Dave's Wal-Mart Exclusive Transformers Rant: Cybertron Movie Recolors Decepticon Fracture (Crasher) Breakaway (Getaway) Crankcase Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/DeluxeW2 Halfway between the 2007 movie and the 2009 movie comes another brace of Wal-Mart exclusive recolors in movie trade dress. I only wanted Fracture for myself, but since Wonkimus Major wanted all three, I get to review 'em all. :) [Later note: according to Joe Kyde at Hasbro, these three were originally going to be under the Universe label, but Wal-Mart specifically wanted Movie-line stuff. Given that they released these along with a lot of leftovers from the Movie line, the leftover product was probably a motive for doing this.] Fracture is Classics Mirage, and was intended as a Crasher homage: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/Deluxe2 Breakaway is Cybertron Hot Shot, intended as a Getaway homage: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/Deluxe1 Crankcase is Cybertron Red Alert, and got to keep his homage name: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/Deluxe2 CAPSULES Fracture: The fan-bait of the set. Original mold was Recommended, and this is one of the rare Go-Bot homages that isn't a really expensive exclusive recolor. Seems plagued by paint damage, but looks good. Recommended. $9.96 at Wal-Mart. Breakaway: Original mold was Recommended, and it's been recolored before. Looks decent, but isn't close enough to Getaway to tempt me, especially since I have two of this mold already. Mildly recommended. $9.96. Crankcase: Original mold was Strongly Recommended, although I've cooled on it a bit since. It's also been recolored before. This is the Cannonball variant with improved boots, at least. If you don't have any version of this mold, Recommended. Otherwise, it really depends on whether you like the character. $9.96. RANTS Packaging: Same as the first set of Wal-Mart recolors. Fracture has no Planet Key, Breakaway has a red Cybertron Autobot key with no border paint, Crankcase has a purple Planet X key with purplish-silver Decepticon symbol and no border paint. Each has the other two as co-sells on the back. No catalog, single-sided instructions. The portrait art on the package fronts is not redone in movie aesthetic, which is appreciated. It's a bit dark and murky, though. As always, Function and Motto are either my inventions or the G1/G2 info. DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON FRACTURE Altmode: Race Car Licensor: None Previous Name Use: None Homage: Go-Bot Crasher Previous Mold Use: Classics 1.0 Mirage Package Callouts: "Negative energy blaster!" Function: Shock Trooper Motto: "I'm gonna have to put my foot down..." Dedicated to MEGATRON and the DECEPTICON cause, DECEPTICON FRACTURE is a dangerous enemy. She is totally fearless, and probably a little bit crazy, as she drives directly into any battle, regardless of the odds. Although she carries a powerful negative energy blaster, she prefers to use the seismic energy dischargers on her feet to smash the surrounding earth to pieces. Any battlefield on which she walks shudders with the force of her steps. STR 7 INT 4 SPD 8 END 8 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 8 SKL 3 Avg 6.625 Okay, this one is a little convoluted. It's meant to be an homage to the Go-Bot Renegade Crasher, and follows the color scheme of her original toy. This color scheme is not the same as the one used in the cartoon, plus she was a different sort of formula racer than this mold. They did go with the cartoon's facial colors, more or less, which enhances the resemblance. They couldn't get the name Crasher, not even Decepticon Crasher, so Fracture was the next best thing. She is not, however, mean to be the actual Renegade. That plotline involves the BotCon comics, and is not in the movie continuity. Fracture is just a Crasher-like character who happens to have been born in the movie's "extended universe". Packaging: 2 twist-ties hold the car in place, no rubber bands or other loose bits. Color Swaps: The icy white becomes straight up white. Clear blue becomes a slightly pinkish smoky clear plastic. Everything else becomes black. Paint Apps: Some paint damage on both of the ones I found, and I hear others have had the same problem. In vehicle mode, there's three different shades of red paint along the center...or perhaps the same paint reacting differently to the three different colors of plastic it's on top of. It looks darkest over the clear smoky plastic, brightest over the white, and in between on the black parts at the rear. The white paint matches up to the white plastic a little better, and divides the red from the black along the outside. The front of the canard is painted black, and there's a black "1" in a keystone-shaped border on the nose. The same 1 is painted in white on each side. The majority of the clear plastic on the cockpit piece is painted gloss black, which clashes a bit with the matte black plastic nearby. There's silver on the vents flanking the centerline, and a silver Decepticon symbol just ahead of the cockpit. The wheel hubs are also silver. There's no sponsor logos anywhere. I guess no one wants to sponsor evil cars. In robot mode, we pick up bright red on the false cockpit and on the false canards. There's also three bright red bars on each forearm. The face is pink with yellow eyes that have black lines around them. The vents on the sides of the helmet are painted red, which comes out dark. Other Notes: The mold was a bit femme for Mirage...and it might be argued that it's definitely too feminine for Crasher. :) The gun stores on the back better than with my Mirage, but the torso doesn't hold together as well. Looks like QC issues in general just randomly striking. Overall: It's a good mold that deserved a recolor, and this was a good fit (in fact, there's at least one kitbash into Crasher out there that's remarkably close to this scheme). AUTOBOT: BREAKAWAY Altmode: Racer Licensor: None Previous Name Use: None Homage: G1 Powermaster Getaway Previous Mold Use: Cybertron Hot Shot Package Callouts: "Grenade rifle with firing projectile!" "Key reveals dragster wing!" "Insert key to activate features!" Function: Escape Artist Motto: "Were these stasis binders yours?" Escape-artist extraordinaire Breakaway has never been held in captivity for more than a few hours. Even then, most of the times he's been captured have only been because he let it happen, so he could get inside a DECEPTICON base and blow it up. Every one of his joints is double, and secret compartments cover his body, hiding dozens of tools fo ruse in escaping from any cell. He's as slippery as a Neutronian grease eel, and clever as a turbofox. DECEPTICON bounty hunters across the galaxy have an almost supernatural regard for his skill. STR 6 INT 9 SPD 7 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 8 FRB 4 SKL 10 Avg 6.75 The homage at work here is to Getaway, the Powermaster who was named Lightfoot in the Japanese Masterforce series. It's actually a pretty good fit to the vehicle mode, down to having a place to plug the gun in on the roof, although this recolor has a bit more blue than Getaway. Getaway's G1 techspec has a line about being an escape artist, although his function is just "Warrior". Packaging: Missile, launcher and Key are held in (annoyingly well) by the blister. Two twist-ties hold the car in place. No rubber bands. Color Swaps: The slightly metallic light blue becomes white. The clear yellow all becomes clear violet, the dark blue becomes black. Dark red becomes a sort of slate blue. Paint Apps: Extensive slate blue paint along the top sides, one part is so thoroughly painted that I thought it was a different plastic color, although there's seams visible on most painted parts. Good white paint match on the clear plastic bits, it even has the same UV glow. A bit on the roof is painted black, and there's a red Autobot symbol in the same place as on Hot Shot. The hubcaps are painted silver. In robot mode, there's dark red paint on the right shoulder, both shins, and covering the clear plastic of the visor. There's bright red paint on the chest/abdomen and left shoulder, with silver picking out the Autobot symbol there. Most of the chest is painted white otherwise, as is the top of the pelvis. There's black details on the shoulder joint area. The face is yellow, as is the center of the chest (where Hot Shot is red) and the belt area. No "RACING" on the windshield or anywhere else, so sad. Other Notes: Still no idea what that area behind the key slot is molded for. :) Overall: Looks decent, but as the third recolor of this mold to see wide release, I'm not inclined to buy a copy for myself. The violet plastic is an interesting choice, they should've left it unpainted on the visor. :) DECEPTICON: Crankcase Altmode: Assault Vehicle (Dodge Magnum modified) Licensor: None Previous Name Use: G1 Homage: G1 Crankcase Previous Mold Use: Cybertron (twice) Package Callouts: "Interchangeable arm tools!" "Reveal rotary cannons!" "Insert key to activate features!" Function: Nuisance Motto: "Bite my shiny metal skidplate." CRANKCASE doesn't really care about MEGATRON; he just joined the DECEPTICONS because he was in a bad mood, and it's pretty much lasted. As far as he's concerned, everything is pointless and stupid. He sees no reason why anyone else should be enjoying thins when he's so miserable. That's why he spends his time grumpily ruining things for AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS alike. He's not much of a warrior, so he specializes in just being inconvenient. His blaster arm causes metal to rust instantly. STR 6 INT 5 SPD 6 END 7 RNK 2 COUR 5 FRB 7 SKL 3 Avg 5.125 Well, he appears in the Reign of Starscream comic, whines a bit and gets a beatdown before being strapped to the plot device to have his spark sucked out. So, yeah, they got him more or less right. :) I took my turn at abusing him in http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Fanfic/Moonbase last year. The original Crankcase is more dark gray with blue accents, as opposed to the blue with dark gray accents seen here. In fact, almost no gray is visible in vehicle mode on this recolor. However, as a Triggercon, the Red Alert mold makes perfect sense, since his key gimmick is essentially the same as the Triggercon gimmick. [Later note: his original Marvel comics character entry, reproduced here, http://www.ntfa.net/universe/english/index.php?act=view&char=Crankcase has him starting his career as a fuel spill cleanup guy, which inspired the hazmat designation. This is info not on the toy's bio note.] Packaging: Key is held in by the blister, two twist-ties hold the vehicle into the blister. There's a secondary blister shield over the roof lights to protect them. Color Swaps: White becomes medium blue, dark blue becomes silvery light gray (rather than the dark gray seen on G1 Crankcase), black becomes really dark gray, clear red becomes clear yellow. There's an exception to that, though. Some of the dark blue becomes medium blue, specifically the head and arms. Paint Apps: There's a very good paint match to the blue plastic on the parts that are clear yellow. There's a silver stripe along the sides of the car that's in the same place as the blue stripe on Red Alert, interrupted by a black and silver hazmat shield. The shield says "HAZ-MAT OPERATIONS" along the top and has biohazard, nuclear hazard and Decepticon symbols on it, implying that Decepticons are a class of hazardous waste. Heh. The headlights and a Decepticon symbol on the center of the chest are also silver. Much of the chest is painted black, with metallic light blue faux grille mesh. There's no stripes on the hood, but the vents on either side are painted gunmetal. The face is yellow, and there's yellow accents on the shoulders and abdomen. The taillights are red. Other Notes: No noticeable "mold rot". This is the Cannonball mold variant, with the legs that fit together better. Overall: A cute update of a fairly obscure character, although I'm getting tired of the mold. And it's hard to outdo Cannonball the space pirate, so Crankcase has a tough act to follow. Dave Van Domelen, suspects Crankcase took on a hazmat altmode just to have an excuse to carry nasty stuff around with him and "accidentally" spill it in public areas.