Prime - Sky Lynx

"Skylynx is a powerful and chaotic force who lives to serve the Predacon cause."

Name: Skylynx

Faction: Predacon

Continuity: Aligned

Toy Line: Prime: Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising

Strength: 7

Speed: 7

Rank: 6

Firepower: 7

Intelligence: 4

Endurance: 8

Courage: 8

Skill: 3

Robot Mode

Sky Lynx has a mostly white robot mode with a lot of blue , and red in some areas, as well as some gold details and missile disks. His main torso is made of the bulk of his beast mode's body as well, featuring his underbelly on his chest. There's not much else to talk about this part of his body, as being a deluxe figure he has limited features. Sky Lynx's torso also has his tail attached to his back, and his wings attached onto his shoulders, which can be posed as desired. The wings feature a disk missile launcher, which is activated by pushing the white trigger on the inside of the wings.

His head is made from his beast mode head, which is simply folded into his chest and opened wide, revealing the robot head, if you want to you can let him keep his beats mode head, but it would look weird. His head is white with red sculpted eyes and a metallic blue forehead chevron and a face mask, with what looks like a breathing filter on it.

His arms are connected to his shoulders at the point where the wings are also connected by a ball joint connector. His elbows are made with a pivot and ball joint connector as well, giving the arm all it's articulation. The hand also features a pivot joint on the wrist, but using this will reveal more of the beats mode foot , so it's probably not worth doing.

His hands feature three sculpted fingers posed around a peg hole so he can hold a weapon if you give him one (not that he needs guns)

His legs are connected to the groin area of the torso by ball joints again. His lower legs feature a couple of pin joints at the knee and mid-way down the lower leg, which makes him bend his legs midway for better support.

His feet feature a pin joint again, and a support strut at the back, giving him some good support in this mode as well.

Alternate Mode

Sky Lynx's alternate mode is a red, white and blue winged dragon, which is actually just basically his robot mode on all fours and his head and tail in a different position. Due to this he has much of the same articulation as his robot mode, so there's no need to mention it here again. His wings are differently connected in this mode, as you have to move them for the front legs/arms to have a better positioning, and this have a slightly different configuration, but not by much.

His beast mode head features an opening mouth (though be careful not to reveal his robot head in the mouth as well. The tip of his tail can be removed, but that doesn't seem to be for any real reason, escept maybe as a drone of some sort maybe. His hands are retracted and switched with his front feet by a simple pivoting joint.

He retains his wing's launching feature in this mode as well, or alternatively you can just remove the disks to give him better flight ability.

My Final Thoughts

This toy is difficult, the main reason I got him was because I knew he was going to be a main character in the upcoming Predacons Rising movie, but really he's a difficult to discuss toy, there's nothing too terrible about the toy itself, but it's also not so great either.

His disk missile gimmick is interesting, but I think could have been pulled off a bit better, the overall design of the dragon mode is very nice, and due to it's design can be posed to make it look like a bi-pedal or quadruped dragon if the owner desires. One major problem I had with this toy, which I believe was a problem with other people as well was that his right leg wasn't able to stay in the ball joint. This was easy enough to fix using some nail varnish, but is still somewhat off-putting though. Another small issue is that his wings need to be dislodged in a specific point, which is hard to locate the first few times.

I actually like this figure because of the bag of homages that he presents. He's obviously based on the G1 Sky Lynx character (his colours match up, as does his beats mode) but he's played as a villainous Predacon instead of an Autobot. This however is another of the homages I mentioned, in the cartoon he was often portrayed as a rival to the Predacons (the jungle animals from G1, not dragons from Prime), which is now his faction. This allegiance shift could also be seen as an homage to how Sky Lynx appeared to be originally planned to be a Decepticon (given how his character model often had a Decepticon insignia, and his rivals were originally planned to be the Anibots, an Autobot team).

I'd say, unless you particularly love Sky Lynx as a character, and want a mountain of homages in one toy, you may want to skip this toy. He makes a good figure for the shelf, but his play value is a bit underwhelming, especially with his fiddlyness in places.

Prime - Dark Steel

"Dark Steel is ready to annihilate the Autobots in glorious combat."

Name: Dark Steel

Faction: Predacon

Continuity: Aligned

Toy Line: Prime: Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising

Strength: 10

Speed: 7

Rank: 6

Firepower: 8

Intelligence: 5

Endurance: 9

Courage: 6

Skill: 5

Robot Mode

Dark Steel's robot mode is a large, well built blue and grey, winged form with a dragon head down the middle of his upper torso.

His torso is made of the bulk of his beats mode's main bulk too, with the neck folded inwards into his torso, with only the head really visible. This part of his body features some panels to give his bidy more of a shape. His head is connected to his torso by a ball joint connector that alows it to move as needed.

His head is sculpted to feature his orange face, blue and dark grey helmet with light grey decorations. His face itself is sculpted with blue eyes (unlike the yellow from the movie) and other facial details like a mouth, nose etc. When moving his head though, be careful of the dragon head, as it tends to come loose as it's not properly connected to anything really.

His wings are connected to his back by a simple connecting part and can be flapped a bit, but nothing else, so they're mostly just decoration. The wings also feature the peg hole for his accessory to live in if wanted too.

His arms are connected to the torso with a pivoting hinge which is mostly hidden by his shoulder pads. His arms feature a pivoting joint in the middle of his upper arms, his elbows are made of a hinge joint, he has a pivoting joint under the armour on his lower arm. All these articulation points allow him to move his arms in almost any direction and in any pose...so yeah, give him some weapons and have him go all out!

His hands are sculpted with clawsand feature a hinge joint on the wrist to allow them to fold in and out, he also has a hinge on his thumb that creates a peg hole when closed for his accessory to be held in.

His legs are connected to his lower torso by a pivoting hinge again. The upper legs also feature a pivoting joint and a hinge based knee as well, these give him some decent amount of articulation in his leg (well as much as anyone should anyway. His knee joint is hidden by a knee pad, making it look more attractive.

His feat are sculpted with claws, connected to the lower leg by a simple ball joint, The backs of his legs feature a solded down heel that give him a great amount of support.

Alternate Mode

Dark Steel turns into what is called an Ursagryph, which I guess means he's a Bear-Dragon combo of some sort. He's mostly blue all over, with some silver/grey highlights and inner wings. His body also features several orange Cyberglyphics, which just makes him look more interesting.

This form in itself is pretty much just the robot mode in a prone position, with the robot head retracted and the dragon head exposed, so it has much of the same articulation as his robot mode, just with less of a chance of him falling over due to him being on 4 legs rather than 2.

The only real issue in this mode is that his wings cant fold back (to clarify, you can make them flap, but that's all, it doesn't fold back like on some of the other Predacons).

His dragon mode's beak is able to open and close, so you can give him the illusion of talking in this mode if you want (even though Predacons don't talk in beast mode).

There are 2 points in this mode that can be used to store the accessory, between his wings, and near his small tail. The one near the tail doesn't seem to work that well, and keeps popping out for me, so it's best to just have an awkward placement between the wings instead (though honestly, you'd be better off just leaving it off him in this mode).

Accessories

Dark Steel's accessory is designed to look like a smaller dragon monster, and thus could be a separate Predacon as well, like it is in his mold-mate Grimwing's, however since this one doesn't have a name, it's just a lifeless drone or something instead. This thing is able to shoot out his grappling missile on a piece of string (by unravelling the string and pushing the grey button on it's back) so he can knock over some annoying Autobots or Decepticons. This accessory has a peg that allows it to be slotted in one of the holes on Dark Steel's body, or in his closed hands.

My Final Thoughts

Honestly, Dark Steel is great, he looks good in both modes, has a great amount of articulation, and besides the issue with his beast head in his robot mode chest not being secured, it holds together well.

Now for a little weird thing I noticed...Dark Steel looks a lot like a beast mode version of Dreadwing, from his base colours, even down to his cockpit-like chest decoration and wings!

I would highly recommend this figure to anyone who asks, and I think you'll love him more after watching his actions during the movie itself. Enjoy!

Ride - Deluxe Evac

"Evac is used to dodging laser fire. His entire life, Decepticons have gotten in his way, and tried to stop him. They've never succeeded. No matter how overwhelming their attack, Evac knows that with Optimus Prime and Bumblebee covering him, nothing will stop him from delivering his passengers safely."

Name: Evac

Faction: Autobot

Continuity: Live Action Movies (I think)

Toy Line: Universal Studios - The Ride

Size Class: Deluxe

Strength: 6

Intelligence: 5

Speed: 9

Endurance: 4

Rank: 5

Courage: 9

Fireblast: 5

Skill: 8

Robot Mode

Evac's robot mode is mostly grey with some silver, black and blue. His visible vehicle mode parts form blue armour plates for him on his chest, shoulders and backpack. His body-type is quite a common one for a car-based Transformer, in that his hood is now his chest, his wheels are found in his shoulders and legs and a large chunk of the vehicle is now on his back.

His torso section's most prominent feature is his vehicle mode hood forming the chest, and his abdominal area featuring a faux-part of his rear thruster (the real thruster is under his head). The rest of the abdominal area is made up of sculpted vehicle parts. An interesting part of this area is his abdominal blasters, which can be folded up/down manually to give him some sort of weapon (since his gun from the prototype has been removed).

The only other thing really to note about his torso section is his backpack, which can be folded out (as shown in my pictures) to give him a sort of cloak or wings.

His head is connected to the top of the torso by a ball joint from what was his vehcile mode thruster that allows the head all sorts of rotational points. The head is silver with a blue helmet and yellow eyes and rear of the head. The face is sculpted with details like a nose, mouth, chin and some definition marks (like on most Movie-based figures).

His upper arms are connected to the tops of the torso by ball joint connectors, leading to his shoulders (which include his rear wheels). The shoulder parts are connected to the main upper arm by a pivoting joint. leading to a hinge-based embow. The rest of the lower arm features no further articulation, but the hands are sculpted to feature a standard sized peg hole, so you can give him someone else's gun if you want to arm the poor fella. Saying that, his arms do feature some arm-mounted lasers (or blow torches or something), but they're just for decoration really. His arms also feature some C-Joints on his mounted cannon-thing and shoulders.

His legs are connected to the torso by his groin area with ball joint connector again, giving it just as much articulation as the arms. His legs should have a pivoting joint just below the tops of them, but due to the placement of the wheels, they cannot actually move. His knees are made up on a hinge joint, leading to his lower legs. His feet are also on a hinge joint of sorts, but i'm not really sure why, it doesn't help with articulation, posing or in his vehicle mode either...it's just there.

The bottoms of his lower legs feature a panel from his vehicle mode on each side, which gives him a winged-foot appearance (ala Hermes from Greek Mythology) possibly giving the impression that he's fast.

Vehicle Mode

Evac turns into (according to his card back) a Supercar, based on the car used in the Universal Studios Ride. This mode is mostly blue with green patterns along the sides, and a silver Autobot insignia on either side. Under his black, translucent canopy, you can see a set of four seats (for his passengers to sit in), which has some nice sculpted details in it, but sadly is inaccessible, as it's pinned shut. The rest of the car mode is mostly sculpted details, like paneling, side mirrors etc. This mode also features a set of four working wheels, which, as to be expected in this age of toy making, are fully able to roll along a smooth surface.

Items of note in this mode's sculpting include his front grill's small gun (helpful for shooting Decepticon's in the shins), his rear thruster (for quick escapes), and a set of small (non-working) lights on his hood, painted with some yellow paint (yet the main headlights are left unpainted, next to them).

One interesting point in this mode, is that Evac still features a small hole on the top of his canopy where his gun (seen in the prototype images) would have gone.

My Final Thoughts

People who know me, know I've been after this figure for some time now, I found him at Auto Assembly this year for £30 and I of course picked him up, and I have not been disappointed so far! He's basically a more advanced version of his Legion class toy (as you'd expect of course) but with some more features and details.

As mentioned a couple of times in my actual review, Evac was supposed to come with a gun originally, but it was removed, most likely at the last minute for some reason as the toy still features the peg hole for it in vehicle mode, and his profile image on the front of the toy's packaging still shows the gun over his shoulder as well. Despite this apparent last minute change, the figure still doesn't disappoint me :)

Something of note about this figure that I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice, is that he looks quite a lot like G1 Skids, as such, if Skids was not about to receive a new Generations toy soon anyway, I;d have said you could just put him on your Generations G1 shelf as him as well!

All in all, I think this toy is great, he was well worth the wait in the end, and sits happily on my shelf with the rest of my "favourites". The one problem with the figure really is that he's so hard to get, the only "legitimate" way is to get it from the Ride's store at Universal Studios, which of course for me would be too expensive, so I'd probably suggest that everyone just buy him the same way I did, on the aftermarket for a much lower price (you know, compared to buying a plane ticket, ticket into the park, paying the store's prices etc)

DOTM - Wheeljack

Name: Wheeljack

Faction: Autobot

Continuity: Live Action Movies

Toy Line: Dark of the Moon

Strength: 4

Intelligence: 9

Speed: 8

Endurance: 6

Rank: 8

Courage: 9

Fireblast: 5

Skill: 10

Robot Mode

Wheeljack's robot mode, I have to say, is one of my favourite Movie-figure designs, he has a good symmetrical look, has all his limbs, and doesn't look too generic. His body is mostly grey with his blue car-parts being incorporated as body armour, and also featuring some gold, silver and light blue parts for highlighting.

Wheeljack's torso is one big lump of plastic that seems to be molded to look like his engine parts and also features his car-mode hood on his back (the hood part also features a clip so you can keep his spear latched onto his back too). Wheeljack's right-hand chest plate features his Autobot insignia. His chest also features 2 clips that can hold 2 C-Joint connected things (designed for his power tools, but you can put anything that'll fit in there if you want)

His head is connected to the torso by a small ball-joint connector that gives it some articulation. The head itself is sculpted with his screen-counterpart's famed features (spectacles, moustache, eyebrows etc). The sides of his head feature some wire-hair light piping ports that work as an alternative to the head-fins used by his G1 counterpart. The top of his head is noticeably large, most likely denoting his greater intelligence than most others.

Wheeljack's arms are connected to his torso by a ball-joint connector taht allows him quite some articulation in his shoulder area. In order to hide his ugly shoulder connector however he has his vehicle mode headlights and front doors to the car. His upper arm sections also feature his front wheels at the elbow points. The upper arm is connected to the elbow part by a rotating joint that leads to a connecting joint to enable his arms to flex and turn as needed. His lower arms are single pieces which feature sculpted mechanical details, peg holes on their outer fore arms (to hold some MechTech weapons if desired, and culminate in his hands with sculpted open fingers, surrounding a hidden peg hole for his weapons and tool box to go into

His groin is connected to the bottom of his torso by a pivoting joint that allows it to rotate fully, His legs are connected to his groin at the sides by connectors with ball joints that again allows them full articulation. The upper legs also feature some pivoting joints in the middle for a bit mode posing potential, but this is mostly hidden by his leg-decoration. The upper legs also feature some side-panels with his vehicle mode rear wheels attached. His knees are simple joints that allow them to bend back or forth as needed (unlike real knees of course). The backs of the knees also feature the rear parts of his vehicle mode, so you may need to re-position the rear-parts for bending backwards, otherwise there may be tears. His lower legs are made of most of the roof and rear of his vehicle mode, but folded out. The windscreen is used in this mode as a type of back-support as well, giving him some good balance too, along with his wide-enough feet (so basically he shouldn't fall over too much)

Vehicle Mode

Wheeljack turns into a blue Mercedes-Benz E550, or in other words, a thing of beauty, he has tinted black windows that hides all the robot bits inside and, being licensed, he is detailed with all the things you'd expect to find on the exterior of this make of car, including the badges, headlights, door handles, license plate area, and rolling wheels with silver rims and 5-pointed star hubs. The roof of the car mode features 2 push-down holes for the tool-box (or any other MechTech weapon) to be inserted into, and yeah, why wouldn't you want to put a giant green toolbox on top of a beautiful blue car? 

Accessories 

Wheeljack comes with four accessories, a spear and two guns/power tools that feature C-Clips to connect to his various connection points, giving him the look of just having all his equipment hooked onto him at all times. He also features a tool box with 3 legs to stand on, and a hand (which of course fits into his hands). This toolbox also features a gimmick, where you push on a button at the back to release a briefly spinning buzzsaw, so you know, he can saw up any pesky Decepticons and humans who get in the way of his building work!

My Thoughts

As you may be able to tell from the review itself, I love this figure, he looks great in both modes, he's very screen accurate, comes with some great accessories, and is just great as a figure in terms of play-value in general.

My only real gripe with this figure in terms of design is the legs...they are extremely fiddly to transform, and just one missed step can mean it won't transform properly, and you end up with a vehicle with a weird roof, or a robot with balancing issues. So, just make sure you read the instructions for how to transform the legs properly a few times, but the rest is pretty easy.

The only other issue I possibly have with this figure is the availability. He was a main character in Dark of the Moon, but like several others, his toy was cancelled last minute, meaning he wasn't released in the west, and has to be bought by the fans from Takara, or the Hasbro Asia market (mine came from the magical land of Ebay). Still I guess it's great he got a proper toy still, unlike poor old Mirage/Dino.

All in all though, I think this is a great figure, and would urge anyone who likes the Movie toys/characters to buy this awesome fella :)

Transformers - Evac

Information

"Blistering speed and lightning-fast reflexes make Evac more than an effective courier - they make him a frighteningly powerful warrior. His speed often catches Decepticons by surprise, allowing him to strike and move before they can return fire."

Name: Evac

Toy Line: Prime (sort of, it's that packaging, but no line identifiers other than that)

Size Class: Cyberverse Legion

Faction: Autobot

Function: Commando

Strength: 7

Intelligence: 8

Speed: 7

Endurance: 9

Rank: 5

Courage: 10

Fireblast: 5

Skill: 8

Robot Mode

Evac's robot mode is quite nice actually, he's mostly blue with black upper-legs and silver inner-lower-legs and lower torso. His upper arms also feature some red between the "elbow" and shoulder.

His torso is made from his vehicle mode hood and what looks like is supposed to be his engine (it's actually some faux-parts that form the undercarriage in vehicle mode). His chest features his three grill-guns in the center, giving him, yes - boob guns with his Auotbot insignia set just above. His windscreen is left on his back to act as a back-packof sorts. His head is sculpted with a basic helmet covering his silver face, which features light blue optics.

His arms are connected with his torso by a hinge=ball joint combination that also gives the arms it's sole point of articulation (hey, he's a legion toy!). The arms themselves are scuplpted with some fine details, and hands with peg holes sized for his aupplied weapon.

His legs are connected to his torso by the ball joints in his groin, his knees feature a hinge that is only there because it's also needed for the transformation (I'd assume). They are of course sculpted with some details you'd expect, including his feet, which allow him to freely stand with some ease.

As well as the peg holes in the hands, you can mount legion weapons in one of the four peg holes in the lower legs and upper arms.

Vehicle Mode

Evac's vehicle mode is a mostly blue covered-canopy rocket powered buggy. It's apparently based on the cart you ride in on the Transformers: The Ride attraction, but as I've never been on it, I don't know myself. His windscreen is black and is elongated to also act as a "sunroof"of sorts. The rocket on his rear is silver and he also features a set of four rotating black wheels.

His form is sculpted with various cosmetic details including vents and even some guns out of his front grill. His Autobot insignia is located at the very front of this mode, just above the gun-laden grill. This mode features four peg holes for the supplied red blaster weapon (and any other legion weapon) to be mounted into

My Thoughts

My thoughts on this figure? Yikes, he's one of my favourites :) 

One reason I like this toy so much is because of how good he looks in both of his modes, his vehicle mode is just a cool rocket powered buggy, whilst his robot mode is well-rounded and well designed...it also helps that he's in my favourite colour, blue! Of course, since he's a Cyberverse toy, he can also be used in any of the Cyberverse playsets or vehicles, giving him extra levels of fun.

One of the most interesting things to note about this toy is that no-one is quite sure where he's supposed to be put. He was originally meant to be in the DOTM toy line, but he, along with other legion guys like Mirage were put into the Prime toy line, however he's actually a promotional toy for the Transformers: The Ride attraction, along with his deluxe counterpart (who is annoyingly only available at the ride itself at the moment, which, whilst I am a dedicated collector and fan, I'm not going to go to America just to pick up one toy).

Even though this version's been released in the wide-market I actually have never seen him in physical shops, I found mine on Amazon for a reasonable price, so, yeah...YAY!

I do fully recommend this figure for anyone who likes a nice fun figure, who is easy to Transform, yet still looks fantastic, despite it's size class.

Festive December - The Ravage Infiltration

The Ravage Infiltration

"Ravage relies on speed and stealth to succeed"

Flak

Generation: Live Action Movies

Toyline: Revenge of the Fallen/Hunt for the Decepticons

Size Class: Scout

Faction: Autobot

Flak's robot mode is quite stocky and is mostly black and dark grey in colour, he also features some white and black camouflage paint as well. He also features some details coloured in differently like the blue patches on his chest, silver on his abdominal area, brown groin, shoulders and guns and white knees. Flak features a mostly round head which is connected to the torso by a ball joint allowing it some movement. His face is gold with sculpted nose, mouth and chin. His eyes are a black colour and are recessed into his head.

Flak's upper arms are connected to his upper torso by a ball joint allowing it to rotate as much as needed. His elbows are created by a combination of a hinge and a ball joint allowing them to bend inwards fully and rotate as well on the point. His hands are able to fold inwards by a pivot joint at about a 90 degree level. His vehicle mode guns can be rotated on a pivot joint so they can act as handheld weapons for his robot mode, complete with handles/triggers that fit inside his half-closed sculpted fist.

Flak's waist is created by a pivot joint that allows it to rotate 360 degrees at the point. The upper legs are connected to that by a pair of ball joints that allow them to rotate as needed, the knees are created using a ball joint as well that allows them to bend and rotate as desired. The feet are connected by a hinge joint that allows them to bend backwards is desired depending on the surface he's on. Flak's vehicle mode plough is used here as a shin guard of sorts to protect his lower legs.

Flak's vehicle mode is a mostly dark grey pick up truck with a pair of brown guns on the roof and a black plough on the front. This mode features several aesthetic features such as headlights, front grill, black tinted windows, doors, exhaust pipes and various other details like storage areas and intake points.

Flak's wheels are able to spin around freely and so long as his robot mode knees are folded in properly he won't get caught up on anything on the floor.

Rollbar

Generation: Live Action Movies

Toyline: Revenge of the Fallen/Hunt for the Decepticons

Size Class: Scout

Faction: Autobot

Rollbar is a mostly light grey and black robot with some white and black camouflage deco visible as well. His head is connected to the top of his torso by a ball joint that allows it to move around as much as needed, including being turned to side to side and nodding. His head features a black helmet around a silver face with green visor optics. His face is sculpted with a nose and cheeks as well as a small mouth inside a mouth plate recess (so fictionally he could have a retractable mouth plate).

Rollbar's upper arms are connected to his upper torso by a hinge and ball joint combination, allowing them to be folded inwards a bit and to rotate on the joint as much as needed. Rollbar's elbow is created by a pair of hinges that allow them to bend inwards at two close points at about 90 degrees each. His arms also feature sculpted hands with fingers that are unable to hold anything. The tops of Rollbar's arms also feature his vehicle mode guns that can be repositioned in pretty much any way as long as it's still connected to his arms to be used fictionally as cannons for his robot mode as well.

Rollbar's waist is able to rotate on a pivot that allows it to rotate as far as needed unless obstructed by something. The upper legs are connected to his waist by a pair of ball joints allowing them to rotate as needed again. His knees are created by a singe hinge joint allowing them to bend backwards by about 90 degrees so he can sit down if needed luckily. Rollbar's feet are connected by a pin joint that allows them to be folded backwards and are supported by a similarly jointed heel as well allowing them to be supportive in most appropriate surfaces.

Rollbar turns into a gun mounted military dune buggy. He also features working free spinning wheels, bumpers, aesthetic lights and other such expected details from a buggy mode. Rollbar's driver's area is sculpted with a non-moving steering wheel, and his robot mode arms are repurposed here as seats (though there's a big hole at the bottom so it's nt too sensible to stay inside him when he's driving, especially if it's over a sharp or hot surface)

Rollbar's colour scheme is essentially the opposite of Flak's where he has a light grey instead of black. His guns are black and gold

Ravage

Generation: Live Action Movies

Toyline: Revenge of the Fallen/Hunt for the Decepticons

Size Class: Legends

Faction: Decepticon

Ravage is a silver-black Quadroped robot with a single red optic on his head, an opened fanged mouth (which cannot close). Ravage's tail is connected to the rear of his body by a hinge that allows it to wag up and down and spin on the tip as well. Ravage also features a back mounted cannon that clips into a slot and allows it to rotate on the axis as far as possible depending on obstructions.

Ravage's limbs are connected by ball joints that allows them to rotate as needed, the rear legs feature a knee joint created by a pivot joint that allows it to bend inwards as needed. Ravage's feet are connected to the bottoms of the legs by pivot joints that allows them to fold inwards and out as needed for balance.

Ravage's first alternate mode is a fish-like missile that features a face-like front which could be used as a blade for slicing obstacles in fiction. Ravage also has a set of wings/fins on the sides. The guns from his robot mode are still intact as before.

Ravage's second alternate mode is an entry-pod mode that is essentially just a fully folded in and collapsed version of the previous modes that somewhat resembles those seen in the first movie's toyline.

Soldiers

This toy set comes with three human figures, two have the coolant guns seen in the first movie (the guys who attacked Bumblebee under the bridge) and the third has a machine gun weapon ready to kill Ravage if needed.

My Thoughts

Over all, I'd say that this set is quite fun, the figures are new characters (except Ravage of course) and not just another Bumblebee to add to the pile. They look nice and have a matching motif of being camouflaged military vehicles, and when combined with Ravage are able to emulate the scene in Revenge of the Fallen where Ravage breaks into NEST to steal the Allspark sliver.

This set is especially good since due to whatever reasons, it has become one of the few UK exclusive sets to exist in the modern franchise.

Despite both of the larger figures being repaints of figures that have been repainted a lot now (with Rollbar's mold having at least three other uses to my knowledge!) they both still look great and even feel new when you look at them. The little humans are just repaints from the Screen Battle sets from the first movie, so they aren't important at all, just throw them in a drawer if you want to!

In my opinion this set is definitely worth getting, if only for the sake of using it to tease the American fans who have no easy way to grab a set for themselves ;)

Festive December - Sandstorm

Sandstorm

"Sandstorm was built to survive for extended periods in the harshest climates. Anything Earth can throw at him, he can endure and come out smiling. He requires the same fortitude from his human partner, Private Dedcliff, a Special Forces survival expert with years of experience. Together, they hunt Decepticons in the most remote places on the planet."

Generation: Live Action Movies

Toyline: Dark of the Moon

Faction: Autobot

Size Class: Basic Human Alliance

Strength: 6

Intelligence: 5

Speed: 5

Endurance: 8

Rank: 4

Courage: 8

Fireblast: 4

Skill: 4

Robot Mode

Sandstorm is a mostly green robot with some grey, black and red parts as well. His Autobot insignia is located on the very top of his chest.

Sandstorm's chest is concealed behind a black panel that can be opened outwards so you can either pretend to have him bear the Matrix or something or you can have his human partner sit on it as a chair. He features some pipes at either side that you can lower by about 90 degrees if needed. Sandstorm's head is connected to the torso by a pivot joint that allows it to rotate fully allowing him to look to either side. His waist is able to rotate on a pivot joint, so he can gyrate as needed. You can also store his gun on the bar on his back thanks to his C-Clip, which is quickly becoming a common feature on Transformers.

His head is stylized like most other Movie continuity figures but prominently features a silver face area with mouth, nose and chin, a pair of blue eyes and a red upside down trident style head decoration.

Sandstorm's arms are connected to the upper torso by a connector piece and a ball joint allowing it to move very freely as needed. His shoulders feature his rear vehicle mode wheels, but thye don't interfere with his mobility at all. His elbow joint is created with a ball joint meaning that it can bend inwards and to the sides as far as needer for poses, the hands are connected to the lower arms by a hinge joint that allows it to bend inwards by about 90 degrees. His hands are simply sculpted with digits and details, so they aren't actually articulated, however he does feature a standard peg hole allowing him to hold his supplied gun in either hand.

If you want to, you can fold his hands in and use his vehicle mode triple exhaust pipes as a retractable gun in this mode too.

The upper legs are connected to the lower torso by a ball joint at the sides of the groin allowing them as free a movement as possible without obstructions. The knees are created from a pivot joint that allows them to bend backwards b about 90 degrees (like a normal knee). His feet are connected to the lower legs by a pivot-ball joint combination that allows them to be positioned in pretty much any way needed depending upon the standing surface it's on. Despite having the front vehicle wheels on the sides of his feet he can't skate on them (aww).

Vehicle Mode

Sandstorm's vehicle mode is a mostly green military dune buggy which features an exposed driver's cockpit which features a seat for the driver and an immobile steering wheel.

The vehicle mode also features a pair of triple piped exhaust pipes at the rear (which can be raised upwards if needed) and a set of four large brown treaded wheels, which are fully mobile, so ong at the surface is flat and smooth. He also features some sculpted headlights etc that you'd expect to see on a ground based vehicle Transformer.

Sandstorm features a strange connector at the back which doesn't seem to do anything, however it has to be rotated around depending on what mode he's in, so maybe it does have a purpose, or it used to have one, I'm not sure.

Sandstorm's gun (and any C-Clip compatible weapons as well) can be clipped onto the buggy's bars to gun him an extra weapon if desired.

Base Mode

The "base mode" is essentially a folded out version of Sandstorm's vehicle mode. The main changes are that he's been rendered immobile thanks to his wheels being off the ground, although he is still stable thanks to some support struts etc. His vehicle mode exhaust pipes have been turned into guns in this mode and also come with some levers/handles for the operator to manipulate.

The vehicle mode cockpit has been retained, but flipped over by 90 degrees, meaning that the operator sits down on what was the back of the chair and leans against what was the seat before. An added feature that wasn't accessible in the other modes are some deployable missiles that are extended by just pushing the seat backwards.

Sandstorm's gun is able to be connected to any of the bars available by using the C-Clip, like in the previous mode too.

Private Dedcliff

Dedcliff is just an annoying little figure designed to interact with Sandstorm when in his alternate modes (as shown here) he doesn't do anything too spectacular, he has bendable areas on his upper legs, knees and shoulders. He has disturbing little dead black eyes, so I like to pretend that he's just a holo-avatar for him to use (considering he's an open-top vehicle). I tend to just keep him locked up in a box with the other human figures in my collection.

My Thoughts

I actually really like this figure, he's small, so he's affordable all three of his modes are interesting and fun to play with and he even comes with a small human to act as a holo-avatar (or a real human if you prefer to use toys as they're meant to)

Over all this is probably my favourite non-screen character toy from the DOTM line so far (as of the end of 2011 anyway) so I'd strongly advise anyone to buy him, he'd make a good Christmas present to either a friend, family member or even to you!

Also a weird thing I've noticed is that Sandstorm is very similar in basic design to the Cybertron series toy Hardtop, who also turns into a military buggy, has a removable gun and some very striking similarities to Sandstorm...maybe this guy was intended as an update on his toy?

Mini November - Cyberverse Legion Flak

Flak

"The Battle tactics Flak invented might be unusual, but he know they'd work - if only he could get them tested out on the battlefield."

Generation: Live Action Movies

Toy Line: Dark of the Moon

Size Class: Cyberverse Legion

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 6

Intelligence: 6

Speed: 7

Endurance: 9

Rank: 4

Courage: 9

Fireblast: 6

Skill: 3

Robot Mode

Flak's robot mode uses a green and brown camouflage deco and has black chest windows and a silver Autobot insignia on his stomach.

Flak's face is silver and features sculpted blue eyes and a sculpted face mask. His helmet is brown and features a swept back design on it and a small chevron on top as well. Flak has a backpack on his back that holds his gun turret and allows it to hang over his right shoulder. Though the gun is unable to actually fire, though it can move up and down, like in vehicle mode.

Flak's legs are connected to his lower legs at the groin by a set of ball joint connectors, which allows them to be raised forwards and back as far as possible without hitting other body parts. His legs have otherwise got no articulation and are just solid. His feet are just forward protrusions, which enable him to stand freely in robot mode.

Flak's arms are connected to his upper body by a hinge and ball joint combination that allows them to move at quite a surprising amount of articulation for such a small figure. the hinge allows them to be lowered and raised at a range of about 90 degrees, and his ball joint allows the actual arm to rotate on the axis fully. Flak's elbow is created by a pin joint that allows him to bend the lower arm inwards by about 90 degrees. His right hand features a sculpted grip that allows him to interact with the Cyberverse playsets and other accessories, whilst his left hand is just sculpted with an open hand.

Vehicle Mode

Flak turns into a gun mounted personnel carrier in a green and brown camouflage deco. It's sculpted with detailing such as side windows, ladders and ports across his form. His Autobot insignia is located on his very front, but is coloured in a silver that is hard to see unless the light is shining on it.

Flak's wheels are fully capable of moving, allowing him to roll along a smooth surface if desired. Flak's gun turret is also able to move up and down at a 180 degree point from the pin joint, although you can also rotate the turret, it looks off as it's only really meant to be for the transformation sequence.

My Thoughts

Flak is one of my favourite new figures, despite his small size he is actually a very good toy, he has reasonable articulation for a toy of his size, his vehicle mode looks good and actually has some special features! Not only that, but Flak actually seems to be in scale with some of his fellow Cyberverse toys like Guzzle (not to mention having similar colour schemes as well)

Something that strikes me about this figure is that it could make a very nice Movie continuity Ironfist/Fisitron toy as well (repainted obviously, possibly with a new head) or even a Hardhead toy (based on his IDW continuity Earth Mode)

In my very honest opinion, if you see this toy you should grab him, whether it means you have to cut down on about £4 of your shopping or not., he is well worth it, especially if you have any of the playsets or additional Cyberverse figures (Guzzle in particular)

Familial October - Arcee, Chromia and Elita One

The Sisters

The Bike Trio are an interesting set of characters, and here they are:

Arcee

"Arcee jumped at the chance to join up with Ironhide and the other Decepticon hunters on Earth. She proved such an effective warrior that she was quickly given command of her own strike team, made up of robots similar to her in attitude and design. Together with the Autobots she leads, she stalks the Decepticons in silence, creeping close enough to look them in the optics before she strikes.

"

Toyline: Revenge of the Fallen

Generation: Live Action Movies

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 8

Intelligence: 6

Speed: 8

Endurance: 5

Rank: 5

Courage: 7

Fireblast: 7

Skill: 9

Robot Mode

Arcee's alternate mode is odd, she has a serpentine-style design where her upper and lower bodies are connected by a segmented connector similar to a snake's body.

Arcee's body is mostly pink with black added for the limbs, wheels and connectors. Arcee's body also features some silver detailing such as on her arms, upper body and face.

Arcee's torso is designed to emulate a woman's bosy with noticable abdominal areas and a feminine chest (if you mistook her for a male character then I feel sorry for you). Arcee's head is connected to the torso by a combination of a gear-based hinge and a ball joint that allows it to rotate to either side and nod up and down. Her face is silver and surrounded by a pink helmet and uses a lot of angular shapes, like triangles to create cheekbones, a chin, nose and chevrons, giving her a very feminine look (better than some other attempts). Her face features a light-piping effect that gives her pale blue lit up eyes.

Arcee's arms are connected to her torso at the left side by a ball joint connector that gives it great freedom of movement, which leads to an elbow joint created from another ball joint, again giving it a great amount of movement. Arcee's left hand to sculpted with dainty fingers, and the hand is able to fold in on itself, thanks to the transformation sequence she uses. This arm also features a black weapon created from her licence plate area from vehicle mode, which is flipped around by 180 degrees, and has a button that releases her translucent blue blade weapon.

Arcee's right arm is connected by a hinge connector that is hidden by her vehicle mode windscreen and surrounding area, creating a shoulder. Arcee's actual arm is connected to that by a ball joint that again gives it great mobility, and again leading to an elbow created by a ball joint connecting to the lower arm. Arcee's lower arm is surrounded by a chunk of her vehicle mode's shell that could be used as a shield or a make-shift bladed weapon if desired.

Arcee's snake-like connector is created by three black pieces that are connected to the upper torso by a ball joint and to the lower body by another ball joint and hinge combination. The inner piece of the connector is connected by a pivot joint and a hinge joint respectively. As can be assumed here, the number of joints in this section allows Arcee to be very flexible in this mode, allowing you to pose her in pretty much any pose you need, however, due to the excessive usage of the ball-joints, they do wear out pretty fast, so you may want to use some nail varnish to make them thicker and restrengthen them after a while.

Arcee's lower body is essentially her vehicle mode wheels and their gears etc folded in on themselves, creating a pair of wheel-based limbs for her (like what Sideswipe and Demolishor also have in this continuity) however, unlike those two,Arcee can use a stand in this mode to keep her standing upright (as seen in my pictures). However if you have a surface with indents made especially for her, or that has a malleable texture and can be reshaped as needed, then you can gte her to stand without it.

Vehicle Mode

Arcee's vehicle mode is a pink and black motorcycle with a set of Cyberglyphics on either side, and features some sculpted features like her windshield, translucent headlights, handlebars with brakes, twine exhaust pipes, wheel spokes, plastic tyres, licence Plate, gears, chains and seat, along with other smaller features.

Arcee's wheels are each capable of rotating on their axis' and she also features a working kickstand for her to being to stand upright (or as upright as possible for a two-wheeler).

Arcee's stand, which enables her to stand upright in robot mode is also used in vehicle mode in one of two ways, with as a pair of non-firing side-cannons, which clicks into the right side of his rear wheel, or as a side car that clips into the left side of his rear wheel. You can place a Mini-Con or a small Human figure from another toyline in there to enjoy the ride as well. In either of these configurations, Arcee doesn't need her kickstand deployed.

Chromia

"Chromia is as tough as nails, and always spoiling for a fight. She's been friends with Ironhide for centuries, and their reunion on Earth was one of the high points of the war for both of them. Now they work side by side, hunting and destroying Decepticons. Neither of them has ever been happier. The two robots make great partners, and she, along with her sisters are an invaluable part of the team."

Toyline: Revenge of the Fallen

Generation: Live Action Movies

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 7

Intelligence: 7

Speed: 8

Endurance: 5

Rank: 5

Courage: 9

Fireblast: 8

Skill: 4

Robot Mode

Chromia's robot mode is very different to Arcee's but in concept is actually very similar, her upper and lower bodies are separated by a snake-like connector (though this one is much more simpler than Arcee's)

Chromia's body is a combination of blue, black, grey and silver for her detailings. Her torso is very similar in design to Arcee's, but in a slightly different set up. Her head is connected to a hinge and ball joint combination like Arcee's and her face in general has the same basic design as Arcee (suitable for a triplet character) Chromia features a pair of blue painted eyes, but she also has a light piping feature, but due to the eyes being painted it's been neutered.

Chromia features a pair of shoulder pads above her arms that come from the bulk of her vehicle mode. Her arms themselves are connected to the torso by a ball joint each, giving them some movement. Her lower arms are connected by an elbow joint created from a pair of hinges on each arm that allows them to bend inwards and upwards about 90 degrees each way. Chromia's right arm also features a large cannon created from the bulk of the rear of her vehicle mode that features a firing missile, with the trigger on the underside of the weapon. Chromia features an immobile sculpted hand on her left arm, but not on her right.

Chromia's lower body is connected to the upper by a pair of grey connectors that form her snake-like inner body that can be reposed to allow her to bend forwards, lean back and much more. The lower body iself is made up of her rear vehicle mode wheel that can be folded inwards (along with the opening hatch on her vehicle mode) to create a wheeled limb, like her sister has. Again, like Arcee she comes with a stand that can be used to keep her from falling over.

Now in my case I position Chromia's movable kibble pieces differently from Elita's so as to differentiate between them easier. In my Chromia's case I keep the wheel found behind her head upright, as she is most commonly seen in this manner in fiction. For my version I also rotate her headlights to point forwards with her handlebars folded inwards. I also fold in her hatch opening and wheel so that the hatch is basically unseen and it looks like it isn't even there, but the wheel is fully visible. Her stand is positioned so it fully encases her wheel and the pair of guns are pointed forwards (the same direction as her large gun and headlights).

Vehicle Mode

Chromia's vehicle mode is a blue, black and silver motorcycle with white Cyberglyphics across her form. Arcee features working wheels and kickstand like Arcee does, but also features a moving handlebar, brakes and light segment, that allows it to rotate either way (as if you were veering to the left or right) and also has a hatch in the center that can open upwards for you to pretend to put things in there (like your helmet when leaving it or your lunch, like on a real bike). Chromia also has a firing missile between her exhaust pipes, although the actual trigger is hidden in this mode.

Chromia's extra sculpted features include a gas intake valve, gears, chains, twin exhaust pipes, licence plate that can be lowered to act as a wheel guard for the rear wheel too, sculpted wheels and other smaller pieces of detail.

Chromia's stand from robot mode can be reused here, like Arcee's could as well, but in a different way. In Chromia's case you can clip it onto the ports just in front of the rear wheels that allows her to stand there straight, with cannons beneath her, and due to the positioning of it, can also be made to look like she's performing a wheelie by just pushing down on the rear point of the motorcycle.

This stand can otherwise be inserted into the slots found on the two exhaust pipes and be used as a pair of extra weapons, including a pair of gatling guns. In this mode you need the kickstand open or hold her up manually, otherwise she'll fall over.

Elita-1

"Though she is a sister to Arcee, Elita-1 has more in common with Sideswipe. She and the swordsman team up whenever possible - especially if it means they can get away somewhere nice to do a little Decepticon hunting. This time, the two Autobots have found themselves up against Axor, who should present just enough of a challenge to make things interesting."

Toyline: Transformers 2010 line/Hunt for the Decepticons

Generation: Live Action Movies

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 4

Intelligence: 9

Speed: 8

Endurance: 5

Rank: 6

Courage: 8

Fireblast: 6

Skill: 6

Robot Mode

Elita One's body is the same as Chromia's (SHOCKING!) but of course features her own colour-scheme or black, metallic purple, grey and silver. Her eyes feature a blue light piping effect.

As she shares the same design as Chromia, there's no point in me just repeating the previous review's robot mode section, I'll just mention my own changes in how I pose her kibble.

Mostly Elita is the same as Chromia, but I fold back the wheel from behind her head fully, mostly hiding it from forward view, and I also leave the lights and handlebars as they were in vehicle mode, with the lights pointing upwards (towards her face) and the handlebars outwards. I also leave her storage hatch opened up and kept in front of her wheel, and rests on the front of it.

An additional change I make is with the stand. I connect it in the opposite fashion to how I do with Chromia, so the guns are pointing out backwards, and could be missed when seen from the front. Remember, optical illusions are your friends when it comes to repaints!!!

Vehicle Mode

Elita-1's alternate mode is the same as Chromia's except for the colour applications. Elita's colouration is a combination of silver, black and metallic/chome purple that works very well, even if I do say so myself.

Elita comes with more Cyberglyphics across her form (same as Chromia's but in different places) and features all the same sculpting details and working features as Chromia.

Elita's major difference in terms of details is her Licence Plate, which features a "leet/1337" version of her name "3L 174" (ELITA).

Elita of course features the same stand as Chromia, and it can be used in exactly the same ways again, there's nothing new to add here.

Combined Mode

As I'm sure is very well know, the combined form of the sisters was abandoned officially by Hasbro before Elita-1 was created, and thus Elita was made into a pure repaint of Chromia meaning that any combined form you make from them will look just wrong. But the one I pictures above seems to work well (enough) and is pretty easy to make, you just fold out their connector pieces (found on their backs) and slide them into each other creating a small triangle between them, and then repose Arcee into a laid-back position and have the two mold mates standing up.

This combined mode isn't great, but it's something at least. She isn't able to move any easier or release any new weapons in this mode, but it'll do for it's purpose...you might want to just ignore this mode and just look at the pretty motorcycles below....

there! Wasn't that a much nicer picture to look at that Abomination Gal? Yeah...just try to forget the previous picture..'kay?

My Thoughts?

The bike Trio are quite unique in that their toys were released across two toy lines (ROTF and HFTD) and on top of that, the third member, Elita-1 was merely made a repaint of the earlier Chromia toy (which led me to positioning her vehicle mode parts in different ways between the two to help differentiate between them). Also, because Elita-1 was hanged from an individual mold to a repaint, the combined form ISN'T what it was originally meant to be, but rather what I decided looks best, considering what I had available to me.

And interesting point I should make here is that all three of these girls actually had a counterpart in the first Movie's toy line as well. Arcee of course had her Deluxe class toy which was based on the concept created for her when she was intended to be in the movie originally, but the two Scout class Energon Arcee repaints in that line are actually very similar to the paint schemes on the other two toys (the blue Arcee toy as Chromia, and the black and chrome-like purple Elita One as he new counterpart, which ironically means that Elita was a repaint of Chromia AGAIN!).

The three sisters have been used in the comics and novels for the movies since the start and have been around for several key events (the launching of the Allspark, Starscream's Reign etc) but in the recent, pre-DOTM comics the Elita-1 character was killed off, and her sister's fates have been left unclear as of yet.

Arcee has been in the Transformers franchise since the G1 Cartoon Movie, where she was introduced as a female Autobot who could turn into a futuristic sports car. Very unusually for a main character in the series, Arcee never received a toy. However in 2001, Arcee received a Botcon toy of herself for the Universe line, and was a repaint of Transmetal II Black Arachnia, and later also received a Binaltech toy, which was a repaint of Decepticharge (who was also meant to have a repaint as Black Arachnia as well coincidentally). Arcee has also gone on to appear in the Energon TV series and Animated series, where she received a new toy in each (Motorcycle and Sports Car respectively). As well as the aforementioned Movie 1 Arcee toys, this version of Arcee has also been repainted as additional versions of herself, as well as receiving some smaller toys as well, in the Legends and Fast Action Battler sizes.

Chromia has actually been in the franchise longer than Arcee, though she has been used a lot less that the former female, she was introduced in the G1 TV series during Season 2 along with Elita One's G1 Counterpart as well. However unlike Arcee, Chromia has only ever received a toy in one other continuity. She received a toy in the Botcon 2005 set, which was a repaint of Energon Arcee (see some repetition here yet?). She has also received a Legends class toy, and the aforementioned re-purposing of Arcee's Movie 1 Scout toy.

Elita-1 premièred in the Transformers franchise at the same time as Chromia and was revealed to be the female counterpart/sister of Optimus Prime, both being rebuilt by Alpha Trion after being "killed" by Megatron. Elita's G1 counterpart received her first toy at Botcon 2009, where she was a mostly pink repaint of the Cybertron Thunderblast toy (at least she's not yet another bike!), and the aforementioned Movie 1 Scout toy of course.

Elita-1 was originally announced to be called Flareup, named for the Botcon 2005 character who shared a mold with Chromia, but this was soon changed when the toy was announced. Also, the toy itself looks completely different to the character seen in the movie and comics, in terms of colour and body type (not shockingly considering that she's a repaint). The colour change was most likely done to make her look more similar to her Movie 1 counterpart.

Over all, I really like this batch of toys, it was fun to collect all three over time, and despite the third member being just a repaint, I still think it was well worth it in the end. Their snake-like designs have been well translated from the character models to toy-form (within reason of course, it would be impossible to have made them look exactly screen accurate).