Dave's Transformers Prime Rant: Cyberverse Legion Wave 1 Bumblebee (sports car) Vehicon (cruiser car) Arcee (motorcycle) Autobot Ratchet (rescue vehicle) Cliffjumper (muscle car) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Prime/Legion1 The "First Edition" wave was something of a bust, and Hasbro has fessed up to dropping that particular ball. But now the main line has hit, and the first stuff I found were these guys. Target apparently used their holida flex zone to justify putting them out early in the Valentine's stuff, and then shifted it to the Easter aisle, in addition to the regular Transformers section. Of course, by the time I got enough of my DotM backlog done to justify moving on to Prime, these were pretty easy to find most places. The initial assortment is 3 Bumblebee, 2 Cliffjumper and 1 each of the others per case. Yeah, they shortpacked the only nameless armybuilder figure in the assortment. Supposedly a running change will later balance this a little better. CAPSULES Bumblebee: Nice, if underpainted, vehicle mode. The robot mode isn't as good, and the transformation is uninspired. Mildly recommended. $4.99 at Target. Vehicon: Robot mode is minimally articulated and designed to squat, transformation is simple, vehicle mode is oddly misproportioned. An army builder character, but not something I want multiples of. Neutral. $4.99 at Target. Arcee: Decent in both modes in general, quite good when compared to other motorcycles and other femmes. Recommended. $4.99 at Target. Autobot Ratchet: Somewhat bland, and with a fairly simple transformation, but competent in both modes and with better articulation than many. Recommended. $4.99 at Target. Cliffjumper: Solid and kibble-less vehicle mode, surprisingly complex transformation, very well articulated robot mode. The arms are too easily to pop apart when transforming, but otherwise a very good Legion Class toy. Strongly recommended. $4.99 at Target. Note, Walmart has bumped this price class up to $5.47. RANTS Well, this is Cyberverse Series 2, with Series 1 being all of the Dark of the Moon ones. And in addition to new trade dress (see below) they've introduced a line-wide gimmick of rubbery clear plastic weapons that can be combined via 3mm pegs to make bigger weapons or just clutter up a single figure. Rather than being unique to each figure, they're just a few molds repeated across several figures. Another notable addition is the return of on-package official functions, so these won't be my creation as has been the case for the past few years. Packaging: Standard Legion class size card, although the blister is more like a Deluxe blister in general shape. Rather than a generic bit of scenery (like DotM) or an abstract pattern (like RotF) on the card front, there's a group shot down the left border. The Autobots get Bumblebee, Optimus, Arcee and Ratchet, while Decepticons get Starscream, Soundwave, Breakdown and Megatron on their cards. The background is otherwise mostly a mix of green, white and blue in an energon sort of pattern, with the Transformers Prime logo at the top. Along the right edge is the promise of a file card, which seems to be what they're calling the right side of the blister insert. :) All of them have a green swath at the top with the "Easy" Transformation difficulty (level 1). The blister insert has the techspecs on the right side (perforated for easy of separating the file card), a border on the right and bottom edges of the front, and the UPC/legalese on the bottom. The upper right of the front border proclaims what the included weapon is ("Snap-on blaster!" "Battle Blade!" or just "Blaster included!"). The cardback has the "Legion Class", with series and number at the top, then the character name and function, followed by bio note. The middle is dominated by photos of both modes and a faction symbol with "Autobot Alliance" or "Decepticon Alliance" in the border. A battle scene runs across the bottom, partially covered by a Hub sticker, with the Cyberverse epithet "COMMAND YOUR WORLD" above the battle. At the bottom is a note that these were made in Vietnam, so I guess the Chinese child labor factory wasn't involved in this set. Might still be Vietnamese child labor, though. Inside, clear rubber bands hold the robot mode to the inner blister, no rattan strings this time around. Folded up instructions are between the inner tray and the bottom of the outer bubble. They're just for going to vehicle mode, with the usual grayscale photos and faction-based attention color. The file cards have the series, number, name, function and techspec numbers, plus a bust shot of the character and their faction symbol. The card is about 1.5" (3.5cm) wide and 3" (7cm) tall. Weapons: Since they tend to get recycled, I'll review the weapons up here. New molds of weapon will get added at the top of their waves' reviews, the individual reviews will focus on any specific issues the generic weapon has in the case of that toy (i.e. "Fits fine on the roof in vehicle mode, but putting it on the door causes it to drag on the ground."). All of the weapons are made of a rubbery plastic, letting them be small and pointy without violating safety regulations. Time will tell if the plastic decays or becomes brittle, but for now the main problem is that the combination of rubbery nature and high friction surfaces means that you can't really adjust them if the fit is too snug. Once a weapon is pegged in place, you can't really turn it without risking that you twist the peg off entirely. So you have to pull it out and try again. Some cases are loose enough to turn, but not all. The pegs are 3mm in diameter, and there's generally holes of the same diameter so that you can play the TF:Energon "make a giant weapon" game with these. Snap-on Blaster - Well, it'll do for now as a name. A dual-barrelled blaster with an additional rod at the 'stock' end so that it can be held like a sword or plugged into the end of a stump (suggesting we might have a few figures with tool-swap arms). So far only available in red gummy plastic, but there's no reason it can't show up in purple. It's based on the dual cannons that come with Deluxe Bumblebee, and as those really ARE snap-on it probably explains the name. Someone was just copying from the Deluxe packaging. 1.5" (3.5cm) long, with grip peg near the back and stock peg at the back, plus a 3mm hole at the front of the center chunk, about 1cm ahead of the main peg. It's not quite symmetric along its long axis, there's a small cylinder detail adjacent to the back end of the right barrel that might be intended as a sight or something. Battle Blade - An energy sword weapon, with no real sign of a "gunblade" design, although it has a pistol grip peg. Held like a pistol it comes across more as a katar weapon (like Optimus Prime's blades in the movies). In addition to the pistol grip peg, there's a regular sword hilt peg, plus two more shorter pegs to let it attach to a vehicle with the blade parallel to the vehicle's body. This is the only one of the three weapons with no peg holes in it, just four pegs. [Later note: this is based on the blades that come with Deluxe Ratchet, but scaled to look longer.] 1.75" (4.5cm) long, with all of the pegs in the rear third. At least at the moment, there's no gun on which it can become a convincing bayonet. It can sort of peg on the underside of the Snap-On, but the grip on that is then blocked. Blaster - This looks like it should be paired with a mirror image version to create wings on either side of a vehicle mode. Two copies of the same one wouldn't work, though, as it's not symmetric. The left side is a fairly standard blaster pistol reminiscent of some of the G1 Constructicon handguns, but the right side has a chunky winglike shard whose surface is parallel to the main grip. Thus, if you stick the pistol grip into a door peghole on the left side of the vehicle, you get a wing on top of the barrel, and a wing under the barrel if pegged in on the right. 1.75" (4.5cm) long and made of purple clear plastic, the wing chunk itself is 1.25" (3cm) long. It has a pistol grip peg, a sword hilt peg (so that the wing becomes a blade), and a peg hole above the pistol peg. The hole is a fraction of a millimeter ahead of the peg, so if you stacked a bunch of these blasters the stack would slowly edge forwards. AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Altmode: Sports Car Weapon: Snap-on Blaster Series: 2 Number: 001 Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: None Function: Intelligence Specialist Motto: (series of burbles and beeps) BUMBLEBEE doesn't need to talk - his blasters do all the talking he needs. He is fast, smart, and skilled, which means that the DECEPTICONS have nowhere to run when BUMBLEBEE is on their tails! STR 6 INT 8 SPD 8 END 7 RNK 7 COUR 10 FRB 6 SKL 6 Avg 7.25 At last, a Fireblast that's not 3. Packaging: 2 rubber bands hold the robot in the tray, with one of them wrapping over the gun to keep it in the hand. Robot Mode: Well, it's a Bumblebee. The side windows are part of the arms rather than made into wings (as on the animation model and the Deluxe toys), but there's a nod to the wings with the triangular stubs of the windows sticking out the back of the chest piece. This may be the first Legion class car Transformer where the front grille has slots through it that let you see into the interior of the chest. From behind, the roof and rear window parts are almost connected, making it look like he's wearing waders. 2.75" (7cm) tall in the usual yellow with black and silver. The wheels, shoulder struts and the back piece of the pelvis are black plastic, everything else is golden yellow. There's matte black paint on the grille and on stripes on the chest/hood and arms/doors. Face, headlights, abdomen, pelvis, "spats" and toes are painted silver. The eyes are bright blue, and a red Autobot symbol is printed on the chest bumper. Other paints are car-specific. Shoulders and hips are ball joints, ankles are hinged. No knee joints, although rear window kibble would block most of the range of motion even if they gave him knees. There's 3mm peg holes on the forearms (doors) and back (roof), plus both hands can hold 3mm rods. Weapon: In robot mode, it can be held in either hand or pegged into holes on the sides of the arms (it looks better that way, IMO). The rooftop peg hole can be used, but it's awkward. In vehicle mode it pretty much only works on the roof. There's barely enough clearance to peg it into a door without dragging on the ground, and then only if you have it lined up JUUUST right. Of course, if you steal Arcee's and give him both Snap-On Blasters, then at least it looks more or less symmetric on the doors, and matches the look of the Deluxe toys. Giving him both of the Battle Blades in this set would recapitulate the stingers that some Bumblebees have. Transformation: Legs connect and toes swing all the way up. Then lift the chest and get to the complicated part, in which the front wheels get swiveled out and the arms become doors and part of the roof. Vehicle Mode: While it feels a bit smaller, it turns out this is exactly as long as the Speed Stars DotM Bumblebee I got. It's shorter than DotM Legion Bumblebee's vehicle mode by a few millimeters, but it's a shorter model of car. Interestingly, it fits neatly atop its own data card. Going by S2E4 of the cartoon, it's an Urbana 500. 2.75" (7cm) long, the usual yellow with black stripes. The wheels are black plastic, the rest of the visible stuff is golden yellow plastic. In addition to the black stripes and other details mentioned under robot mode, there's silver on the engine block and a faintly bluish silver on the front and side windows. The rear section has no paint at all: no windows, no stripes, no taillights. It makes it look like the painter stopped part way through to break for lunch, and forgot to finish it. It even distracts from the fact that parts of the side windows also aren't painted. Rolls pretty well. The peg holes end up on the roof and doors. Customization suggestions: Paint on the rest of the stripes, add some taillights. Odds are you won't be able to match the window paint color well enough, so all the windows will need to be painted. Might as well go with a more obvious blue, to match the animation model. I also painted the fake wheels on the shoulders, the wheel hubs and side mirrors. http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/tfpbblegion.JPG Overall: A passable toy. Might be worth waiting for a redeco, to see if the paint job is more complete. Otherwise a nice vehicle mode, but a stiff and low-articulation robot mode. DECEPTICON: VEHICON Altmode: Cruiser Car Weapon: Blaster Series: 2 Number: 002 Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: None (was a faction in Beast Machines) Previous Mold Use: None Function: Assault Infantry Motto: "Maybe if I just lie here, they'll think I'm offlined." The VEHICONS aren't always happy about their duties, but they follow orders without question. Mostly because they're more afraid of their commanders than they are of whatever the AUTOBOTS will do to them. STR 6 INT 5 SPD 6 END 5 RNK 3 COUR 7 FRB 5 SKL 4 Avg 5.125 Huh, a redshirt who actually has stats to match the status. Packaging: Two rubber bands, one of which helps hold the blaster in the right hand. Robot Mode: Somewhat awkward in a lot of ways. The front end of the car sticks up behind the head, there's roof halves just stuck on the forearms (and yes, they get in the way), and it seems to be designed so that it's supposed to be squatting with bent knees...a straight-legged pose is pretty unstable, since the ankles are permanently bent. It does look reasonably show-accurate aside from the kibble, though. 2.5" (6cm) tall at the head while squatting, 3" (7.5cm) tall at the top of the shoulder spikes. Predominantly black and gray with some silver. The wheels, shoulder struts, thighs and shins are light gray plastic, while everything else (including the backs of the boots) is black plastic. The faceplate, chest and abdomen are painted darkish silver, with a red vision slit and a purple Decepticon symbol that's printed on the center chest. Other paint apps are car-specific. The shoulders are ball joints on struts with a very small shrug range. Ball joint hips, and hinge knees that will bend about 45 degrees (and need to be bent about that far for stable poses). The head is on a transformation hinge, and can theoretically tilt back, but you have to move the car hood back to make room. The hands can both hold 3mm rods, there's peg holes on the forearms (vehicle doors) and one more on the backpack. Weapon: It does look like if we got a second mirror-flopped blaster, it'd make a decent enough flying car with both attached, especially since a side mount covers the wheel and reduces the weird proportioning of vehicle mode. Mounting it on the hood just makes the weird asymmetry more obvious, but it looks okay in either hand as a rifle in robot mode. If door-mounting it in robot mode, the left arm works better because it puts the wing on top. Transformation: Straighten the legs and put them together, flip the hood back so that the head can fold away, then back down and move the arms to the sides to form the doors and roof. No attempt is made to hide the feet, whcih end up just sticking out the back. Vehicle Mode: Like a Hot Wheels Hardnoze without enlarged front wheels, kinda offputting. The front wheels really need to be a few more millimeters farther forward to look right...it looks like a shorter car onto which someone bolted a fake front end. While the animation models are sleek and menacing, this looks like something a high school student put together with an aftermarket kit and a compact car, shooting for Batmobile and missing hilariously. 2.75" (7.5cm) long, mostly black with gray wheels and silver windows. The windows and headlights are painted darkish silver, and there's some molded grooves on the front fenders filled with reddish purple "dark energon" paint. There's 3mm peg holes on the doors and hood. It rolls smoothly, at least. Customization suggestions: Kinda beyond help. It's not possible to move the wheels or significantly shorten the nose, any paint additions would just be putting lipstick on a pig. Overall: It's a fiendishly clever plan: shortpack an armybuilder character, but make it a disappointing toy so no one wants to buy multiples anyway. Hopefully the jet Vehicon Cyberverse figure (I presume there will be one eventually) will be better. AUTOBOT: ARCEE Altmode: Motorcycle Weapon: Snap-on Blaster Series: 2 Number: 003 Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: Energon, Movie1, RotF, TFA Previous Mold Use: None Function: Stealth Fighter Motto: "No one gets left behind!" ARCEE is fast, smart, and always ready for a fight. Her blasters might not pack the punch of the bigger AUTOBOTS, but her incredible fighting skill more than make [sic] up for anything she lacks in firepower. STR 4 INT 7 SPD 8 END 5 RNK 7 COUR 9 FRB 4 SKL 8 Avg 6.5 Packaging: The same as the other two, two rubber bands, one of which helps hold the weapon in her hand. Robot Mode: Our Lady of Mecha Boots, now with extra wing. The sides of the motorcycle form rather large "battle angel" wings, while the rear of the motorcycle seat section splits into blade spikes that extend past the hands. If you don't like the wings, though, the whole section pops off easily enough (too easily, actually). Other than the wings, the only negative impact of robot kibble is that her right kneepad is a quarter missing, due to the need to have a chunk of her boot swing out for the front wheel. 2.75" (7cm) tall at the head, with a maximum wingspan equal to the height. A mix of blue, black and silver, with most of the plastic being a metalflake medium-to-dark blue. The shoulder struts, thighs, backpack strut and wheels are black plastic. Silver paint is used on the face, helmet crest, center chest, abdomen and kneecaps. The backs of the arms and most of the shoulder area are painted black. The eyes are bright blue, and a small red Autobot symbol is printed on her right breast. Ball joint shoulders and hips, hinge knees and wings. The large boots allow for stability in a decent range of action poses, although the fact the head doesn't turn steals some power from many of those. There's 3mm clip hands, and 3mm holes in the wings. Unfortunately, lack of elbows is not only understandable given this specific sculpt, it's also pretty standard for female action figures. The wingpack gets in the way a bit, and the wheels don't like to stay locked in place, but it's a decent robot mode, especially for a female motorcycle. Weapon: I have no idea why they gave her the Snap-On Blaster, it works least well of the three molds available. Frankly, the Decepticon blaster's asymmetry actually works well on a motorcycle, evoking a sidecar blade. I'm likely to leave her weaponless or give her the Vehicon's gun, because the one she comes with just doesn't look good in either mode. The lack of a centerline peg hole in vehicle mode makes the Snap-On particularly unaesthetic. Transformation: When it comes to motorcycles, especially at this size, there's a definitely "it's not how well the bear rides the unicycle" effect. But this bear rides the unicycle pretty well. The lower body transforms via kneeling down with one wheel folding out forward of the knees and the other folding backwards of the heels, and the boots pegging together. If you stop at this point, you get a sort of hybrid moto-taur mode. For the rest of the way, lean Arcee foward at the waist, bring both arms behind her back and snap them together, then fold the backpack over everything as the aerodynamic cowling. Unfortunately, this does make her motorcycle mode look like a case of robotic bondage. The only really finicky part is the backpack, which can pop off if you're not careful. Vehicle Mode: A standard street bike with aerodynamic cowlings, it only suffers a little bit from the "fat bike" effect often seen in transforming street bikes, and that only because the wings can't be made too thin or they'll break. The kneecaps and toes form a kickstand-like base, although if you have a weapon plugged into one side it'll likely tip over to that side. At 2.75" (7cm) long, it's very close to being in scale with the robot mode of the Deluxe toy...if you go by the show. Arcee loses a LOT of mass when she transforms to motorcycle mode in the cartoon. This makes this roughly 1:28 scale, give or take, and a Human Alliance figure would be about the right size to ride it. The color scheme is dominated by blue, with black wheels and seat. The black paint on the arms matches up with the black plastic of the shoulders to make a reasonably uniform black layer along the gastank and seat. The windshield is painted light metallic blue, and the silver kneecaps are still visible. Otherwise, no paint. I'm not sure if this is just mine, or a flaw in the design, but the rear wheel doesn't spin freely. The front does, so it might just be a case of inconsistent riveting. Both wheel chunks are held in position by joint friction and naught else, so it's easy to derange them while trying to spin the wheels. The arms' 3mm peg holes end up a sort of 8-shaped dual hole at the back of the seat, so you can't mount a weapon exactly on the centerline. There's a hole near the back of each aerodynamic cowling piece, but as mentioned above you'd better mount a weapon on each side or the toy will tip over sideways. Customization suggestions: For vehicle mode, all it really needs is silver on the brake disks. I also put silver on the blades and on the rear view mirrors, while I was at it. http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/tfparceelegion.JPG Overall: Pretty good, especially for a female AND a motorcycle. Other than the usual "not enough paint" complaint, about the only real problem is that the backpack/windshield piece doesn't stay on very well. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT RATCHET Altmode: Rescue vehicle Weapon: Battle Blade Series: 2 Number: 004 Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: Uni, Uni2, Movie1, RotF, DotM, TF:A Previous Mold Use: None Function: Tech Specialist Motto: "Put that down! Stop touching that!" AUTOBOT RATCHET may come off as gruff and impatient, but when it comes down to it, there's no one who cares more for the AUTOBOTS on Earth than their talented medic and mechanic. STR 6 INT 9 SPD 6 END 8 RNK 8 COUR 7 FRB 5 SKL 10 Avg 8 Packaging: Same as the others. Robot Mode: It looks more like "Ratchet in college, when he was on the football team" rather than the Ratchet on the show. The proportions are bit more heroic, the stance more erect. The big vehicle panels on the arms also tend to affect the overall appearance. The feet are angled to promote a stance with legs apart, and there's fake wheels molded onto the tops of the feet because the rear wheels are supposed to end up there rather than on the backs of the calves (where they are on the actual toy). 2.75" (7cm) tall, a mix of red, white and dark gray with some silver. The feet, thighs, shoulder struts and wheels are a dark gray plastic, with a little bit of metalflake inclusion. The rest of the toy is bright red plastic. The torso/head piece was spraypainted white from all sides, you have to look in under the roof backpack to see what color it was made of. There's also a lot of white on the outer arms, boot fronts and sides. The face, abdomen, pelvis front and shoulder tops are painted silver. There's orangey-red on the forehead crest and center chest, and a regular red Autobot symbol printed on the left upper chest. They didn't quite have paint budget for eyes, not that they're big enough to be an easy job. There's additional paint on the backpack for vehicle mode. The shoulders are ball joints on shrugging struts, hips are ball joints, knees and ankles are hinges. The ankles have a fairly limited useful range, but that they move at all is much appreciated. Both hands can hold 3mm pegs, and there's peg holes on the arm plates. There's another hole on the backpack which can be used for weapon storage. No 3mm rod segments. Weapon: The Battle Blade makes for a decent scalpel, I suppose. And when held in his hand it fits snugly against the side panel and can pass for a fist-replacement weapon when viewed from the panel side of the arm. In vehicle mode, if you put it on the roof with the blade pointed backwards, the hilt peg makes a decent gun barrel. Transformation: Shoulders shrug up and come together to combine over the head, legs peg together and bend up at the knees to make the back end. Nothing particularly complicated, although some of the clearances can be tricky. Vehicle Mode: It looks less like a van and more like a camper shell was added to an extended-cab pickup truck...a Trailbreaker redeco would certainly make sense. There's a lack of any symbols (Autobot or emergency) on it, but there's a lightbar which at least marks it as some kind of emergency vehicle. The folded up feet look like some sort of roof rack, and the back and isn't too horribly gappy. 2.75" (7cm) long, making this closer to 1:100 scale than the usual Hot Wheels scale, but that's kinda inevitable for the larger ground vehicles when done as Legends. Most of the dark gray plastic is hidden in this mode, with just the feet-roofrack and the wheels visible. Most of each side is painted white, the windows are very dark metalflake matte gray, and the grille and front bumper are silver. There's some white on the back, but it's pretty clearly robot details and not vehicle detailing. The lightbar is painted a metallic garnet red. All three usable peg holes are about an inch (2.8cm) back from the front end: one on the roof, one on each door. It rolls along nicely on surfaces like paper. Customizing Suggestions: A few touches of silver (wheel hubs, side mirrors) would be helpful. Cutting a reprolabel Autobot symbol in half to mount on the hood would also be nice, but the logical door locations for insignia are taken up by the peg holes. If you have a really steady hand, eyes would not be amiss. I decided to go whole hog and added the EKG stripes on the sides: http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/tfpratchetlegion.JPG Overall: A decent Legion Class figure, if a bit bland-feeling. It's shortpacked, but worth searching for. AUTOBOT: CLIFFJUMPER Altmode: Muscle Car Weapon: Battle Blade Series: 2 Number: 005 Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: G1, Armada, Cybertron, Classics, Movie1 Previous Mold Use: None Function: Autobot Commando Motto: "Mess with the Cliff, get the horns!" The best place to find CLIFFJUMPER is wherever there's likely to be a fight. The tough, aggressive robot loves nothing more than pounding DECEPTICONS into scrap. STR 8 INT 5 SPD 6 END 6 RNK 4 COUR 8 FRB 7 SKL 5 Avg 6.125 Packaging: The usual two rubber bands, but the blister wraps around everything so well that they're hardly necessary. Robot Mode: Definitely one of the better robot modes they've managed at this size, really only hurt by a lack of tabs to lock the torso sides in place. It even does a decent job of looking like the animation model, albeit in a vastly simplified and blocky way. His head has the trademark horns, although it's a little narrower than the animation model's version. 2.75" (7cm) tall, a mix of red, black and silver. The upper arms, thighs, lower torso and wheels are black plastic, while the rest is bold red plastic. There's silver paint on the horns, face, the tops of the forearms, and some vehicle details. The centerline of the chest is painted gunmetal with a small red Autobot symbol at the collar. The very dark metallic gray paint on the windows ends up on his lower chest, shins and feet. The eyes are painted bright blue. Cliffjumper has some of the best articulation of any Legion class figure. Ball joints for shoulders, elbows (if a bit weirdly restricted), hips and ankles, plus hinge knees. While the door shape of the feet is a little awkward, the ball joints and sheer size of the feet make them very good for supporting action stances. Notable among the cars for lacking forearm 3mm peg holes, as his car-side peg holes end up on his boots and his roof hole ends up on hie left shin. So all he has are fists to hold weapons. Weapon: I suppose the Battle Blade works okay for his robot mode, but the off-center roof hole means if it's a choice of one weapon or none, I go with none in vehicle mode. I've given him some assault rifles from a Best Lock soldier to use instead, though. They look better on his robot mode. Transformation: Pretty complicated, even for a Deluxe, much less a Legion. The arms fold up into the shoulderpads (took me a few tries to get to the point where I could do it reliably without popping the arms off) to make the hood halves, which then swing down below the chest to form the front of the car. Meanwhile, the legs fold back up behind the robot to become the rear. They have to wrap around before pegging together, though. The key to the arms is to keep the upper arms in place and swing the forearms around backwards...effectively positioned as if he'd just done some barbell curls, but just bending them straight up will snap the elbows apart. Vehicle Mode: A hybrid muscle car, with elements of the Barracuda, the Challenger and no doubt a few others, plus his trademark steer horn hood ornament. There's molded exhaust pipes sticking out from under the doors, although they're not painted. The transformation leaves it with no obvious hinge kibble, and the only obvious robot element is the central chest stripe on the roof (the larger toys would have that seam close up, presumably). It has a louvred rear window and molded on side mirrors. The riveted wheels make it feel a little small, paint on the hubs would probably help it escape the Micromaster aesthetic. 2.75" (7cm) long, which would make it about 1:68 scale (if a 'Cuda) or maybe 1:70 (70s Challenger). Despite feeling small, it's a reasonable Hot Wheels scale like previous Legion vehicle modes. Other than the wheels, all the black plastic is hidden. The windows and rear window slats are painted a very dark metallic gray, the front and rear bumpers are silver, the horns are silver, and the roof stripe is the gunmetal one from robot mode. Ground clearance is pretty small, but it rolls along okay for something with rivet axles. Paint Touchup Notes: Unless you want to change the overall detail level, all I'd really suggest adding would be silver on the wheel hubs and on the under-door exhaust pipes. But since the pipes end up as the robot's heels, wear can be expected. Silvering the hubs definitely helps it look beter, and while it might gum up the wheels if you're not careful, it's not like this was rolling like a Hot Wheels car to begin with. http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/tfpclifflegion.JPG - modded Overall: Really, my only complaint is the ease with which the arms pop off when transforming it either direction.