Phil's CW Groove, Afterburner & POTP Wreck-Gar Review

[Philip Ayres]

Unite Warriors Groove

All four of the Combiner Wars interpretations of the 1986 combiners initially featured some form of compromise: Superion had Alpha Bravo instead of Slingshot and Menasor had Offroad instead of Wildrider. Both of these were remedied in the Unite Warrior versions of the toys by recolouring an existing limb robot and these recolours were in turn released as western exclusives. For Bruticus and Defensor something different happened: Bruticus uses a green Firefly as Blastoff instead of creating a new toy for the shuttle mode. Defensor replaces Groove as a limb with Rook relegating the motorcycle to a Legends class piece of add chest armour. We don't yet know for sure what Takara will do with Bruticus but TFYuki has been tweeting Blast Off Space shuttle hints. With the Unite Defensor set we have got our long awaited Combiner Wars limb Groove.

Groove retains his white police motorcycle design but is somewhat sleeker than he has been before. His windshield is a clear blue with clear red lights to either side. Neither windshield, handlebars or front forks turn. The arms form the engines under the saddle, with one forearm possessing a fold down stand for the motorbike. The saddle itself has a 5mm peg hole on it and looks to be the mounting point for his HandFootGun in vehicle mode and his HFG looks to be inherited from Blades, Alpha Bravo and Vortex. In addition to the HFG he has two silver grey paint over clear plastic handguns pegging into the rear of the vehicle to form his Twin Vaporators.

Transformation: start from motorcycle mode. Rotate the front of the motorbike through 90 degrees so that the wheel points up and then fold onto the saddle. Unfold the arms so they're along the side of the motorbike, with the top of the fist hole pointing down. Fold the rear of the saddle & bike back and fold the upper legs out, just like Alpha Bravo, closing the rear of the bike up to form the lower legs. Separate the legs and fold the wheel halves out to each side. Rotate 180 degrees at the waist and finish by putting his guns into his fists

It's Groove, updated. Just looking at it there's nothing to complain about. In fact he's got something no other Combiner Wars toy has: Lightpiped eyes!The entire back of his head is a massive clear plastic panel feeding through to his eyes which are tinted yellow. In fact all the different colours of clear plastic on the toy, and there are several, appear to be tints over clear plastic. Articulation is superb: bending knees & elbows, rotating thighs & biceps, ball jointed shoulders & hips, rotating waist and ball jointed head. Top stuff. My one complaint is there's no obvious place for the HFG in this mode but since his Twin Vaporators each have a 5mm peg hole you con do some weapons combination

Leg Mode: Start from motorcycle mode and begin with the first steps of the robot mode Transformation. Rotate the front of the motorbike through 90 degrees so that the wheel points up and then fold onto the saddle. Unfold the arms so they're along the side of the motorbike, with the top of the fist hole pointing down, and fold down tabbing onto the rear of the bike. Put the HFG into foot mode and peg into the rear of the bike. Stand on the foot and attach.

Very solid leg mode, no chance of this coming to bits like Dead End and his derivatives. Provides the usual articulation for the combined robot it's part of: thigh swivel, bending knee and rotating ankle.

Arm Mode: Start from robot mode, fold the arms down into the sides and then rotate each arm 180s degrees out to the side and back so they point out the back of the robot alongside the front of the bike. Fold the head back into the bike's saddle bringing the combiner connector out the chest. Tab the legs together and insert the HFG in hand mode into the back of the bike/underside of the feet.

Usual arm mode articulation here too: The connector provides the rotating shoulder and raising out to the side while the robot's waist is now a bicep swivel and the hips/knees are a double bending elbow with the hand peg providing the wrist swivel. Again, No complaints.

Groove's a decent update of the original and his lightpiping puts him a cut above the other Combiner Wars limbs. If you've bought another Combiner Wars limb you'll know what to expect in robot mode and his motorcycle mode is better than some I've seen over the years.

All in all it's a pretty good package. The problem is the only way to get him is to buy Unite Defensor and that's proving too big a pill to swallow for some fans who've already bought the Combiner Wars version. If it helps sway you I think my Unite Hotspot holds together in torso mode far better than Combiner Wars Hotspot does.

As yet no western release and no repaint/remould of Groove has been announced.

Somewhat amusingly the Unite Defensor packaging comes with an exclusive coin ..... whose container is shaped like the chest armour formed from Combiner Wars Legends Groove!

[The Doctor]

The millimetres...noooo...

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Combiner Wars Afterbreaker

In the same way that Combiner Wars Brawl becomes Nosecone, because he's the only tracked vehicle in Combiner Wars, now Groove becomes Afterburner, because he's the only Motorbike. Even more so than Nosecone, I'm not sure it really works here. Groove is recast in the orange used for Afterburner's toy, with the top of the bike painted beige to simulate his canopy. Over that goes a new, more angular canopy piece to try to make you think of the original's enclosed Tron lightcycle mode but it doesn't really work as you can see the handlebars projecting out the sides! Since the canopy now covers the saddle hole for the Hand Foot Gun there's now a hole on the top of the canopy which in turn makes me think that either the bike alterations were designed by Takara, it is after all the only limb in both Hasbro & Takara's Computron giftsets, or they originally intended the HFG's to be in this set too. Afterburner comes with Groove's guns. They're painted white but are cast in clear green like the canopy, and that makes me think the Afterburner design work was done with Groove!

For all my moaning about the vehicle mode the robot seems to work well and, bar the upper arms being the wrong colour, isn't a bad match for the original Afterburner toy.

Passable. Very much an "it'll do" toy for the reasons outlined above, and that disappointing given he's in BOTH Computron sets and should have been the one the real effort was made on. There's been better lightcycle vehicles recently, Chromia. I'm even left to wonder if, given the money, Dragstrip could have been retooled into a better futuristic bike. No, hear me out: The robot modes are a very similar shape: mount a thick wheel in the centre of a new front piece and alter the legs so there's a wheel in the middle.

[Philip Ayres]

Unite Warriors Afterburner

Of all the Combiner Wars Technobot Limbs, Afterburner is the closest to being the same in both sets. Even then there are major differences: Afterburner is red & white, to match the cartoon, which to my eye just looks odd. His canopy is clear blue plastic as is the lightpipe on his head. He comes with two new black plastic weapons, painted with red, which resemble the original's Incendiary Missile Launcher & Plasma Pulse Cannon.

Afterburner is pictured with the Unite Warriors Lightspeed Hand Foot Gun. I can't see any reason why the toys should play musical HFGs in this set but I can good reasons for Lightspeed, Strafe and Nosecone to have theirs so Afterburner gets the same one Groove does, the dual Gatling first seen with Alpha Bravo, which the box & publicity pictures think Nosecone should have!

Takara have gone down the cartoon accuracy route, and it's not working for me here. Afterburner is orange. So I think Hasbro wins this round.

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Future Repaints

There are not that many Transformers Motorcycles. If Hasbro/Takara went the route of trying to produce Sixturbo in Combiner Wars than Groove might make a good Glide. Triggerbot Override
is a possibility but he's been done recently in Japan as a repaint of Combiner Wars Legend Groove.

The best option might be as Wreck-gar in a TF Movie Autobots set! I have money for that!

[Philip Ayres]

Yes it's a recoloured CW Groove with a new head. You got Groove, you know what you're getting here.

The head, which has been sized to fit into the body cavity is too small and lacking in detail to be properly Wreck-Gar but it's a good attempt in the space available. Ideally there's be some retooling here with a block like head that could be surrounded by the front of the bike but hey ho. Far greater liberties have been taken with the combiner versions of G1 characters.

The colours however are *really* good, this is a lovely looking toy. Mainly caramel orangey brown, with grey, they chest is painted red and the shoulders dark brown.

The slightly different head may help him if you've already got the previous RTS Wreck-Gar as it makes him a good fit for another different Junkion to boost your army started with the RTS versions:




He come with a Dinobot Prime armour, in black, with a grey cover/mini gun.

His primary hand weapon is the axe that came with RTS Wreck-Gar but due to the moulded detailing on the shaft he can only hold the very tip.

The space behind his head provides a nice seat for a Titan/Prime Master





Bike mode looks nice, possibly a better fit shapewise than the RTS version's bike mode to the original Wreck-Gar. And far far easier to transform too!






His packaging art shows Inferno's combiner, albeit without showing him!



Inferno's right (on our left) arm is completely cut off so that's where he's going with Jazz as per the art. For the legs Inferno gets Smokescreen & Bluestreak, my two spare CW Diaclone Autobots.





I got the Quintus Wreck-Gar card:



Liking this a lot, may have to pick a second up to have one stand alone while the other combines with Inferno.

His Hasbro product number is E2471.

[Philip Ayres]

[The Doctor]

GASP.

I must make Wreck-Gar ride Wreck-Gar!

-Ralph

[Bogatan]

I like Wreck Gar!

[Toph]

I hate the mold. It's the third worst CW deluxe (blast off is second, and Brawl is the worst).
I also couldn't care less about Wreck-Gar as a character.
But god help me, I like this toy. It's a nice head sculpt, and an ugly deco that somehow actually looks gorgeous.

I do think giving him a weapon from another toy that he can't really use is pretty stupid, though. No other CW non-scramble Autobot looks anything like the autobot they represent (prowl, smokescreen, hound, sunstreaker, ironhide, trailbreaker), and aren't given any "iconic" accessory to help. It's odd that this is a hill they choose to climb.

[Bogatan]

I like the axe. The c-clip can clip on to Wreck Gar in a few places.