Toy representation has not been high either, with the original toy being a mail order exclusive in the US, and any new toys being limited to convention exclusive repaints. Because of this, the news that Siege would have a new Reflector (now named Refraktor), that can pull off the camera mode (just without some of the accessories needed to make it look like a good camera due to the way they are releasing it), in cartoon colours was a shock. SDCC also gave us a box release of the toy colours, which comes with the extra gear to make the camera mode look good. It was a nice reveal to have. I am personally not planning to get the toy colours, I like the unified cartoon colours more, but I am glad that the cartoon colours got the general release. It should be said though that the biggest fault of this is that if you want the camera mode, you need to buy three of him, making him one of the most expensive deluxe class figures in the line. Is it worth the cost though?
Starting with the individual alt mode and... Ahh, the Microchange curse strikes again... In Generation 1, all the transformers with more object-based transformations came from Microchange, a Takara toy line similar to their Diaclone line, but the gimmick is that they turned into general objects, rather than vehicles. Megatron, Soundwave, Blaster, Perceptor, all come from this line, with the only example I can think of off the top of my head being Shockwave (but that is for another day). Because of this though, they have frequently bounced between alternate modes as people try to make their alternate modes more useful then inanimate objects. Reflector has had it easy by comparison, mostly due to his lack of appearances.
For Siege, he gets a "spaceship mode", in the vain of Soundwave and Shockwave, where the name of the mode can be described as "this was the best we could do without losing the mode people actually care about" (though Soundwave doesn't really have any good alternate modes, but that's for another time). In the case Reflector, the ship is basically him laying down with his gun between his feet. It has an "At least you're trying?" mode, and the cybertronian theme of the line is at least working in his favour, but one of these on their own does not look good. On the plus side, due to the nature of Reflector, and others agreeing with me that the individual spaceship sucks, people have been making combined mode spaceships, many of which look really impressive. I wish Hasbro made an official combined spaceship mode, as it would help people who are not interested in the camera mode to get three of him.
For the robot mode, Refraktor is a solid deluxe class robot, with the only big problem really coming from the base design they were working from. He is incredibly basic compared to any other Transformer you put him next too, as the only visually distinctive thing about him is that there is meant to be three of them. I like the execution of the camera lens piece you get as a shield, and the lens shutter like button being detachable means you do not have to have all three of them with it on their chests if you do not want too. There is nothing objectively horrible about it (though many may find the gaps needed for transformation to be an issue), there is just nothing exciting about it either. It is just average, basic. Solid but nothing more than that.
While the Camera mode has no other play options then pure imagination, it is a solid sized camera that has a nice weight to it. I love the use of the guns as a small tripod, but it is here where the boxset is going to outshine the retail release. While I like the unified colours more, the extra pieces that will come with the box set will help finish off the look, make it look more like a camera and less like a box with a camera lens. I'm usually not one for upgrade kits, mostly because of their high cost compared to what you're actually getting, but this is one of a few cases I'm actively considering getting a upgrade kit if someone makes it, just to improve the look of the retail camera. To give you an idea though on how little I care about upgrade kits most of the time, the four Combiner Wars Combiners I have still use Hand Foot Guns instead of those Perfect Effect kits.
Many issues I have with Refraktor can be traced back to the source material, and it is probably the main reason why we do not see them in plastic very often. The camera is a toy camera without any of the toy camera functions, nothing exciting about it. The robots are very basic in design, due to the way their original toys were and how they were depicted in the cartoon, and the less said about the individual spaceship mode, the better. Am I glad this happened? Yeah, I am. Do I think we need a new one every toy line now until the end of time? No. That is not to say I hate the characters, I am just waiting for someone to give them a better reason to exist then filling out the Decepticon ranks, and being spacebridge crash test dummies. As for the toy, like I said, solid (exception being the individual ship mode), but not exciting. It is not something like other previous nobodies who are fun to mess around with. I will see you next week for Long Haul, and on Wednesday, an opinion piece on what Activision did to Crash Team Racing.
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