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So everybody make out like a good little capitalist
and get hordes and hordes of cool booty?! YAR!! Ok
so I watched my brother’s copy of Pirates of the
Caribbean before I hauled myself back out here to
West HellTM; Pirate Elves on the High Seas!! Um, right,
anyway the big part of my haul this X-Mas was
Alternators: Smokescreen and Energon: Hotshot.
Smokescreen is bad ass enough to fill up this months
review and I want to hold of on Hotshot anyway
(teaser: Hotshot’s not that bad despite what I
expected, I just want a few more to give a complete
review).
Well some of you may remember this article
previewing Smokescreen, and let me tell you: this guy will
r0xx0r j00r b0xx0rs!!! Lets start out with the packaging:
overall very nice. He comes in a simple rectangular
box with a clear window taking over about 2/3 of
each the top and front. There is nice artwork on the
front and product pictures on the sides and rear. The
bottom of the box advertises Sideswipe the next Alternator
who’s based on a Dodge Viper. The window proudly
displays a 1:24 scale rich blue Subaru Impreza WRC
adorned with bright yellow rally trim and sponsor
logos. The car is held against subdued pictures of
rally racing by clear plastic molding. Not a single
twist tie can be found anywhere on the box!
After removing it from the box you have in your hand
a sturdy model quality car with four opening doors,
opening hood, and opening trunk. Looking in through
the windows there are nice bucket seats and a fully
detailed interior including a steering wheel, dash
display, and center console with shifting lever.
Moving to the front of the car the eye is first
drawn the highly detailed headlights (down to the bulbs
here folks) which flank a nicely detailed grill complete
with the Subaru logo. If you happen to grasp the
front wheels during this inspection you’ll notice that the
wheels are actually linked allowing the gold rims to
track each other perfectly. Moving around to the
rear of the vehicle you come around to the one and only
weakness of this toy. The reinforced rear window and
rally spoiler are bisected by a transformation
split-line. The rear lights are also uninspired, not
bad per-se but nothing when compared to the
headlights, however Hasbro did include a tailpipe
and muffler combo which does look quite nice.
Now to the point of the whole thing: the
transformation into a robot. Quite simply it’s
difficult, not too complex really, just difficult to
get everything where it needs to go. However we get
there the end result is worth it. The front clip of
the car becomes the chest and shoulders area quite
reminiscent to Jazz and the Fairlady Brothers*. The
rear of the car becomes the feet and lower legs with
the bumper folding down to become the front half of
the foot (can you say articulated feet? I knew you
could!) and the rear windshield acts as the shin
guards.
The robot mode is quite reminiscent of the G1 cars,
yet it’s distinctly its own. Most importantly it has
far more articulation than any of the Generation One
toys. It has dual swiveling joints at the shoulders,
double swing elbows, ball joint wrists, hips and
head, and single swing knees and ankles. Also as mentioned
previously the feet are articulated such that when
you pose Smokescreen in a walking position it actually
looks real!! Another great step is getting rid of
peg-hole hands. Smokescreen’s hands are really
nicely molded and they’re actually articulated. The thumbs
are locked in place but the rest of the fingers have
a single point of articulation with the lower three
fingers molded together leaving the index finger
independent from the others. Granted it’s not
perfect but the hand grips the gun very well and doesn’t
look cheesy. The gun itself seems almost as an
afterthought. It folds up and doubles as the top of
the engine while in car mode, however this leaves
the gun feeling slightly oversized and awkward.
As stated in the previous article the main
difference between the US version (Hasbro) and the Japanese
version (Takara) is the difference between die cast
and plastics. I’ve reviewed the Hasbro version
because I’m too poor to shell out the $50 + to get the
import version. However I don’t feel like I’m missing
anything; the construction on Smokescreen is
excellent with only 5 snap on pieces: front doors, the legs at
the hips, and the roof. Even those are good
connections, everything else is either screwed
together or pinned. The plastic is high quality, high density
similar to the plastic used on Bandi’s VF-19 (I’m
still kicking myself for selling those).
Overall Rating: A+ If you buy no other Transformers
this year hunt this bad boy down and trade your
friend Jackson for one. You’ll be hooked, I guarantee!!!
Next month:
Energon Hotshot and friends OR
Alternators Sideswipe OR 20th Anniversary Masterpiece Optimus
Prime. It really just depends on what’s out and how
much money I have.
NEW PLAN:
Ok we all know that I’m a poor college
student and like any good college student I’m now
begging for money. So, please, help a poor, starving
college student support his toy habit.
Anyway we’ll have to see how this goes.
VF-XX
* Prowl, Bluestreak, and Silverstreak. All of whom were Nissan 350 Z’s.
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