Dion
"There was a time when Dion cared little for the echoes of war beginning to spread across his home world. Occasionally he'd opine on the feats of the new robots with flight capabilities, who he secretly envied, but otherwise turned a deaf audio receptor to the discussion about the start of what some were calling the second Cybertronian war. All that changed the day the war finally found him. The flying robots landed at the front door of the storage depot, led by the one called Megatron. Amicable at first, the encounter quickly turned for the worse when Megatron unleashed his full fury on the dockworkers and fled with that cycle's shipment of Energon.
When Dion awoke, he now was fully aware of what Megatron and the Decepticons were capable of, and having lost all that he had known, Dion decided to join the Elite Guard and now works to stop the Decepticons any way he can!"
Role: Infantry
Quote: "Efficiency makes you strong. Speed makes you lethal."
Strength: 7
Intelligence: 7
Speed: 9
Endurance: 8
Rank: 6
Courage: 9
Fireblast: 9
Skill: 8
Robot Mode
Dion's natural robot mode is very constrictive, his arms can't move very much because of the back kibble, and of course his eye's pipe-lighting gimmick is hindered as well, however it still looks good, and emulates the original character model for the character as well.
Since Dion is a straight repaint, he has no remoldings, but it should be noted that he uses the Japanese version of the toy (hence the weaponry) His head is quite well detailed, and comes with a visor that comes over his entire face
Dion's colour scheme is designed to look like his original colours, but better suited for this new mold. He's mostly orange with blue, white and black highlights as well, and also has a small Elite Guard insignia on his left shoulder, which I think is very nice
His legs can bed at the knees and the very top of the leg as well via hinges. His feet can also be repositioned for whatever surface he is to be set up on, as with most recent toys as well.
His arms are able to bend at the elbows as well by a hinge like with the legs, and the shoulder joints can be rotated forwards and sideways as well, however the back kibble restricts the movement of the arms, so it's nothing to take note of still. The hands aren't articulated, but can hold standard sized weapons, including the two guns that he comes with.
Now despite the limitations caused by the back kibble, you can get around this, by using this fan mode that is readily available. Basically, you remove the orange parts of the back kibble from the black clips on the back, and slide them into the opposite arm to where you removed them from (ie the part from the left of the back, goes on the right arm and vice-versa, this creates a "boxing mode" also, the two guns that come with him can be clipped into the now vacant back clips, to give him a set of over-the-shoulder cannon weapons.
Alternate Mode
Dion's alternate mode is of a Hot Rod style sports car with a stylized rear spoiler.
The car is mostly orange, but has a blue colour scheme at the front, covering most of the hood and bleeds onto the doors (which is partially designed as an Autobot insignia as well.
Dion has a white rim around the edge of the entire car with details all across it. The windows are partially see through, but the side windows are purely dark grey paint. His headlights are realistic looking, but his rear lights are just painted over
His wheels are able to turn, as with mode recent car Transformers, so he can roll around a table unaided (unless he's mis-transformed of course). His doors, can open in vehicle mode, but there's no where to go inside the car
Because this is the Japanese version of the mold, he has a portion missing from the rear bumper for the guns to sit, where they can be used as exhaust pipes (with the missiles acting as blue flames/smoke coming out of it)
Transformation
Dion is a bit fiddly to transform, but only because you have to be able to hold a few things at the same time for either mode. The most complicated part is having the groin area split apart, then flipping the part portion of the robot mode, whilst having to handle the back kibble and arms and keeping everything in place when transforming him
Accessories
Dion comes with quite a few accessories actually for a loose toy, he comes with two white and black guns, each with a clear blue missile that he can hold in robot mode or vehicle mode as needed, but the best part of the accessories section is his little Minicon/Micromaster buddy.....
Cop-Tur
"Many amongst the AUTOBOT forces consider COP-TUR to be something of a renegade. With his permanent slouch, gravelly voice, goonish chuckle, and crude sense of humor, many take him to be little more than a dim-bulb thug and wonder why he's allowed to work alongside the Elite Guard. His commanders overlook his personality flaws because there's the brain of a mechanical genius whirring away inside that smirking bullet head. He's an expert in customizing Cybertronian anatomy, as well as designing more powerful, adept and efficient ELITE GUARD combat bodyforms to counter the escalating DECEPTICON threat. Top command figures it's better to keep him around, annoyances and all, than risk him turning to the DECEPTICONS."
Role: Mechanical Engineer
Cop-Tur is a small blue helicopter with some blue and orange parts (using some of Dion's colours of course) and is used to emulate the Go-Bots character of the same name. The robot mode is difficult to pose and is always in a slouching pose because of this, which is even referenced in the bio written above. His arms are able to bend at the elbows and can also rotate at the shoulder joints. His legs can also move at the upper-most parts to go in any direction. The helicopter propellers can also rotate by just turning/blowing them
Availability
Dion was made available as a membership incentive figure, given to all members who are active before Mid-March 2010 for free, and mine arrived about four months later in July. He was later made available on the Club's Online store
He is a pure repaint of the Japanese Henkei version of the Universe Hot Shot toy and comes with all the same accessories as that version but in new colours.
My Thoughts
I actually really enjoyed this figure, he was my first Club Incentive figure, and made a great addition to my collection (especially since I love obscure characters)
I love the redesign of this obscure character, especially since it's the first in the "free" toys that wasn't part of a set. I think his robot and vehicle mode are both well redesigned (deco wise etc)
However the Autobot insignias on his doors were marred by the unpaintable hinges which was annoying, since we have a nice, ornate blue Autobot insignia, with a bright orange blob in the middle, which is annoying
Another annoying thing with him, was that one of his legs and his head is prone to fall off, whilst I'm not sure if the leg thing is the same for all the copies of this figure, or if it is just mine, I do remember seeing a lot of complaints about the heads though, with one person even complaining about the head being absent in it's entirety!
The play value of this figure is quite high as well, especially if you do my fan-mode as well, since that increases his articulation somewhat, increasing his interactibility with other figures. Also because he's a recent car mode figure, he is able to roll out with the best of them, and fits with other recent car mode Transformers in a line up
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