Rare Toys - The Battlechargers

Runamuck

"As part of a warped game, Runamuck cruises highways at top speed and rejoices in the chaos he creates. The other vehicles and Cybertronians on the road are merely obstacles  between which Runamuck darts, hoping to see them slam on the brakes and twirl out of control. His maniacal laughter can be heard as he races away from the smoking wrecks. Some might believe he plays these games to spread fear. In reality it's just so that he can watch the resulting collisions and explosions as they fill the streets with such beautiful disaster.

It fascinates him. However such appreciation is short lived as his partner, Over-Run, sets it upon himself to enhance its beauty. Which usually means even more awesome explosions and mayhem!"

Function: Decepticon Car

Quote: "The road is my playpen, cars are my toys."

Strength: 7

Intelligence: 5

Speed: 8

Endurance: 7

Rank: 6

Courage: 7

Fireblast: 7

Skill: 8

Over-Run "Runabout"

"Over-Run tries to pass himself off as a suave connoisseur of fine things. It's not a facade he can really maintain for long, less because of his generally low intelligence and more because his interest in beautiful objects starts and ends with "blow them up!" His drive to seem sophisticated is in direct conflict with his enthusiastic love of explosions and action. The former is almost always on the losing side of that battle. He's not interested in the Decepticon plan for conquest; he's just with them because of the greater opportunities for his kind of fun. He's always on the move, looking to create a bigger fireball, a larger bomb crater, and generally cram ever microsecond with action!"

Function: Decepticon Car

Quote: "Beauty is fleeting. Especially when I'm around."

Strength: 7

Intelligence: 6

Speed: 8

Endurance: 7

Rank: 6

Courage: 7

Fireblast: 7

Skill: 7

Robot Modes

Runamuck and Over-Run use the same toy mold and thus share their robot modes with one-another. This dynamic duo share a masculine bi-pedal winged robot mode, and feature strategically placed components from their vehicle modes.

The torso for the robot mode is mostly formed from the roof of thee vehicle mode as well as some of the internal components otherwise unseen in vehicle mode. His backpack is made from the boot of his car mode that is clipped into his regular back, and holds his missiles on two bars via clips. The rub sign insignia's are present on their chests.

The head is connected via a ball joint connection the the top of the torso. The head's design is composed of a helmet with mouth plate, but leaves the upper face exposed, showing the nose and eyes. The helmets also feature some chevrons and other minor details that add to the design aesthetically.

The Battlechargers come with a gun that is hidden in their car boots in vehicle mode, and can be folded out and held in their hands. As these toys use the Wheeljack version of this mold they have his spanner/missiles, which can also be held in their hands as weapons (I guess).

The upper arms/shoulders are connected to the top of the torsos by a hinge/ball joint combination that allows them to move in almost any direction needed (unless obstructed by things like the wings). The wheels from the rear of the vehicle mode give the shoulders some shaping and detail that would otherwise be completely absent The upper arm also features a pivot joint about half way down that allows it to rotate as needed for poses. The lower arm is connected via a hinge-made elbow allowing the arms to bend inwards and flex as needed. The hands are connected by another pivot joint that allows them to rotate by 360 degrees if wanted. They are also sculpted with fingers that are open, but also sculpted to allow a standard weapon to be held in a peg-hole style.

The upper legs are connected to the groin by a ball joint connector, which leads to a pivot/hinge joint combination for the knee connecting the lower legs to the upper. These joints give the legs a great amount of positioning. The bulk of the lower legs are made of the car mode hoods (with the Decepticon insignia's split in half as a result). The feet are connected to the lower legs by a hinge joint and two ball joints that allow them to be re-posed as needed depending on the surface.

Runamuck's colourscheme is mostly white with gold trim and orange internal parts (such as parts of his legs). His wings are gold, and his missiles are black, compared to Over-Run's mostly black colourscheme with grey internal parts and red trims (and wings and missiles).

Vehicle Modes

The Battlechargers both convert into a sleek sports car with an extended hood and very noticeable wheel arches for the front wheels, large rear spoilers, side windows and tinted windows. The vehicles also feature a full set of moving wheels with star shaped hubcaps, and due to their ground clearance they can roll without obstruction. The sports cars also feature some detailing such as headlights, grills, rear lights and other such usual features on car vehicle modes in modern toys.

Both figures feature a large Decepticon insignia on the hood, and a much smaller Decepticon heat sensitive rub insignia on the roof.

Runamuck's colourscheme is mostly white with gold trim down the sides and on the spoiler, very nicely dispersing the otherwise stark white of his base colour. His windows are tinted black and show his internal orange legs, that could easily be mistaken for seats.

Over-Run's car mode is mostly made up of his black base colour and the red paint work going down the middle of his hood and spoiler, as well as taking up most of the rear of the vehicle, but avoids the roof. His windows are tinted red, and show his grey legs, though due to the tinting, they look red as well.

Both toys can take on a flight mode (as shown in the instructions) and are formed by opening his doors and extending/flattening them, folding out the ends of his wings and re-attaching the missiles (which have to be removed to open the doors), thus giving him and aerial mode weapon as well.

Interestingly in Runamuck's comic profile it says that he thinks he can fly, but he actually can't...uh oh...

My Final Thoughts

The Battlechargers are a great combination, Runamuck was shipped out to members of the club that were active in the first quarter of 2012, whilst Over-Run was released in 2012 in the club store (with his new name of course). It's annoying that the Battlechargers were made available in this manner as most people would only want one if they can get the other as well (this is further accented by Over-Run's box coming with a foam insert designed to hold Runamuck in!)

These two figures are over-all very beautiful and I would highly recommend them to any collector, especially those who are trying to get updates of classic G1 characters. However due to both being very limited releases and most likely being very expensive now, it would be unlikely for someone to buy these figures in the secondary market for a reasonable price. As I mentioned before, these figures are best shown as a pair, and just having one or the other seems pointless to me honestly.

If you can find both of them at a convention or an online sales site, then buy them (if the price is reasonable enough) but only as a pair, as you may get depressed when seeing one on it's own with the knowledge that he'll never have his brother.

Also, I am aware of the fan-made "G1-accurate" mode for these toys, but I don't like them, so I'm not showcasing them here.