Phil's Hotspot, Onslaught, Defensor & Bruticus review

[Philip Ayres]

Hot Spot

After two waves of toys using the same bodies, albeit with remoulds, I've been looking forward to Hotspot and his combined form Defensor. The Protectobots were a favourite when I was younger: I thought the team theme fitted the faction they belonged to the best, narrowly followed by th Combaticons.

Hotspot comes in robot mode: as ever I'll start in vehicle mode because that's how Transformers used to be packaged straight out the box and that's how I'm used to doing things. Rotate each leg at the thigh 180 degrees then fold the upper legs into the lower legs and bring them together, tabbing into the bottom of the body Fold the feet down to form the vehicle cab, clipping the hooks on the outer rear of the cab round the tabs on the bottom of the leg. Open the chest, fold the head in and close the chest. Remove the weapons. Fold each arm out to the side at the shoulder and tab into the shoulder armour. Rotate each arm so the front faces up. Unhitch the ladder turntable: It's connected to the main body of the toy by a connecting rod hinged at each end there's a small hook at the rear of the base holding it in place. Fold the turntable base up, but keeping the ladder pointing down. Close the arms above the body around the connecting rod to the turntable. Place the vehicle on it's wheels. Open the wing panels to the side of the turntable and fold the ladder over the turntable. Close the panel wings and swing the ladder round over the body of the vehicle. Attach weapons in a position of your choosing.

Firstly lets get this out the way WHOEVER HEARD OF A BLUE FIRE ENGINE? There are TWO reasons for Hot Spot being blue: The original Hotspot is blue, presumably to distinguish him from Inferno who was still on sale at that point. Even so not all subsequent versions of the toy have been blue and it is a more realistic colour for a fire engine so I'm guessing they're keeping him blue to keep a red version back for a future repaint.

He's not the first Fire Engine Transformer I've received this week: he and Pyro are a similar length and width in vehicle mode but Hotspot is a lot lower with a ladder mounted on top. The front of the vehicle is much more rounded than the original mirroring modern fire engines. He's mounted on eight wheels, four on each side in pairs at the front and back. The ladder turns a full 360 degree and elevates at it's base. There's no extension at the end but at the top there's a small cherry picker compartment for rescue purposes with some fire fighting equipment mounted at the sides.

One of the nicer features of this toy is the shear number of 5mm ports on him: 1 on each side of the rear of the fire engine, one on each side of the turntable and one on each side of the cherry picker. So his guns, which have a 5mm peg handle and a 5mm peg sticking out the inner side can be mounted at various points on the vehicle. The first drawing of Hotspot we saw shows the guns mounted on the side of the vehicle, as if they were fire fighting equipment in storage while official pictures show them mounted at the sides of the turntable base. When they're mounted on the sides of the cherry picker they look like a pair of giant water cannons. It's a little thing but it's a nice touch being able to reposition the weapons in this mode as it adds to the playability of the toy.

To transform back to robot mode start by splitting the rear of the vehicle and folding out to the sides to form the arms. Fold the front of the vehicle forward to form the legs. Rotate each leg at the thigh. Fold the front of the vehicle forward to form the feet. Turn the turntable so the ladder up from the back of his head. Fold the turntable down onto his back. Fold the ladder, and the inside piece of the turntable down towards his feet, then fold the ladder back up onto his back, closing the wing plates round the cherry picker so the pegs lock into it.

Hotspot is a similar height to Combiner Wars Optimus Prime, maybe slightly shorter, but is much thinner and less bulky. They've captured the look of the original robot perfectly with the Optimus like double windowed chest panel and the head, which here is cast in cartoon blue rather than toy black.

Articulation: ball jointed head. The shoulders raise up at the body and turn while the arm raises to the side beneath the shoulder, turns at the bicep and bends at the wrist. Like the other two combiner core moulds he doesn't have rotating wrists and like the Silverbolt/Cyclonus mould he doesn't have a waist. His hips turn at the waist and bend out to the sides, there's a thigh swivel and the knees bend. Unfortunately the knees don't seem to lock into place which means it's difficult to pose the legs without the other joints used for the transformation inside the legs coming into play.

As mentioned earlier he comes with a pair of hand guns, like the original did. These are almost a mirror image of each other with, in addition to the 5mm handle, a 5mm peg on the inner side of the weapon and a 5mm peg hole in the barrel, which allows a variety of other weapons to be attached to them Unfortunately only one has a 5mm peg on the rear spoiling the symmetry some what! There's two pairs of 5mm holes that are useful in this mode, one hole on each of the shoulders, if you feel like simulating Prime's exhaust pipes, and one on each side of the turntable for storage. There's another pair of shallow 5mm holes exposed on the ladder base but these aren't really much use here.

I like the toy, it's a decent update on the original Hotspot. Yes I'd like the ladder to extend but I can see why it doesn't as you'll see from when we transform him into combined robot body mode. Two criticisms: first the plastic doesn't feel quite as good as the earlier Voyagers with the black and white pieces having a distinct rubbery feel to them. Then the wheels, which are clip on ones, pop off far too easily. I've come close to loosing some during transformation.

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Defensor

So Defensor: Fold Hot Spots head into his chest as per vehicle mode transformation. Unlatch the turntable and rotate so the ladder and turntable wing tips point up. Straighten the arms to the sides of the body and then bend them 180 degrees at the elbow: a tab on the shoulder blade will mate with a slot on the forearm to lock them together. Fold down the covers for the combiner ports on the sides of the shoulders. Fold the turntable wing plates out to form Defensor's chest out of Hotspot's back. Again tabs on the shoulder will lock into slots on the wings. Unfold the ladder so it points straight up. Fold the black base of the ladder down so it sits between the wings on the chest plate. Fold the first section of ladder under the robot's waist. Yes I realise that this now looks very VERY rude! Fold the final section of ladder up along Hotspot's chest. Fold the cherry picker down onto the top of Hotspot's body, locking tabs into the neck area. Fold the sides of the cherry picker out. Fold the rear of the cherry picker forward to form Defensor's head and rotate to face the same side as the big black chest plate. Rotate each leg 90 degrees to the side so the feet face out. Fold the upper legs into the lower legs: there's a tab just beneath Hotspot's hip that slides into a slot in the top of the lower leg that helps secure the parts. Add combiner limbs.

This is all you really need to form Defensor: I'm a traditionalist and Defensor has two guns but, like other Combiner Wars Voyagers, it's possible to combine the two weapons into one larger one, in this case a gun. You can also add the demoted to Legends size Groove as an add on chest plate: a peg on Defensor's chest, the same size as Bandai's display stand pegs, fits a hole in Groove's bottom and his arms peg into shallow 5mm peg holes on the sides of the chest. But again, I prefer the traditional all black chest shields.

The chest shields though are slightly larger than on the original Defensor, to the point of looking far too big now. The increase size is intended to fulfil a function: they're locking Hotspot's shoulders in place via the tabs and slots at their rear. Unfortunately, much like Prime & Menasor's waist plate, these tabs are prone to popping out! I've seen them pop out by themselves let alone when under pressure when turning the arms. The only credit I can give this fault is that it involves the arms, not the legs, so at least your toy will remain stable while fixing it. If you need to pose the arms I'd turn them with one hand while using the other to keep the chest shield locked in.

Articulation: Hotspot provides Defensor's turning head and hips which turn and bend out to the side. Anything else comes from the attached limbs.

Defensor is relatively stable in a standing position, more so than Optimus or Menasor, and the legs are spaced a little further apart so they're not touching if two car limbs are attached. However, even stood straight, there's a slight lean forward which is compounded if an arms is swung forward. He looks like he's going to topple over if the whole arms are turned forward at right angles to the body but incredibly will hold the pose for a few minutes before keeling forward.

The head looks like a decent representation of Defensor, but I'm not keen on the sides of the cherry picker just sitting there at an angle on top of the shoulders. To my eye he looks better with the panels folded up besides the head.

Defensor then: there's a few bits I would tweak, notably making Hotspot's shoulders more secure in combined mode. They've done a good job updating it and I think I'd be more happier if I'd have got him first. I didn't though: He's better than Motormaster, who's legs go squiffy every time you move him, but nowhere near as good as Superion. I'm not so bothered about the lack of a Groove limb here as I was with the other which is odd because I think he had less chance of being replaced in the Japanese version.

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Repaints

Lets' start with the mad repaints of original Hotspot that I know we won't get! He has a Japanese 1992 version named Fire Chief who looks like an attempt to do a red Hot Spot that they didn't quite finish repainting the blue parts on. Then there's his mad unreleased Generation 2 version which again involves a lots of red, this time with teal and orange!

Not one but TWO waves of Combiner Wars Autobot cars have been found in toy store computers which makes fans think that Hasbro might have a serious go at doing all 18 Diaclone Autobot cars in the Combiner Wars line. One of these, Inferno, is an obvious Hotspot repaint and minor remould (I'd change the head and the chest plate) and if you're doing Inferno from Hotspot it's not too large a step to get to his remould Grapple providing bodies for two sets of Diaclone Autobots and handily reducing the remaining ones to 16 which would be four groups of four limbs.

Another repaint choice would be to play on their robot mode design similarity and do an Optimus Prime fire engine. There's already been one in Car Robots/Robots in Disguise (2001) and indeed there's links between the two toys with an abandoned Botcon Hotspot/Defensor repaint of the 2001 toy who's colours were then reused on a Target exclusive repaint of Titanium RID Optimus. so the question is do you just repaint the toy in red as original Optimus or do some chest remoulding for RID Optimus? Either way both Optimus options are close to the Inferno one.

Both Inferno & Grapple have repaints that could be made from modified versions of their moulds: Inferno becomes Targetmaster Artfire and Grapple Hauler. A green version of Grapple as a Constructicon Combiner core is tempting, despite the imminence of Generations Devastator. RID Optimus in turn has a yellow airport repaint

But I suspect the first reuse of this mould will be heavily remoulded as his opposite number Onslaught. Many have commented over the years in the general design similarities between the two original toys. I could almost see Onslaught being a reversed Hotspot with the back end of Hotspot's vehicle serving as Onslaught's cab with the weapons, replacing the ladder, behind it and a remoulded Hotspot cab forming the rear of Onslaught, possibly with a fold down loading ramp. I await the Onslaught reveal with interest....

[The Doctor]

The mad unreleased G2 Hotspot is a thing of glory. I had burned it from my mind until this reminder.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Vehicle mode doesn't look too bad

static.seibertron.com/images/toys/files/18/r_groove039.jpg

[Bogatan]

I forgot about G2 Grooves colour. I wonder if Rook would be done in bright orange for the G2 repaint?

[Toph]

You forgot Pyro. Hotspot would be a great Pyro base.
And Soundwave, too.

[Toph]

Looking at my Hotspot.
First observation, I'm almost positive this thing was designed with Fire Convoy in mind. If such turns up is another matter, but he shares as many, if not more shapes with Fire Convoy, than Hotspot.

Second observation, a retool into Onslaught is insanely practical. Different legs, different turret, different chest plate, different head. That's all that's required.
Optimus/Motormaster, and Silverbolt/Cyclonus are more extensive retools than what's needed to get a really different look for Onslaught.

[Philip Ayres]

How does your Hot Spot shoulders hold together in combined mode?

[Toph]

Well. Is this supposed to be an issue?

The weak point are the legs in torso mode. When folded up, there's no locking mechanism.

[Philip Ayres]

Jun 8, 2015 17:07:37 GMT Toph said:

Well. Is this supposed to be an issue?

Is on mine. Everytime you turn an arm, the chest panel pops off.

Jun 8, 2015 17:07:37 GMT Toph said:

The weak point are the legs in torso mode. When folded up, there's no locking mechanism.

There's slots in the blue lower leg that tabs on the black upper leg slide into.

[Bogatan]

Defensor is definitely my favorite of the three so far. Its a lot more stable and looks great.

hotspot is the best thing combiner wars has done so far. Robot mode is very dynamic, torso mode is solid and I love how the ladder wraps around the body. Vehicle mode does its job, though its the one place i think onslaught will work better.

[Philip Ayres]

Does your chest plate stay in place? Especially when you turn the arms?

[Bogatan]

Its not perfect but, far better than prime and motormasters shoulder joints.

[Toph]

Jun 26, 2015 2:48:00 GMT Bogatan said:

Its not perfect but, far better than prime and motormasters shoulder joints.

Same. Too rough and it all pops out of place, but basic use and mine doesn't really do anything bad. By comparison, the prime/motor is a nightmare.

Either you got a really bad one Phil, or it just bothers you that much?
I've gotten toys that have really bad bits where everyone else's is fine.
My G2 Laser prime's knees don't lock and support his weight. Kinda soiled the mold for me, even though I'm assured it's not an issue anyone else has.

[Deleted]

Jun 25, 2015 20:40:13 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Does your chest plate stay in place? Especially when you turn the arms?

Are these the words you used when you were first courting Liz?

You dawg, Phil!

-- Graham

[Philip Ayres]

Oi, watch it, that's by very best chat up line there!

[Philip Ayres]

---

Unite Warriors Hotspot

Having to buy the Unite Warriors Defensor set to get Groove has meant I've acquired Unite Warriors versions of the other four Protectobots. Hotspot in particular deserves looking at. His blue is a brighter, almost cyan, pale blue now and his ladder is now white like the original Hotspot with the sides of the cherry picker becoming silver. Although the robot hasn't changed much the torso features more blue on the lower halves of the chest armour reducing the black to proportions similar to the original. The chest armour on mine fits and stays on much MUCH better than it did on Combiner Wars Hotspot, holding the arms in place as you move them.

While your mileage may vary on the colour shade tweak, the functional improvement to the chest is an absolute winner!

---

Onslaught

Hotspot's first reuse involves him, being heavily remoulded as his opposite number Onslaught. Many have commented over the years in the general design similarities between the two original toys.

From the front in robot mode they're obviously the same mould: cheat, head and feet are new while the shoulders have retained the same shape but had their front panels remoulded. On the back obviously Hotspot's ladder has gone, replaced by something formed from the folded up Bruticus armour which looks a little better when you peg the guns into either side of it to form a new version of Onslaught's cannons. This doesn't work too badly however they are obviously the same guns as Hotspot albeit now in a very pale grey. The other new addition can be found in the back of the feet: Onslaught has heel spurs where Hotspot didn't, but looking at Hotspot you can see the bars on which the heel spurs are hung. This is to counteract the weight on his back but you'll still need to fold his knees forward a bit or the entire upper body will rock back at the joint connecting the knee to the leg!

Transformation: Basically the same as Hotspot but just slightly different enought ....

Turn each leg round at the thigh and peg together. Fold the feet up, the heel spurs in and bring the lower legs up over the upper legs. Open the chest, fold the ehad in and close it. Folds the arms down straight to the sides. Left the flaps up at the side of the shoulders and raise each arm out to the side. Rotate the arms up 90 degrees at the shoulders so the hand holes face up. Fold the sholder panels down. Bring the arms together over the neck to form the front of the vehicle.

The clever trick here is that while Onslaught and Hotspot are the same modified vehicle mode they look completely different because Onslaught's front is Hotspot's rear and vice versa. I said when I held Hotspot I could almost see Onslaught being a reversed Hotspot with the back end of Hotspot's vehicle serving as Onslaught's cab with the weapons, replacing the ladder, behind it and a remoulded Hotspot cab forming the rear of Onslaught, possibly with a fold down loading ramp. Well that's pretty close.

A new cab, formed from the Shoulder panels helps to disguise some of the holes in Hotspot's rear end now it's Onsalight's front but you can see them as well as a gap betweenthe shoulders which was occupied by the turntable mechanism and to be honest without that there the stability of that end of the toy is affected a bit.

The gun emplacement sits onwhat was the thin low middle section of Hotspot. I think it's meant to be fixed in place but you can get it's turntable, used in the transformation to Torso mode, to shift to either side to about 90 degrees. The guns on this emplacement can be raised and it can be given extra firepower by attaching Legends Shockwave, who I don't yet have.

The rear third is obviously Hotspot's front, complete with lightbars which has provoked some comment about a lack of remoulding. However many large slow moving Transport Vehicle do have flashing warning light so Ican just about accept this. It's only at he very rear of this section do things look different: gone are the sloped windows of Hotspot's front, exposing the combiner sockets. At first it looks a little rough and unfinished but then you start to think it's more like the open back of a millitary transport that you'd expect to see soldiers sitting in.

I can see these two are the same vehicle essentially but there's been some very clever work done here: well done Hasbro.

---

Bruticus

To transform Onslaught into Bruticus Torso Mode start from his vehicle mode and split the rear of the vehicle in two down the middle then fold out to the sides to become the upper legs of the combined robot. Split the front of the vehicle in two and fold out to the sides. Turn the gun emplacement round 90 degrees. Fold the gun emplacement back through the space where the front of the vehicle was. The head will lock into place but the frame the guns are on will fold further back so it covers the underside of the vehicle, the voyager robot's chest. Turn the guns so they poke up behind the head. Fold the sides of the gun emplacement out so they become the wings on the chest armour: tabs on the rear will lock into new slots on the combined robot shoulders. Fold the lower Voyage robot arms back and then bend them at the elbow so they fold forward and tab onto the shoulders. Fold the cab panels back exposing the sides of the shoulder sockets. Fold the middle of the gun emplacement down to form the armour for the pelvis. Open the chest armour wings to slide arms onto the shoulders but remember to close them afterwards!

It's the chest armour that probably needs commenting on first. It's fair to say that Combiner Wars Defensor's Chest Armour was pretty disastrous at holding the shoulders in place in combined mode: the armour would pop off every time you turned an arm or even looked at it in the wrong way! This works way way better staying in securely. So that's my major issue with Combiner Wars Defensor gone straight away. The alternate shoulder transform is nice too and resembles the shape of the original Bruticus. The chest plate isn't bad either and the shape of the helmet is great. The problem I have with it is the colour: It's black. NO. Allowing for paint application Bruticus' head has always matched the colour of his chest, hands and feet. It should be silver! It's even silver in the cartoon where the chest plate's colour was changed. So why make it black now? Mad. Apart from that the only real problem the Bruticus torso has is a tendency to lean forward, which he shares with Hotspot. I'm told attaching Shockwave to his back, as in the vehicle weapons mode, helps this, but holding him in the hand will only make it worse!

Second best Combiner Wars Torso behind Superion and his derivatives I think.

Onslaught Bruticus was planned to have a variation with an Olive Green chest armour for Bruticus which was shown at Botcon 2015 and should have reached shelves first. To date there's no sign of this colour variant.

[Bogatan]

Im sure you get to this sooner or later, but the more I look at photos of Pyra Magma I think the new chest with Hotspots head would work for Pyro.

Am I being crazy?

[Philip Ayres]

---

Pyra Magna

Pyra Magna is a red & green repaint and remould of Hotspot that forms the heart of the Victorion combiner.

The fire engine mode is, essentially, an orangey red version of Hotspot which makes me want to see Hotspot in bright red with a new head as Inferno or Car Robots/Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime even more! The green actually plays very little role in this mode, acting just as an accent colour on the fire engine. It's most noticeable appearance is on the new combined robot head which sticks out like a sore thumb as the cherry picker on the end of the ladder. The SDCC Breakfast reveal of Victorion shows Pyra Magna being the combined robot feet on the side of her turntable. These in turn have tabs in them that allow you to slot the hands into them for storage.

The robot mode is where more of the green appears and is really off putting compared with the red. Exposed here are a new robot head and chest plus remoulded hands and a pick axe weapon. Unfortunately the robot mode does expose a major flaw with the toy: the bar that connects the bottom of the upper leg to the top of the lower legs has been mounted incorrectly, meaning that a protuberance forward stops the knee assembly locking into the correct position in robot mode.

Flawed. But the vehicle mode is the best looking one in the box by some distance. It hasn't been overused like Silverbolt and his derivatives or the truck and of the three options available, even though fans went for the one they didn't have, they probably made the most sensible choice. It's a shame that moulding, assembly and colouring issues spoilt it.

---

Victorion

Victorion is the combined form of the Torchbearers team. The default combination shown on the box has both helicopters, Skyburst & Stormclash, for legs, but don't forget to turn at least their inner wings back so the don't hit each other! Dustup forms her left, our right, arm and Jumpstream her right, our left, arm. Just like Hotspot & Groove, it's impossible to mount Rust Dust on the chest as shown in the box, she needs to be the other way up to attach properly. Unfortunately that results in an upside down Autobot symbol on the chest and also covers up the new chest panels, formed from new sides of Pyra Magna's turntable base. These in turn have the same flaws as the parts they replaced on Hotspot/Defensor: The don't hold the shoulders in place when you turn them and make the panels prone to popping forward if you're not holding them in place. On the other hands they seem to want to stay on better than the ones on my Hasbro Defensor so that's some improvement!

The new head is tall and thin, reminding me a little of a headdress for an Egyptian Queen. It features the only use of clear plastic on any of the toys that form the combined robot, forming a clear blue visor over her eyes.

One of the major selling points of the toy is newly sculpted hands and feet for the combined robot. Let me nail my colours to the mast straight away and say I'm a fan of the hand Foot Guns used on the other Combiner Wars combiners. I don't see the point of articulated fingers on a Transformers toy: toys that have them, Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus, inevitably have some difficulty holding their weapons and frequently need some sort of peg & slot/hole arrangement to improve the weapon's stability. The same is true here, with a 5mm peg hole being provided that's set back from the fingers. To top it off the hands here look a little small for my liking.

Then there's the feet. Complaints that the HFGs didn't allow decent posing don't wash till well with me because, inevitably, your combiner is going to spend a large part of it's life standing straight up if it can manage it, and that in itself has proved to be a problem for the Hotspot/Onslaught mould with it's tendency to lean forward even when the robot arms are straight down to the sides. The new feet have a cogged rocker joint in the ankle which allows for side to side movement, but not front to back, so the only real new pose they're allowing is one where the legs are spread out to the sides. Having tried it it alarmingly destabilises the robot causing it to lean forward more than it had been already. About the best thing you can say about them is they are relatively stable in a standing straight position and they did give the robot some extra height though that is effectively done by having her wear high heels!

The other new part for the combined robot is it's weapon, formed from the weapons of the five main robot components:

Skyburst - a sword

Stormclash - a sword

Dustup - a bow

Jumpstream - a shield

Pyra Magna - a pick axe

The swords slot into either side of the pickaxe handle. The bow clips round the handle with the points pointing the same way as the helicopter swords who's handles have a slot for accommodating a tab from the bow. The shield pegs in over the bow providing the handle.

I like combine weapons and I honestly think this is probably my favourite part of the toy. The very first Combiner Wars review I wrote, for Optimus Prime, said I thought the combined mode could do with a sword and there is one here.

The major problem this toy has, and it's been one that's common to all the components, is the colour. It's DREADFUL! The red orange, now that I can live with but it's the institution green that it's mixed with that's the problem. It's not that neither is quite the orange and teal which was offered, it's more that the green is foul and they just don't work together! An obvious solution swapping the green for black would have worked wonders.

Victorion is a deeply flawed boxset. We knew the colour would be a problem from when we first saw it and there's been plenty of time to say that doesn't work, change it. I don't feel the new hands or feet add anything. All three limb moulds have been overused by now. The central torso component has a major assembly error and it still plagued by problems that affected it's general release version. This could have been so much better. Given a choice between Victorion and the similarly priced recently released Grand Galvatron then Galvatron, even with one Legend less, is a much better buy.

[Philip Ayres]

May 16, 2016 16:52:10 GMT Bogatan said:

Im sure you get to this sooner or later, but the more I look at photos of Pyra Magma I think the new chest with Hotspots head would work for Pyro.

Am I being crazy?

I'm less sure. Yes I think the head would make a good Prime if you Visored the mouth but, given that she's female, I can't help but look look at the boxes on either side of the chest and think they've tried to give her robot breasts.

And then there is (spoilered in a once you seer it you can't unsee it way)

SPOILER: Click to show

The face in the middle of the chest tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/c/c8/CombinerWarstoy-PyraMagna.jpg

[Philip Ayres]

Unite Warriors Onslaught

Where the original Onslaught was a dark, almost greeny, blue, the Unite Onslaught goes for cartoon accuracy with a brighter blue, which is carried onto the shoulders now. The passenger compartments on the front of the vehicle are painted green while the emergency lights, unwisely carried over from Hotspot, are unpainted this time helping them to blend in.

Thankfully this Onslaught does not have the knee assembly problem that has afflicted more recent western versions of Hotspot/Onslaught.

It's OK. The blue is a bit too blue for a military vehicle. With the exception of the lightbars Combiner Wars Onslaught looked better.

---

Unite Warriors Bruticus

So far the UW-07 Unite Warriors Bruticus set has not been a happy experience for me: Brawl had the same waist problems as my original Brawl, Blast Off, the only version of the character as a space shuttle, has severe deficiencies with it's colour, and the new rotor assembly on Vortex is frankly shocking and fell to pieces on me.

When we get to combining Bruticus the decision taken to match the Hand Foot Guns on Brawl & Swindle to their main colour makes sense when you look at Bruticus as in matches their cartoon appearance but it doesn't look good at all. Neither does the chest plate, tinged with brown. I get *why* it's like that, in the cartoon Bruticus' chest plate is meant to be Blast Off's wings so the chest plate needs to match Blast Off but it just looks dreadful! At least the head looks OK in silver but I'm tempted to swap it with my Hasbro version to make that look better. Vortex as an arm here is a very bad thing as the rotor keeps falling apart whenever you move the arm.

Despite containing a new toy I'm very disappointed in the Unite Bruticus set. Some shocking quality control and very odd colour choices, even held up against the cartoon, have not made for a pleasant experience with this toy.

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Combiner Wars Generation 2 Onslaught

Although I had owned G2 Superion I'd never owned his opposite number G2 Bruticus, due to it not being released here and had never really had the urge to track one down. (OK I'd never owned G2 Menasor either but that was more down to it not being released and the production samples costing more money than I'd ever have spare) When it came to it, Artic/Urban Camo Ruination was probably higher on my wants list than the G2 version.

So this is a first go with the Combaticons in these colours and generally they've done a good job with Onslaught. The 1994 G2 Onslaught is essentially a big yellow lump in robot mode, the new one breaks the yellow up a bit with detail and the purple camouflage on the legs. The vehicle mode is nearly exactly what you'd expect it to be.

Unfortunately Combiner Wars G2 Bruticus is afflicted by the misassembled legs which can cause stress marks to appear on the top of the vehicle.fs

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Combiner Wars Generation 2 Bruticus

Really there's just one thing wrong with Combiner Wars Generation 2 Bruticus, and that's the Decepticon symbol in the middle of the chest: it's an original Decepticon symbol, not a Generation 2 one! The problem persists throughout the Combiner Wars Generation 2 Bruticus giftset but for the individual limbs the symbols are small, here it's a HUGE one! The thing is the original 1994 G2 Bruticus has no faction symbols at all. But, like G2 Superion and G2 Menasor, he is a Generation 2 toy and thus SHOULD HAVE GENERATION 2 SYMBOLS!

Apart from that it's a great toy, multicoloured nightmare that emulates the original just right. I might have been tempted to change the black hands & feet to purple, to make the co moulded individual weapons purple too, but they've stuck with the original black.

Well worth getting it you can find a set.

[Philip Ayres]

Transformers Subscription Service 4.0 Bludgeon

I can understand why when making a new version of Bludgeon they chose the Combiner Wars Onslaught toy, as it's the closest of the Combiner Wars Voyagers to Bludgeon. However I'm still not sure it's really suited to him. Really Bludgeon should be a tank: If you're going to do him in Combiner Wars make him a Brawl repaint.

<RANT>

Although, in my opinion, Combiner Wars SHOULD have a Voyager Tank & combiner core available. I'd have done Megatron as a Voyager, to face off against Optimus Prime with Galvatron as his powered up combined mode. Do it initially in silver as Megatron then in G2 Green, Archforce Purple, Megaplex Grey & Blue and then whatever colour you want Bludgeon to be. I'd do the Tank & Voyager robot in the Bludgeon inner robot colours with the skull head folding out for the combined mode. Instead Combiner Wars gave us a Leader toy which didn't really fit with the rest of the range and struggled to sell it's repaint!

</RANT>

They've gone for Bludgeon's inner robot colours for the Voyager here too and I'm not sure it really works. The main body of the vehicle is green, with patches of brown and purple guns. Given that it's an unfamiliar vehicle mode I might have been tempted to go form the shell's orange. The combined mode's white head, concealed on the publicity image by text, also shows up really clearly in the middle of the turret where the Bruticus head previously blended in.

The new swords are nice, recyclced for Transformers Go Optimus Exprime but they don't quite work as the handles are too long for the closed ends of the robot mode's fists. Unfortunately that's the least of the robot mode's problems!

The robot looks even more patchwork with a large amount of brown revealed revealed on the chest and the shell's orange introduced on the shoulders. There's a new leering visored head in this mode and I really can't tell what it's aiming for. I suppose it's a bit like his boxart. If anyone recalls Bludgeon's original head then they think "skull in samurai helmet", nobody remembers the inner robot head! NEST Bludgeon used the Pretender shell's head and when Generations did a new version of Skullgrin as a Darkmount/Straxus repaint they stuck the Pretender head on the robot's body because it's more distinctive. I could just about, JUST ABOUT, accept this as Bludgeon's inner robot with a different vehicle mode if the combined mode was intended to be the shell with that head. But it isn't and there lies more problems.

Transformers Subscription Service 4.0 Thunder Mayhem

There are some good multicoloured combiners out there. Abominus from the 80s. Sky Reign.Optimus Maximus, if it uses the Red Voyager Optimus instead of Battle Core Optimus. Grand Galvatron is superb.

This is however is a train wreck of the highest order.

Physically EVERYTHING clashes. EVERYTHING. The main culprit is all the green on the chest and body which doesn't work with Vortex's pink. Or Grabuge's mutually clashing purple & beige. Or Windsweeper's red. Needlenose escapes by mainly being a more neutral grey.

The swords don't work in this mode, the handles don't recess into the combined mode fists without stressing the plastic. Not good.

The combined mode is, like we've said, not meant to be Bludgeon instead it's Thunderwing. THUNDERWING. OK, I get the connection all the toys in this set were in various versions of the Mayhem Attack Squad with Thunderwing. But the colours in no way suggest Thunderwing at all, who's mainly grey. They've slapped some off white paint on the chest but it's not nearly enough, the entire chest & waist piece needed to be that colour. Then there's the head. The collectors club hasn't had a good year in 2016 with their new heads. Ravage & Tigatron were distinctly 2d, you really don't wan to see these side on, and Impactor's head lost something in translation from design to plastic. Thunder Mayhem's head looked like a grinning loon from the word go though! OK the original Thunderwing head ain't great but they did a decent job with the Generations toy.

We mentioned that Voyager Bludgeon would have worked better if the combined mode had been his Pretender form and I think the same is true here. If you want to do Thunderwing then make him a Combiner Wars Silverbolt repaint as his inner robot and jet and stick the Thunderwing Pretender Shell head on instead of Superion's as a Matrix powered up Thunderewing.

A disaster as a combined mode!

Of the set the two jets are good, and the helicopter will do. The rest could be so much better, I'd have done the Ruckus from Mirage instead of Off-road. I'd have also thrown two extra toys in, instead of the Autobots in TFSS 4.0, to complete the sub groups involved, making Quake from Brawl and Crankcase from First Aid.

Club could have done so much better with their 2016 combiner, not impressed at all!

[Philip Ayres]

Megaempress

When Megaempress was first hinted at in this Unite Warriors comic strip there was an assumption that she was Esmeral the wife of Deathsaurus in the Victory Manga. The reality when revealed turns out to be even stranger as the online comic introducing her reveals: She is effectively a female version of Megatron constructed from his spare parts! The idea here is to make the robot mode as close to Megatron as possible and they've done a pretty good job as this tweet showing Megaempress with the Legends Version of Combiner Wars Megatron shows. Even the female Prowl head works with the crest aping the details on the top of Megatron's head within his helmet. In fact the detailing is so close I'd argue that this Voyager robot should be called Megatronia instead of the combined robot which looks nothing like Megatron! The only downside to the detailing is that it does make the face hidden in the remoulded Pyra Magna chest panel more obvious than ever with the eyes, one red and one blue to match the panel on Megatron's chest, really standing out! For those upset at the lack of a traditional arm mounted fusion cannon the now black ladder can be folded over her shoulder as what's described on TFWiki as a Rail Fusion Cannon.

The colours result in a fire engine that has swapped it's orangey red for silver which, together with the black ladder, almost convinces me that this isn't a fire engine any more. I can almost believe it some sort of military vehicle with a big gun mounted on the back if. It looks totally different to the previous Pyra Magna version of the toy as this Comparison Tweet shows.

Love this toy. Fabulous repaint. If I could afford it I'd buy another just so I could display the Voyager in robot mode because I know combineritus will strike and she will spend the rest of her life as Megatronia's torso!

For the other toys in the set see:

Lunaclub & Moonheart tmukhub.proboards.com/post/269781/thread

Trickdiamond tmukhub.proboards.com/post/269782/thread

Flowspade tmukhub.proboards.com/post/269783/thread


Megatronia

TakaraTomy loves it's Fembots even more than Hasbro do. The Legends line got Windblade, Arcee & Chromia like the Generations line did but in addition the first two were repainted in the Legends line as Slipstream & Nightbird Shadow alongside Blackarachnia, a remould of the animated toy. So it was rather likely that Takara would do a Japanese version of Victorion.

The existence of Unite Warriors "Victorion" was hinted at was first hinted at in a comic strip released on 28th June 2016 with official images following on 24th August and a revised set on the 31st of the same month which reveals the names used for the set. I've not found an official name for the team but TFWiki refer to the deluxes as The 4 Guards.

Essentially the Unite Warriors Megatronia Boxset is a repaint of the previous Combiner Wars Victorion Gift Set. The only change to the toy moulds used is that Torchbearer Rust Dust, a repaint of Combiner Wars Protetobot Groove, is omitted as have all the Legends companions for the Combiners issued in Unite Warriors.

All the deluxe in the set are predominantly black while the Voyager, Megaempress, is mainly silver with some black. I've listed bellow the toys in the set, with what they're repaints of and which colour in addition to black they toy has on it.

Four Guards	Colour	Torchbearers	Comparison	Combiner Wars
Lunaclub	Peach	Stormclash	Comparison	Aerialbot Alpha Bravo
Moonheart	Blue	Skyburst	Comparison
Flowspade	Violet	Dustup	Comparison	Stunticon Dead End
Trickdiamond	Yellow	Jumpstream	Comparison	Stunticon Breakdown
Megaempress	Silver	Pyra Magna	Comparison	Protectobot Hot Spot
Megatronia	Pink	Victorion	Comparison	Protectobot Defensor

Megaempress' black from the ladder/rail fusion cannon becomes the chest and head of the combined robot which combines with the black on the limbs to produce a unified look on the multicoloured combiner. Black continues onto the individual robot weapons which combine to form Megatronia's sword and the hands & feet which are repaints of those used on Victorion which hadn't previously appeared on a Japanese toy. The pink on Megatronia is provided by the chest plate, stripes on the upper legs, stripes on the feet and head detail, all of which are hidden away when Megaempress is in robot mode. We've mentioned that the head is black, with pink detailing, but she retains the clear blue visor Victorion had now with the crest picked out in purple, which doesn't appear elsewhere on the toy, and silver as is the face. It works, thanks to the black background the colours are painted over but I'd have been tempted to make the purple crest pink like the side detailing.

Given this new colour scheme, with the elements united by the black, Megatronia is a far more attractive toy than Victorion with her clashing institution green and red. Yes, she does tend to lean forward but that's a problem common to all combiners using variants of the Hotspot mould. And Yes, the chest panels tend to pop off when you turn the arms, another fault common to Hotspot and Pyra Magna. My real problem with the new version of the toy is the name. I feel Megatronia is a much more suitable name for the Voyager, who looks like a female Megatron than the combiner which doesn't. I'm led to wonder if this is another case of names being mixed up so the Voyager should be Megatronia and the larger combiner Megaempress.

[Philip Ayres]

Unite Warriors Dolrailer

The main difference between Car Robots Dolrailer Robots in Disguise Mega Octane - I still think Mega Octane should have been called Scourge and the petrol tanker Scourge Mega Octane - is in the combiner accessories. But look closer at the comparison pictures in TFU's Mega-Octane page and you'll see that there's a chest panel that changes from gold to grey, as do the cannons on the robot's back, and the green of the vehicle turns from olive to a darker shade as the toy moved west. The Unite Warriors toy reflects the original Japanese version, lots of olive green, lots of gold. Oddly the guns originally included with Combiner Wars Hotspot are black on this toy not gold, albeit with gold painted tips. They have changed colour before without seemingly affecting the rest of the toy, notably on Combiner Wars Onslaught & Transformer Subscription Service 4.0 Bludgeon, so why not here? Odd. Even odder is that Dolrailer has all but lost his camouflage pattern, he's now a plain olive drab EXCEPT for the top of the rear of the vehicle. A camouflage paint mask exists for this toy and was used on Combiner Wars Generation 2 Onslaught, why not use that? Despite hthese slight oddities the vehicle mode looks good and the robot mode looks even better, with just the gold tops of his guns peaking over his shoulders.

One of the problems with Combiner Wars Onslaught and Bruticus is thathe could either have hand guns or the cannons on his back. Unite Warriors Dorailler solves this by giving him some more guns! Whereas the deluxe members of the Unite Warriors Baldigus Boxset got their new guns from the Unite Warriors Devastator Boxset Dorailler's come from Unite Warriors Scattershot. Like Onslaught's guns these can peg together front to back via 5mm peg hole in the barrel and a corresponding peg on the rear. In vehicle mode we find them pegged into the front of the existing guns to form much larger vehicle cannons, more reminiscent of the original toy. I wish the pegs fully recessed, they can't because of the fin moulding on the back of the gun, but the clutch between the two pieces is easily enough to hold them in place.

So, a nice loking toy, and the addition of the gun probably makes this the best version of the Onslaught toys. But, and for a repaint it's a big but, they could have got closer to the original than they did by colouring the back cannons better and incluing the camouflage pattern all over the vehicle.

For the other toy reviews in this set see:

Greejeeber tmukhub.proboards.com/post/279045/thread
Hepter tmukhub.proboards.com/post/279046/thread
Shuttler tmukhub.proboards.com/post/279047/thread
Dangar tmukhub.proboards.com/post/279048/thread

---

Unite Warriors Baldigus

Unite Warriors Baldigus was teased in silhouette on 20th October 2016, with a filename for the picture which rather gave the game away, and fully revealed on 25th October 2016.

Car Robots Baldigus is a Japanese repaint of Bruticus sold during 2001. It was subsequently imported into the west by Hasbro as Robots in Disguise Ruination where the colour of one of the limbs and the combiner hands, feet, chest armour & helmet were changed: The two toys are definitely different and I much prefer the original Japanese version with the gold armour.

But in my collection I already have Combiner Wars Bruticus, Unite Warriors Bruticus & Combiner Wars Generation 2 Bruticus. What does the Unite Warriors Bruticus Boxset have to offer me, apart from new colours? Quite a bit actually.

Gone are the Hand Foot Guns for the deluxes in this set, replaced with weapons from the Unite Warriors Devastator Boxset. Replacing them in combined mode are the hands & feet from the Combiner Wars Computron Boxset, which haven't seen release in Japan before. The ankle joints in the feet, like those used with Combiner Wars Victorion & Unite Warriors Megatronia, offer sideways movement and provide a more masculine look to the toy that the pointy shoes used on it's female variants.

As I said the individual toys in the set all have new weapons too. Here's a quick guide to who has what, together with what their RID and original Combaticon names are

CR/UW	RiD	Combaticon	Weapons
Dangar	Armorhide	Brawl	Scavenger
Shuttler	Movor	Blast-off	Scrapper
Greejeeber	Rollbar	Swindle	Long Haul
Hepter	Ro-tor	Vortex	Mixmaster
Dolrailer	Mega-octane	Onslaught	Scattershot
Baldigus	Ruination	Bruticus	Computron

The additional weapons, like the Original Baldigus Weapons, can combine into super weapons for the combined robot to hold.

The smaller weapon is formed from Shuttler (Scrapper's) long gun with Hepter's red gun and Greejeeber Jeep cannon pegged into the sides.

The larger weapon uses the two new guns with Dolrailer (Scattorshot's) pegged together with the handle on the rear gun facing down and the handle on the front gun facing up. Onto the front handle/peg attach the new long gun from Greejeeber (Long Haul's) which has a 5mm peg hole on it's underside. On the peg sticking out of our right of the front gun attach the new gun from Hepter (Mixmaster) and into the right of that peg in Shuttler's own white gun. Onto the rear left peg attach the new gun from Dangar (Scrapper's) The big gun goes in Baldigus' right hand, on our left, with the smaller one in his opposite hand.

When combining the toys you'll find that Dolrailer has the same alteration to the leg moulding that Unite Warriors Megaempress does, as shown in this tweet, which helps secure the upper legs better in combined mode.

The assembled combined robot looks exactly as it should: Unite Warriors Bruticus in the Baldigus colours. Like all the toys in the set a top job has been doe with the repainting. Alas he suffers from leaning forward syndrome, but all the Defensor/Bruticus variants do so that's to be expected. The addition of the different hands, feet and weapons sets him aside from being a straight Bruticus repaint and really adds something to the set. I'll be sad if this turns out to be the last Unite Warriors release but if it is, then they've gone out on a good set that's given us a Combiner Wars combiner we didn't have in the western line.

[The Doctor]

I had not realised the UW Devastator weapons had got another outing.

Bit mad though that there are now four versions of the new Bruticus!

-Ralph

[primenova]

I got Hotspot for £10 & got him out the box last night but a few things. One of the black tabs on the foot had to be pushed back in - it was hanging out & spring was nearly fallen out. The legs aren't too good with doing 2 moves but 3 things to do. Folding the knee in first is ok - Getting the tab & upper leg in ends up with the legs not being lined up right. No problems with upper body - I like it better when chest panel covering the head. Can a titan master sit in the ladder seat? I'll try later on.