Dave's RotF Rant: Legends Wave 3 Autobot Skids (Chevy Beat, 92570) Sideways (sports car, 93897) Tankor (2007 Brawl redeco, 92900) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Legends3 There's probably reships in this wave, but I have yet to see a "clean" assortment to be sure what. [Later note: I'm told these ship with either a brown Ratchet redeco or with reships of Prime, Fallen, Mudflap and Megatron plus a "Recon Bumblebee" who has different hood and door paint deco than the previous Bumblebee, and I may have simply not looked closely enough to notice the "Recon" on the name.] http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Legend4 - Brawl mold, if it had been sold separately it might have gotten a Strongly Recommended. CAPSULES Autobot Skids: Holds together badly no matter the mode, articulation is iffy, proportions are all wrong for the robot mode, and the head pops off at the slightest provocation. Avoid. $4.99 at Toys R Us. Sideways: Vehicle mode looks nice, transformation is decent, robot mode is disappointing. Mildly recommended. $4.99 at Toys R Us. Tankor: Original mold was not sold separately, but was somewhere between recommended and strongly recommended. If the loose joints in mine are the norm rather than exception, though, that's a Bad Thing. At least it's an interesting homage, albeit to the Tank Drone rather than the BMac Tankor toy. Recommended if they're not all floppy. $4.99 at Toys R Us. RANTS Packaging: Same as Wave 1. Functions and mottos are my creation. AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT SKIDS Altmode: Chevy Beat Concept Licensor: GM Previous Name Use: RotF ("Skids" alone G1, Alt) Previous Mold Use: None Function: Kid Sidekick Motto: "Oooh, whatcha doin'? Thish looksh like a GREAT ambush!" STR 4 INT 6 SPD 7 END 4 RNK 2 COUR 8 FRB 5 SKL 3 Avg 4.875 Twist-ties: 3 Vehicle Mode: This really doesn't hold together well. The top and bottom halves are pretty much separate and peg together using the license plate area, but no matter what I do the seams gape wide all over the place. At 2.5" (6.5cm) long, it's a few millimeters longer than the RPM version and a little bit narrower. The wheels are black plastic, otherwise it's the same sort of neon green as other versions of Skids. The windows are metallic blue. The hood, grille and door skidmark patterns are matte black. The headlights are silver, the taillights are bright red, and there's a dull red Autobot symbol on the front of the hood. Transformation: The bottom half swings down and splits into legs, the top half splits apart into arms, part of the roof pushes down so that the head swings up from the hood. The head piece is very loose and doesn't lock into place, instead popping off if you apply pressure the wrong way to try to get the torso to lock together (it has pegs, but they don't seat well). Getting the arms back together into the roof can be tricky. Robot Mode: A lot leggier than any other version of the character, and frequently headless. 3.25" (8cm) tall at the head, and his right hand has the same sort of big claw look as Legends Mudflap's left hand. The face and the fronts of the legs are painted silver, and the eyes are bright light blue. The shoulders are ball joints, but the ball struts point backwards meaning the arms can really just lift to the sides. The elbows and hips are also ball joints. But the articulation is almost moot, given that any attempt to pose the figure tends to pop the torso apart, make the head fall off, or both. Overall: Piece of crap. It doesn't hold together well in vehicle mode, and if you try to display or store it in robot mode the head will fall off eventually. Avoid this. DECEPTICON: SIDEWAYS Altmode: Sports Car Licensor: None Previous Name Use: RiD, Armada, Cybertron, RotF Previous Mold Use: None Function: Courier Motto: "Love to stay and chat, but I gotta split." STR 4 INT 7 SPD 7 END 5 RNK 3 COUR 4 FRB 3 SKL 4 Avg 4.625 Twist-ties: 2. Mine was warped before even going into the package, and pressing the offending roof panel back into place introduced a large stress mark. Vehicle Mode: It's an Audi R8, changed just enough to get past trademark and copyright laws. The main changes are replacing the rear window with an exposed engine block and adding a lot of molded detail and some vents to the hood. It's more unlike my Matchbox Audi R8 than the Deluxe version is, probably because at this scale it's harder to get away with subtle tweaks as a means of avoiding lawsuits. At 3" (7.5cm) long, it's only a few millimeters longer than the Matchbox version. It's made of a slightly metallic gunmetal gray plastic with black wheels. There's matte black paint along the sides in a ___/ shape to evoke the strong molded lines of the Audi R8 without actually molding those lines in. Matte black is also found on the front grille and a tiny Decepticon symbol is printed in black at the hood ornament position. The headlights and exposed rear engine are painted silver. The windows are a sort of metallic rose, there's no paint on the taillights. Amusingly, the windshield can be flipped up if you have long fingernails or use a knife. It tends to get hung up on the bent part of the roof of mine, annoyingly, which makes it more likely to break off entirely. Transformation: The doors and trunk split into the big-handed arms, spindly legs fold out from under the engine, the hood folds down to make the chest. Getting the arms into place in vehicle mode is a little tricky the first couple of times, but not a big issue. Robot Mode: Unlike the Deluxe, this isn't digitigrade...although the knees only bend forward. The hips don't move backwards, and there's no ankles, it's all pretty much stuck with straight-legging. And the tiny feet mean poor stability. 2.75" (7cm) tall, there's a little more black in the mix thanks to the lower legs being made of black plastic. The upper half of the face is painted matte black with red eyes, otherwise no new paint in this mode. The shoulders are ball joints on struts, the hips are pretty restricted ball joints (to the sides and forward, but not back), the knees are hinges that only bend backwards. He has to stand with legs apart for his feet to be flat on the table, and between tiny feet and a topheavy design he tends not to stand up well. [Later clarification: you can force the legs back at the hips but they also have to go out to the sides, they can't go straight back. And lack of ankle joints makes it moot anyway.] Overall: Let's put it this way...I've had several opportunities since opening this to get a new one without the bent roof piece, but it hasn't been worth the bother. The sad part is, it's not even the weakest figure in the wave, Skids is worse. DECEPTICON: TANKOR Altmode: Tank Licensor: None Previous Name Use: BMac, Universe, Universe2, Cybertron Previous Mold Use: Movie1 Function: Fire Support Motto: "Fine, run away, doesn't matter to me which side of you gets blown up." STR 9 INT 4 SPD 3 END 10 RNK 3 COUR 7 FRB 9 SKL 3 Avg 6 The packaging makes it look like he's significantly darker blue than the actual toy. In fact, the color is only a little darker than the blue used on RiD Armorhide. However, the overall impression I got was that this is meant to be an homage to Beast Machines Tankor (animation model, not toy). Twist-ties: 3 Color Swaps: Brawl was all one color, and so is Tankor, a light blue plastic. Paint Apps: In tank mode, the middle front part of the armor is painted silver, there's yellow hazard stripes along the sides of the rear "fenders" and the treads are painted dark gunmetal gray. There's more paint on the treads than usually found at this size, and it looks nice. The hazard stripes are an homage to the Tank Drone color scheme, although it has its yellow stripes on the top of the fenders. For robot mode, silver is added on the face, the middle of the chest and much of the shins. The eyes and the top of the nose are red, in an attempt to give him more of a vision slit, and there's a red X on the chest where the x-shaped array of missiles can be found on the Tank Drone. There's three diagonal yellow stripes on the other side of the chest front, and a blue- purple Decepticon symbol on the center of the chest. Other Notes: Mine's kinda floppy at most of the joints. While the jointing is wrong to point the cannon forward in robot mode, leaving it pointed up (its vehicle mode position) rather than folding it down onto the arm helps increase the similarity to the Tank Drone while also further separating this from Brawl. Overall: It's a nice mold and an interesting homage, but if the loose joints are systematic that knocks it down a peg. On the other hand, the original version was never available solo, and I suspect some people passed on it rather than have to also pay for a recolor of a lackluster mold. Dave Van Domelen, notes it's kinda sad when the only good mold in a wave is a redeco.