Dave's Remote-Controlled Transformers Rant IR Transformers Pens: Barricade Bumblebee Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/RC1 Radio Shack's gotten in on the movie merchandising with its own exclusives, plus they're carrying some of the regular toys (Cyber Stompin' figures and the voice changer mask at the one I checked). In addition to ZipZaps of Prime, Bumblebee and Barricade (non-transforming), they also have what amount to remote-controlled Spychangers of...Prime, Bumblebee and Barricade. Update 6/12/07: Picked up Bumblebee for Wonkimus Major, reviewed it before sending it on. Capsule Barricade: Little minimal-function IR R/C car meets Spychanger, and they work pretty well together. Mildly recommended. $14.99 at Radio Shack. Bumblebee: Didn't get this one, but it's about as good as Barricade, although has a slight problem with the chest in robot mode. $14.99 at Radio Shack. Optimus Prime: Avoid this one. $14.99 at Radio Shack. RANT Before I go into details on the toy I bought, some general comments and links. Observation: when there's only one variety of a movie tie-in toy, it's always Prime or Bumblebee. When there's only two, it's always Prime AND Bumblebee. And when they go all-out and get three, it looks like Barry's the go-to guy most of the time, although Megatron was #3 on Lunchables boxes. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2737919 is the Radio Shack catalog page for these IR R/C toys. For reference, here's a few more URLs: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2742045 - ZipZap Prime. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2737921 - ZipZap Bumblebee. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2737920 - ZipZap Barricade. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2748958 - Micro Flyer Starscream (didn't see this at the store, but at $40 I'm not so interested). None of these are transformable, only the IR R/Cs are. Packaging: Given how used to kidproofed packaging Hasbro has gotten me, it was kind of surprising to find that these are in snap-close clamshells with no tape, no staples, no ties, no heat-sealing. You can even open it up in the store to look at it before buying...a good thing, it kept me from buying Prime. These are displayed upright in a POP (Point Of Purchase) display by the register, so I guess they're not so worried about theft. Four each of the three varieties, with very little art on the packages themselves, the POP is used for that. The POP declares that the remotes are 3-function, but don't be fooled by that into thinking the toys have more advanced steering than most IR minicar remotes...the third function is "pen". Inside the clamshell are the toy in vehicle mode, the gun-shaped controller, instructions and a tiny screwdriver for opening the battery compartment on the car. Batteries for the controller are not included, but it takes 2 AAAs. The instructions are purely in grayscale, English on one side and Spanish on the other. There's no character information, and the only licensing info is Hasbro, even though the toy itself has a Saleen copyright stamp on it (or GM for Bumblebee). The instructions warn that the R/C functions work best in vehicle mode...no duh, given that the wheels aren't even on the ground in robot mode. :) Controller: Well, it's shaped like a little raygun, 6.5" (17cm) long and with a grip too small for any but a toddler to get more than a couple fingers on. All three have the same mold, just different colors (black/white/silver for Barricade, red/blue/silver for Prime, yellow/black for Bumblebee). The character's logo and faction symbol is printed on a round bit behind the trigger. The trigger itself is nonfunctional, and the actual control buttons are far enough from the grip that you can't really hold it by the grip and operate the buttons with the same hand. Bad design there. The pencap just pulls off to reveal a fine point black pen, but while the controller's on the small side for a gun, it's on the bulky side for a pen. There's a clip on top for the car to store, with a button on the rear of the controller to release it. The IR LED is mounted just ahead of this storage space. On the left side are the control buttons: forward, back-and-turn, and the on-off switch. Nonfunctioning verions of the first two buttons are repeated on the right side for symmetry. The right side is where the battery cover is...you can use the included screwdriver to open it, but a slightly larger Phillips head would be better. Later Note: Don't point the controller like a gun, the pen barrel will parrtly block the LED. You need to point it behind/below the car to make sure the IR beam reaches the car. Barricade: At 2.75" (7cm) long, the car is in pretty standard Hot Wheels size, but is a faithful representation of Barricade's vehicle mode. While clearly based on Spychanger engineering, it's not any existing mold. All black plastic with rubberized strips around the tires. The windows are painted silver, the lightbar is half red and half blue (like the Cyber Slammer version, rather than the Deluxe). The IR receiver is mounted at the top of the rear window. The doors have the now-familiar white paint with silver and black "POLICE" on them. The taillights are red, the license plate and some other details on back are silver, and a small "643" is printed in white on the rear left bumper (no roof or spoiler apps). On the right rear fender is "EMERGENCY 911 RESPONSE" printed in white. The headlights are silver, the turn signals red, and another tiny "643" is printed on the right front bumper. The underside looks like a regular Spychanger (including the ubiquitous chest joint) but with an on/off switch in the middle. The central underside and the chest joint are made of silver plastic. It runs well enough on short carpet or anything smoother, not so well on the deeper carpet that dominates my apartment. Range is pretty good, but it tends to turn while moving forward if it hits any roughness in the surface. On kitchen carpet, it ran 2 meters in 3.5s (55-60 cm/s, or a scale speed of around 80-90 mph). On countertop, where I don't have 2m to play with, it ran 70 cm in 1.1s (60-65 cm/s, about 100 scale mph). Not too shabby, I suppose. Transformation is wave 1 Spychanger. Pull out doors as arms, fold down front end as chest, pull back rear end as legs. However, the legs do not extend as far as on regular Spychangers, and there's only a mono-thigh there, since that area has to hold the electronics. When transforming back to car mode, a peculiarity of the doors means you have to fold the chest up most of the way, then push the doors in, then fold the chest up the last few degrees. Robot mode is a bit stumpy, due to the shorter legs, coming in at only 2.25" (6cm) tall. The arms are also a bit thinner than on Spychangers, and don't come out as far. There's silver paint on the fists, shins and head (which is a somewhat lumpy movie-ish thing). Still, not too bad for $15. Just IR R/C cars in this size tend to run $7-10 without being able to transform, and it's moderately impressive that they got the motor, battery and electronics into this without seriously impacting the transformation. Later note: http://www.dvandom.com/images/rcbarry.JPG for a pic. I've heard tell that someone's Barricade had a Bumblebee head, but now that I've looked at Bumblebee up close, I can say that this wasn't an intentional "one head fits all" thing. Even later note: False alarm, sighter just thought the head looked Bumblebee-ish. Which, I suppose, is a danger with Movie head designs shrunken to tiny size...they're all just blobs of stuff. Bumblebee: Didn't buy it, but looks to be about as good as Barricade, although he's a little chunky for a Camaro (a necessary concession for the mechanisms). I bought Barricade mainly because I try to avoid Prime and Bumblebee when there's another option in situations like this, and I was NOT gonna drop the money on two. But you might prefer this. Update: Bought Bumblebee for Wonkimus Major, and since the packaging is so easy to open and close, I decided to review it first. :) 2.75" (7cm) in vehicle mode, made of yellow plastic with mostly black paint (stripes, windows, some front and rear end details). The Chevy symbol on the front grille is bronze, the headlights and foglamps are silver. The Chevy symbol on the rear is also bronze, if a bit faded. The taillights are red, and the tailpipes are silver. The door handles are silver, as are the hubcaps. The IR sensor is at the top of the rear window. The underside has a lot of mold and paint details that are totally invisible in robot mode, ah well, and a 2007 General Motors copyright stamp. The on-off switch is on the rear third, unlike on Barricade, and is smaller. The controller has a different frequency from Barricade's, so no need to worry about crossing the streams. Transformation is the same as Barricade's, although the hood doesn't want to fold down as well. Less problems with the arms in going back to vehicle mode, though. Robot mode is only 2.25" (6cm) tall, stumpy like Barry. The shin are black plastic with silver paint, and the arms inside the doors are painted black with silver fists. The head is molded after Bumblebee's "battle helmet" version, unlike most Bumblebee toys to date, with black eyes and top of head details, and some silver on the jawline. The switch ends up on the top of the boots piece. Optimus Prime: Don't buy this one. It doesn't use the Spychanger mold, it uses a lamer new engineering solution that's sorta like the Spychanger version but vastly simplified. And it doesn't even manage to fit everything into the vehicle mode despite this, resorting to a hump behind the cap to hold a lot of the stuff. It felt cheap and cheesy, and didn't look very good. Dave Van Domelen, notes that when he was at the store, two Bumblebees and three Primes had sold, but none of poor, unloved Barry.