Phil's Titans Return Rewind & Rumble review

[Philip Ayres]

Rewind

A tank mode isn't what you automatically associate with Rewind who is usually depicted as being a tape. But in 2014 the Transformers Subscription Service did Rewind & Eject as repaints, with new heads, of United Rumble & Frenzy. It's the second Legends tank mould after Megatron, which was reused as Warpath, and, As FOC previously showed us, a a toy mould for one tape robot will do fine for all four so we can expect to be seeing a bit more of of it.

So tank test time:

Does the gun barrel elevate? YES! Hurrah, pleased about this.

Does the turret turn? NO! A little disappointing as this has been done in the size, and smaller, but I can live with this here where at deluxe and larger I'd be cross.

The tank rolls along courtesy of three small wheels in the underside. Titanmaster comparability is provided by two pairs of foot pegs on the turret's roof so a pair of Titanmasters can stand side by side. They're probably the best footpegs on any Titans Return Legend so far too, no complaints about them. A small unintended extra is provided in tank mode: there's a 5mm peg hole in the side which can be used for mounting extra weapons. The hole's official use becomes becomes apparent during transformation:

Start by removing any Titanmasters. Pull the weapon forwards away from the turret: it's rear is a two pronged fork with a dimple on each fork's inner edge which fits into a pair of slots on the turret. The turret splits in two down the middle, with one slot on each half so the gun is actually holding the turret together, and folds out to the sides. Fold the tops of the tank forward, with one of the Titanmaster pegs recessing into a hole in the tank tread. Place the gun in the recess of the side of the tank.

Now the hole is at the bottom of the recess for the gun, lying beneath the handle. Now I see it in tape mode the handle doesn't quite stretch into the hole which makes me wonder why it's there! But bonus points for storing the weapon in this mode! As per the other Titans Returns "Tapes" he's more an iPod, complete with 3.5mm audio jack socket on the bottom, than a tape but since this mode fits in Blaster or Soundwave tape it is. Up is defined by the direction of the Autobot symbols on the front of the toy which amusingly has a tape detail pattern on it.

I must relay a conversation I had with my son Jonathan, who is starting to like Transformers thanks to the RiD cartoon, about this toy and the weapons storage:

Philip: Jonathan, don't forget to remove the gun before you transform it to robot mode.

Half an hour later....

Philip: Jonathan, why is Rewind's weapon bent?

DO NOT FORGET TO REMOVE THE WEAPON BEFORE STARTING TO TRANSFORM TO ROBOT MODE!

The first step in the transformation involves folding the bottom of each side up to lie alongside the toy in the same configuration they are for the turret. You will damage the gun if you leave it in place and we'll see an awful lot of bent tank barrels in years to come! Pull each turret half out to the sides so they're alongside the top of the toy which now forms a T shape. Rotate each turret half down & back 90°. Reverse the toy so you're looking at the tank's underside and can see a 5mm socket facing forward from the end of each bar of the T shape. Pull the black tan treads to the sides, exposing the robot's lower legs, fold down at the knees and then rotate each lower leg in 90°. Fold the bottom of the leg up to form a foot. Split the top half of the toy in two and fold the bars of the T shape to the sides to become the arms. Open the chest, fold the head out and close the chest. Place the gun in the 5mm peg hole hand.

The robot mode is going for a very More Than Meets The Eye appearance for Rewind: While the chest is the traditional design the shoulders have a red outline round the panels and the head has a camera moulded into the side which, if I'm honest, could do with a small dab of red paint on it. The head sculpt in general is superb which unfortunately is spoilt somewhat by the quality control on mine: the joint on the head is very loose to the point you could hold the toy by the head and spin it round. Sadly the neck platform is also a little loose too so it tends to rock backwards & forwards a bit. The arms feel very blocky and chunky but he can hold his weapon in his hand which makes him better than the original straight off! You can also peg the weapon into the extra hole, which is now on the side of the right arm. Articulation is good, shoulders shrug up to the sides and are ball jointed, bicep swivels & bending elbows plus ball jointed hips & knees plus the aforementioned dodgy neck joint.

Despite the dodgy neck joint easily the best Eject they've done so far which is good as this is a "get used to it, you'll see it again a few more time" mould as they do Rumble, already scheduled in Wave 2, then Eject & Frenzy.

[Philip Ayres]

Rumble

Reusing the same toy as both Autobot and Decepticon robot cassettes has become a bit of a thing in recent years as Fall of Cybertron Rumble & Frenzy became Rewind & Eject in 2013 and then the following year second edition of the Transformers Subscription Service turned United Rumble & Frenzy into their Eject & Rewind. Here the favour goes the other way.

Rumble was first seen at Toyfair 2016 and immediately caused some concern when Rumble & Laserbeak official images showed Rumble with same head as Rewind. What had happened is Rewinds picture from the Wave 1 Official Images had been reused and New Rumble & Laserbeak images were later issued. The same fate also befell Ravage, who used a recoloured Stripes official picture even though he had a new, slimmer, head. Amusingly the wrong Rumble image does pop up on the rear of his packaging!

New head aside, Rumble is a simple recolour. Grey becomes red. The black of the lower portion of the upper arm, chest wheels & gun, becomes a *slightly* different red while the rest of the black stays the same. The flat chest detailing is changed to resemble Rumble's original chest so that the robot mode, which is the one that matters, is a top job. The tank gets a red turret & gun now which is OK and the tablet becomes black, with red slides. The sticker on the tablet feature some information about seismic imaging which is clever.

I think I like this toy better as Rumble than Rewind. The black & red works well in contrast. My one worry about it is how it's packed in the Wave 2 case: he's 2 per case so is packed shorter than Laserbeak or Ravage, who are 3 per case. He's the only one with a humanoid robot mode and, to date, the only one with no known Japanese Legends release yet, so he'll be in demand. As it is the current Legends Wave 1 is sitting, badly, and Legends is the only size class not to reach Wave 2 on UK shelves. I can see a scenario where Wave 2 arrives late, because of Wave 1 sitting, and Wave 3 (Bumblebee, Sharkticon & Kickback, absolute gold, three new moulds) DOESN'T come out here.

I think if it came to a choice I'd rather we DIDN'T get Wave 2 than Wave 3.

---

Future Repaints

Rewind as Eject and Rumble as Frenzy are obvious no brainers. At the time of writing neither is scheduled, or strongly rumoured, for either Titans Return, in the west, or Transformers Legends, in Japan.

Original Rewind has also been used as Flipsides, Rosanna & Solarbot. At push he'd make an OK Scrounge to pair with Blaster

Enemy is the other possible Decepticon robot tape repaint though I'm sure there's a few more cartoon variants out there.

[Toph]

The more I think about it, the lamer it is that this mold doesn't get a retool between rewind and rumble, given that both versions have an assured repaint each.

At minimum just changing the chest plate and shoulders would go a long way (i feel a more extreme remold is worth while, changing the arms, gun, and adding a peg hole in the robot back for the decepticon), and the given two uses each would definitely make the remold justified.

[Philip Ayres]

The pattern on the chest is changed. Together with the new head that's enough for me.,