Transformers War for Cybertron Siege Prowl and Barricade: Good Cop and Bad Cop

As with tradition, whenever one of a large handful of characters gets a new toy, there are bound to be repaints of the characters that share their original look. But, every now and then, there are curveballs that for better or worse, give a version of a character never seen before. While Prowl will always have the Bluestreak and Smokescreen variants in time (in this case, locked behind more exclusives), a curveball no one saw coming was Barricade, a G1 Micromaster F1 car nobody, given Holywood star power for being one of the few Decepticons people actually recognize, given a Generations toy based on a fan concept by Transformers Artist Guido Guidi. Combined with the fact that he's the better of the two general retail releases of the mould, and 2019's been a good year for Barricade.

I'm jumping ahead here, but it should be said that even taking out Decepticon bias, Barricade is a more interesting take on the mould in terms of deco. Due to Prowl's mostly white colours, and "sparing" paint applications like the headlights, it comes off as extremely dull when compared to the striking, yet blending colours of Barricade. Most of it coming from the purple windows with the silver paint underneath it. Barricade makes more of a statement compared to other Siege toys, especially compared to Prowl. If you can only get one version of the mould, between the two, I highly recommend Barricade. As for if you should get the mould at all though, that's another question.

The mould itself is fine for a deluxe class carformer, but due to the simple nature of the robot mode, and the habit of not making things move that doesn't need to move, I can't help but feel this is a bit too basic when compared to something like the Universe 08 toy and the Masterpiece version of the Fairlady Autobot moulds (at least based on pictures). Simplicity has its merits, but just by looking at pictures, you can tell how this transformation process is going to work. There's no exciting part of the transformation, nothing interesting, nothing that encourages me to keep bouncing between the two modes. Even something like the ability to hinge the door wings up a bit would at least help with that process, and give the robot something resembling an interesting look. A part of that though comes from how repetitive this general look feels for Carformers. Back windows become the legs, the hood becomes the chest, the doors become kibble wings, and the roof becomes the back. How many characters does that describe in the 35 years of Transformers? Gear wise, neither of the two feel complete, thanks to the Fairlady mould known for having a handgun, and two shoulder guns. While Smokescreen and Bluestreak have the set, Prowl gets the handgun, and Barricade gets the two shoulder guns (that I personally prefer to plug together and use as arm blasters thanks to the C.O.M.B.A.T weapon port requirements. Especially on Prowl, this makes a forgettable looking character look even more forgettable.

While Barricade has the paint, paint can only help so much with a mould. I don't think the toy is bad, just uneventful, not very exciting, especially when compared to other Deluxe Class toys in Siege like Spinister, the Weaponizers, even other Autobot cars. While it's a great representation of the character for a cheap price, in a line full of fun and interesting transformations, this mould just seems underdone, basic, like it's a part of a combiner (but that might just be the fact that Jazz was in Power of the Primes).

Transformers War for Cybertron (Siege) Deluxe Class Spinister: "Arrive at the 80's obnoxiously neon whirlbird!"

It should be no surprise at this point, but for the most part, I have a soft spot for the Season 3/4/ post cartoon G1 characters and designs, when Hasbro and Takara were throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. It was creativity I don't think we've seen much of since the Beast Era. That's not to say I don't like post Beast Era designs, far from it, there are many I like (have you not heard my issues on G1 Red Alert compared to the Unicron Trilogy one?). But, this was a time when the bankable characters weren't as bankable yet, so the bigger focus was on new characters, rather then reskinning old characters into new gimmicks... although I struggle to call Spinister's trick a gimmick, as all he was originally was a pretty bad helicopter toy, that came bundled with two really bad looking Targetmasters, adopting the still true philosophy of "the more stuff included, the worse everything else gets". The bar is set low for this Siege remake, as the last two Double Targetmasters in the Generations like was Quake (an alright repaint of Hardhead), and Scoop, a pretty forgettable toy from Thrilling 30 that did come with two solid Targetmaster moulds at least. Nowhere to go but up at least.

Starting in helicopter mode, and it is an obnoxious, brightly coloured, completely useless for stealth missions attack helicopter, which is why I love it. While the helicopter is very well proportioned for the most part, the biggest problem comes from a bit of underside kibble. See, the original toy had the legs formed by splitting the cockpit into two, whereas here, a fake cockpit exists for the second leg, to make the legs look better in robot mode, but it makes the helicopter mode look bad from a lot of angles. The exposed hands and hollow tail are also pretty blatant, but far more forgivable due to being easier to ignore most of the time. It would have been nice if there was a way to stick two Battlemasters on the wings (I think that's what they're called... I don't know helicopters), mostly because if you get Skywarp and the standalone Singe, you get both of Spinister's Targetmasters. A minor complaint, but it would have been a nice bit of detail.

For the robot mode, and though the Helicopter had issues, this is an almost flawless robot mode. At the cost of hollow legs, and a rotor that I wish stayed in place a little better, you have a kibble free robot mode (other then what was from the original toy) with all the siege articulation (and a bit extra in the arms and ankles for the sake of transformation) making him a lot of fun to pose. Even the battle damage paint works well, as the placement feels more like faded paint rather then actual battle damage/ cyber mud. Although it is a shame that the helicopter had to be sacrificed so much for it, it was worth it because I honestly think this is one of the best figures in the line, when it had no reason, nor a need to be.

In a size class dominated by Autobots, and a line with a larger focus on legacy characters rather then niche nobodies, it's shocking how well Spinister turned out. While a part of that might be that Spinister's toy catalogue consists of a really bad original toy, then repaints of any decent chopper mould they could use for niche exclusives (or Nemesis Prime's Targetmaster?), anything was going to be better than the past. I'd even go so far as to say that this is one of the best toys of the year, based on what I've been able to experience. Definitely worth picking up

Transformers Titans Return (And Takara Legends) Monsterbots: A few days after Halloween is still ok, right?

On the subject of Monsterbots, following on from that G.I Joe review, we actually have a recent set of the Monsterbots thanks to Titans Return... though the release of them did not help, due to most of the team being locked behind exclusives. Because of that, the version of Twinferno (be quiet purists, like it or not, Twinferno is a cooler name then Doublecross) I will be reviewing is the Titans Return release, while the version of Repugnus and Grotusque are the Takara Legends release. Does it change much? No, mostly just more paint on the Titan Masters themselves. So let us look at some of the creepiest Transformers to exist before Beast Wars came around with attempts at realism.

Starting with the Monster modes, and one thing that I find interesting with them is that once their original Cold Spark gimmick was removed, these guys do not a very cohesive team, with the only thing connecting them together (other than shared engineering) is that they're all monsters of questionable design. You have Twinferno that turns into a two-headed dragon, Grotusque that turns into... a purple and grey naked mole rat with wings and a dragon tail... and Repugnus that turns into one of the stupidest looking bugs that I have ever seen. I honestly love Repugnus' alternate mode the most because of how undeniably stupid it is, while still being sincere about it, like the other two are trying to be scary monsters, while he's just happy to be along for the ride. Twinferno's problems can be identified here already, as I wish the dragon necks had more movement in them. While they are ok in dragon mode, robot mode becomes more of an issue. I am honestly surprised no one has made an upgrade kit to give this thing better dragon necks. As what was standard in the line, all of them come with a Titan Master to act as their robot mode heads, and the robot mode weapons can become seats for the Titan Masters. However, a problem I had with the line, something that became worse the further along the line went, was that the deluxe class guns do not have somewhere to mount onto the bases in a nice way, a central post that could plug into the bases to act as the turret. Repugnus' swords are actually the worst offender of this as there is nothing to do with them once they are in Titan Master Seat mode.

Onto the robot modes, and while they all look ok, they rather loose their appeal here, and look generic save for the odd bits of kibble. I think these three best describe my views on the G1 beastformers, because while they could have great alternate modes, a lot of them especially in the post movie characters, loose much of what made them interesting when in robot mode. I think the worst of them is probably Twinferno, mostly because of those arms. I hate Transformers that make me have to choose between holding the guns in the right way (cannot really say hands cause here the dragon heads are the hands), and having an elbow joint, and all that would have been needed is a small swivel at the dragonheads. Grotusque, though more generic, is the clear standout between the two, but not for being anything exciting, more so just not doing the basics worse. Repugnus is the worst when it comes to the generic look, because with the exception of the bug arms becoming noticeable robot pecks, he is extremely basic. If you got the Titan Master version of Repugnus, you can replace the titan master with it, giving him larger, more noticeable eyes (which I personally think looks better.

The Monsterbots are kind of like the Autobot and Decepticon clones in terms of relevance now, but they also have the added issue of no longer having the gimmick they were known for. While it is nice to have representations of them now, the modern age, is not kind to them, due to them falling into the generic category, existing for a gimmick, and nothing more? What do you do with them now? They are a good novelty piece, but until someone does something interesting with them, that is all they will be, a novelty.

Transformers War for Cybertron Siege Deluxe Class Refraktor: Who ordered the evil robot camera?

Whenever I hear the argument "more characters in the show, the better", there are always characters I can't help but circle back too as examples why that's a bad idea. One of those being Reflector, a team of three Decepticons named Spectro, Spyglass and Wayfinder (Is it Wayfinder, or Viewfinder?) who were in the original con team, but rarely did anything. They helped with recon missions due to their combined alternate form of a camera, one of them was the test dummy for the Space Bridge, and I think that was it. I am almost certain that they did not make it into Season 2, let alone the movie and onward. Reflector is arguably the poster child for "Transformers that we have no idea what to do with, so will never be seen again in media except maybe the comics". I am almost certain the Deluxe Insecticons have gotten more love then Reflector has in media, and if you need to look those up, that should prove my point.

Transformers War for Cybertron; Siege Deluxe Class Weaponizers (Cog, Sixgun and Brunt): The ultimate upgrade kits

Encase the fact that this review is looking at three completely different toys that only share a gimmick does not imply this, this is going to be a very wordy review, with many large paragraphs. It is highly recommended that this review be viewed on a computer or a tablet, rather than a mobile phone. 

One thing that many people were annoyed about when the Titan Class releases of Metroplex, Fortress Maximus and Trypticon came out was that they felt incomplete. Parts of it came from just how many accessories they came with in G1, but while many could look past missing radar dishes, or a base mode that does not look like Fortress Maximus' base mode (I certainly cannot), many were annoyed about missing objects. Metroplex originally came with two small Transformers called Scamper, a small car to interact with the play functions, a small, non-transforming tank, and Six-Gun a Transformer made of excess parts, such as some of the guns and tower pieces, with the Generations release only coming with Scamper. Similar story for Trypticon, though he was missing a futuristic tank that used to come with his G1 toy, and for Fortress Maximus, two small vehicles could combine into the Transformer Cog. While I am not sure if any third party company made a Cog and the tank for Fort Max and Trypticon, there were third party Six-Guns popping up since the Generations release. It is fair to say though that originally, all three of these things were accessories, and mixed at best ones at that, and normally they would not see a general release as a result (the tank especially as it did not have a robot mode). Maybe there was a way to make them being accessories into a feature though?

Enter the Weaponizers, a sub category of the Deluxe Class in Siege, which borrowed a name from Robots in Disguise 2015. It gave the tank a robot mode in the form of Brunt, and allowing Hasbro to get away without straying too far away from their origins, to the point where all three are still parts formers, transformers you have to take parts off to go between modes. These things have exploded in popularity with the fans thanks to how creative you can be with them, to the point where all three are going to get repaints as all but forgotten Powerdrivers. I guess it shows that the designers are bigger nerds then the fans are at times. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that we live in a world where the G1 craze is giving us a Red Wing, Galactic Man, and the Powerdrivers. How well do the originals work though?

Starting in their vehicle modes, we have one or two tank looking vehicles for Cog, an awkward looking airship for Six-gun, and a cool looking space tank for Brunt. I will get this out of the way now, if you are looking for whom I think the best one out of the three are, it is Brunt. All three of these go for the hard G1 accurate look, but these are three that I am perfectly fine with that because all three of them are absolute nobodies, who probably will not get toys again for another 34 years. From what I have seen, all three do look good alongside their respective Titans (I do not have any of them so I cannot speak from experience). While Cog and Brunt's vehicle modes are accurate, Six-Gun has a completely original alternate mode..., which looks ridiculous even for a space jet. Six-Gun has always had an air of overcompensation to his design, from once being made up of guns and buildings, to his new look that has a jet mode with two VTOL engines, eight rear thrusters two wing mounted guns, eight missile launchers, and four underside canons. It is bad in a good way, because as much of a NRA on steroids as this jet is, it is like a hyper charged flying tank, which is somewhat awesome. Brunt's sci-fi tank is more toned down by comparison (which is a shame because you would think overcompensating would be the Decepticon's MO), though he's still packing a giant canon, which does have a working turret swivel. For reasons I will get more into in Robot Mode, Brunt is the only one of the three Weaponizers that I have been tempted to get multiples of, as he remains just far enough in the ambiguous Decepticon camp to be unique without being an individual. I could see a tank battalion of Brunts guarding Tripticon from Autobot attacks thanks to this small but menacing looking purple tank. Cog on the other hand I find to be the weakest of the three in vehicle mode. The two vehicles look awkward, and the combined vehicle mode does not lock in together at all, making it feel like a useless gimmick, even though out of the three, he's the most G1 accurate thanks to having both a vehicle and robot mode to begin with.

Onward to the robot modes, and while all three do require varying amounts of parts forming, you do get three unique looking robot modes. Cog's tank legs thankfully stay connected in robot mode, so there's no issue with him pulling a movieverse Jazz when playing around with him (though that is something that you can do with both him and Brunt if you so choose. Brunt can even pull off a rocket torso mode because of this). Considering as all of them are designed to come apart, I am honestly surprised at how mobile the robot modes are, with no major sacrifices to articulation when compared to the other Deluxe Class releases of Siege, and better then Studio Series Deluxes (more on that one later). I love Brunt's robot mode, it has all the classic generic grunt soldier looks, and the tank pincer hands are a nice touch. Honestly, the body shape reminds me a lot of Beast Wars Scorponok, I honestly could see this mould making for a good pre beast wars look for him. Cog, like his alternate modes, is a faithful recreation of his G1 toy, while Six-Gun feel more toned down compared to his vehicle mode. It is honestly a shame, but that is because I love how ridiculous the vehicle mode is.

The reason why all three parts form is the Weaponizer gimmick. What is it? The simple way to describe it is this: They act as upgrade kits for other Siege figures. By breaking down each of them into their component parts, you can attach the pieces to any other 5mm plug-compatible figure, and it is why all of Siege's figures have many weapon ports on them. Do you want Sideswipe to have two shoulder mount canons, a giant double barrel canon and tank treads on his feet, and still have guns to spare? Break Cog apart and plug those bits into him. Want Ironhide to fly, carry a giant gun in one hand, and have a rocket fist in the other? Give plug all of Six-Gun's parts on him. Want to give Refraktor an excavator look while carrying a blaster bigger than he is? Use Brunt's bits. You could buy multiples and make super modes of the three of them, or stick all of them together for an absolute abomination. I love this gimmick; it reminds me a lot of the Autobots in the Transformers Energon toy line, where the main combining gimmick gets better with each toy getting better with each new toy you get. It should be stated that these three do not really work on larger figures, mostly due to them being bigger, and having more awkward weapon ports (there is no central weapon port on Voyager Optimus, Megatron and Soundwave, just as an example). The gimmick also does not seem to play nicely with the look of Siege Chromia, but that is more of a case of loose ports (on mine at least) and a slimmed curve look they gave her. It is fun to experiment with the gimmick though, see what else can come from it, and I honestly hope we get more Weaponizers in this trilogy (mostly cause I doubt the Powerdashers are being added to my collection).

What I always enjoy about the Generations line is the amount of care that goes into characters that no one really cares about. These three are a lot of fun, and make other characters more entertaining to play with. The amount of creativity you can get from these three alone is impressive, almost like a version of Lego's Galidor that actually works and is interesting, and not one of the worst jokes in the company's history. It would be interesting to see this gimmick for larger characters, it could be a good way to release the Takara versions of Godbomber and Powermaster Optimus (that box set does not count due to it being almost impossible to get outside of America if you didn't want to spend a fortune on shipping). Another character with a potential for the gimmick Victory Leo, if those theories about Commander Class Jetfire being able to be retooled into Star Saber turn out to be true (I'd personally be happy with a Leader Class one). There is a lot of potential here that I would like to see explored more going forward, I would love more of these. I wish I could say mores coming, but SDCC was somewhat mediocre in reveals aside from Unicron. Up next will be Refraktor, and then Movieverse Devastator gets another foot.

Transformers War For Cybertron; Siege Deluxe Class Sideswipe and Red Alert: Before you ask, no I don't know cars well.

Sideswipe and Red Alert have been characters I can't help but feel I'm in the minority of when it comes to views on them. Both characters have their die-hard fans, and while I get why, neither of them ever clicked for me most of the time. I didn't find them memorable in Generation 1 and in terms of what I grew up with, the less said about the Unicron Trilogy Sideswipe, the better. Sideswipe had an interesting design in the movies, but the only interesting moment he had was cutting Sideways in half, and his Robots in Disguise 2015 appearance is really generic. While Red Alert hasn't had much of a presence on screens, I personally prefer his Unicron Trilogy incarnations (both Armada and Cybertron).

The main reason for this (aside from first exposure) is one nagging flaw I've had with Red Alert since Generation 1. Why does the fire department need a Lamborghini? Truth be told, I forgot it was meant to be the fire department, but that might be because I grew up exposed to the Need for Speed games, and the idea of a Lamborghini as a police car makes a bit more sense (even if it's still unnecessary). While yes, you can make the argument that making him an ambulance makes him more generic, I disagree because the off-road nature of his modes is unique compared to previous ambulances, not to mention "how many transformers turn into ambulances?" I can think of three characters, one's a Micromaster, one's a combiner limb, and the third constantly changes the style of ambulance anyway (at least in the modern-day).  It might be why the three main forms of Unicron Trilogy Red Alert has stuck with me as childhood grails. I bring all of this up as a way of making it clear that there is a strong chance of bias for me, it's something that can't really be helped.

What isn't a factor of childhood bias though is the biggest problem I have with these two, along with a lot of other characters in the Siege line. These do not look like Cybertronian cars. These two look like they took the G1 toy, and tried to make it look more like sci-fi cars, but being afraid of going too far. Do they look objectively bad? No, I think they look good when put into a completely objective perspective. They're good sizes, have a lot of paint on each of them (though I believe Red Alert has more overall), and they're fun cars to mess around with. But that being said, I wanted something riskier, something that doesn't look like it belongs on earth, and I don't get that from these two. Most of the Deluxe Class toys fit into that category honestly, but not many get a pass due to release rarity, and these two don't get that excuse.

To robot mode then, and taking gear out of the equation, look good in robot mode. They're nice updates to the G1 designs, with the only major issues being a backpack that's a bit too wide. To purists though, they are notably missing gear. Both toys come with two accessories, for Sideswipe, it's two handheld guns that can combine to form his shoulder-mounted cannon, and for Red Alert, it's a nicely sized rifle and a light bar that can combine to form the worlds least useful pickaxe. I wish that they both also came with the accessories of the other (minus the light bar for Sideswipe) to help the two of them look more complete. Both are a bit hollow in the arms and thighs, though it's something that I can easily overlook, and none of the games feels obnoxious to look at. They're not huge holes that kill the illusion. Articulation is your average affair for Siege Deluxes, though a QC issue I've heard about relates to Red Alert sometimes coming with a painted version of Sideswipe's head when he's meant to have a similar, but a slightly different head.

Even ignoring my bias for Red Alert, I can't help but feel that these two, while good, could have been better, with a lot of it coming from my views on their car modes. The robot modes are a nice update on the G1 looks, though could go for a bit more in terms of gear to use, while the car modes are boring retreads on the old looks (and to bring the bias back in for a moment, why does the Autobot security guy turn into a Lamborghini, a car not meant for transporting much of anything, let alone fire rescue gear) for the fire department?). I'm honestly hoping they don't milk this mould too much more, the G2 Sideswipe is all well and good, but do we really need a Tigertracks, Deep Cover, and a heavy retool into Sunstreaker? (Ok that last one I'd be for depending on what they do with it). It just feels safe, and I hope we'll see more risks coming out of the Siege deluxe class soon.

Before I go, something a little fun. Five robots are ready for review, and I'd like you to help pick who goes first, and the order to review them (and who to not bother with if someone doesn't get a vote. You can find a link to the poll here: https://www.strawpoll.me/18386486