Guest reviews by Wonkimus Major Henkei Thundercracker Classics Dropshot Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/Dropshot Wonkimus Major, my trading partner in Japan, offers up commments on a couple of toys he picked up and that he knew I wouldn't be. :) Henkei Thundercracker is a redeco of Classics Starscream, Classics Dropshot is a redeco of Cybertron Defense Scattorshot. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/Deluxe1 - Starscream mold http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/Mega4 - CD Scattorshot mold I hear that painting over the fist holes on Henkei Thundercracker's guns is enough to solve the looseness problem some have been encountering. And now, without further ado, here's WM's reviews: Henkei Thundercracker Due to the fact that a retail version of Classics Thundercracker has never been released, this Japanese Henkei version has caused a lot of excitement. The only existing Classics version is the Botcon 2007 exclusive. If you've ever looked for one on ebay, you'll know that the price is out of reach for the average collector. This figure is an exclusive of Ganbo-store.com, an online retailer in Japan, and was priced at around 3000 yen. Unfortunately, the site is only in Japanese, and I don't even know if they ship outside Japan...so this figure is still only available on the aftermarket to most fans, and at a more reasonable price. Packaging/paperwork: Card is the same as Henkei Starscream, with Screamer on the back. Front of the package has a monotone light blue color, and says Thundercracker in katakana. I'm pretty sure the reason it's like this is so they could just reuse the Starscream art and save a few yen. The ubiquitous trading card that comes with Japanese TF's is the same muted blue color, but the back has Thundercracker's stats. I can understand Japanese well enough to order this figure, but if I want to translate his bio, I'd have to spend an hour poring over a dictionary. The instructions are Starscream's, they even have Screamer's name on them. Jet mode: The first thing I noticed when I opened this figure up was that the paint was metallic blue, just like with the G1 Thundercraker toy. He's got the red and white stripes along his wings, and black tailfins, just like the G1 version. The vertical tailfins are painted black. Jet thrusters are black chrome. The middle section of the weapons is chromed, too. That's the only chrome on the toy, so it's not as bad as with some of the other Henkei figures (looks at Megatron). I don't own the Henkei Starscream, but looking at the pictures on the package I see that the paint mask scheme is exactly the same, just colored differently. Henkei Skywarp uses this paint scheme, as well. One nice touch I noticed is that the sides of the jet are completely blue - even where the arms fold in. Though TC's got black "gloves," the back of them is painted metallic blue to blend in with the rest of the vehicle mode. Transformation: If you already own this mold, you can probably do this blindfolded by now, considering all the repaints/remolds this toy has gotten. Robot mode: Here is where the toy falls apart - literally. I'll start with the good points - this IS a faithful rendering of the G1 character. Silvery body around the canopy, black "gloves," black feet. Knees and thrusters on the legs are silver, too. However, there are some problems with the toy itself. The legs are loose. Also, the horizontal tailfins don't fold up 100%. Feet are loose and don't snap into place like they do on other versions of this mold. The worst part is this--the weapons will not stay into the holes on the arms! It's as if either the pegs are too small or the holes are too big. They'll fit into the holes in the hands or wings, but not the arms. If you want to pose the figure standing straight, you can put them in the holes and they'll stay...just don't plan on touching the figure or breathing on it too hard. I thought it might be a case of mold rot, but Acid Storm has none of these problems. Also, TC's weapons will stay on Acid Storm's arms, but if I put Acid Storm's weapons on TC's arms, they fall out. Does this figure live up to expectations? Unfortunately I'm going to have to say no. I'd give this a "mildly recommended," thought the only reason I'm giving this is because it's a relatively inexpensive alternative version of this fan-favorite character. If this were Just Another Repaint *looks at Acid Storm*, because of the above-mentioned problems, I'd have to give it an "avoid." Universe Decepticon Dropshot: Decepticon Dropshot is a repaint of Cybertron Defense Scattorshot from the Cybertron line. I thought this looked cool at the time when it came out, but I didn't pick it up because I felt I'd been getting to many of the larger toys at the time. This release is a second chance to get this for anyone like myself who missed it the first time around. I live in Japan and this figure is not available in the Henkei series, so I bought one on ebay. The reason I like the Classics line is because it's mainly homages to G1 characters, and when I purchased this, I realized that I didn't own the G1 version of the character, so I ordered one of those as well. They arrived on the same day. Vehicle mode: The only resemblance to the original character is that they both have guns on top...but the original is an armored Hummer-ish vehicle with guns on top, and this is a huge missile truck. Being a repaint, I wasn't expecting an exact resemblance, but for this figure it looks like they didn't even try. The G1 version is blue, but this is a light yellow. Yes, yellow. I thought it was a light blue in the pics I saw online, but instead, it's like the whole figure is a sun-damaged yellow color. Perhaps they didn't want something that looked too much like Cybertron Defense Scattorshot? The Micromaster Flak has the same alt mode, but the colors are not similar to him, either. Transformation: Same as Cybertron Defense Scattorshot. Robot mode: Much of the ugly yellow goes away in this mode...it's just on the boots and arm weapons . Body and head are primarily brown. Thighs are gray. Arms are green and gray. Again, not much resemblance to any G1 Transformer. The key-activated weapons on the arms are quite cool, though. The planet key he comes with is an unpainted Earth planet key. I'll say "mildly recommended" if you don't already own this mold, though the original looks much better. However, if you are looking for a close G1 homage, you can pass on this one.