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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 24, 2015 21:40:45 GMT
Dead EndDead End is one of the Stunticons. Of the original four, 3 are street cars with Dragstrip being more confined to the track. Breakdown's More angular vehicle mode sets him apart from the other three leaving Deadend and Wildrider as the sort of cars you'd be more likely to see on the street. Of these two Wildrider has been eliminated from the initial release of Combiner Wars Stunticons. He comes in robot mode but lets look at the vehicle mode first. Turn the waist 180 degrees. Straighten the arms & fold the hands into the wrists. Fold diown atthe shoulders to the sides of the body. Fold the front and outer side of each leg out to the sides. Bring the legs together with the combiner connector pointing towards the waist. Fold the lower legs up at the knees so they contain the lower legs then close the sides of the legs to form the rear of the car. Fold the back pack down to form the nose of thecar and fold the windscreen down. Fold the chest plate up to cover the face. Peg the weapon into the side of the car as an exhaust pipe. Dead End's car mode is a solid chunky car, cast in a lovely burgundywith silver highlights and a yellow stripe running just off center. It's a pretty good reinterpretation of his original vehicle mode. His purple hand/foot forms a weapon that pegs onto the top of the vehicle in a hole that's a tad too shallow for the pegs. To transform back to robot mode start by folding the chest plate down from under the bonnet to reveal his face. Fold the windscreen back and then fold the bonnet back onto the space occupied by the windscreen. Raise the arms out to the sides, bend down at the shoulders and fold the hands out. Rotate at the waist and seperate the legs, folding diown the combiner connector. In addition to the Burgundy of the car body two different shades of grey are revealed here: a pale grey forming the combiner connector, knees, waist, link between body and bonnet, combiner connector and weapon. Meanwhile a dark grey is used for the upper legs, hands, the lower half of the upper arms, neck and head. There's plenty of moulded detail here with a head closely resembling the comic version of his original head. He can use his vehicle weapon as his hand gun while his exhaust pipe forms a stave like hand weapon. Either can be hand held or pegged into his shoulders. Articulation is good: bending knees, ball jointed hips, turning waist, ball jointed head, shoulders that raise at the body and are ball jointed at the arms, bicep swivels and bending elbows. Dead End can also form the limb of a Combiner Wars robot: Arm mode: from robot mode peg the legs together. Fold the hands into the wrists, straightenthe arms and bend the arms in at the shoulders so the wrists tuck into the waist. Fold the head back into the car bonnet back pack. Fold out the combiner mode connector. You've probably got a good idea what to expect from a Combiner Wars arm: it turns at the shoulder and can be raised out to the side. The robot waist becomes a bicep swivel while the legs give it a double elbow and the peg for the hand wrist rotation. The hand has the peg hole between thumb and fingers to enable the arm to hold 5mm weapon. The car arms down't work so well for me as the Aerialbot arms because to have the elbow bending you need the wide underside of the car facing towards you on the lower arms which look a tad too wide. Leg mode: From car mode fold the windscreen back and fold the bonnet, containing the head, onto the roof od the car. Fold out the combiner mode connector. The connector form the thigh swivel and bending knee for the combined robot while the ankle turns from side to side. It's a good solid leg, like most of the combiner wars legs which is what you want: a component that won't collapse holding the robot up. I've handled a lot of Generations style cars and Dead End is a pretty good example without having any feature that sets it aside. Well worth owning, high quality. A Japanese version of Dead End is cominginthe Unite Warriors Menasor set eliminatingthe distinguishing orange stripe which is also missing from the animated model.
SteetwiseLooking at Streetwise in vehicle mode there is little to indicate that he and Dead End are different versions of the same mode. Yes they're a similar shape but the only identical parts are the wheels and vehicle mode weapon. The detailing is completely different, save for the positioning of the 5mm holes in the lower door sides and on the roof. Streetwise's vehicle mode is cast in off white platic with painted blue police detailing on the doors & bonnet. The transformastion to robot mode is identical between the two versions of the toy! Streetwise's original robot mode is pretty distinctive with his vehicle mode windscreen looking down from the chest at the rear of the car forming the legs. Black paint on a remoulded chest piece and the front of the legs help to simulate that. The waist, combiner connector and peg hole connector between the legs look like they are the same but almost every other part has been changed with a slightly different shape or detail. The appearance is completed with a fab new head sculpt, looking very like the original, and a triple barreled shotgun for him to hold.
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 2, 2015 14:59:53 GMT
Brake-NeckLots of fans were upset when Combiner Wars Superion was released with Alpha Bravo replacing Slingshot. This was tempered slightly when Unite Warriors Superion, including Slingshot repainted from Fireflight was announced. I already had Silverbolt and the three limbs released in the west and I still pre ordered one. We already knew Menasor was shipping with Offroad replacing Wildrider so speculation turned to which Stunticon mould would provide the new version of Wildrider in the Japanese Menasor: Dead End or Breakdown? I could see the argument for Breakdown being used: Wildrider is more angular than Dead End but Breakdown's vehicle mode is easily identifiable as a Lamborghini so thought Dead End was probably going to be the one repainted. On the 22nd of January 2015 a Toys R Us listing for Slingshot & Wildrider was found, leading to speculation that there would be a western release of the limb recolours as an exclusive. The long suspected Japanese version of Wildrider using Dead End was revealed in a magazine on the 20th March. On 23rd March a Diamond listing for theses toys was found with Hasbro teasing them on Facebook the next day under the names Quickslinger and Break-Neck. The full versions were revealed the day after on 25th March by which time pre orders were opening up everywhere. Although I get that for various reasons the name Wildrider and his persona might be wanted to be avoided the name Brake Neck seems a little odd given there's already a similarly named Breakdown on the Stunticon team. Dead End becomes the first Combiner Wars mould to be used three times with Brake-Neck. Generally the car mode for Brake-Neck looks pretty good swapping Dead End's burgundy for grey/silver but the mid arm panels, coloured red, form part of the side of the vehicle and break up the grey body work. A little bit of paint to make the line of the top of the door the same colour wouldn't have gone amiss. Transforming to robot mode reveals more colours. The Burgundy of Dead End's chest and chest panel are the only parts of that colour not to become silver/grey, they're more of a pale grey. The pale grey of the knees, waist and combiner wars connector become black. The darker grey of the upper legs, hands, mid arm pieces, neck and combiner connector become red. A new head, featuring Wildrider's signature spikes sticking out the side is cast in a similar colour to the car body with a painted red face. Given that an exact car match for Wildrider was unavailable this is a pretty good attempt. The red breaking up the top of the door and not quite matching the rest of the red stripe does annoy me though!
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Post by Shockprowl on Jul 1, 2015 7:37:28 GMT
I love CW Wildrider. He's a great repaint with a fantastic head sculpt. I think this mold is my favorite car mold in CW. The Stunticons have really come alive now.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 29, 2015 10:36:33 GMT
ProwlIt's probably fair to say that by this stage of the game you know what you're going to get with a version of the Dead End mould. The problem with Prowl is that he and Streetwise are both Police Cars. Usually a Police Car repaint is easy: paint it white and slap some lightbars on it: How do you repaint a police car as a police car? It turns out the solution is to think clearly about how you're painting the first version. Streetwise was an off white colour, with red and blue detailing. By doing a pure white police car this time, with black detailing, you're automatically off to a good start. Then there's the head: they've got Prowl spot on. This was a head worth doing right because it's VERY important to the original character and, if Hasbro play their cards right, there's a few more reuses of it to come. The head being right also helps draw your attention away from the chest: normally a Prowl chest if the front of the car, sticking outwards. Here it's a flat panel, admittedly moulded to look like the front of the car, flat against the body and covering the combiner connector. It does the job but I'd have quite liked to see a further set of mods that allowed the car bonnet to fold forward over the head and become his chest. Prowl functions just the same as previous versions of this toy as a limb. However his release does mean the the Dead End mould is the first Combiner Wars limb to FOUR versions meaning you can make a combiner with just Dead End limbs! The Dead End mould will also be the first to TWO combiners with the same limbs when Smokescreen, Victorion Dustup, G2 Dead End & G2 Brakeneckare released! The release of Prowl with Battle Core Optimus Prime means we're also in a position to produce an all white combined robot! I'd thought Prowl's gun would both me but it doesn't..... yet. I have researched 3P versions of the original Prowl gun with a 5mm peg though! I'm liking what we've got a lot. Probably the best of the Autobot wave.
Future RepaintsThere's a massive FOUR versions of this toy coming we already know about: Victorion Dustup, G2 Dead End, G2 Brakeneck and Smokescreen! Beyond that.... There's always Prowl & Smokescreen's Fairlady Z brother Bluestreak and I wouldn't put it past Hasbro doing all silver, Anime and blue versions of him at some point. Design wise the Dead end mould is probably the closest thing we have for making a Combiner Wars version of Jazz and is also a contender for making the potentially difficult Skids. Then, given we know G2 Superion & Menasor are coming, it's pretty likely we might see a G2 Defensor with Groove. So by the time we're done we could be well on our way to a third all Dead End limb combiner!
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Post by Shockprowl on Aug 29, 2015 19:37:15 GMT
Freakin' damn sexy version of Prowl. Really looks like it works. The best CW car mold. Can't wait. Soon.
The Jazz repaint would be fantatsic.
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Post by Shockprowl on Sept 9, 2015 18:31:26 GMT
And he's just a good in the plastic! Oh yes. I am so very pleased with this Prowl. It's amazing that a mold that lacks the classical 'bonnet-on-chest' Prowl look can be such a convincing Prowl. It's the head and face sculpt I think. And the paint is spot on. He's just a top top Prowl. Repainting the Stunticons into Diaclone Autobots was a masterstroke. I hope they do more. I'm so close to loosing my sh1t and buying the lot! But I'll more that likely just stick to a select 5 or so.
LONG LIVE COMBINER WARS!!!!!!
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Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 9, 2015 18:59:22 GMT
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Post by Shockprowl on Sept 9, 2015 20:47:57 GMT
Oh I know. Can't wait for Wheeljack. Need them to do a Jazz though. Need it.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 26, 2016 17:00:04 GMT
SmokescreenSomeone at Hasbro likes the G1 Smokescreen colour scheme. There's Armada Minicon Prowl's repaint, an Unreleased Battle In A Box version, Cybertron, Movie Fast Action Battler, ROTF Legend and Predacon Rising Legion. And that's before we get onto proper homages like the Masterpiece and Universe versions. To my mind the Universe 2 Smokescreen is an epic misfire. It was the third airing for that mould as a Datsun brother and needed to be a spot on deco. It wasn't. The white stripe separating the blue, which was far too dark, and the red, too orangey, was far too wide, the number boxes were squared and not rounded and neither the red or the blue quite worked for me. In robot mode there was too much red on the chest and the lower arms and the the legs, which should have mainly been red, were a multicoloured explosion. By contrast the Henkei version is a lot closer to what it ought to be. Which is something of a long winded introduction to this toy. I have a history of low tolerances to bad Smokescreen homages. Like Prowl, Smokescreen uses the Streetwise version of the Dead End mould. This in itself brings problems in the form of the moulded lightbar, which suggests that maybe Dead End himself with the Prowl head may have been a more sensible choice for Smokescreen and Bluestreak. However now I'm looking at the car itself I don't think it looks too bad, blending in moulded in red like the rest of the roof of the vehicle. The white stripe, which troubled me so much on the Universe version is far smaller here and neatly follows a wavey line along the side of the car while the race car number are the right sort of size and font and on an unbordered rounded white rectangle like the original. I'd like the door ones bigger and further back but that would plonk them right on parts that transform. Sadly the annoying vertical stripe down the door seen on Dead End and Brakeneck is back but understandably so due to the transformation. And, truth be told, I'm not missing the lack of a spoiler here which for some is a feature that distinguishes Smokescreen from his brothers. Smokescreen's robot mode is blue. The head is spot on for the original toy, a blue Prowl head with a yellow crest. A wide red stripe forming the middle chest plate does a decent impression of the bumper. Like the Universe version he's got red forearms but somehow, possibly due to the more cherry shade of red, they look far better here. The same colour is used for the top of the shoulders. From the waist down it's all blue which looks a bit samey. It's a shame because if you spin the waist round the rear of the legs introduces much more red and does a decent impersonation of the shape and layout of the original Smokescreen legs. Not for the first time I find myself wanting an alternate transformation for these toys which would allow the top rear of the car to become the front of the legs and the knees to bend the right way and there's a bit of me that hopes this mould shows up in the Botcon custom class and someone experiments with it. The triple barrelled shotgun has been painted silver here which adds to the effect of making you think it's Smokescreen. This isn't a perfect Generations Smokescreen: for that buy the Henkei version and get a third party gun. I don't even quite think it's the best Combiner Wars Smokescreen there could have been. But I like it. It's got something that somehow that dreadful Universe 2 version didn't have and feels much more Smokescreen than the Universe 2 version did.
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 5, 2016 9:44:33 GMT
Generation 2 Dead EndWe feel the Dead End mould is a bit overused in Combiner Wars having appeared in Waves 2, 3, 4 & 6 plus the Internet exclusive pair of robots. But the Dead End mould itself hasn't appeared since that Internet Exclusive wave, issued at around the time that the Wave 3 Protectobots became available that introduced the Streetwise shell variation. Indeed this is the third use of the Dead End car shell, and just the 2nd use of the Dead End head. Whereas the original Dead End car is burgundy his G2 version is bright red and looks fab. Indeed by Generation 2 standards it is very nearly sensible! Transforming it to robot reveal some blue on the head & combiner connector, which can also be found on the pipe and Hand Foot Gun, but the majority of the extra pieces are black. Indeed compared to the original unreleased Generation 2 Dead End I'd say it was too sensible again and they should have gone fully radio rental by making the black blue and indeed standardising that blue over all 5 Stunticons.
Generation 2 Brakeneck (Wildrider)Generation 2 Wildrider, packed in the same box as G2 Dead End is thus the 4th use of the Dead End mould version and the 2nd Wildrider head. Here he swaps the grey of the 1986 version for a a bright Bumblebee yellow. Ah, now this is a bit more like it! Transforming to robot reveals bright blue on the hidden limb pieces. MUCH better, much more like the G2 we know and love. Dragstrip and Dead End are sensible and for the cars you need to go to Wildrider and Breakdown for some proper inanity!
Botcon 2016 Unit 3In the run up to Botcon 2016 a rumoured list of exclusives did the rounds. One of the more insane items on it was a repaint of Streetwise as Under-3. Under-3 was the name applied to a McDonalds Beast Wars toy that transformed from a Lion's head to an unarticulated robot which resembled Optimus Primal. It was the very definition of the word obscure and was one of the items on the list that was treated with some scepticism. As it turned out the list was very accurate, failing to get Airazor from Slipstream and Botcon Custom Class Ratchet right. We'll come to what they thought Ratchet would be later .... The name Under-3 is adapted to Unit-3, top fit in with a previous Botcon comic story. The Streetwise car shell, it's fourth use, gets cast in bright yellow with black and orange striped details, headlights and Maximal symbol on the bonnet. It looks amazing! Transforming to robot mode reveals the robot parts, and second use of the actual Streetwise head to have been moulded in black with orange and silver paint applications all but matching the original Happy Meal freebie. Top, top toy. Left field choice but applied to a very appropriately chosen toy mould. Along with Tranatulas one of the highlights from Botcon 2016.
Rumoured Botcon Customise Class Blue BluestreakIt's odd including a toy that doesn't exist on these lists but I think this deserves a mention .... Two mistakes occurred on the rumoured list of exclusives I saw. Airazor from Slipstream wasn't on it, replaced with Arcee from Legends Blackarachnia, which I thought made sense as there was a previous Botcon Arcee from Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia. The other thing missing from the rumours list was the Customise Class Ratchet, which I would have considered worthy of a more main line release as part of another Autobot Combiner. The item the list had on it was Blue Bluestreak from Dead End/Streetwise. This made vague sense: there's already a Streetwise use in the Botcon exclusives and the customise class toy tends to be a reuse of one already in the exclusive packages. Blue Bluestreak is a "variation", although it only exists as a Diaclone toy with a lot of collector interest and by doing Blue Bluestrek here it allows a proper silver/anime Bluestreak to be done in the main Combiner Wars line or as part of another Autobot Diaclone Combiner boxset. Alas it was not be and with Ratchet's appearance my dream of owning all 18 Diaclone Autobots in Combiner Wars form took a severe dent. I wait to see any version of Bluestreak in any of his three colour schemes, but in particular the rumoured blue one, from the various customisers at work out there.
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Post by The Doctor on May 5, 2016 21:30:57 GMT
Now that I have a CW Prowl I see what you mean about the chest flap deco imitating the traditional bonnet front of ye olde Prowl. I couldn't quite work out why my brain was telling me the toy looked like Prowl (other than the head) despite looking so different from the 80's original. That's a really clever and subtle visual trick!
What a fab update.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 5, 2016 21:47:03 GMT
The same trick could make for a nice Sideswipre/Re Alert from Breakdown.
Phil needs CW Sideswipe.
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Post by Pinwig on May 5, 2016 22:01:14 GMT
So say we all!
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 16, 2016 11:06:26 GMT
Torchbearer DustupAs we're keeping track this is the fifth reuse of the Dead End version of the car mode but it's had a few tweaks. Gone are the pipe weapon, which I'm thoroughly fed up with, and the Hand Foot Gun replaced by a bow that can also serve as a rather oddly placed spoiler in car mode. The mould itself has some minor tweaks: there's a new head, chest panel and hands which are now open at the sides. And then there's the deco..... Oh dear. But I think Dustup's biggest problem is the mould choice. As we said it's the fifth Dead End, but also Dead End's third boxset appearance and NINTH appearance of any variant of the car mould. Dragstrip has had 3 appearances total and no remoulds: surely it would have made more sense to use him?
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Post by Toph on May 16, 2016 15:20:13 GMT
I would have rather used Dragstrip in place of breakdown, using the dustup head, with this one staying the same (only using her sister's head)
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 27, 2016 14:41:43 GMT
Combiner Wars LightsteedLightsteed, a name substitute for Lightspeed is probably the most controversial element of the Combiner Wars Computron Boxset. It's the only straight repaint of a retail toy in the box. By my count it's the 11th use of the Dead End mould, 5th of the Streetwise variant and 3rd of the Streetwise head so there is a distinct element of familiarity here. The feeling was in the run up to a number of pieces of artwork and pictures of a toy prototype being leaked that if an existing Combiner Wars toy was to be used for Lightspeed then Wheeljack was the best choice and indeed Takara agreed. So as a toy by itself this doesn't feel like Lightspeed. However I like what I see. The red and white works as a sort of Fire Chief deco, more heavy on the red than Red Alert, who doesn't yet have a Combiner Wars version. My only complaint with the flat white moulding of the windscreen & roof: I think the roof and windscreen supports needed to be picked out in red.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 24, 2016 22:50:21 GMT
Transformers Subscription Service 4.0 Blue BluestreakThere were two mistakes on the rumoured list of Botcon 2016 exclusives I saw. Airazor from Slipstream wasn't on it, replaced with Arcee from Legends Blackarachnia, which I thought made sense as there was a previous Botcon Arcee from Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia. The other thing missing from the rumours list was the Customise Class Ratchet, which I would have considered worthy of a more main line release as part of another Autobot Combiner. The item the list had on it was Blue Bluestreak from Dead End/Streetwise. This made vague sense: there's already a Streetwise use in the Botcon exclusives and the customise class toy tends to be a reuse of one already in the exclusive packages. Although Blue Bluestreak is a "variation" that doesn't exist in the original Transformers line, although it does as a Diaclone toy , there's a lot of interest in it due to that being the way Bluestreak appears on his boxart and in early catalogues. In the last few years there's been a Binaltech Blue Bluestreak, Beast Hunters Legion and the popular Masterpiece MP-18B Blue Bluestreak. Plus the use of a Blue Bluestreak as a convention toy allows a "proper" silver/anime Bluestreak to be done in the main Combiner Wars line or as part of another Autobot Diaclone Combiner boxset. Alas it was not be and with Ratchet's appearance my dream of owning all 18 Diaclone Autobots in Combiner Wars form took a severe dent. Or so I thought.... When the final two toys from Transformers Subscription Service 4.0 arrived the incentive toy was revealed as Blue Bluestreak and in a bag labelled Botcon 2016 no less! Bluestreak is mainly moulded in blue plastic, with black for the wheels, connector to HFG, knees, waist & combiner connector and white for the softer plastic on upper legs, hips & lower arms/elbows. The bonnet is covered in silver paint, a little too far to the edges for my liking but seemingly accurate towards the original. The lightbar is still on the roof and is a little more obvious here than on Smokescreen as it's been picked out in black. The use of the word turbo on the side of the car looks a little odd though and yes, the white upper arm/elbow pieces do rather break up the side of the car. Robot mode looks superb though, no complaints there. After getting excited about the possibility of it being at Botcon and then let down, I'm really glad this toy has been brought out by the club and very pleased to own one.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 1, 2017 21:36:33 GMT
Unite Warriors FlowspadeFlowspade is almost a direct plastic colour swap for Torchbearer Dustup with institutional green becoming black and red becoming what my wife described as violet. The waist, knee, combiner wars & Hand/Foot/Gun frame breaks this pattern by going from red to black. The reason the colour swap doesn't look so simple is that the paint apps for vehicle mode have been dramatically changed as you can see in this tweet comparing the two. With Dustup the car, which would have been mainly that nasty green, was liberally painted red over the sides helping the red plastic elbow blend in. For Flowspade this has gone and the elbow sticks out like a sore thumb as it has done on most versions of Combiner Wars Dead End! Paint is kept to a minimum: the front bumper, centre of the bonnet, one of the few places that was the native plastic colour on Dustup, and the centre of the rear. The weapon is significantly improved here: like Megaempress the moulded plastic colour has gone from grey to black and coupled with the gold paint used on all the weapons in the Like the other deluxes in the Megatronia boxset it looks significantly better! Big improvement over Dustup. But it's the 12th use of Dead End so I'm finding it hard to get really excited about.
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