Phil's Energon Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

Downshift

I'm not sure I can be bothered to keep up Hasbro's pretext. The car is SCREAMING Wheeljack at you. White car with gull wing doors as part of the TF, and some space beneath the windscreen that says car interior to you. There are 2 exhaust like Energon weapons in this mode, one of which is a launcher for a red Energon missile. His Spark is on a rear wheel hub.

To TF take the spoiler off and turn him upside down. Back of the car is the top of the robot. Flip out some panels in the legs and the feet fold out, straighten these up and fold the panels closed. Origami the windscreen and roof onto the back of his legs. Fold the arms down from the side of the car and fold the rear of the car onto the back. Fold the exhaust pipes on the car fwd as shoulder cannons and fold the rear of the car down. Combine the Energon weapons and spoiler into a dual gun thing.

Robot still says Wheeljack ! Perfect likeness, even down to the head with the light up ears made from see through plastic as part of the eye pipe gimmick. Articulation on the ankles, swivel below the knees, a knee joint so high it's virtually in the hip, movement to the side in the hips, ball jointed shoulders, elbows in one plane of movement and neck. Possibly the only downside is the plastic used for the forearms, shoulder cannons/exhausts, waist, upper legs & feet: it a pale olive green colour which doesn't work - black would have been better I think. A comment about the hands and wrists - there's bits of plastic sticking out the front of these at about eye separation width. I'm wondering how this toy passed safety tests....

Wheeljack's leg mode is formed by bending the top half of the robot down being him. Good set of legs.

The arm mode is made by separating the robot legs, and rotating the head & upper body - via a joint on the back - onto area where the legs were. The robot arms fold up onto the shoulders in a not quite looking right sort of way. Feet fold into the lower legs - which are now the forearms. Apart from the aforementioned shoulder pads the body mode is also very good.

Overall: It's an articulated version of G1 Wheeljack - you can't really go wrong can you ?

Downshift was sold in Japan as Superlink toy SC-19 Wheeljack where the pale green is swapped for grey.

Universe Downshift

Universe Downshift is somewhat of a dispointment The pale green is swapped for a yellow and the paint deco on the car is altered to straighten it out and include a huge Autobot symbol. That's it ! More could have been done, but wasn't.


Universe Downshift was a KB Exclusive in 2005. Thankfully his case mate had more work done on him - but was a disapointment for completely different reasons !

[Philip Ayres]

Tow-Line

TowLine is a van. Points will be given for telling me when there was last a TF van - but it was a while ago. The decor on the sides of the van - dark blue with a white bordered red stripe - is very G1 Skids - but the homage is spoilt by the white front and very pale blue top to the vehicle Since the white is paint there's really no excuse for that, and the light blue ends up on the robot's legs or a panel behind the head - that's all there is of this colour so it doesn't need to tie in with any other pieces. The colour choices give the toy a rushed half finished look.

He comes with a big red Energon weapon - the same colour as his windows - which attached to the top of the van with 2 different radar attenae sticking out giving the image of a TV detector van. Both radar antenna rotate - the smaller dish folds to the side while the larger flat panel folds back. When the Energon weapon is held in robot mode the flat panel at the back can be swung forward on a lengthy arm converting it into a metal/mine detector.

TF: fold the sides of the van down and pull the top half off - it's linked to the bottom by a Powerlinx connector. Open the doors on the top half, fold the arms out, fold the back down under the front half to form the waist and legs. Fold the head out the top of the van to finish forming the robot . Meanwhile take the lower half of the van, and fold the back doors down into the lower half, then fold down & forward treads from under the vehicle and fold the front wheels back on a little strut so they're projecting out the back of the vehicle. This forms a repair bay similar to Ratchet's or Ironhide's. The Energon weapon can attach to this half and form a weapon. TFU's pictures of this aren't so good, so take a peak at Remy's Act 254

The robot mode feels very late G1 UK toy somehow. He's about the same size as other dlx toys, but less bulky on the limbs. Exposed here is some muddy brown on the head, forearms and upper legs which matches the front bumper of the vehicle and also form the treads and flatbed of the repair bay.. A sandy olive is found on the waist, upper arms & shoulders on the robot and is used for the Powerlinx clip and wheel struts on the repair bay. He's got bending knee joints and ball joints at the hips, shoulders and elbows. The spark crystal is found on the right shoulder pad formed from one of the doors.

If you're looking to combine Towline you may be in for a little disappointment as the robot only has a body mode, and that's very similar to Inferno's - it's effectively the upper body, with the legs folded behind the torso and the toes folded out revealing guns. Not the worst looking torso mode. In this mode he can recombine with his base to form couple of very odd looking combinations.... Reconnecting him in the same direction as he is in vehicle mode gives an almost sphinx like toy, while turning him round 180 degrees leaves him looking out over the repair bay.

Overall: It's quite a fun and inventive toy, departing a little for the Energon norm for an Autobot. There's several G1 references contained within but I feel it's spoilt a bit by the botched Skids colour scheme.

Towline was not released in Japan as part of the Superlink series - one of four western deluxe toys not to appear.

Ironhide

Towline's mould returns twice in Botcon 2005. Sporting a new head for both versions he first becomes Ironhide. Dark blue, light blue & muddy brown all become red - save for the robot toes, bay base & treads which are black - the sandy brown becomes grey and the red of the windows & Energon weapons becomes light blue.

Despite being a popular G1 character Ironhide's not had an awful lot of love over the years so this was a welcome toy.

Ratchet

Towline's second Botcon 2005 appearance is as Ratchet. Again sporting the new head for both versions we find that all solid colours are now white - save for the robot toes, bay base & treads which are once again black. The windows are light blue as is a new removable Lightbar which plugs into existing holes on the van's roof.

Ratchet is the first new white version of Ratchet since the 1984 original !

[The Doctor]

Just the other day I was checking ebay out of idle curiosity to see if the prices on that Ratchet toy had calmed down. Prices ranged from £232 - £336!

-Ralph

[blueshift]

I'm considering throwing my Towline on ebay, if anyone is interested.

[Philip Ayres]

That Ratchet price is INSANE!

[Philip Ayres]

Snowcat

Snowcat is the new form for Armada Cyclonus

Vehicle Mode: Snowcat is an obvious homage to the GI Joe Snowcat years ago. When it first popped up fans nick named it Snowcat and were dead right. You know it's only a dlx toy but somehow - probably by virtue of the size of the GI Joe original - you expect it to be bigger. The toy is mainly white with bluey grey plastic forming the front tires & the bulk of the rear of the vehicle, some burgundy for the windscreen wipers & mudflaps , and a pale brown for the rear treads. Cab is 4cm across, back is 6cm and he's 15cm long. Main difference between this and the GIJoe version is the lack of a missile array on top - however there is a minicon port so Firebot can easily substitute. Said port is mounted on a panel that moves round a peg in one corner for the TF. It falls off. Lots. 2 wheels at front, and 2 tiny ones hidden in the tank treads at the back. The front of the vehicle is a clear pale green windscreen which is mainly frosted apart from the path of the moveable wiper, which is the same as on the original GI Joe version.

Hyper Vehicle Mode: Fold down the wheel arches at the front so they're under the wheels then fold down the panels at the sides of the back of the vehicle so they re under the tank treads - hinged round the back of the vehicle with some panel origami - instant ski mobile. This exposes 2 missile launchers in the same clear green as the windscreen. Pivot them up out and round the sides so they're on the roof of the back of the vehicle - the missile launchers are each attached at the back to bits of plastic they pivot round, which are in turn attached to the vehicle. Holes in the side of the missiles - pegless minicon sockets allow extra bolt on weapons. Range of missiles is about 2m, not bad.

TF: Start from vehicle and fold down the rear skis. Bend the entire back of the vehicle down under the cab and then rotate at the waist. Yes, Snowcat is the first Energon deluxe with a waist. Separate the top half of the back and swing forwards to become the arms. Move the minicon peg panel into position over the forearm of the left arm, straighten then position the arms and extend the fists. The missile launchers will now be connected to the torso via a piece of plastic that folds in the middle - fold this up pushing forwards so the head ends up in place and the missiles are mounted on his back.

Robot mode - Snowcat's got a very bulky chest formed from the cab of the vehicle. His articulation includes: Knees which bend forward and back, ball jointed hips, waist, shoulders swing back slightly (via TF), forward, back and out to the sides, biceps, elbows and neck. His head is white and looks a bit like a bug eyed Soundwave wearing a breathing mask - shame those large eyes aren't lightpiped. The spark has ended up at about waist high.

Hyper Robot Mode: Flip the skis down on the front and back of the legs - the first skiing TF ! The missile launchers then fold up onto his shoulders. Nice.

Overall: Good fun TF, lots of modes and an original vehicle for the line.

Snowcat was available in Japan as Superlink toy SD-10 Snowstorm. The name continues the evoloution shown on the toy from Sandstorm in Micron Legend (Armada) to Snowstorm for the Superlink (Energon) repaint of the toy and the new version here

Universe Snowcat

We've already said that Snowcat is based on the GI Joe Snowcat. Well the world and it's mother expected that any repaint of Energon Snowcat would be based on the GI Joe Tiger Force repaint of their Snowcat - Tigercat All the Tigerforce vehicles have yellow with black stripes tiger camoflage patterns on them and red weapons/missiles.

Instead we get the Universe Snowcat - white & blue become black and the burgundy becomes orange. Although it might seem a bit of a left field colour scheme, there is actually a connection here: it's based on the Toys R Us exclusive GI Joe Nightforce toys released in 1988 and 1989 (see the

Possible Repaints

As well as the Tigercat outlined above, a third GI Joe version exists in their Streetfighter subline - the Street Fighter Devastator. This has a mainly purplple body and would translate very well to the Transformers Snowcat as it's a traditional Decepticon colour. There's another couple of GI Joe subsets that could be plundered - the red radar camoflage with yellow weapons of the Python patrol, the silver chrome of the Sky Patrol or the green camo of Sargent Slaughter's Marauders (see the Armadillo for an example).

[Philip Ayres]

You don't think theHasbro designers got confused and used the wrong GI Joe sub line colour scheme do you ?

[Bogatan]

Jul 16, 2009 8:38:49 GMT Philip Ayres said:

That Ratchet price is INSANE!

Blame Hasbro for making the universe version so fiddly (in a bad way). I'm not a fan of the Botcon pair but they remain in may respects better toys and likenesses.

Andy

[The Doctor]

They are pretty good, but I can live without them considering what they go for!

-Ralph

[Bogatan]

Initially I was unsure. Like eveyone when I first saw Towline I thought Ratchet and Ironhide but when I saw pictures and eventually got Ironhide I just felt they where off. Then I gradually realised that towlines design was equally inspired by the original toy as much as the cartoon forms which I liked. Still dont like the heads.

Wondering if I can transplant Universe Ironhides head onto Botcon Ironhide?

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Starscream

My Energon Starscream finally arrived yesterday - www.action-hq.com have them in stock finally. So what do I think ?

Firstly Starscream is *NOT* a remould of the Jet portion of the G2 Stealth Bomber (BWII BB & Starscream, RID DreadWing & Smokejumper et al)

It is remarkably similar in Transformation, part shape etc etc etc. Jet feels a tiny bit light and insubstantial for a deluxe. 4 main plastic colours are used on the jet :

A dark grey for the nose & main body of the jet,
A light blue for some of the rear & underside of the jet- which is doing very strange things for me as it reminds me of the euro Predator stealth jet (Talon ?),
A darker blue for the landing gear & the missiles
A transparent green used for the cockpit canopy, but is also present on the wings in this mode but mostly hidden by some great looking black paint.

The jet has some red, gold and silver detailing on it, and 2 Decepticon symbols on the wings in purple.

There's battle damage picked out in various colours - to the left of the spark, on the right tail and on the right wing where it's picked out in green. His Decepticon spark behind the cockpit, which fits the Energon Stars carried by the basic Energon toys. The rear fins for the jet are mounted on the robot's lower leg, and are beneath the body instead of on the same level as it which looks odd. The undercarriage features fold down landing gear underneath, 2 at the back, one at the front. There's two Minicon ports, one under each wing - why won't Hasbro put them on top of jets where they'd be useful This means you're restricted to which Minicons you can use by their closeness to other bits of plastic, but they're good for attaching his 2 dark green Energon weapons - a sword/bayonet and a gun. However since they're different shapes they make him look a tad uneven in jet mode. He has two missile launchers, one under each wing. They can't be fired until the wings are tilted down at a hinge near the body, transforming him into his hyper attack mode. The missile launcher are spring loaded and you'll probably looking at a range of about 1m.

To TF fold the waist down from under the cockpit which brings the legs out in front of the jet with it. The fins & the panels they're attached to on the front of the legs rotate the other way up which allows the feet & heel spurs to unfold at the bottom of the legs. The lower legs then twist 90 degrees at the knees to face forwards. The tail fins & their mounting then have to be pulled down through the jet - I swear it feels like these are going to break, they need some force on mine ! - and then origami out to form the arms with the forearms folding down and then rotating at the bicep. Twist the cockpit & legs round 180 degrees then fold the sides of the back of the jet forward onto the sides of the cockpit. The back of the jet then folds down and locks onto the back of the cockpit.

Yes, that's a virtually identical transformation to the G2 Stealth Bomber's Smokescreen jet !

The robot mode has re-arranged the colours substantially:

The dark grey is now in the robot's chest and back - formed from the body of the jet,
The light blue forms the lower legs & arms plus his left shoulder.
The darker blue forms the waist, upper left arm and a few of the pieces that link bits of the toy together.
The transparent green again forms the wings - on the robot's back now - and the robot's right upper arm & shoulder.
A new colour, black, is present on the upper legs, feet and head.

The head is a very decent Starscream head sculpt, you know who this is looking at it. He's got light pipe eyes - hold him up to the light and his eyes glow green the same as the wings - I love the lightpipe gimmick on Transformer toys ! The green under the wings is more obvious here, but looks a little odd present on just one shoulder & arm - the toy's back story is that he's an Energon Ghost so I think we can assume he's a semi corporal form made of Energon. However this does give him a rather uneven feel, not helped by the battle damage moulded into the same shoulder. This colour choice will haunt repaints later.

Starscream's got lots of posability: The feet & heel spurs are hinged at the ankle as part of the TF, each knee bends and has a turning joint above it, he's ball jointed at the hip, his shoulders turn at the body then the arm bends to the side within the shoulder pad, there's a bicep joint & a bending elbow - both part of which are part of the TF and his head turns.

The missile launchers from the jets hyper mode are deployable here over the shoulders. The arms end in a hand with the standard 5mm socket size, so he can hold any other Energon or Armada weapon. His own weapons combine into a huge long thin sword, which (like Strongarm's axe) is held by the barrel of the gun component - I suspect we'll see a few of these snapped off in years to come. The combined mode just a little too heavy for the elbow joints for Starscream to be able to support for a long period of time.

Overall..... I like this toy a lot better than his Armada counterpart, it's very posable, and the Energon weapons are nice. It's also the first Starscream to made at the deluxe size - The Autobots during Armada/Energon/Cybertron always had Hotshot in this side but he lacked a Decepticon counterpart of the same size in the other two lines. I feel that having a recognisable Decepticon jet available in this size is a good thing. And I've never been impressed with the larger Starscreams ! On the downside it seems too much like the G2 jet mentioned above, is a bit spindly and slight, I'm not sure about the blue, and the hyper mode gimmick isn't nearly as great as the Powerlinx one. But as time has gone on I've appreciated this Starscream more & more, so much so that I think it's probably my favourite Starscream right up there with the Henkei version.

Starscream was available in Japan in the Superlink line as SD-01 Nightscream

Nightscream Reverse

The first repaint of Starscream appeared in Japan as Superlink SD-15 Nightscream Reverse.

When I got this toy I was on a minor Japanese repaint hit I got Nightscream Reverse from (the now defunct) Tripitaka Toys as well as having Galvatron General and Hotshot Fire on the way from HLJ !

Energon Starscream was good. But his SL repaint is possibly better.

OK paint map time: Take your Energon Starscream:

Both blues become a brighter dark blue
Black and dark grey become a grey
Clear green becomes a clear blue/purple.
All paint highlights are a brighter colour.

So Nightscream is now doing a very passable G1 Starscream colour impersonation - especially as a jet. The Energon is much more Decepticony looking especially as it has got a more purpley tinge to it than the pictures suggest. This also bring G1 Thundercracker to mind which is a nice touch as the Micron Legend Starscream when upgraded took on the G1 Thundercracker colours.

And as an added bonus you get an extra weapon - Insecticon's weapon and Energon star done in a clear neon yellow. Hmmm, Takara could have made it match up a bit better, the colours on Galvatron's Dinobot weapon - a nice lavender purple - are more appropriate or even making it the same a Nightscream R's Energon would do. There's also some issues with linking it to Nightscream when he's in jet mode !

Recommended. HLJ sold out quickly, which is why I went to Tripitaka toys for mine which came the next day ! I do miss them as a toy seller.

Energon Starscream

When Hasbro came to do their repaint Starscream for Energon they took a different approach to Takara's going for a more solid Starscream.

Notably the transparent green becomes pale grey as does the dark grey and the left shoulder.
The light blue & the darker blue all becomes a brighter dark blue.
The black remains the same.

This produces a version of the toy that looks very much like the G1 Starscream. However the moulding of certain parts together once again results in something asymmetrical in the arms. We also loose the clear plastic on the Energon weapons which is a shame.

Starscream was not available in the UK.

Skyquake

After four years the Starscream mould returns not once but twice for Botcon 2005. The first version we see is Skyquake, based on the European exclusive toy from 1992 that went on to be used as Machine Wars Starscream and Universe King Atlas.

The dark grey becomes a bluey green.
The light blue becomes a yellowy gold.
The darker blue becomes black.
The transparent green becomes a clear lime green.
The black remains the same.

They've got the colours for Skyquake's jet mode sort of right - but could do with more of the bring pink which is used for some highlights here and featured heavily on the original. However the robot mode's shape doesn't go well with Skyquake's original one - the problem here is we have a large green jet nose forming the chest where the original had a brown chest with clear lime green panel in the middle of it.

Leozack

The second Botcon 2005 use of Starscream suffers from a similar problem - the Breastforce member Leozack also lacks the nose cone on the front of the robot mode. However there's a couple of thing in your mind that might make you think it is: Leozack forms the centre of Liokaiser and the nose cone faces forward there and Leozack's Breastmaster when attached forms a similar arrangement to that found on Energon Starscream.

Colour change time:

The dark grey and most of the black become a pearly white.
The light blue becomes a bright light blue.
The darker blue becomes black.
The transparent green becomes clear blue.
The black of the head is also bright light blue, though I'm not sure if this is paint because this is the only use of this mould where the head colour differs.

The result is a really nice Leozack that works on the mould. I think I'd have been tempted to make the black light blue though !

Possible Future Repaints

The Energon Starscream is one of the few modern Starscreams not to have been through the Thundercracker/Skywarp/Thrust/Dirge/Ramjet/Sunstorm/Acid Storm/Clear Ghost Starscream repaint phase. His existing Botcon repaints also suggest using the black & grey Machine Wars Starscream and the white & dark blue of King Atlas . The original Leozack was recoloured in red and white as the Rescue Force Jet giving another colour option.

[Philip Ayres]

Demolishor

This review was written in 2004 prior to Demolishor's release

Yup I already have my mitts on an Energon Demolishor.

I got it from Hong Kong off Ebay, packaged and with both the catalogue and card insert. Slightly worryingly the instructions were photocopied though......

Vehicle Mode: Mainly dark green truck with the most massive Decepticon logo you have ever seen on the back in purple. Spark crystal in the bumper which - as someone observed at Hubday - doesn't fit the Energon Stars with the basics. Truck back tips back slightly, 2 minicon posts on the bit overhanging the cab.

Hyper Vehicle Mode: Fold the overhanging flap back - revealing 2 more minicon posts - and rotate out to the side revealing a huge ( 4 x 2 ) missile array. The bottom 4 missiles are active and can be fired by tiny buttons in the back of the truck.

Transformation: Separate the legs from the back of the truck, fold the feet up and origami the waist from behind the cab to lock in underneath it. More origami pulls the arms out from the cab, allowing the grill to rotate into the waist revealing the chest. Bend the truck/missile array back onto his back revealing the head.

Robot mode: still lots of green, but joined by some brown on the lower legs & upper arms, purple on the chest and transparent green on shoulders and forearms. Head looks very Rhinox..... in fact the whole toy screams Rhinox at you with it's green shades..... It's almost if the toyline has come full circle from Rhinox to Tankorr then (via the tank connection) to Armada Demolishor and then the Energon version of the same character. Hands can hold the Energon weapons the basics produce but like Snowcat he doesn't come with one. Some ankle, knees, bicep type joint above the knee, universal hips, 2 shoulder joints - one back and forth, the other to the side, a bicep joint and elbows on each side, plus a head on a jointed neck that allows for lots of poses.

Hyper Robot mode: Fold the chest forward a further 90 degrees, taking the head down on to the chest - here's where that neck is useful - and raising the missile pod onto the top of his body where it can be fired.

Overall: good bit of fun, but I'm preferring the Autobots and the combination gimmick

I got to play with Andy's Optimus Prime and Nick's Mega Zarak (Scorponok) at the weekend. Prime is nice, chunky and much better in the plastic than you think from the pictures. The interchangeable limbs are a good idea and work OK. However already owning a number of big Primes and being limited for space I'm going to pass on this till the UK release.

Scorps is smaller than you'd imagine, lots of annoying sounds that go off if you look at him wrong. Good scorpion, good robot - apart from the hands, something just isn't working right there even for a claw hand. Didn't see the jet. BBTS have them up for $30 at the moment which is a steal.

Demolishor was available in Superlink in Japan as SD-11 Iron Tread.

Future Repaints

Demolishor has never been repainted but to be honest they got the Constructicon colours nearly right first time. If you're looking for a Constructicon re-release (alongside repaints Armada Hoist and Cybertron Landmine) I'd consider changing the borwn to purple and the clear green to clear purple.

[Philip Ayres]

Slugslinger

The original Slugslinger was a Targetmaster jet whose distinguishing feature was twin nose-cone. His Energon version is a *slightly* unstable and flimsy looking jet mode which is reminiscent in shape of the original TM Slugslinger - a nice touch would have been to throw in an Over-Run repaint as his Targetmaster Caliburst.

The original toy uses two colours, white & blue, but the new one uses five colours of plastic:

olive green for the wings, engine tips and nose cones
black for the jet noses
blue for the front of the wings and tail fins (painted)
off white for the body of the jet
clear yellow for the cockpit canopies

His armament consists of a single missile mounted between the cockpits but triggering it is virtually impossible in jet mode with the trigger being on the top of the launcher and well covered by other parts. As far as I can see from the instructions there's no Hyper mode - though I've seen some claim that pulling the cockpits even further apart to expose the missile counts. His Decepticon spark is mounted between the tail fins on the top of the toy. And - thank you lord - *FINALLY* some Minicon posts on top of wings ! They are mounted on top of a pair of moulded fans on the wings. He'll be wearing a paid of Land Military Minicons tonight. The tail fins might get in the way of any Minicon attached but the fins can br rotated at their base so they face forward & in. The wings swing round the engines both up & down as well as being hinged. This allows the bottom of the wings to be exposed so it's a shame there's no corresponding Minicon pegs on the underside ! The only Minicon port toy with fold up wings is also the only one with ports not on the underside !

The transformation is incredible - he is the origamibot ! Although everything is roughly where it needs to be - essentially the robot mode involves standing the plane on it's folded up nose cones - there's loads of panel folding which results in lots of bit being attached the opposite way round to what they were before. So here we go: Fold the ends of nose cones up to form the feet. Pull the wings back and to the sides to reveal the arms. Fold the fronts of the wings out to the sides, then rotate 180 degrees and lock into the side of the nose-cones. Raise up the flaps between the base of the nose-cones - they peg into the nose-cones to hold everything together. Fold the arms back behind the robot's body. Raise each arm & shoulder joint up and fold back so the opposite side of the base of the wing locks into the side of the body. Fold the arms down & into place. Rotate the tail fin 180 degrees so it's behind the jet body panel that forms the robot wings. Open the back of the robot and fold the missile launcher out to the side. Lift the head up pegging into the back panel and close the back panel locking the head into place. The base of the nose cones locks together, folding into the robot's body and the waist then fold up onto the body locking in place.

Worth it for the TF alone !

Robot mode is nice - albeit with some kibble. The jet's wings hang under the forearms but since these can be swung up & have Minicons mounted on them you can forgive that. However the placement of the robot's wings on the back of the shoulders is a little odd and they can catch on the body when the arms move. The rear landing gear has ended up on the inside of the upper arms which also catch against a joint involved in the body's TF. The stability of the toy varies - on mine the waist is solid but the shoulders have a habit of popping away from the body not helped by the aforementioned pieces that catch. The forearms have some weapons moulded into the top of them and end in a hand with a 5mm peg hole. The head is great - black plastic with a silver painted face and clear yellow light piped eyes. The designers seem to have been going for some sort of Two-Face/split personality look with the head (sadly not reflected in the character's bio) with a normal human looking face on one side and a distorted snarl with a round cyborg eye on the other. The Spark has ended up in the centre of the chest like all the other deluxe Decepticons.

Articulation includes bending knees, a swivel joint above the knee, ball jointed hips, a turning head, turning shoulders with an arm that swings to the side within the shoulder pad, a bicep joint and a bending elbow.

His robot mode has a hyper mode of sorts - the missile launcher that's hanging down his back can be folded up and over the shoulder. It's a shame it's not removable to act as a hand weapon, something lacking on almost all the Decepticon Deluxe toys this year.

Highly recommended as a boost to your Decepticon jet army - Mine was $10.99 from BBTS in 2004. A quick look on eBay suggests you'll be paying about twice that loose now. Slugslinger on the earlier black Energon cards is a lot rarer than the version found on the red cards.

Slugslinger was not released in Japan and IIRC didn't come out in the UK either.

Airazor

When the Botcon 2006 exclusive set - Cybertron forms of the Beast Wars characters - came out there were some comments that Airazor wasn't included. The next year she she showed up as a repaint of Slugslinger with a new, even head retaining the points on Slugslinger's helmet but moulding the rest of the head to be closer Airazor. White plastic becomes yellow, while the black, blue & green all become brown and the clear yellow becomes clear blue producing a robot and a jet with a distinct Airazor feel to them.

[Philip Ayres]

Sharkticon

The original Sharkticon was a toy released in conjunction with the original movie and was basically a ball on legs ! The name implies that it's alternate mode is Shark, but I think it's meant to be a more a submarine rather than a Hellscreamesque cyborg shark. There are some shark influences in the design including the general shape and some fins......

The sub is black on the prow which is also covered in silver detailing and a large Decepticon symbol.
There's some orange on the toy - a pair of cannons on the top of the toy, some jets to the rear and a lot of the underside.
Purple is used for the cannons on the side of the toy and the majority of the rear.
A slightly off white is used for all eight gun barrels and the conning tower
A rubbery green plastic is used for the two mid fins and four tail fins.
A small amount of clear green plastic is contained in the conning tower.

All four gun turrets rotate at their base and each pair of gun barrels elevate. The conning tower looks like it should depress and do something but it doesn't. It's possible that Sharkticon's hyper mode was originally meant to be spring activated - the sides of the prow move out and forward to reveal a missile launcher on each side which fires a clear green missile.

Transform: Fold the rear fins (mounted on the robot's forearm) out to the sides. Pull the yellow parts at the rear of the sub out to the sides. Unpeg the legs from under the sub, then fold them & the waist back and out up against the rear of the boat. Fold the prow under the sub to form the robot's backpack and reveal the head. Fold the shoulders up and lock into the sides of the body. Straighten the arms & legs and fold the feet up.

The robot is ..... a little clashing. Silver, red and purple paint on the chest, a red head with purple highlights (very Magneto) Orange shoulders, guns under the arms and lower legs. Purple higher limbs. Black forearms. Altogether too many colours with the orange and purple especially bright and clashing. If you ask me the orange is the wrong colour, the more subdued yellow on the packaging works a little better but something darker would have been better still. I know Sharkticon was a US edition in Japan but it's a bit of a disappointment that they didn't colour it differently. Colour aside the mould is very stylish, quite Beast Machines, very Energon Mirage. Reminds me a lot of the TM2 Cybershark, but in a good way. The missile launchers can be extended in this mode out of the back pack and then orientated forwards alongside the hips. Articulation includes ankle joints, bending knees, thigh swivel joints, ball jointed hips, a waist - rare on an Energon toy, a turning head & shoulders, arms that fold to the side inside the shoulder pads, biceps and bending elbows. The fins are mounted on the underside of the forearms and look like they were designed to be removable and held as hand weapons.

Overall: very nice toy but something needs doing about the orange in robot mode.


Future Repaints

Sharkticon was never recoloured - how about one in the grey & purple of the original ?

[Philip Ayres]

Ironhide

Ironhide is a chunky blue 4 wheel drive jeep thing - almost toddler toy like in it's shape and size - with a large bright red weapons & light array on top. Mounted on this is his missile launcher. Sadly he goes to the X-Brawn school of "robot heads visible in vehicle mode" with the head, albeit with the helmet pulled down, sitting in front of the weapons array. The weapons array removes easily though ;-) which gives the jeep a more traditional look. Turn the weapons array around for some machine gun noise. Push back on the missile launcher to fire the missile and make a firing sound. He's got no clear windows here on the front just painted plastic, but looking in the sides (nothing at all in the window frames) you can see moulded seats and interior. As well as the blue & the red we have black plastic used for the front bumper, missile launcher and Ironhide's helmet while a beige is used for the front lights, gun, missile, robot head and some of the rear of the vehicle. His spark is located on one side of the rear bumper while the other has his lone Minicon peg.

Instinct tells you the TF should be a fold the front of the car down 180 degrees at the knee to form the lower legs: It isn't. Fold the lights over the front grill up to become the feet & the grill down to become heel spurs. Fold the front of the vehicle under the back to become the legs & straighten out. The sides at back fold up Armada Red Alert style - the jeep is somewhat reminiscent of him - to form 2 large shoulder pads allowing the back of the vehicle to separate in two and swing round to the sides to form the arms. Lower arms are then twisted out ninety degrees to so the fist holes face forward and the Spark/Minicon peg to the sides. Raise the helmet up to reveal Ironhide's face.

What you get is a nice solid robot mode with more of the red revealed on the robot's chest and the beige on the upper limbs. The colour balance on the toy isn't great, lots of bright colours with the red & blue make it seem once again like a younger child's toy. The hands - like most Energon toys - are able to hold the standard 5mm size peg and he's got the same size spark as the basics and you can attach an Energon chip to it. He comes with no hand weapons as such - but the gun next to his head does have a 5mm peg, unfortunately not deep enough to go into Ironhide's hand. The shoulder pads are a little prone to popping off unfortunately. Articulation includes a rotational joint bellow the bending knees, universal hips & shoulders that swing to the sides as well as move back and forth, ball jointed elbows and a head that turns with the weapons array.

Ironhide was the first toy I bought that was part of the Energon Powerlinx system. The Powerlinx clip is a series of teeth with 180 degree turn symmetry - therefore one will complement another the other way up, and lock together. All the Powerlinx Autobots are marked with a gold Pentagon - similar to the Minicon symbol with an Autobot symbol within. Any Powerlinx toy can become both a top or bottom half of a combined robot - similar to the Multiforce combiners. So Jetfire - Ironhide's US case buddy - can become a body and be mounted on Ironhide who can becomes legs, and Ironhide as a body can be mounted on Jetfire as legs. The basic gist is each robot's legs are the limbs in either mode - there's a slight tweak to both to get them to form the Powerlinx robot legs, and a more major tweak to form the arms.

To form Ironhide's leg mode, extend the front of the car folding out the lights & grill to form the robot legs. The lower robot legs then fold to the side at the ankle till what was the knee becomes the foot. Turn each leg round 180 degrees below the knee joint. Fold grill & lights up to support the legs, then fold the large robot foot down. Fold the back of the vehicle up so it's projecting out the back, fold up the panels on the sides & then fold the top of the body back to reveal the Powerlinx connector. Ironhide's leg mode - I'd look at Jetfire's TFU.info page for a picture is nice and solid, perfect for the larger robots.

As a bonus Ironhide can be connected the wrong way round (the resulting legs look like G1 SixShot's) with his weapons array used as a chest cannon ala RID Magnus :-)

For the arm mode straighten the robot legs under the vehicle as you would for robot mode and raise the back & sides of the vehicle up. Pull the waist in two and fold each half to the sides. Fold the upper chest, vehicle sides, weapons array and vehicle rear backwards 90 degrees, then rotate 180 degrees at the point they are joined to the hips. Fold the upper body, head etc into the space between the waist halves and position so the head is the right way up. Swing the robot legs down so they're alongside where the body would be to form the arms then turn 180 degrees below the elbow so the hands face forward. The arm mode is good too giving you shoulders bend to the sides and rotate in & out plus bending elbows. A swivel between shoulder & elbow would give you shoulder & elbows that could bend in the same plane but unfortunately we're missing that. The arm mode has a bonus feature as well - fold out the lights and grill to become a claw at the end of each arm.

This is a great toy, and the resulting combined modes are good, steady and stable. My only real quibbles and the colours and the excessive (and unnecessary) weapons unit)

Ironhide was available in Japan - without his electronics and with the beige turned to grey - as Superlink toy SC-04 Roadbuster and also in the SS-02 Roadbuster & Sky Fire set.

Ironhide was released in the UK. However he came packed in a case with Treadbolt - a recolour of the poorly selling Armada Scavenger - which was a limited edition toy in the US. Treadbolt sold poorly, as did Ironhide because there was no toy of a similar size to combine him with. The wave shelfwarmed and as a result the following wave - with Jetfire and Mirage - was cancelled in the UK. See below for more fun with UK Energon Voyager case assortments.

Energon Ironhide

There are two jeep like toys in Energon - Ironhide & basic Strongarm. Strongarm draws the short straw for the repaint version and ends up with the worst paint scheme ever while Ironhide is the lucky one who gets the G1 Hound colours. Swap your original blue for green, red for dark blue and beige for an sandy olive colour plus add a US Army star on the bonnet. Superb repaint, wiping out one of the major problems I had with the earlier version. These new colours work fantastically well with Cliffjumper making him them perfect combining partners. If you don't have an Ironhide an want one then get this one.

Energon Ironhide was available in Japan as Superlink toy SC-24 Roadbuster Wild. Once again this toy had no electronics but did have an additional Energon Axe & Star from Strongarm coloured in an clear orange.

So after the first disastrous Energon Voyager case - Ironhide & Treadshot - lead to the second - Jetfire & Mirage - being cancelled what happened ? The third case sold well - Clifjumper (who could combine with Ironhide) and the fantastic G1 homage Shockblast. So along comes the wave 4 case ..... which is 100% Energon Ironhide. D'oh ! As expected it sold poorly - the original was still on the shelves in many places. So that was that for the Energon Voyager size !

[Philip Ayres]

Jetfire

I'm not 100% sure what is happening here as Jetfire looks a bit like a deformed shuttle, or possibly a shuttle with launch boosters. I think we'll stick with the second theory. Lots of movable bits including wings and engine nozzles. Most of the shuttle itself is moulded in grey, with white wings & missile and the booster unit in a burgundy/ dark orange. He comes with a space station like missile launcher, v similar to Minicon Astroblast but moulded in clear orange plastic, which attaches under his chin and can be fired by a button on the body. He's got a white Capture claw underneath him as per Skyblast, except here it locks open and shuts when a button in it is pushed by pulling something close to him. Some Jetfires have a sound effect when this button is pressed but there's no way of telling till you get it out the box. He has two Minicon pegs one on the side at the front of each booster.

He's a bit of an origami foldy toy to transform to robot mode. The booster engines at the back fold up then the booster rockets & wings are pulled to the sides and back to form the legs. Rotate the legs so the engines face out and the wings face the same way as the capture claw. Fold the little wings in between the legs. A small section of the side of the legs folds up releasing the front of the legs which are then folded down to become the feet & heel spurs. Separate the back of the shuttle and fold to the sides & forward. These fold round the booster to form the robot's shoulders, then the arms fold down from here. A panel at the ends of the arm folds up allowing the hand to fold out and replace the shuttle engine nozzle - similar to the hands on Beast Wars Depth Charge. The shuttle nose folds down the back of the robot revealing the robot's head which is folded down over the Powerlinx clip.

Mimicking Ironhide he too has massive shoulder pads formed from the tail section. The capture claw is on the chest now - which is more of the orange plastic - with the spark on one of the shoulder pads. he's got some electronics in this mode: If you press the head down in this mode then you get a transforming sound. Articulation includes bending ankle & knee, rotational joint above the knee, hips & shoulders that move to the sides and backwards & forwards, bicep rotational joint and bending elbow. The missile launcher can be held as a weapon in this mode.

Jetfire's arm & body mode involves folding the arms of the robot up into the shoulders, then folding the shoulders back so they're alongside the backpack. Fold the shuttle nose up and fold the head into it. Separate the legs at the hips & fold to the sides. Rotate the shuttle so it points down then fold the head out between the separated hips. Turn the legs round so the back of the leg is the same side as the capture claw & face. Fold the heel spur back into what is now the wrist to form the hand. The small robot heel spur contains a 5mm peg hole which is used as a hand. A solid body mode with shoulders that swing to the sides, a bicep joint and bending elbows.

For the leg mode (from robot mode) fold the head & shuttle body up, swap the hands for the engine nozzles then fold the arms so they're alongside the shuttle body. Turn the shuttle body upside down on the back of the robot. Fold the ankle out adding some extra height and lock into place with the piece from the side of the shuttle you folded back during the TF. The leg mode maintains all articulation of Jetfire's legs but has a very large amount of body on the top of it which can lead to some stretched robots.

Either of Jetfire's combining modes makes a clashing noise when you combine it with another toy.

It's not the best space shuttle toy in Transformers :-( This is mainly due to the odd booster shape in an odd colour, but this then forms the majority of the robot. Though I have seen shuttle main fuel tanks in that orange....

Jetfire was released in Japan without his electronics as Superlink toy SC-05 Skyfire which was also in boxset SS-02 with Roadbuster.

Jetfire wasn't released in the UK - Wave 2 Energon was cancelled due to the poor selling of wave 1 - Ironhide and the previous limited edition Treadbolt. You might think they'd have sold better if Ironhide & Jetfire would have been in the same wave together - I do. See Ironhide's review for more.

Overcast

In the Energon cartoon Overcast appears as Jetfire's Energon upgrade. So why release the toy in the same colours under a different name as a different character ?

He's got a bland colour scheme - grey and white become dark blue while the orange is an off white and the clear orange becomes more red.

I only bought it to complete my set of PL repaints, but he's ever so bland.

In Japan Overcast was released as SC-25 Sky Fire Sonic with no electronics, an Energon star & spear (from Skyblast) that he can't hold by it's mid point ! Overcast never made it to the UK - like his anticendant Jetfire - due to the Voyager size being killed early for Energon.

[Philip Ayres]

Cliffjumper

Been looking fwd to this ever since I saw the pics on Hasbro's site

Cliffjumper is sort of a Dune Buggy with F1 car influences. The cars mainly made up of brown - one colour for the majority of the body, a slightly different shade for some of the details & the missiles, yellow for the passenger compartment & missile launchers, and grey for some of the details with a green engine block at the back. The windows are painted red. There's a pair of independently elevating twin missile launchers at the front. The front wheels move as if the car was being steered, and there's some nice moulded suspension on the back. The engine block takes batteries and makes a car zooming sound when you press the button at the back

TF: Bend the engine block underneath the car, straighten the suspension out the back of the car and rotate the back wheel so they face the same direction as the newly revealed robot's head. Separate the cab halves, bend to the sides then raise them up revealing the arms from where you can flip out the hands. Fold the spoiler down onto the chest. Fold the back of the sides of the car towards the front of the car, pull the front wheels towards the back, pull the front of the car apart and fold the nose out to the sides, rotate both sides inwards and fold down some heel spurs. Unclip the guns and hold in his hands.

The robot is very chunky with the large brown legs extending forwards. There's lots more of green in the main body with the passenger compartment becoming a pair of huge yellow shoulder pads that are linked to some decent sized arms. He's got a great head sculpt reminiscent of someone wearing an old fashioned pilot's helmet. Lots of articulation with bending knees, universal hips & shoulders, ball jointed elbows and a turning head - no arguments there apart from the waist. He's got a bit of a backpack but even that looks OK.

Nice chunky robot, love it.

Leg Mode: Fold the legs down at the ankles and rotate at the knees (Doing just this gives you a taller normal Cliffjumper) Fold the sides of the legs down to form new heel spurs. Fold the wheels down from the backpack and fold it up, then pull back on the body to reveal the Powelinx plug. Fold the arms into the cab halves and lower down the side of the back. Link with toy of your choice. Looks a nice set of legs :-) Works well with Ironhide, but even better with the green Energon Ironhide recolour.

Body Mode: Separate the Leg mode at the waist and pull legs upwards. Turn upside down. Fold the legs back in on themselves at the knee, fold the heel spurs up to become the forearms. Rotate the backpack the other way round, fold up, bend the engine block back, and raise the wheels. Fold the cab halves out in front of the upper chest. Attach to leg mode of your preference. Nice upper body, but with the leg kibble from robot mode on the side of the arms.

So: Good vehicle, good robot, good legs, good upper body. Best of the Voyage combiners. Me like :-)

Cliffjumper was available in Japan as Superlink toy SC-17 Overdrive.

Beachcomber

I loved Cliffjumper, but hesitated a little on his repaint. It's very bright, with both the browns swapped for shades of blue - the lighter brown becoming a darker blue - and off white replacing the yellow, green & most of the grey. Yellow comes in to be used for the grey on the suspension, missile triggers and some of the joints. everywhere recently. But it works, looks nice and is the right colours for the name.

Beachcomber (and most of the Voyager repaints) were never released in the UK due to .... well the full horror story is laid out in Ironhide's review. Look there. In the US he was one per case in only one case. Like several Energon toys - Quickstike, Dinobot - be prepared to pay silly money. Have a look on eBay but be sitting down with a stiff drink when you do !

Future Repaints

I can't help but wonder how he'd have looked in red & black to match the toy's original name .......

Coincidentally Overdrive - Energon Cliffjumper's Japanese name - has the same set of colours.

[Philip Ayres]

Mirage

I need to use the phrase fallaparticon in my opening here.

Mirage is the "upgraded" but downsized form of Tidal Wave. His vehicle mode is now a single attack boat with a grey/blue hull, yellow deck, black cabin (the black is also used for the missiles & fins) and grey rear of the boat. 2 missile launchers are mounted on the deck at the front and and one at the rear - all of which are moulded in a sea green plastic. on each side. Two Minicon pegs are on the rear of the boat.

Pressing a button on the deck deploys the missile launchers raising them up so they can be fired. Lord knows what the sound is that's made when this happens !

He's got a partially tolerable hyper mode with front guns raised up from the deck and a terminally unstable back half due to the rear missile launchers and the side of the boat being folded out to the side to form wings.

I'm going to try to describe the TF but it's an awful origami. Pull apart the hull at the front, rotate the cab with wings forward. Rotate the waist round and reattach at least one of the legs that will have fallen off at the thigh joint by now. Pull the hull halves behind the legs, and put the leg back on again. Origami the centre of the boat into its back and connect with the exposed neck. More origami for the arms and pull the hands out using the Minicon pegs as sliders. Bend out the feet, rotate the legs loosing at least one of them again and pose.

It's a shame he looks so good in robot mode - very Beast Machines ish, with grey lower limbs and purple upper limbs - cos this is one awful Transformation that just doesn't hold together. The knees bend, the legs rotate mid upper leg (and come apart there) universal joints at the hips, turning head & shoulders, plus arms that raise to the side in the shoulder pads, a bicep joint on the arm that comes apart and bending elbows.

Mirage was available in Japan as Superlink toy SD-15 Shock Fleet

Dreadwing

Mirage's repaint Dreadwing presents us with a washed out almost ghostlike version of the toy: The grey & most of the black become pale blue, the missiles, fins and robot joints become sea green, purple becomes grey and yellow becomes black. The colours aren't as good as the original and since the design didn't impress me this was one of the Energon repaints I didn't bother buying.

Bazai-tron

After a long period of dormancy the Mirage mould re-emerges in 2009 repainted in colours to resemble the Action Master Banzai-tron. Grey becomes green, most of the black & the yellow becomes grey, the missiles, fins and robot joints stay black and purple becomes purpley pink. The original was grey and a lurid green so this is very much in keeping with the spirit of the original toy.

[Philip Ayres]

Shockblast

Let's get this over with: the toy would be called Shockwave if it wasn't for a trademark issue. The same thing affects the GI Joe line - there wasn't a Shockwave figure there for years and when he did return in 2008 he was called Shockblast too.

Shockwave is a character who's had a small amount of respect in the past - he was one of the Generation One Transformers who got the Action Master treatment in the US (along with Optimus, Megatron, Starscream, Prowl, Wheeljack, Bumblebee, Jazz, Blaster, Inferno, Snarl, Grimlock, Devastator & Soundwave. Europe additionaly got Tracks, Sideswipe, Bombshell & Thundercracker) So that's not too bad, but not in the major league of Optimus/Megatron etc.

Shockwave's original alternate mode is a futuristic looking gun. At this point Hasbro was right off guns in the Transformers range - with the exception of Classics Megatron they still are ! - so Shockwave is recast as a futuristic looking tracked cannon. Two set of moulded tracks are positioned on a long thin base with a grey turret that looks like the original Shockwave's chest from the side. Out of the front of the turret comes a large green cannon. If you move the slider on top of the cannon forward then solar panels open up towards the ends of the cannon, noise sounds and the missile housed in the end fires. The cannon elevates and the turret turns. Folded over the back of the turret is a dual gun emplacement. The cover & guns fold back to reveal the toy's one Minicon port underneath. The toy's Spark is located toward the front of the turret. 5mm peg holes are found on the sides of the cannon and the front of the base for mounting Energon weapons on. There's four main colours of plastic used for this toy: Purple (as you would expect) forms the bulk of the toy, with grey used for the front of the base and the middle of the turret, green for the cannon, clear green for the fold out panels on the cannon and the sides of the turret and black for lots of the linking parts and the dual gun pointing over the back of the turret.

Like all the other Energon Decepticons Shockblast has a Hyper Mode - but in Shockblast's case it's virtually a third mode separate from the main vehicle: Pull the front set of tracks away from each other and fold each half of the front to the sides. Rotate the base 180 degrees so the rear tracks face forward, then fold the rear tracks to the sides. From these then fold the inside of the track piece out to the sides to reveal a gold solar panel. Similar solar panels fold down from behind the front treads - these need to be folded out at a 90 degree angle then both front halves need to be turned so their solar panels face forward and what was the top of the front clips into the rear track. The dual cannons fold back to reveal another solar panel. This space station mode isn't bad but does have a tendancy to lean forward - this can be solved by folding down a support under the cannon. Would work well with the Decepticon version of the Minicon Space team released as part of Cybertron.

To form Shockblast's robot mode start from vehicle mode. Fold the rear track in under the base of the turret. Fold the base of the turret down under the front of the vehicle. Looking at the front of the vehicle, turn the turret 90 degrees anti clcokwise so the large cannon points to your right and a Decepticon symbol faces forward at the cannon's base. Fold the turret back into the space occupied by the rear treads which then fold up onto the back of the turret locking together in the hinge that they are attached to. Part the front tracks as before - this time to form the legs. Turn the grey pointed fronts of the base in 90 degrees, fold up to form the feet and fold the heel spurs down. Fold the green cannon down to form his left arm. Fold the dual cannons out to the side this time taking with them the piece of plastic underneath with the Minicon peg on it. This forms the right arm which folds up at the shoulder which then rotates down so the arm is at the robot's side. Rotate the middle of the top of the turret ninety degrees clockwise to reveal the head.

Robot mode: yup it's Shockwave. No denying that looking at the toy from the dead on head with it's single lightpiped eye, a chest similar in shape to the original, a hand on the left arm (this time with the dual cannons mounted on the back of the hand) and the right arm formed from a cannon - this time taking up a larger amount of the arm. The hand in this case is more a claw with an opposable thumb that folds out positioned against the middle of the other four fingers. There's a 5mm peg hole on the top and bottom of the thumb joint to allow him to hold Energon weapon and the dual cannon folds back to reveal the Minicon port. The robot has a sort of Hyper mode - fold back the tracks on the back, fold out the solar panels and fold the tracks back onto the backpack.

Articulation: bending & turning ankles & knees, universal hips, turning waist, turning neck at the base with the head raising at the top, shoulders that turn & swing to the sides and while the left cannon arm is fixed from there down the right turns at the bicep and bends twice at the elbow.

So ... it's obviously Shockwave but with tons of added articulation. Win win all round.

Shockblast was released in Japan as Superlink toy SD-14 Laser Wave. Shockblast was one of the few Energon Voyager toys released in the UK sharing a case equally with Cliffjumper.

Six Shot

Shockblast was recoloured in the Energon toyline as Sixshot, a character depicted as Shockblast's younger brother in the Energon cartoon. Now for me Sixshot says white, green and purple as per the G1 Sixchanger but an all new colour scheme is used here: Purple & green become sandy yellow covered in purple highlights & camouflage, grey becomes dark purple and clear green becomes clear red while black stays black.

Nice repaint - the subdued sand yellow really works well, much better than the initial photos that showed this colour in gold. I could have done with the camo being brown though !

Unfortunately on my Sixshot it's non electronic arm was broken out the box with the cover having cracked at the point where the gun barrels were embedded into it meaning that the gun barrels were no longer attached - indeed one was missing completely. So I have a battle damaged Sixshot.

Despite appearing in the Superlink cartoon Sixshot was not released in Japan. Voyagers had long since disapeared in the UK !

[Philip Ayres]

Wing Saber

I was looking forward to this. In fact this toy forced me to break my larger toys ban as it made me get Prime.

Wingsaber is the sort of Wing toy that the Japanese like - there's been a couple in Power Rangers over the years but I think this it's first appearance in TF. It vaguely resembles a stealth bomber.... Landing gear underneath, missile launchers. Chunky. The colours might look a little odd in this mode but all will make sense later....

TF: Bend the legs down from under the wings so it's under the toy. Fold the wings up to form the shoulders and extend the fists. Fold the head halves up.... Can anyone remember a previous transformer with a head split in 2 down the middle ?

Robot: This is what it's all about a clear Starsaber homage. You can also see the Prime theme that Starsaber had coming out with the blue legs, red chest and arm, and visored helmet. Spark on the left wrist, Minicon port on the right. (for another Starsaber homage look on the box - there's a picture of the toy with the green Victory lines background) Missile launchers at the side of the knees can fold forward. Not a lot of posability - elbows, hips out to the side, knees round....

The robot separates into four pieces to be used as bonus limbs for Energon Prime - fold the head down, pull in 2 down the centre of the body. Detach the legs at the knees. The obvious combination is to put the wings on as the arms - a little reconfiguring of the upper legs of Wingsaber forms the elbows and forearms. Op's legs just plug into the lower legs. The hands can hold standard size weapons, and rotate at the wrists. The elbows bend, and arms rotate at the bicep. The wrists fit into the holes on Prime's drones which he can use as weapons.

There's a 2nd mode: Take your upper body/wing quarters. Fold the forelegs under the wings, and bend the shoulders over the fists to form the feet. Take the lower legs of Wing Sabre and fold them out to form arms with the missile launcher on the side of the hands which are formed from Wing Sabre's knees. The hands are more ornate than useful, but that's OK as there are standard pegs holes at the end of the top of the forearms. There's also peg holes in the top of the shoulder cannons. The blue arms and red legs are less Prime than is usual *BUT* there is a sort of G1 Ultra Magnus theme here.

The limbs will also attach to Omega Supreme but I've not got anything useful out of combining them.

Overall: fun. Not a favorite if you like your TFs articulated. If you like Overload you may well like this. Great if you have the Energon Op, less of an impact otherwise.

Wing Sabre was released in Japan as Superlink toy SC-17. The Superlink version is packed in robot mode whereas the Energon toy comes in vehicle mode. Wing Sabre was not released in the UK.

[Shockprowl]

Jul 14, 2009 13:30:34 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Prowl


...why a Race Car for Prowl - especially a blue one that's more suited as Mirage. It looks like it's meant to be Mirage and they've changed their minds at the last minute adding the lightbar panels to the spoiler.

I HAVE ALWAYS THOUGHT THIS!!!!!!

I do like the mold very much, but it's never realy said 'Prowl' to me. The SWAT version is much much more 'Prowly'- speaking as a Prowl-o-phile!

(Great reviews as usual, old boy.)

[Philip Ayres]

More to come, just not had much extended computer time. Currently I'm doing one of the worst TFs ever

[Philip Ayres]

The Energon Meg-Dinobot set contains new versions of Grimlock & Swoop which combine to form a larger robot. Conjecture has it that these two toys were meant to be part of the main Energon deluxe line - however their method of combination doesn't use the clip found on the other deluxe Energon Autobots so maybe that's the reason they ended up in a box together.

Swoop

Swoop's actually quite a nice dinobird with the bird being grey and carrying a large black rocket pack.

TF: Fold the rocket pack back behind the bird to form the robot's legs. Stand. Fold the bird nose down onto the chest as per the original Swoop.

The robot mode relies on everything staying in place rather than pegging. The colours are obviously influenced by Swoop's cartoon form with the chest being a light blue - along with his claw hands & upper arms but his lower arms, shoulders and legs ar black which doesn't really work for me here - we're going for a G1 influence so we should be as close as possible. Another downside to this toy is that Swoop has no extra weapons, nor the hands to hold the 5,,m peg used on other Energon toys.

Could do better

Grimlock

Grimlock is almost a super deformed version of classic Grimlock - being a little too short and much too wide but all the essential details are there in both modes. His articulation consists of turning shoulders & hips with bending knees and opening mouth in dinosaur mode.

Transformation is as per the original Grimlock with the dino head folding back, the tail splitting out to the sides so the back can fold down to become the robot legs and the dino legs become the robot arms - with an additional twist below the elbows to face the hands forward.

Grimlock looks even more Super Deformed in robot mode being far too short but too wide for the height and generally being too small. He has no weapons either which is a shocker here - Grimlock needs a sword and twin barrelled blaster. The yellow used instead of gold is quite glaring as well here - at least the articulation is OK with the exception of the elbows - they bend towards the robot when the hand faces forward.

Again, not the best Grimlock.

Mega Dinobot

The combined form Mega Dinobot is a pile of poo, doesn't hold together too well, head just doesn't look right - you fold a panel up from Grimlock's back and fold the head up from there while the rest of the body folds out to the sides to form giant shoulder pads with the Dino legs forming the combined robot arms. This then sits on top of Swoop with his arms just hanging there at the sides. The combination isn't stable at all ! Odd shoulder articulation but you don't want to fiddle with the arms as it will cause the 2 to come apart just like breathing on them does.

Awful, awful, awful...... The basic mistake is the design - Grimlock has bigger feet so why isn't he the legs with the smaller Swoop forming the body and a winged backpack with perhaps Grimlock's Dinosaur head folding up the back to form the combined robot's head ?

Not worth what's asked for it - one on eBay for £51 plus £27 postage - it's not a £78 toy by a long way. Not even a £20 toy imo. Mine's long gone and as far as I know now sitting with a certain Transformer artist I know .....

[panderson]

....for some reason I still want this set - but not at those prices natch - I love grimlock in all his forms and love combining robos as well. Plus I hear so much bad about this set that I just want to check it out for myslef. Its rooting for the under dog thing I think.

As always, a good review mate...although in the first case I can think of your view of the toy has not changed my desire to get one

[blueshift]

I was really excited about the Grimlock and Swoop, but the actual figures were so disappointing. It is sad when a toy made 25 years earlier is superior in every way to the modern version.

Swoop's box art shows him with fists iirc, it makes me think he was originally designed with them, especially since he looks so incomplete as he is.

The figures were actually originally going to be new molds for the Universe line. But Hasbro decided to put them in Energon (since at that point Universe was just repaints) so they'd sell more, hence how the combining gimmick is so different.

A really good repaint might solve a lot of the issues actually. But it would have to be really good! Maybe Overkill and Squawktalk! Or Grimlock as Beastbox (and we could pretend it was BW Megatron!)

[The Doctor]

I had forgotten they existed! I must have them!

*looks at prices*

Nevermind then.

I still do not have an original Grimlock toy.

-Ralph

[blueshift]

Original Grimlock isn't that expensive, as long as you don't want the accessories.

Re: the Energon molds, were these the only recent Ultras to not get repainted? Well, and E-Wingsaber, but he really needs to be sold alongside E-Prime

[Philip Ayres]

They're a Voyage pack, not Ultra. As you say Wing Saber didn't get repainted, neither did Alpha Q. Of the actual Ultras Scorponok - up next - didn't get a repaint till Energon

[blueshift]

Ah yes, I keep forgetting Alpha Q

It does seem a bit odd though, especially since everything else gets repainted to death. It isn't like they stuck about on shelves forever either!

[Philip Ayres]

1 assortment. hence the price charged now