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Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 20, 2014 12:44:31 GMT
SilverboltI have some history with Silverbolt and the Aerialbots: why have the Autobots ended up with jets, a mode in 1986 more commonly associated with the Decepticons, as their first combiner? Surely cars or construction vehicles would have been a better fit thematically but the Decepticons got both of those! Silverbolt's contribution to the combined form of the Aerialbots meant he was tall, with legs too close together, or shorter with legs further apart. Drove me mad. But over the years I've come to accept him as second in the flying Autobot pantheon behind Jetfire. Love the Universe version, though I owned the whiter Japanese version, even if he couldn't combine. It is with some inevitability that one of the first Combiner Wars Voyagers is Silverbolt. How does he measure up? Straight out the box Silverbolt is fighting a loosing battle with his case mate: he's about half the width of Prime and, although only half a centimetre smaller, looks tiny beside him. He looks thin compared to the original too, but retains a similar blocky look with no clues to his alternate mode from the front: all that is folded up on his back. Colours are good: a mixture of white, black, red and yellowy orange. He comes with a MASSIVE gun which looks similar to the original: this can separate into a shield and a gun for him to hold or peg into his forearms which each have a 5mm hole on the side. Articulation:Ball jointed head. Turning shoulders which raise to the side. Both are heavily ratcheted for reasons which will become apparent later. Bicep swivel. His elbows bend. Yes really, they do! They're latched straight and excessive force is required to bend them. The reason for this will become apparent later too. Wrists don't turn but raise as part of the transformation. No waist joint. Hips have the same movement, and ratchets, as the shoulders. Thigh swivel. Double bending knee. For a Voyager I'd like turning wrists and a waist but I can understand why both are missing here. Transformation: fold the red chest forward, fold the head back and replace the head. Straighten the arms along the body and fold out to the sides. Unfold the panel on the back of each lower leg. Fold heel spur into foot and then foot into leg. In turn turn each leg in 90 degrees, so the red panel is on the front of the leg, and then bend the knee so the lower leg is alongside the upper leg and the tab on the panel you opened behind the leg has pegged into the plane's tale on it's back. Turn each arm at the bicep so the orange panel faces up. Bend the arm 45 degrees at both shoulder and elbow pushing into the side of what was the leg: there's a round trough where the hinge on the wrist can sit. Fold the wings down with a tab under each slotting into what was the forearms. Fold the plane's nose forward and clip into place. Swing the tail fin up. Silverbolt's jet mode is, as traditional, a stylised Concorde, a regular sight from my childhood back garden in south west London. In a lovely touch Silverbolt's rubber safety nose is hinged so it bends down! He's got a landing gear that fold down under the nose plus moulded, non moving, wheels under the rear of the jet in the red sections of the undercarriage. There's peg holes for his gun underneath, the hands provide 5mm peg holes on the side of each engine and there's two more under the rear of the jet should you need to tool the jet mode up. I don't know..... as a stand alone toy Silverbolt feels like he's lacking that "something". Yes he's a jet with robot parts underneath but I was expecting that. The toy feels like there's something special missing as a stand alone unit. Fortunately he's about to make up for that. SuperionTo transform the jet mode into Superion's Torso, strip off any weapons attached and fold up the landing gear. Fold the tail fin to the side and the jet mode back. Fold the wings up with slots on the wings meeting the fins sticking out the side of the nose which act as tabs. Pull the robot arms out to the sides and straighten, locking the elbows in place. Turn the arms at the shoulders so the point straight out the front of the jet, up in robot mode. Turn each arm so the yellow forearm panel faces the same way as the robot chest/plane underside and turn that towards you so that the arms point down and the Autobot symbol is the wrong way up. Open up what was the lower section of Silverbolt's body, anything that was bellow the red chestplate. This might prove difficult but there's holes near Silverbolt's hips you can slip a lever into to help. Fold this panel, together with Superion's head which is hidden in Silverbolt's chest, up between Silverbolt's lower legs. Rotate the head antennae forward and then fold the head back, making sure the tab at the base of the neck fits into the underside of the plane's tail. Fold the red panel with the Autobot symbol on, that was on Silverbolt's chest, up to form Superion's stomach. Slide each of the red panels towards the middle of the robot locking together to form Superion's chest. Fold the black panels on the sides of Superion's shoulders down to expose the shoulder combining sockets. Slide four deluxe limbs into place to complete the combination. I think, given the updated case pictures from SDCC 2014 that showed a slightly distressed Superion, that I was expecting a floppy mess that went to pieces if you look at it wrong. Boy was I incorrect! Superion's torso is as solid as a brick. The genius here, that I'm not sure we've previously seen in a combiner core, is that the central robot is upside down in combined mode with the legs forming the body and the arms the combined robot legs. The smaller robot elbows, which might have been a liability here, are securely locked off. Superion provides a turning head, turning hips (ratcheted) that also move out to the sides (ratcheted) and a redundant upper thigh swivel. The limbs give you Shoulder, bicep, elbow, wrist, thigh, knee and ankle articulation. He stands pretty solidly when combined: I had him stood on the desk, with 2013 Legends Prime on his shoulders, I was rocking the desk and Prime wasn't falling off nor was Superion falling over. Articulation is great but if your robot can't maintain an upright pose it's worth diddly squat. Superion can stand up straight AND has articulation. We have most of Superion's limbs at the launch of the range all of whom, like Silverbolt, have yellow flashes on their packaging to indicate they're Aerialbots: Alpha Bravo, Skydive and Firefly are in Wave 1 with Air Raid a remould of Firefly, following in Wave 2. So you can make a pretty decent Superion using those three with Dragstrip acting as a substitute, and for my preference serving as a leg with Alpha Bravo while Firefly & Skydive form the limbs. Powerglide is capable of forming an extra weapon for Superion, in addition to Silverbolt's gun, but is in no way essential. There's plenty of peg holes on the jets to get them to take their individual weapons with another on top of Superion's guns if you have a spare. Superion looks the part too: they've nailed the essential features dead on here, no complaints at all concerning the likeness. My only issue is the head antennae: for safety reasons they're made of rubbery plastic. The bend VERY easily and I'm not sure I see them lasting forever. In addition one of mine sticks about 1mm short of it's target and won't lock into place on the combine mode. Opening the head up to investigate may be in order. Silverbolt himself is the opposite to Prime for me: Voyager is OK but the combined robot Torso is miles better than Prime's. Legs that as a default point straight down is a good start! Big statement time: I think the combined robot is one of the best toys Hasbro have made for a long long time and THE best combiner they've EVER made. It ticks all the boxes, it works, and Combiner Wars toys are just so fun to play with. Buy Silverbolt and his friends. You NEED these toys in your collection. Future Repaints and Add OnsThere's two obvious routes I could see Hasbro going down for repaints here: The first is obvious Generation 2 Superion. I'd not be surprised to see this as this year's SDCC boxset. The other is as a Decepticon Jet combiner, either using the original jet line up, the Predators or as Destron Sixwing.
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Post by Bogatan on Dec 25, 2014 21:42:25 GMT
I'm convinced we'll get a heavily remoulded Scattershot from Silverbolt after messing around with it today. The chunky lower legs scream Scattershot and the rest of the robot mode just needs repainting and a new head. Replace the plane bits with Space cannon and it just works.
And to me and the Superion chest looks as much like Computrons chest as it does Superion.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 26, 2014 10:02:12 GMT
Have you built the combined Superion yet?
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Post by Bogatan on Dec 26, 2014 18:10:28 GMT
I have indeed, not really had time to mes around with the limbs to much but long enough to work out that all the arm modes can be shortened just enough to improve the proportions. The torso is brilliant.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 26, 2014 19:26:02 GMT
You can attach Dragstrip in car mode effectively!
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Post by Toph on Dec 27, 2014 7:09:04 GMT
Silver is my favorite of the two voyagers. Love both robot and torso modes. Great sculpting. Piss poor jet, though. But such a unique torso conversion I'd kill to see him and the jets as the predators.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 9, 2015 11:46:33 GMT
It's a small thing but I'd make the barrel on Silverbolt's gun a 5mm peg hole, and the back of the combined Superion gun a 5mm peg. The same for Optimus so you could swap the bits round.
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primenova
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
Posts: 6,057
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Post by primenova on Jan 9, 2015 12:32:34 GMT
re first few lines of the first post - Aerialcons just wouldn't fit right & the 2 bots teams where air strike & rescue while the cons where endanger humans & assault force.
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 18, 2015 21:50:52 GMT
I agree with Phil's opinions re: Silverbolt as a stand alone toy though he is growing on me and the robot mode looks really nice in the plastic. Doesn't look great in the box but when freed just looks so much better somehow.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 25, 2015 17:38:00 GMT
CyclonusIf you'd asked me a few months ago who the most likely remould of Silverbolt was I'd have said Starscream as part of a Decepticon jet combiner. When Cyclonus rumours surfaced I was sure then if he'd be a new mould. Outline images of his combined mode and an image from the game made a remould seemed more likely so we weren't that surprised by his toyfair reveal. In his robot mode he looks a lot like a purple and silver Silverbolt with a Cyclonus head on it. This is compounded when he holds the weapon which is Silverbolt's gun, but in grey. It looks nice but doesn't really feel Cyclonusy, lacking the rounded shoulders that we're used to. However when you fold the wings out behind him, *THEN* he becomes Cyclonus! Cyclonus has the benefit of two small extra weapons, a blade plugged into each forearm which can be removed and hand held. The Transformation is a little different: fold the head backwards into the neck and then fold the nose closed over it. From there the legs fold up to become the rear of the jet and arms fold into them as before. Unplug the fin weapons and plug into the exposed hand backs. Fold the wings down over the arms, with the moulded detail inherited from Silverbolt recessing into a hollowed out space in them. Tabs on the wings plug into slots on the arms as before. Fold the fins up from the engines. while the robot mode may have taken some stretch to be recognisably Cyclonus this is spot on, a large chunky purple version of the original Cyclonus. Just like Silverbolt the gun can peg in under the nose. without it, there's a fold down landing gear. Unfortunately without either you can see Cyclonus' face peering out from under the nose! So assessing this toy we've got a robot that overall is probably OK, with reservations, as Cyclonus but the jet mode is very good. GalvatronusI could see how They got from Silverbolt to Cyclonus, both are 1986 released jets. But Cyclonus to Galvatronus? Hmmmm. Megatron to Galvatron as a combined mode power up I could understand. And Indeed I want.Corrupting the name is obviously meant to distance it from Galvatron but that fact is the name is still screaming Galvatron at us. The transformation from jet to combined mode body is nearly identical, the only extra thing you need to do is re-site the blades to the outer side of each leg. Galvatronus' combined mode on his box uses two Aerialbots and two Stunticons as his limbs, emphasising the bio's mention of mind control powers used to take over any limb bot and form the combined mode and the toyline's ability to interchange limbs. Oddly none of the toys used are the ones that are about to become spare limbs with the release of Quicksling and Brakeneck. I don't want to take two combiners apart and I'd quite like to compare the combined form to Superion while having Galvatronus fighting Defensor so I've used the Stunticon limbs, where the purple hands and feet are a decent match for Galvatronus' body. I'd like to use Decepticon jets but there aren't any.... yet. Galvatronus is a little odd: he doesn't really look like the animated Galvatron character model, especially his head. Yes it's got a crest and horns but it looks more like the original Galvatron toy. Apart from the colour, which is purple all over, the most obviously Galvatron feature it the pattern of four red squares on his lower chest. Unfortunately the moulded portion above this looks more like an 84/5 Decepticon cockpit.... which in turn makes you look at the head again and think "this looks a bit like Starscream with his crown on". Was the original intention for this toy a Starscream who's combined mode was an Emperor Starscream? However the purple makes it look nice and Decepticony and the torso maintains the stability of Superion's so he qualifies as a decent combiner torso. Future Repaints and Add OnsThere's two obvious routes I could see Hasbro going down for repaints here: The first is obvious Generation 2 Superion. I'd not be surprised to see this as this year's SDCC boxset. The other is as a Decepticon Jet combiner, either using the original jet line up, the Predators or as Destron Sixwing. Having seen the Galvatronus combined chest and various fan photshops I'd like to see a Starscream version and the remoulding for Cyclonus makes me think a F16 from this mould is possible. I've seen it suggested that a Stealth Jet Megatron retool might be possible which could put the Megatron Voyager to Galvatron combiner core idea to use. But I still want a Megatron Voyager tank!
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dyrl
Empty
Transforming robots are no match for combat waitresses from the future!
Posts: 1,652
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Post by dyrl on Jul 1, 2015 6:36:30 GMT
I am so on the fence about Cyclonus! Help...
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Post by The Doctor on Jul 2, 2015 17:18:41 GMT
I had a shot of Phil's. It looked nice and Cyclonusish.
-Ralph
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dyrl
Empty
Transforming robots are no match for combat waitresses from the future!
Posts: 1,652
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Post by dyrl on Jul 5, 2015 17:34:56 GMT
It's too late for me , my son. Take this mask off so that I may look upon you with my own eyes . The big purple is coming . ..
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Post by Shockprowl on Jan 8, 2016 22:20:59 GMT
Lordy Lordy!
I think Silverbolt is MY FAVORITE CW FIGURE!!!!
At least equal to Prowl. He's brilliant. I have Cyclonus already, he nice, but SILVERBOLT is magnificent. Great Silverbolt, but just a great toy! So pleased, wish I'd got him ages ago.
NOW....
TO FORM THE AUTO-SENTRY.....
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 22, 2016 13:43:58 GMT
Really need to do a full write up on Scattershot but I've discovered today that the post on the back of Scattershot's gun fits into the front of the jet mode gun barrel!
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 22, 2016 20:45:18 GMT
See: 'post'. Not the millimetres! Just a post!
-Ralph
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Post by Toph on Jan 22, 2016 23:54:17 GMT
It's a 5mm post
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 23, 2016 0:22:15 GMT
It's not a normal post, it,s the cross shaped thing on the back of the shield.
Knob might be a better word but that takes is into dangerous territory .....
It's larger than 5mm though!
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Post by Toph on Jan 23, 2016 10:28:50 GMT
(That was mainly to tease doc ~_^ )
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 23, 2016 12:14:31 GMT
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Post by Shockprowl on Jan 26, 2016 19:45:35 GMT
Errr, yeah, that looks.... long....
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 27, 2016 16:43:11 GMT
Voyager ScattershotReusing Silverbolt as Scattershot isn't an idea that readily comes to my mind but many people have claimed to have been able to see elements of Scattershot in Silverbolt's robot mode even before he was announced at SDCC 2015. The images shown there show a decent approximation of Scattershot's colours: Lower legs, waist, shoulders and hands are brown, with a red chest lower arms and combined robot chest. a new head in cream like the upper limbs, knee pad and gun parts completes the look. Unfortunately the robot we got was somewhat different: the brown is swapped for a dark red while the forearms are now cherry red. There's too many slightly different shades of red going on here. The gun parts ended up silver again, just like with Cyclonus. The gun was already a problem, being another reuse of Silverbolt's signature weapon but reusing it in the same colours as it's previous appearance? I'd have preferred red, like the original Scattershot, but to be different creamy white as previously shown would have been OK. To make it worse it appears as if the silver is painted over the creamy white. The only thing I've really got any praise for here is the new head which is spot on. It's is a shame because the robot mode was the image that looked OK in the promo renders. The spaceship mode is a disaster: It's obviously Silverbolt, with new wings, nose and tail. The wings seem rubbery and are another slightly different shade of cherry red. The nose.... the nose just looks like a Jet with a gun for a nose! I can see what they're going for here but it looks nothing like the original Scattershot's chunky spaceship mode. You can't even plug weapons into the end of it which would have been a somewhat redeeming feature. It gets worse though when you plug the robot's gun underneath it and you end up with two completely different gun barrels sticking out the front of the toy! It would have required a bit more engineering but why not dump the original Silverbolt gun entirely and develop a new plane nose gun that removed to become a hand weapon. Then there's the combined mode Betatron. Assigning Scattershot a different combined robot caused months of moaning in the fan community and I can see the argument. Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember the Micronauts use of the Betatron name and that wasn't a terribly good effort either. The main problem with the combined mode is it still has Superion's head in black. If we were aiming for something vaguely like Computron I would have at least repainted the head to match Computron's colours. But Hasbro didn't Otherwise the combined robot Torso looks exactly like Superion's, except that it's in varying shades of red. A hate plague Superion almost? The other problem "Betatron" has is he doesn't have anyone to specifically combine with and not enough limbs spare to use with him that aren't more suited for use with Optimus Prime or Galvatronus. There are no Technobot limbs available separately. Hasbro have shown him combined with both sets of Autobot limbs at various times. This prompted speculation that a SEVENTH Combiner Wars wave was coming with the Technobot limbs and Scattershot had been released early and would return in Voyager assortments when his proper intended deluxes came out. This rumour was put to be by the reveal of first Hasbro Computron Boxset and then the TakaraTomy Unite Warriors Computron which both use the Scattershot Voyager with differently recoloured & remoulded limbs as the Technobots. These releases effectively render the stand alone Voyager Scattershot completely superfluous so why release him, especially as his slot could have been used for a fixed version of the original Optimus Prime voyager? I think the answer is money: Scattershot is released by himself so the cost of remoulding the toy for Computron is borne by the stand alone release and any budget for the boxset can be thrown at the other remoulds. We may never know for sure. But if you did buy Scattershot, hoping for Technobot limbs for him down the line, then you're going to be disappointed because you're going to have to buy him again to get those limbs. Scattershot was released in Combiner Wars Voyagers Wave 5 (2016 Wave 1) in December 2015. He appears at one per case of two in only that case.
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Post by Toph on Mar 28, 2016 0:04:42 GMT
Yeah. There is nothing about Scattershot that *isn't* a disaster.
The single most irritating thing about CW are the pointless torsos. And I don't mean non-traditional torsos like Optimus and Cyclonus. But CW is insanely limited in it's torso choices, with only four. And one of those (skylynx), as awesome as he is on his own, is useless as anything else. So, we get Optimus, Motormaster, Hotspot, Onslaught, Silverbolt, Cyclonus, and Skylynx. And for the eight and nineth, we don't get something new. We get ANOTHER Optimus Prime (instead of say... Huffer, Pipes, Nemesis Prime, or Overload), and we get an extremely wrong Scattershot who's not given a team, but instead will be released in a box set in accurate colors, WITH his proper team.
So we got two slots that were completely wasted.
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 28, 2016 16:59:44 GMT
I think CW Scattershot is great!
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 29, 2016 11:06:54 GMT
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Post by blueshift on Mar 29, 2016 11:14:17 GMT
Wait wait, whch is the one that's all red???
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 29, 2016 11:24:14 GMT
With the black Superion head? That's the Voyager, released at retail. The CW Scattershot with the brown on is what they intended the Voyager to look like but that's not how it came out:
Intended Version
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Release version
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 29, 2016 11:26:55 GMT
Hmmm. Are you looking at this Takara? whatchu gonna dooo?
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 29, 2016 12:08:54 GMT
Load up, load up, load up with rubber bullets ....
Yes, raises some interesting questions. It's definitely a matter of individual robot vs combined form here!
The paint on the back of the forearms solution is the best one I've seen so far to do both. But it isn't ideal.
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 15, 2016 20:20:30 GMT
Generation 2 SilverboltCombiner Wars G2 Silverbolt is an interesting toy when you look at the details. Original Generation 2 Silverbolt is a straight repaint of 1986 Special Teams Silverbolt with white becoming blue and gold chrome becoming red. Combiner Wars Silverbolt is not a straight update of the original, some of the colours have moved around a bit. Yet Generation 2 Combiner Wars Silverbolt isn't a straight up swap of the Combiner Wars colours, the red and blue are placed exactly where they were on the original G2 Silverbolt. I'm struggling to get find much to say about the G2 Silverbolt repaint: given the mould they had they've got the details dead right. The only thing it could have done with is, like the original, a pair of additional missile launchers. Generation 2 SuperionWhen I first looked at Superion I said: There's two obvious routes I could see Hasbro going down for repaints here: The first is obvious Generation 2 Superion. I'd not be surprised to see this as this year's SDCC boxset. On 6th May 2015 the artwork from a G2 Superion box, assumed to be the San Diego Comic Con exclusive, was leaked. It came as something of a surprise when the 2015 exclusive was announced as a Titan Devastator with an upgraded paint job, but maybe that shouldn't have been a surprise given SDCC Titan Metroplex two years previously. Instead the G2 Superion set was destined for a wider audience as the first in a series of online exclusive Combiner Wars boxsets and was itself officially unveiled on July 9th 2015 at the 2015 SDCC Hasbro Breakfast and released in late 2015/early 2016. My supplier had a little delay with their stock: it appears a large quantity of the first run went to went to Amazon so I actually received it after the second set, Combiner Wars G2 Menasor. Maybe Menasor's colours being so mad and it not being actually released in Generation 2 has biased me, or that the original Combiner Wars Superion was such an amazing update, but of the first two Generation 2 Combiner Wars sets I prefer Menasor. Superion is good, very good, and a great translation of the G2 colours onto the Combiner Wars toys, and the inclusion of a Universe Ultra coloured G2 Powerglide is great but it isn't setting my world on fire. Botcon 2016 SeaclampI think it's necessary to step through the decision making process here. Combiners are in, it's Beast Wars anniversary, so let's make the Botcon boxset a Combiner Wars version of Beast Wars Combiner Tripredicus. Fine so far. The Beast Wars cartoon is really, REALLY popular so let's make the members of Tripredicus red like we saw them in the episode Agenda. OK. Ish. There's some debate about if the redness is their colour or caused by the light in the camber and it's not the colour of the toys, but fair enough. So Seaclamp, who was previously a Sea Scorpion, what shall we make him into? Cicadon as a jet makes sense and Ramhorn as a drill tank kind of makes sense. I'll admit my money was on Hotspot, using a rather good alternate fan transformation as a Scorpion which is out there! But no, they chose Combiner Wars Scattershot. Now Scattershot, for reasons of not originally coming with his team to combine with, having the same head as Superion in torso mode and generally being a quite lazy repaint, is not the most popular of the Combiner Wars torsos. He also has a big problem in relation to one of the previous decisions: he's mostly red. So superficially Cicadon and Scattershot look very, VERY similar. So similar that you wonder if an all red Silverbolt or Cyclonus might have been a better choice of mould. If anything Cicadon is even more red than Scattershot, with some moulded dark grey and painted silver detailing. Nice new head in robot mode. But far too similar to Scattershot: needed radically different colours or a different toy. Botcon 2016 PredacusThe advantage of using a Silverbolt derivative as your Voyager is it does give you a nice solid body. He's the red used for the other two modes but wit a blue chest and grey waist. The red perfectly matches the red used for Ramhorn and Botcon 2016 Cicadon. Botcon 2016 Tarantulas and Ravage provide non matching but dark enough coloured for it not really to matter legs. The designated arms both have red Hand Foot Guns to match their bodies while those on the legs are painted black. A newly sculpted silver head tops the toy. Here the red works, it makes the combined toy more cohesive and stand out from a crowd of other Combiners. Unite Warriors CyclonusI'd honestly not expected to see Cyclonus in the Japanese line since he was a remould of Silverbolt. When the tease was released on Twitter there was some speculation about the identity of the central component, with an alternate Starscream paint job being a common theory, but a picture from a toy show seemingly confirmed it was Cyclonus from what little we could see of the colours and was confirmed by the team's full reveal. Whereas the Combiner Wars Cyclonus is a deep purple the Unite Warriors version is more metallic pale blue with a colour scheme much closer to the cartoon. His gun is now clear orange plastic, with the stock, handle and shield painted silver, the reasons for which will become apparent in combined mode. I want to like Cyclonus but he's really not doing it for me and the extent of the metal paintjob is scaring me slightly got future chips and scratches! As with the rest of the Grand Galvatron set, here's a gallery of the toy. Unite Warriors Grand GalvatronAs with the Cyclonus component, when Grand Galvatron's silhouette tease was released there was some speculation as to the combined robot's identity. This picture from a Japanese toy show seemingly sealed it with the clear orange cannon on his arm, aping the original Galvatron toy. The Grand Galvatron officially reveal gave us a closer look: Unusually for Takara they're going for a toy look here with the chest plate and head in original toy grey and a red stripe across the chest. Unfortunately that then makes the torso resemble Starscream, and the resemblance of the head to the crowned version of the Movie Starscream has already been commented on! The composition of the combiner is somewhat eclectic compared to the themed teams of 1985-1992 or the newer Autobot gatherings of Combiner Wars: Ghost Starscream - a post Movie version of G1 Starscream Curse Armada Thrust - a remake of, shockingly, Armada Thrust Zombie War Breakdown - Prime Breakdown Wandering Roller - an interpretation of IDW Roller But combined together..... Oh what wonderful madness! The set's default configuration is the jets for arms and the vehicles for legs, as you can see in this gallery gallery which, by a strange coincidence, means Grand Galvatron has the same legs as my spare parts Galvatron combiner. However here's a picture of the alternate combined mode. Yes whichever limb is Starscream looks a bit odd due to being th only clear one but I don't care!I haven't seen Japanese repaint madness this good for some considerable time, possible since the glory days of Beast Wars II through to the Dimension X Minicons. There's something to recommend all five robots in the set and the combined form is just great. If you possibly can treat yourself to a set.
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