Dave's Sector 7 Transformers Rant: Wave 3 Air Raid Elita-One Armorhide Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Sector7-3 See http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Sector7-2 for general stuff about the Target recolor Scouts. And for the original molds, see: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Energon/Basic1 - Skyblast (Air Raid) http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Energon/Basic3 - Arcee (Elita-One) http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/Basic3 - Armorhide Skyblast was Recommended, Arcee was Strongly Recommended, Armorhide was Strongly Recommended. At least they're picking good molds to reuse! For the record, this now makes two mass-market recolors of Skyblast and Arcee, both part of this line, and one mass-market recolor of Armorhide. So far, they've used the original name on the first recolor each time in this line (Skyblast, Arcee, Clocker, Strongarm, Signal Flare, Hardtop) and new names for the second recolor (Air Raid, Elita One). The only ones so far to get two versions are the ones whose molds were not recolored the first time around (Clocker became Swerve, Strongarm became Energon Strongarm, Signal Flare bcame Offshoot, Hardtop became Swindle), so now there's two recolors of all of the molds involved...except Armorhide. He got a convention exclusive recolor as Huffer, but considering how many convention exclusives they got out of Arcee's mold that's not really worth counting here. :) I hope we get one last gasp of the Sector 7 set that includes an Armorhide recolor. Armorhide, Scattorshot and Shortround are the only Scout vehicles from Energon and Cybertron not to get any mass-market recolors so far. Anyway, enough rambling. CAPSULES Air Raid: This is the only one I didn't buy for myself, I'm reviewing the one I got for Wonkimus Major. It's a good mold, but the color scheme doesn't really do it for me. Mildly recommended. $7.99 at Target. Elita-One: No, not Elita-1 or Elita One. Heh. Anyway, not the best color scheme on this mold, and I wish they'd done some remolding on it. Worth picking up if you want an Elita of some sort, otherwise get one of the other color schemes. $7.99 at Target. Armorhide: It's Dark Armorhide! An excellent mold, and a black recolor that actually works (the yellow accents help a lot). Strongly recommended. $7.99 at Target. RANTS Packaging: Same as wave 2. Each has the other two as co-sells. At least with the shipment we got here in Manhattan KS, they ship two to a case, with two blue Arcees filling out the case. A unifying note, all the clear plastic on this wave is BLACK. Not smoky clear, opaque black. Still no function or motto listed, so I'll make my own, AUTOBOT: AIR RAID Altmode: Aerospace Fighter Previous Name Use: G1, G2 (twice), Universe (twice) Previous Mold Use: Energon, 2007 Movie Package Callouts: "Combine black parts to create an ultimate Energon weapon!" "Ultimate Energon weapons can be used with other TRANSFORMERS figures! (sold separately)" Function: Galaxy Ranger Motto: "No guts, no glory." CYBERTRON has laws, and the DECEPTICONS have broken almost all of them. It makes AIR RAID sick just thinking about it. Respect for the law is what separates sentient creatures from simple drones. The DECEPTICONS make a mockery of themselvs and their fellow robots by their disregard for th elaw. Not for much longer, though, if AIR RAID has anything to say about it. He's spent centuries hunting the worst DECEPTICON criminals from one end of the galaxy to the other, and he's not stopping until every last one is caught and punished. STR 7 INT 6 SPD 8 END 9 RNK 7 COUR 9 FRB 6 SKL 6 Avg 7.25 Actually, sentience doesn't imply ability to respect the law. Sapience does. Pet peeve. And yes, there's another fandom ref in the function and motto I gave him. One tie around the jet, one around the spear. The black Energon chip is just held in by the blister. Color Swaps: Clear red plastic becomes opaque black, white becomes olive green, and both the red and gray plastic from Skyblast becomes light gray (CCCCCC) plastic. Paint Apps: The main scheme is a sort of pixel-camoflage in tan and black on the olive plastic. But where actual pixelated camo has pretty small squares, this has elements 2mm on a side, which is kinda defeating the purpose of blending in. There's some bits of bright red paint on the wing roots (where there's gold on Skyblast). None of the faction symbols are picked out with paint. There's gray paint (CCCCCC) on the chest piece where Skyblast has blue, with a black Sector 7 logo. The robot face is light gray with red eyes. Other Notes: I just realized that if you leave the gun on his nosecone in robot mode, it can tilt down over his face for a "mortar head" look. I suppose if the S7 Skyblast is more of a Navy variant, this is the Army version, and the original belongs to the Air Force. A Joint Strike Omnicon. Overall: I prefer the gray wave 2 version, to be honest. It's a good mold, and if you missed either previous version, snap this one up, but it lacks either the sleek "naval camo" look of the gray one or the "Jetfire homage" scheme of the original to distinguish it. The oversized pixels just don't do it for me. AUTOBO: ELITA-ONE Altmode: Motorcycle Previous Name Use: No mass-market Previous Mold Use: Energon, 2007 Movie Package Callouts: Same as on Air Raid, plus "Fires a projectile!" Function: Sniper Motto: "I love wrapping my hands around a long, solid...rifle." As the first of the female TRANSFORMES robots, ELITA-ONE gets a lot of attention, and loves every minute of it. It isn't just her incredible handling, or her fast idle that gets the attention either. She's a cunning fighter, and one of the best marksmen among the AUTOBOTS, able to blast Scraplets off a DECEPTICON at more then four miles. At short range, she's just as effective, generating an attraction field that can cause unshielded robots to overheat almost instantly. STR 4 INT 8 SPD 9 END 5 RNK 8 COUR 9 FRB 8 SKL 10 Avg 7.625 Did they have a bet going about how much innuendo they could cram into this bio note without the higher-ups nixing it? Incredible handling, fast idle, and her attraction gets bots hot? She's practically a Kiss Player. I bet a draft of this have her linguistic skills equal to her fighting savvy. That aside, "Elita One" or sometimes "Elita-1" are how the name is usually written, so strictly speaking this name has never been used for a toy as far as I know, even exclusives. One tie around the motorcycle, with all the "Energon" accessories attached, and one tie around the missile. Color Swaps: Not a simple swap, it looks like there were multiple white sprues on Arcee. The clear red becomes opaque black, the black stays black. The light gray plastics on Arcee become a metallic brownish red. The white in Arcee's hands, shins, toes, head and the pieces that connect the torso to the upper arms are light gray on Elita. The rest of the white plastic becomes that same metallic brownish red. Paint Apps: Lots of silver. The face, collar, exhaust pipes, most of the gastank section (thighs), wheel hubs, headlight and some details on the bots are silver. The eyes are medium blue. There's black on the seats (well, the parts that aren't black plastic), and a very good paint match for the metallic red paint on the front end of the cycle. There's a red and silver Autobot symbol printed on the chest. Other Notes: No, no head remold as some had hoped. And she still has the saggy oversized chest area. Some of the ball joints pop easily on mine, not sure if it's moldrot, difference in plastics, or just regular old quality control. Could have stood to have a little paint on the Energon pieces, to break up the black monotony. Overall: To be honest, I really only got this because it's the first mass market Elita-One (or Elita-1, Elita One, etc). Nice enough mold, and I like the metallic plastic, but too much black and I've gotten all too familiar with the mold's flaws. AUTOBOT: ARMORHIDE Altmode: Semitractor Previous Name Use: RiD, Universe, Armada (Mini-Con), Cybertron Previous Mold Use: Cybertron Planet Key: Black X Key with Sector 7 logo Package Callouts: "Rocket rifle with firing projectile!" (Um, no it doesn't actually fire, guys) "Insert Key to activate features!" "Reveal hidden missile battery!" Function: Wrecker Motto: "Tragedy is me chipping my paint. Comedy is you falling into a pit full of energon and exploding. Make me laugh." Up against an enemy like MEGATRON and his followers, the AUTOBOTS can't afford to be nice. To ARMORHIDE, this fight is about nothing other than total victory, and the only way he sees to achieve that is to become as much like the DECEPTICONS as possible. He knows OPTIMUS PRIME doesn't approve of his methods and he doesn't care. Once the DECEPTICONS are wiped out the historians can argue as long as they'd like about whether his way of fighting this war was right or not, but at least they'll do it in peace and safety. STR 9 INT 4 SPD 5 END 9 RNK 5 COUR 9 FRB 7 SKL 3 Avg 6.375 He's not officially a Wrecker, but he certainly has the attitude now, so I'm gonna call him one. The Cybertron version was either a detail-obsessed soldier or a wannabe standup comedian, depending on whether you believed the regular bio note or the special key code info. I figure this one has gotten dark and bitter since then. The only other Armorhide to have his own techspecs was Cybertron. The RiD version, its two recolors, and the Icepick recolor that came with Armada Rhinox all lacked specs. So they made up new ones for this guy. A rubber band holds the Planet Key in place, two ties on the truck, just the blister holding the crane/gun in place. One rubber band is wrapped around the top of the cab. Color Swaps: White becomes light gray, medium gray stays unchanged, and both the blue and light gray parts on C.Armorhide become black. None more black. Paint Apps: Silver on most of the front grille, the hubcaps, side fenders, windows and face. The visors over the windshield have silver and yellow hazard stripes. There's yellow stripes (three parallel) on the sides, yellow headlights (except the main ones, which are silver), yellow where C.Armorhide has metallic red, yellow eyes, and yellow accents on the Key. The missiles inside the chest are also yellow. There's a silver Sector 7 logo on the front of the Key, and another one at the base of the crane where the Autobot symbol is on C.Armorhide. Other Notes: They used the Planet X key for this, because it has no raised symbol on the front. However, despite being molded in opaque black plastic, you can clearly see the recessed Decepticon symbol on the backside. I guess that's part of the "be as much like the Decepticons as possible" tactic, eh? Overall: Okay, thanks to the recent warehouse flushing, you can actually find the original Armorhide toy for $6.94 at many Wal-Marts, and black recolors are kinda passe. On the other hand, it's black, silver and yellow, not a common combination of accents for black repaints. Well, and two shades of gray too. It's a very nice recolor of a great mold, worth hunting down. Nemesis Minor? ;) Dave Van Domelen, decided "Black Ops" as a function for Armorhide would be a little too punny.