, one holds the "sword". Yeah, it's a sword. With a pistol grip and iron sights. Made to be mounted on the spoiler in car mode. Suuuuuure. Pontiac lawyers must've had a last minute "we don't want guns" talk with Hasbro. Vehicle Mode: 5.5" (14cm) long silvery gray Pontiac Solstice. (Later note: That makes him 1:28 scale.) The roof is made of clear aqua blue plastic with a pretty good paint match to the silvery gray, although the actual silvery gray plastic has metallic inclusions that give a swirling effect. The tires and some of the rear end are black plastic. There's not a lot of paint other than the silver-matching stuff, though. The headlights are light metallic blue, with yellow spots on the foglamps. The taillights and molded Pontiac symbol on the front are painted red. The turn signals might be red, or might be orange, it's a little hard to tell, as they're small and kinda airbrushed. There's black paint on the front grille and bits of venting on the sides. A lighter silver is painted on the rims of the wheels. The wheels roll smoothly, and the spoiler can be lowered (not that this does much good on its own), but there's no other usable joints in this mode. The "sword" clips onto the spoiler, so that joint does let it elevate to, um, point at higher targets. Certainly not SHOOT them, as it's a sword, not a sniper rifle. The "sword" is 2.5" (6.5cm) long when closed, and can telescope all the way out to 4.75" (12cm) long. Mounted on the car, it reminds me of the bulky child-safe gun mounted on the roof of G2 Jazz. Transformation: Pop up the trunk part, swing down the bulk of the car as legs (pull to lengthen, rotate and flip down feet). The hood and front side parts turn weirdly into arms, using sliding hinge things. Folding the roof down pushes levers forward for the Automorph. The trunk can either be left folded onto the back, attached to either shoulder via a peg into the center of a front wheel, or be clipped onto the "sword" via a part of that weapon that's not used for anything else, but also not described in the instructions. Automorph: When the roof is pushed down onto the back, it presses in a button that pops up the head and makes the chest shift (middle bit goes forward, side thirds slide towards the middle a little). Robot Mode: He's proportioned like an Energon Powerlinx between a Deluxe and a Mega...huge bulky legs and rather short torso with somewhat puny arms. 5.5" (14cm) tall, with the waist being at the 4" (10cm) high mark. While some of the robot-only parts are silvery gray (thighs, head, pelvis, some boot parts), a lot of it is black instead. There's some bronze paint at the waist, hips and boots, and red dots on the thighs. The head is actually mainly (if not all) clear bright blue plastic with silver paint on the helmet part and black on the face. There's a silver Autobot symbol almost invisible on the silvery-gray pelvis. Oddly, there's fake wheels molded in panels on the outsides of the feet, in addition to all four real wheels being visible in this mode. I suppose the rear wheels end up on the sides in movie robot mode, but have to be on the back to make things work in the toy. The head...is Not Jazz. It looks like he's got forward-swept bunny ears. And while I've seen some good kidbook adaptations of Jazz's face with a mouth, this one is just random puckered tech greebles. At least the lightpiping on the visor works really well. The hands are puny claw things sticking out between the hood panels that fold into the forearms. The weapon is held upside down in a peghole on the upper half of the arm, with the lower half having to sit at the side rather than underneath. Head is on a restricted ball joint, but the waist doesn't turn. The shoulders are universal, but on thin shafts sticking out to get clearance around the front end of the car. Elbows are hinges, forearms are a mess. The hips are solid universal joints, the knees are smooth hinges, and there's a swivel below each knee. The ankles are hinged, and the heel spurs can be lowered to support stances. Overall: Slick vehicle mode, and at least I'll give 'em points for trying something utterly new on the arm transformation, even if it fails on several levels. If you really want to try out this mold, though, I'd recommend waiting for the recolor in G1 colors, it looks a little more visually interesting. DECEPTICON: BONECRUSHER Altmode: Buffalo MPCV (Mine Protected Clearance Vehicle) Licensor: Force Protection Industries Previous Name Use: G1, G2, BW, Universe, Armada, Energon Package Callouts: "Spinning blades!" Function: Shock Trooper Motto: "HATE!" BONECRUSHER hates everything, and what BONECRUSHER hates, he destroys. He hates this planet, and all its inhabitants. He hates the AUTOBOTS for standing in his way. He even hates MEGATRON and the other DECEPTICONS; the only reason he stays with them is because MEGATRON scares him. Bonecrusher lives for the day when he's the only one left standing atop a pile of smoking rubble and shattered robots. STR 9 INT 5 SPD 5 END 10 RNK 6 COUR 8 FRB 7 SKL 5 Avg 6.875 Three twist-ties hold the vehicle mode in place. He's slightly mistransformed in package, his arm should be off to one side rather than centrally aligned in vehicle mode. Bonecrusher is kin to Urthlo the Hate-Bot. And if you're actually online reading this and not perusing hardcopies mouldering in a far future library of some sort, you've run across the "Bonecrusher Hates ****" meme. Vehicle Mode: This is a Buffalo, a dedicated mine-clearing vehicle manufactured by Buffalo Technical Solutions Group of Charlston SC for FPI. No fancy licensor logo on the cardback for Force Protection Industries, though. It looks kinda like a Hummvee crossed with a pickup truck, given six wheels and a big claw on the front. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/gstamids-0.htm is a good source of Buffalo info. [Later note: FPI's own page for the Buffalo is http://www.forceprotection.net/models/buffalo/ and has a Decepticon symbol on the one shown at the top of the page, at least as of June 2007.] It's 5.75" (14.5cm) long, and mainly made of a light tan desert-camo color. The claw has some taupe pieces, and the wheels are the same sort of tan gray that was used for Go-Bots wheels, or close to it. Several pieces are made of the same plastic as the wheels, but painted light tan. The windows are painted metallic blue, the front turn signals are painted metallic orange, and there's a silver Decepticon symbol on the claw. On the rear right side is a printed logo of a red bulldog with shovel-like teeth in its mouth (a la the claws on the vehicle's arm), and the name "Bonecrusher". [Later note: Actually, it's a sticker, not printed. I thought it was a thick tampograph, but on query from a reader I rechecked.] Mounted on the front is the mine-scooping arm a total of 6.5" (16.5cm) long, with multiple joints. There's a swivel and three hinges in the main arm, and each "finger" has a hinge root connected to gears, a regular hinge joint and a swiveling clawed tip. A lever on the part between the fingers can be pulled back and forth to make the fingers "clap". [Later note: Because of the way the rear set of wheels swings in for robot mode, it's possible to find these initially mistransformed in vehicle mode.] Transformation: This is one of those cases where the order of operations isn't vital, but it helps a LOT. Fold the front wheel panels forward and some little panels under the front windows up first. The rear two thirds or so of the vehicle then fold open into legs and arms. You also need to center the claw base so that the claw can become back-mounted spinblade weapons. They don't spin, but they look decent. There's a clever Silverbolt-like clip to get the pelvis assembled, but it actually holds together well, unlike on Silverbolt (BW version). Automorph: Not really. The claw lever is used to reposition the fingers for robot mode, but this hardly counts as automorphing. Robot Mode: Monstrous, top-heavy, and standing on clawed toes with a wheel caged inside each set of claws (so he can rollerblade while taking out his hate on traffic). While still roughly humanoid, he deliberately departs from human shape and jointing in many ways. His arms, for instance, fold plenty, but in all sorts of WRONG ways, enhancing his brutal appearance. Most of the upper half is dominated by the tan vehicle shell plastic, with the taupe plastic used on his head and forearms/hands. The lower body, however, is dominated by taupe (which has a slight olive cast to it) with a few tan toe-claws and dark gray paint. There's bronze paint on the shoulders and pelvis as well. His face makes me think of those old people puppets made from dried potatoes or apples. His eyes are painted red, his chin gray, and his forehead tablet is bronze. The head is on a balljoint which itself is on a transformation strut. The leg jointing is pretty simple, the usual ball joint hips, thigh swivels, hinge knees. Several of the toe-claws are articulated as well. Now...the arms. The shoulders are swivels with some up and down movement from the transformation strut. Then there's a hinge joint that's more of a shoulder joint too. And a swivel below that. The forearm is extra-long, with the weird claw/flipper hand being on a hinge. For extra fun, though, two more segments hinge out to let the arms extend to a total length of 6" (15cm) each. Bonecrusher is excellent at giving hugs. http://www.dvandom.com/images/bcluv.JPG Overall: Solid, real and never seen before vehicle mode, that counts for a fair amount. Deliberately weird robot mode that works in its freakyboy way. Definitely one of the better ones. AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Altmode: 1976 Chevy Camaro ("Classic Camaro" on the package) Licensor: GM Previous Name Use: G1, G2, Classic Package Callouts: "Double Missile Launching Blasters!" Function: Advance Scout Motto: "They call me mellow yellow...." Sent to Earth by OPTIMUS PRIME ahead of the other AUTOBOTS, this tough robot's job is to do what he does best: gather information, find the keeper of the secrets of the AllSpark and remain hidden. BUMBLEBEE works best in silence and solitude, acting as an unseen guardian over his assigned target. Don't let the fact that he likes to remain hidden fool you, though - when it comes to a fight, he rushes in, both plasma cannons blazing! STR 6 INT 8 SPD 6 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 3 SKL 9 Avg 6.5 The picture on the back shows missiles made of clear purple plastic, and clear purple windows. Looks like they decided to go with opaque yellow on that mold chunk and painted the windows on the final toy. Pity, looks better with the clear, but I suppose there was either a cost issue or an engineering one. [Later note: looks like the actual Japanese release has clear blue plastic on those pieces.] Oddly, this one comes with a catalog, despite having the same assortment number on the package as Scorponok and Jazz. Then again, Swindle has the same assortment number too, so maybe the assortment number has nothing to do with the shipping wave. Two twist-ties hold in the car, one each on the missile launchers. A rubber band holds the hood together. Vehicle Mode: A 5.5" (14cm) long yellow 1976 Camaro muscle car with black stripes and metallic blue windows. (Later note: about 1:36 scale.) The yellow is a bit more subdued than the movie novelization would have one believe, almost a school bus yellow. There's also a black scorch mark on the roof over the passenger side, as if someone tried setting up a hibachi on it at some point. There's another scorch on the driver's side behind the door, but it doesn't extend TO the door, cutting off abruptly. There's silver on the headlights, front and back bumpers, and around the taillights. The taillights themselves are red. The front grille is black. The license plate area is molded, but not painted. The hubcaps are painted a slightly bluish silver. The centers of the hubcaps are 4mm peg holes, important for robot mode, and I suppose one could also kitbash tireblade spinners for 'em. The missile launchers are supposed to stow on the underside, but I really can't get mine to stay in place loaded without a panel or two on the side of the car popping open. Putting the guns into the bottom of the fists instead of the top helps some. I filed down a bit of the forearms just behind the wrist, on the sides facing the centerline in vehicle mode, and it helped a lot. Angling the missile launchers down a bit makes the assembly look like jump jets for Bumblebee to use while crossing the river to get away from Blofeld. Seams are a problem in general at the rear part. Granted, it's supposed to be a bit of a beater, but that's taking it too far. Later Note: An in-depth article about Bumblebee's vehicle mode: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=121138 Transformation: Pull the arms/doors out to the sides, then Automorph the front end. Turn the head around (it can be left forward in vehicle mode, but is kinda visible through the bottom). Windshield and door top halves fold up to make doorwings. Then pull the legs apart and Automorph the feet. Missile launchers can either be put in the hands or in the shoulder-mounted hubcaps. But you need to make sure the shoulders are all the way up first, to keep the wheels from spinning. Automorph: Press a (very badly-painted) button made from the back slice of the turbocharger bump and the front end folds down into the chest, panels sliding down and the headlights popping out and together a bit (not shown on the package back, I guess they forgot to manually deploy 'em and the springs weren't loaded). Also, pulling back on the roof halves makes the feet fold out somewhat, although this is very stiff and not terribly automatic. Warning, I've heard of several cases of the automorph gimmick being broken so that you can't really transform back to vehicle mode. Mine (81096/81057 ASST.) doesn't have this problem, thankfully (a grad student in my group got one with the same assortment number and claims she has no problems either). The spring can be a little dodgy, mind you, so even on a non-defective one it can be tricky to get the hood to stay together. UPDATE: One theory being presented now is that there are no defective Automorphs. Rather, if you try to force the transformation without pressing the button, you break the toy. The button can require a fair amount of force the first few times, leading people to give up and just bend down the hood with a sickening SNAP. Robot Mode: 5.5" (14cm) tall at the head, a little higher to the tops of the missile launchers if you put them in the shoulder mounts. Just about every part that isn't from the auto body is black plastic...just the head and missiles are also yellow. The missiles are made of a slightly softer plastic than the other yellow bits, though (and it UV-glows more yellow...the auto body yellow has a whiter glow). Oh, one other yellow bit is the "ascot" that swings up into the gap in the chest and has a silver Autobot symbol on it. The head has black face, metallic blue eyes, and some silver around the edges of the face. Oddly, unlike the movie model and the prototype on the package, the full silver "beard" is missing. Probably shaved costs by dropping one paint app (it's three to cover the face...each side at an angle, then the front). Easily fixed by hand, though. The pelvis and hips have extensive yellow paint, plus some metallic blue on the hips, and the bent license plate (4NZZ454) is printed in white with black characters and a red bar across the top. Real California plates have very dark blue characters, and I suppose it could just be my eyes on the difference here, and a red script "California" across the top. Might be trademark issues keeping the toy from using a totally accurate plate. Yes, it's an unlicensed license plate. Anyway, the "number-three letters-three numbers" pattern is that of an authentic Cali plate. Head is on a balljoint, waist does not turn. The shoulders and elbows are ball joints, the wrists swivel. The hips are ball joints, there's a swivel above each hinge knee. The ankles are swivels, and the feet are real boats. The Automorph gearing inside the shins adds a nice non-movie-style mechanical look. Overall: If you get a broken one, it's REALLY broken. From what I hear, the problem isn't something user-fixable. But if you get a non-broken one, it's a decent toy. Vehicle mode has some issues of tolerance, especially if you try to store the missile launchers. Good transformation and very good robot mode, though. DECEPTICON: BARRICADE Altmode: Saleen S281 Police Car Licensor: Saleen Previous Name Use: G1 (Micro), Energon Package Callouts: "Spring-loaded Punch Attack!" "Decepticon Frenzy Ejects From Chest!" Function: Bad Cop Motto: "I'm not arresting you anymore." BARRICADE is a born liar. The greatest thrill in his life is knowing people trust him because of the human decorations on his body panels. The look of betrayal they get when they realize what they're dealing with is as sweet as candy. The only think he likes better is chasing down AUTOBOTS and breaking them into pieces with his powerful arms and crushing, hydraulic hands. STR 8 INT 5 SPD 8 END 6 RNK 5 COUR 5 FRB 5 SKL 4 Avg 5.75 Another one missing any sort of notation on the upper left of his blister. No Automorph claim. Also came with the catalog. Two twist-ties hold the vehicle mode in place. Oddly, Frenzy is already in the car, rather than separate in the package so that people can see it. Vehicle Mode: 5.5" (14cm) long black Saleen S281 Mustang mod police car. (Later note: 1:34 scale, oddly.) In case you haven't read my reviews of other Barricades, the Saleen S281 is a hot rodded modification of the Ford Mustang, running about $56K in the version Barricade looks to be. That's before all the cop modifications, of course. Of course, it has no back seat to speak of, so it doesn't make for a good patrol car in any case, but it's not unreasonable for a highway chase car or something. The front and side windows are clear colorless plastic, but the rear window is unpainted black plastic. Coulda used some faded silver or something. The flasher bar and headlights are also clear plastic, although the flasher bar has a thin layer of red, silver and blue paint on the inside (I think). The doors are painted white with black-rimmed silver "POLICE" on them. "643" is on the roof in large white letters, while "POLICE" is in smaller white letters on the spoiler. In script over each rear wheel is "To punish and enslave..." The turn signals and taillights are ruby red. Behind each front wheel is a purple and white police shield, but it has a Decepticon symbol as part of it, with "POLICE" and "1865" above and below it to match the Tranquility PD shield. "643" is also printed on the right front bumper. "SALEEN" is molded in the rear bumper. The wheels roll smoothly, and vehicle mode is surprisingly solid, given how much massaging is needed to get it back into this mode from robot mode. If you pull down the push bar in front, part of the grille sticks out a little, letting you pull Frenzy out. A little disappointing...I was hoping Frenzy would be ejected by a spring or something. Frenzy is made of silvery-gray plastic and unfolds to stand 3" (7.5cm) tall. Given that Barricade is a little smaller than Alternators size, that makes Frenzy stand a little taller than human at this scale. Not very poseable, he can bend both legs together at the ankles (he's digitigrade with VERY long toes and short thighs and shins), independently at the shoulders, and the head can nod forward and backwards. The four eyes are painted red, and the bottoms of the feet are black and grille-molded. Transformation: Pull out pretty much the entire sides. He gets looong arms. Of the law, even. The middle rear part pulls down pretty cleanly into legs, and you can lock the rear window pieces into slots behind the heels to make the feet more stable. The hood halves pull to the sides, fold down the roof, pull up the head, and pull the door windows up as wings...or samurai battle flags. There's an unused transformation joint. The tops of the shoulders, with the front wheels, are on ball joints but the instructions don't show them doing anything. It looks good if you rotate the panels around so that the wheels are horizontal. The claw spring gimmick makes transformation tricky. Getting back to vehicle mode is reminiscent of Big Convoy in the sense of massaging panels together. Automorph: Doesn't seem to have one, looks like Frenzy's slide-out lever is what passes for one. Robot Mode: "I'm Batman." Seriously, he has a sort of halfway Batman, halfway oni (Japanese demon) head going on. The head is also partly rubberized, presumably so that the horns can flip past the windshield without risking breakage. Only 5" (12cm) tall at the head, but his samurai flags go up to 6.75" (17cm). He's also very broad at the shoulders, even without my wheel- flipdown trick. Except for the clear plastic bits from the windows, he's all black plastic, baby. None more black. With Frenzy being gray, you'd think he'd at least have some gray joints or something, but nope. He does have red lightpiping on the eyes, though. There's some touches of metallic purple paint on his pelvis, thighs and forearms, silver bands on his thighs, and a gold face. The head does not turn, it just nods on its transformation joint. The waist does not turn. The shoulders are highly restricted ball joints, the chest pieces keep them from being much more than swivels. The elbows are hinges (left smooth, right ratcheting), be careful on the left arm lest you accidentally trigger the spring gimmick. Both thumbs are hinged, and on the right hand there's another hinge to let the three-fingered chunk swing up away from the fender piece it's molded into. The hips are ball joints, and the balls themselves are on transformation struts, so you can make him thinner-hipped and taller if you want. There's swivels just above the ratcheting knee hinges. There's transformation ball joints at the ankles, but they're on the loose side, you may be better off locking the ankles. Pressing a trigger on the left forearm makes it shoot out in a way reminiscent of Armada Sideswipe. This extends the arm by 1.5" (3.5cm), although it sags a little. It's no Bonecrusher, though. Reloading it can be tricky, since the best place to grab the forearm to force things back into place is right where the trigger is, oops. Overall: Good in both modes, but really frustrating to get back into vehicle mode, and the striker spring is dodgy. Manages to convey the movie robot aesthetic without looking too horrible (i.e. Jazz) or unintentionally silly (i.e. Bonecrusher's head). DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON BRAWL Altmode: M-1 Abrams Tank (more or less) Licensor: None Previous Name Use: None as "Decepticon Brawl"; as "Brawl" G1, G2 Package Callouts: "Rotating Turrets" "Projectile Launching Cannon" Function: Fire Support Motto: (None, he's too busy shooting to talk.) DECEPTICON BRAWL is built for one thing, and one thing alone - destruction. His programming has been gripped for as long as he can remember by a rage so deep and so hot that he feels little else. The only thing that llows him a few moments of happiness is the fury of combat. There is nothing so sweet to him as the thunderous noise of his shells bursting against the armor of faltering AUTOBOTS. STR 8 INT 3 SPD 3 END 9 RNK 5 COUR 9 FRB 9 SKL 3 Avg 6.125 Another victim of the too-hard-to-trademark name, like Jazz and Ratchet. Came with a catalog. Two twist-ties around the vehicle mode, but the missile is just held in by the blister shape. A rubber band holds a plastic shield over the top of the turret and its little side guns (these side things are what the "rotating turrets" call-out refers to). The official vehicle mode has these side guns up on their stalks, rather than out to the sides. Vehicle Mode: 5.5" (14cm) long in the body, 7" (18cm) if you include the loaded cannon. (Later note: about 1:56 scale.) More or less an M1 Abrams (or M1A1, or M1A2) Main Battle Tank, as seen here: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m1a2-pics.htm (yes, I like me the GlobalSecurity.org page for miltech ref!). However, aside from little details like location of panel lines and suchlike, Brawl also has a secondary turret on top of his regular turret, which makes this a fantasy tank. The secondary turret has two smaller cannons (not set up for anti-air mode) and a pair of rocket pods on articulated arms. Another odd element on Brawl, aside from the secondary turret, is the fringe-looking thing on the front, which serves no purpose in robot mode. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m1mcbs-pics.htm shows the M1 Mine Clearing Blade System, which is what those funky things on the front of Brawl are. Between Brawl and Bonecrusher, one gets the impression that maybe Decepticons are worried about mines! Mainly made from an olive green plastic. The missile is clear red, the main annon trigger and the rocket pod arms are light gray, and the pods themselves plus some gear on the rear are black plastic. A dark gray camo pattern is painted on the armor, and a Decepticon symbol is printed in that dark gray right behind the root of the main gun. The tank treads are painted black. Otherwise, no paint to speak of in this mode. Both the main turret and the secondary turret rotate independently, although the main turret's swivel is a bit too far forward for realistic motion. The rocket pods are on ball jointed short arms with swivel "wrists". The cannons do not elevate or depress, although the entire turret sort of muppet-mouths up on a transformation hinge. The mine-clearing blades are on ball joints so Brawl can comb the desert. I wonder if he took up Zen rock gardening? The tank rolls along on four little wheels on the insides of the molded treads. The missile in the main gun fires pretty well, maybe a meter straight up. Transformation: The turret pops up on a big folding panel, the arms are concealed inside. Part of the front treads fold down to the sides, revealing the legs and letting you Automorph the upper body. Properly, you need to turn the head around after Automorphing, but it's usually covered by the turret and can be left facing forward in tank mode. Watch carefully when pulling the arms out of the turret, it can be really unintuitive getting 'em back in. Also, be sure you lock the main gun in place on the arm (it snaps into place at either end of its sliding distance) or it'll screw up the turret alignment. At the end, the secondary turret turns around another 180 degrees and arms fold out to get the rocket pods in position. Also, while the shoulders are supposed to peg into place on the torso, the pegs really don't hold very well. Closing the turret sides onto them helps a little, but not enough in my case. You may need to go with stiffening the ball joint with nail polish or superglue. The mineclearing teeth are supposed to hang down, but they tend to get in the way of the arms, and I prefer to put them facing each other like chest-jaws (a la Energon Jetfire). This is, in fact, how the Fast Attack Battler version has them posed. Automorph: Pulling down the chest makes the head pop up and the front sections of tread fold up to become shoulderpads. Robot Mode: 5" (12.5cm) tall at the head, 6" (15cm) at the tops of the secondary cannons. All of the robot bits are olive green plastic, except for the swing-down blades on the left hand, which are the same light gray as some of his hinges and the rocket pod arms. There's also a big black panel connecting the turret to the body. There's black paint on the forearms, pelvis, hips and claws (which can't really hold anything), gold accents on the legs, pelvis and shoulders. The face is gold and silver, with red lightpiped eyes. Oh, and it's worth mentioning that he has a machinegun molded on his left forearm, but the barrel is blocked by the hinge of his wristblades. Kinda low poseability, the vehicle mode ate a lot of his engineering. Head turns, waist does not. Restricted ball joint shoulders which tend to pull away from the torso with little provocation. Swivel just above the elbow hinge, but would have been better served with a swivel below the elbow so that the guns could be pointed properly. Ball joint hips, hinge knees. And a lot of kibble or loose connectors impairing movement. Sadly, just a few changes would have helped this robot a lot. Deeper pegs for the shoulder connections and a below-elbow swivel would have made a HUGE difference. As it stands, I think this joints Scorponok in the "display in vehicle mode" class. A pity, because it could have been REALLY good. Overall: Really good vehicle mode, okay transformation, robot mode plagued with engineering problems. Dave Van Domelen, finally done! Now to move on to one of the other toys in the huge pile....