Fall of Cybertron Air Raid

Generations is a sub-division of the primary Transformers line, used primarily to bring characters from media other than the current cartoon to toy shelves for kids and collectors. Generations started life in 2008 as Transformers:Universe and was mostly garish repaints of older molds, but the line changed names and got a better handle on what it was offering by the time High Moon Studio's highly successful War for Cybertron video game hit shelves in 2010 to give us really fantastic versions of Megatron, Prime, Bumblebee and Soundwave based on their game designs. To this day, War for Cybertron Soundwave is one of my all time favorite versions of the character. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to hear Hasbro had plans of releasing figures based off of War's sequel, Fall of Cybertron! The first wave was...a little less than exciting. Rising costs for labor and materials meant higher prices for smaller, less decorated figures containing less metal (which in some cases means less structural stability.) Really, only Shockwave was worth the sixteen dollars in my mind, Prime and Jazz will have to wait for Marshall's/T.J. Maxx runs. Long story short, I was planning on spending less money on Transformers from here on out if this was the trend, but the latest wave of Generations deluxe class figures changed my mind. To find out why, let's look at one such figure, Air Raid.

Air Raid in Generation One was one of the Aerialbots, a team of Autobot jets who combined to form the super robot Superion. Though I believe this is meant to be the same character, this Cybertronian Air Raid will not be joining his fellow Aerialbots in combination anytime soon as he is a clever repaint and slight retool of Generations Shockwave released a few months ago.

"Do I know you?"

Yes, this heroic Autobot owes his form to one of the most nefarious Decepticons! A new head, chest plate and color scheme goes a long way however and even side by side, they are clearly two distinct figures. Some have complained that this is cheap even for a repaint, as neither the robot body, nor the alt mode (more on that later) really scream "Air Raid." This doesn't bother me however as this is meant to represent Air Raid before he came to Earth, possibly before the Autobots even had combiner technology (depending on which canon you're going by), it's not really a big deal. In his defense, Fall of Cybertron Air Raid does have a similarly shaped head and a large amount of red in his paint scheme like his G1 predecessor (descendant?) and his silver detailing could stand in for the original Air Raid's white in a pinch. To throw things off even further, this figure was originally announced as Fireflight, a different Aerialbot with more red and a bit of gold in his G1 color scheme. The name changed to Air Raid before his actual release, undoubtedly due to a legal snag of some sort. I sort of wish he had remained Fireflight however, as the name seems more appropriate with the blazing red and gold color choices on the final figure.



As I mentioned, two of the biggest changes from Shockwave to Air Raid are the additions of an entirely new head sculpt and a new chest plate. The head is a cool, but almost generic helmet plus face plate combo with the visor lighting up red due to light piping. Sadly, his head still only swivels like Shockwave's. The chest plate is interesting with two shallow, gold rimmed cavities on either side lined with hexagonal translucent red cells within, bridged by two mechanical "arm" like details extending from a central panel with a nice bright Autobot symbol on it. The overall effect is like some sort of energy collection array, except on his chest. But these are not the only new features Air Raid sports.



Air Raid has quite a few weapons available to him, including a slightly modified version of Shockwave's arm cannon. Instead of the three barrels that Shockwave's sports, Air Raid's cannon has only two so that it can better interact with another of his accessories. The cannon can still be wielded on it's own however, and can be held in Air Raid's fist or be pegged to his wrist if you fold in his hand. I've found that it does not peg quite as tightly as Shockwave's did however. Though considering how much I had to fight to get his off for a couple of pictures in this review, that might be a good thing.



An entirely new accessory comes in the form of this gun and/or sword weapon. The translucent red blade can fold under to form a short "nailgun" style blaster as seen here or be extended fully to be a gun-blade of sorts. This piece can also snap onto the two-barreled cannon to form a slightly larger blaster with extra barrels when hand held or be clipped to his hand fully extended to give Air Raid a literal sword arm.

Like so

There is still one more new piece added to this figure and I absolutely spoiled it by accident in the last picture, so before we move on to that, let's rattle off articulation real fast. Air Raid's articulation scheme is identical to Shockwave's but to the unaware, that means swivel neck, shoulders that pivot forward, back and hinge out, inward/outward hinges right above the elbows, ball joint elbows, hinged wrists, ball joint hips, mid-thigh swivels, hinge knees and toes that can point if need be.



And now onto a sweet sword! This weapon is my favorite new addition because it feels like we don't get that many sword wielding robots these days. The sword is cast in more translucent red with nice silver and brownish-bronze detailing and splits down the center of the blade. Not because it's awesome battle damage action or anything, but because Air Raid still has one more surprise up his sleeve. Er...cowling.



Spread the halves of the smaller sword's blades and peg it into the handle of the larger sword and you get a really big, impossible to realistically swing sword! This is a nice play feature, but what I really appreciate about this modular weapon system is the sheer variety you can get out of three weapon pieces and a few connection points on the figure. Being able to hold a weapon in either hand, connect a sword or cannon to either arm, connect his sword to his cannon, connect all three into his mega-sword and/or still carry a weapon on the peg hole in his back makes Air Raid very versatile and gives you tons of options of what he might need on "missions." And I totally commend Hasbro for this, all the figures in this wave have either larger than normal weapons or several smaller weapons that combine in different ways. To me at least, this says the Hasbro understands our displeasure at higher prices and smaller figures and has given us larger or more plentiful accessories as a trade off. I can live with myself a little easier when my sixteen dollar figure makes me feel it's worth those sixteen dollars.



Vehicle mode is where I can at least understand where "This isn't Air Raid" complaints are coming from. While for Shockwave, a ship that is essentially a flying cannon is perfect, the design is less of a fit for Air Raid. The new weapon pieces give it a different central "engine" and the new chest plate and sword attached to the top break up the outline a little, but it's a stretch. The best  I can come up with is that this class of ship is a fairly common patrol cruiser or what have you on Cybertron and a few characters use variations of it as their alt modes. The new larger sword piece is cleverly notched to lie flush against Air Raid's torso in vehicle mode, but unfortunately the edge of the blade projects in such a way that the ship cannot rest flat on a level surface and always leans one way or the other.

"Seriously, did we go to high school or something?"

While Air Raid tends to have more paint aps overall when compared to Shockwave, one area that really could have used a spot of paint is the triangular arrangement of emitters at the bow of the craft.



As you can see here, Shockwave got some light pink detailing to show the energy storing up within his cannon, while Air Raid looks a little bare without having that area painted. A touch more gold or silver paint on these details would have gone a long way, but seeing as how the review is almost over and that is the only negative thing I've found to say, Air Raid's doing pretty well.

"I DON'T KNOW YOU!"

All in all, I think Air Raid is a fantastic entry in the Generations line. Toy collecting has hit a bit of a rough spot in recent years due to increasing costs of pretty much everything and some companies (Hasbro included to be fair) are experimenting with reducing the number of paint applications, points of articulation and accessories some toys have in an attempt to keep prices reasonable, but it's nice to see that while some of them might be shrinking a little or losing weight, Tranformers is a brand that continues to try to give you bang for your buck. If around sixteen bucks sounds like a reasonable price to you, I highly recommend hunting down Air Raid and his case mates. Really, every figure in this wave (except maybe Swerve) is great looking and has fun accessories, you owe it to yourself to have a look. Keep in mind Air Raid will also be made available in Japan soon with a much darker color scheme of black, maroon and orange under their version of the Generations banner for around thirty dollars from importers if you don't mind spending a little extra for a very cool deco.

Arms Micron Dark Matter Caliber

Way back in 2002, Transformers: Armada introduced us to the idea of Minicons; small Transformers of a neutral third faction that unlocked and enhanced abilities in their larger cousins when utilized, typically by just smashing them onto convenient points on their bodies. Though Armada was geared specifically around the Minicons, both in importance to the plot and in the toys, they continued to serve a supporting role throughout the subsequent toy lines and cartoons for the Energon and Cybertron series. After that, they faded into the background a bit in North American markets, reduced mainly to occasional repaints of earlier molds and a brief resurgence in the sadly short-lived Power Core subline. In Japan however, the tiny robots kept going through a flurry of repaints, many of them extremely limited and related to in store contests. Until the latest animated installment, Transformers: Prime shook things up a little.

When Takara/Tomy started showing off their versions of the Prime toys, the molds had been retooled to include 5mm ports in various spots and in place of character-specific weapons, personal Microns (the Japanese name for Minicons) that transformed into character-specific weapons were included instead. This move intrigued me as one of my weaknesses is small companions for larger figures, but price and the fact that the proper Autobot and Decepticon figures relied on stickers in lieu of a lot of the more intricate paint applications of their US cousins stayed my hand. Released just this month however were the six individually packaged Microns pictured above. The bottom three are repaints of molds available only with larger figures before now and are a review for another day. The top row however, are three all new Microns in service of the Decepticons with a powerful secret, The Dark Matter Caliber Team!

These fellows are part of what's known as the Arms Micron Weapon Series, marked "AMW-0X" on the packaging where X is whatever number figure it happens to be. Said packaging is a simple plastic envelope containing the plastic sprue of parts, a small sticker sheet and a printed insert that serves as both package art/information and instruction sheet. Each Arms Micron is essentially a small model kit as you have to snap the parts off the sprue and assemble them yourself, adding detail with a few stickers.



I have yet to see any official names for the individual Dark Matter Caliber team members beyond their AMW designations, so I'm just going to refer to them as the animals they resemble. In this case, AMW-01 is a sting ray cast in an almost pearly gray plastic. Of the three, this Micron's animal mode is the biggest stretch. He has a long, pointed tail and "horns" near the mouth similar to those of a manta ray, but the rest is debatable. The "wings" have large holes in them due to their use in the other modes and no ray on Earth has a face that creepy. (Edit: I've since read that this guy is actually supposed to be a horseshoe crab and not a sting ray. This makes more sense in some ways, but less in others.)



Seriously. Look at that singular, red eye. Those serrated mouth parts. He's evil. This is a good place to point out that both his eye and the Decepticon symbol under the yellow crystal are stickers. Tiny, nigh-impossible to place with my giant sausage fingers stickers. The eye stickers for these guys especially are incredibly miniscule, I held my breath while putting them on.



The sting ray transforms into a crossbow like weapon, straightening out the ray wings into bow arms, flipping the tail around and extending a triangular bit at the front that looks somewhat like the head of a bolt. This one confused the hell out of me when I first saw pictures of it as when not in the context of being held as a weapon, it looks like nothing more than a bladed dradle of death!



It's actually a pretty nice weapon now that I've had it in hand to look over, holes due to the combination aspect of the team give it a dual-barreled appearance and there are a lot of technical details spread across the main section. It reminds me of bowcasters used by the Wookiees in various Star Wars media and anything reminiscent of Chewie and his laser-crossbow is a winner in my book.



AMW-02 is a bird of prey of some sort, cast in a slightly metallic silvery-gray plastic. Personally, I think of him as a condor since he resembles Generation One Laserbeak both in appearance and transformation, he even has the same landing-skid feet that Laserbeak had!



The condor's spark crystal is located on his back, right between two intake looking details (another Laserbeak nod?) and above his surprisingly detailed little tail. I should mention that the stickers for these guys are on thick paper and seem to be holding well, but I worry about areas like the edges of the condor and sting rays wings where the stickers have to bend over curves as some areas are already peeling up.



AMW-02 folds up into a roughly rectangular, cleaver-like blade with a long handle at one end. This is the simplest weapon mode out of the team members, yet it is also the most effective in my view. This is a mean, savage weapon with no finesse or subtlety; you cleave skulls (cyberskulls?) with this blade and wipe the blood (oil?) clean on the corpse.



AMW-03 is an alligator, or perhaps crocodile judging from his long snout, cast in a dark gray plastic with his spark crystal housed near the base of his tail. He is fairly detailed with lots of mechanical bits, little accordion tube legs, a ridged spine, serrated teeth and the omnipresent cyclopean red eye of doom. He is also the most articulate member, being able to raise his head upwards a bit and to bend his tail up and down at the base and about half way along the length.

AMW-03 folds up into a stout, four-barreled weapon with a buttstock which makes it very unique looking, but hard for some figures to handle properly. Due to the short profile and added stability of the stock, I imagine this as being a grenade launcher of some sort, adding some heavy firepower to the Transformer who chooses to wield this gator.



Soundwave demonstrates that the Dark Matter Caliber Team individually are firepower enough, but these Microns have one more trick up their sleeves. Back in the days of Armada, a team of Minicon jets known as the Air Defense Team had the ability to merge together to form the legendary Star Saber Sword, a weapon coveted by Autobot and Decepticon alike (well, until they got the Dark Saber) and depending on the writer, this struggle for power represented in the sword was a key factor in why the Minicons wished to stay neutral in the first place. The actual toy versions of the Air Defense Team were cool enough, but the combined sword was a bit lacking as the connection points were too shallow or weak and the blade was likely to just topple off the hilt in even the lightest play scenarios. Well, ten years have passed and guess what? The Dark Matter Caliber itself is a sword formed by these three Microns. Has toy engineering advanced to provide sufficient support or will this be a repeat of the Star Saber?



I'm happy to report that the combined Dark Matter Caliber is quite sturdy and quite impressive. AMW-01 folds up into the point, AMW-03 reconfigures into a hilt and AMW-02...just stays in weapon mode to form the center length of the blade, merging the color and detailing of the three separate Microns into roughly six inches of pure robo-sword goodness. The combined Dark Matter Caliber suffers from none of the Star Saber's weakness, holding tight and being designed in such a way that each point of connection between the figures is reinforced for maximum stability. The sword is quite heavy, so not all your figures may be up to the challenge of wielding the Dark Matter Caliber, but those who can look quite intimidating with it.



Due to the transformations of the elements, the Dark Matter Caliber unfortunately only looks really sword-like from one side and the other is pure kibble. Kids won't care about this however and collectors can display it with the good side facing outward, so this isn't really an issue in my eyes. It is after all three small figures that turn into animals, weapons and parts of a sword, there's only so much a sculptor can do.



The Dark Matter Caliber is, as I mentioned, not available domestically. Each Micron is bagged and sold separately in Japan at most toy and department stores, but if you live in the US, your best bet is turning to an importer. I bought the Microns from Big Bad Toy Store for about eight bucks a pop and you're probably not going to score them for much less. I would strongly recommend them if you like Minicons already, were a fan of the smaller companions of Generation One figures like Headmasters, Targetmasters and Powermasters, or just need some additional firepower for your larger Transformers.

Transformers Cyberverse Soundwave

One of the last Cyberverse Legion class figures released under the Dark of the Moon banner, Soundwave has recently been repainted with a darker color scheme and added weapon holes for the current wave of Legion figures. The treatment of Soundwave in the live action movies has been...unfortunate to say the least. Therefore, let's pretend this is a version of the G1 character and not the satellite rapist who gets killed because the writers needed to show how bad-ass Bumblebee is.

Cast primarily in black plastic, Soundwave also sports a purple nearly as dark as the black, silver on his shins and face and teal on the edges of the "speaker" details on his forearms. His mug is well sculpted, though it is in the style of the standard Bay-verse "face composed of a million tiny panels" Transformers. His tiny eyes are bright red and a small purple Decepticon symbol is tampoed on his right shoulder.



Soundwave's articulation consists of ball jointed shoulders and hips and the ability to splay his legs slightly at the knee due to the transformation. This doesn't allow for a lot of dynamic poses, but it's pretty standard for figures of this size class and isn't a huge deal. Soundwave comes with the weapon of the Legion class Vehicon in the same wave with no changes made to it. The weapon is a blaster with a blade mounted on one side of the barrel like a bayonet and is the same translucent purple plastic of all the Decepticon Legion figures in this wave. The weapon can either be held like a rifle or vertically like a sword due to a post at the end. It also features a post hole on one side, allowing for more custom creations using additional weapons.



Like in the movie, Soundwave transforms into a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, complete with tiny hood ornament. Usually I find it a little odd when Soundwave takes a wheeled vehicle as an alternate mode as it just doesn't seem to fit his character of espionage expert that well, but Soundwave looks pretty slick as a low, sleek sports car.

Soundwave's weapon can be mounted on the roof or either door of the car, though the blade can drag on the ground a little if put on the right side. The wheels spin freely and the vehicle has plenty of clearance off the road.



Legion Soundwave can be found right now at most stores for around five dollars and is worth it if you liked Transformers minibots as a kid or want some small, portable and cheap fun for your own children.

Transformers Cyberverse Breakdown

Normally I don't go for the smaller price point of Transformers, but this current wave of Legion class figures just grabbed me for some reason. Probably the fact that the wave is mostly Decepticons and an obscure Autobot we probably won't be seeing in the states again any time soon. So continuing the Cyberverse reviews, here's Legion class Breakdown!



Breakdown is a large, burly Decepticon that has a rivalry with Autobot bruiser, Bulkhead. Though Bulkhead is a Commander class and Breakdown is only a Legion, he is still a beefy figure for his size with broad shoulders and chest and hulking gorilla arms. Breakdown is mostly navy blue, darker than he appears in my pictures, with black and silver adding detail in the body. A small, light purple Decepticon insignia is centered on his chest and his scowling faceplate is painted bright orange with yellow eyes and a silver crest on his brow.



Articulation, as with most Legion figures, is limited but not terribly so. Breakdown has ball jointed shoulders and hips, hinged elbows that unfortunately only bend inwards and knees that only bend backward. OK reading that, it doesn't sound great, but I swear it's not bad. He can aim his weapon or swing a blade and he can make some interesting poses if you're clever (lord knows I like to think I am.) His weapon is a translucent purple cannon with some nice sculpted detail including a sight and lots of ridges along the length of the barrel, giving it a futuristic heavy machine gun look.



Since his weapon has a handle at the back in addition to the pistol style one, Breakdown can also hold it like a sword. The ridged barrel now gives it the look of a chainsaw sword and the barrel tip is pointed enough to support the image. Held sword like, it actually reminds me a lot of the mini chainsaw from the first Dead Rising game, though I think I'd still be more scared of Adam than Breakdown.



Breakdown's vehicle mode is large, heavy SUV/van combination. Though I don't think it's based off of any particular real world vehicle, it looks like the bastard child of an armored car and a Land Rover with an extremely high body, huge tires and the look of armor plating covering every inch. The vehicle mode matches his personality perfectly, you can easily imagine him ramming unsuspecting Autobots off the road and then transforming to finish the job with his chainsaw sword.



His weapon can peg into either on the two holes on the roof of the van, or into the spare tire mounted on the rear of the vehicle. Though it looks kind of silly there.


"There is no escape Autobot..."

This picture shows what I meant when I mentioned in Evac's review that the weapons in this line can combine to make larger ones. Here, Breakdown wields a giant sword composed of his weapon with a blade from Soundwave and a Vehicon attached to either side.



In the end, Breakdown is pretty decent. If lack of articulation bothers you, he might not be up your alley, but as a Decepticon skull-buster, he works well. He is one of the larger Legion figures currently available (I thought he was a Commander initially when pictures of him first started showing up) and for around six bucks, isn't a bad deal. I like the added play value of his weapon serving a dual purpose and I just really like the character design. I can't remember if Breakdown is slated for a larger class release down the road, but I certainly hope so.

Transformers Cyberverse Evac

Cyberverse is a fairly new subline of Transformers replacing the Legends class as the small, relatively cheap figures who are essentially the modern versions of the Minibots we all (most of us?) grew up with. There are "Legion" and "Commander" subclasses within Cyberverse itself, meaning five dollar and ten dollar figures basically. Today I'm going to show you Evac, a brand new Legion sized Autobot with an interesting back story.



Though the name has been used a couple of times in the past, this Evac is a brand new character. And I hope you like him at three inches tall, because unless you go to Singapore, that's all you're getting. You see, Universal Studios Singapore has a movie-verse based Transformers park ride and the cars patrons ride in are basically Evac's vehicle mode. And while the Cyberverse version of Evac is a US market release, the park is the only place where you can purchase the larger, more involved deluxe class Evac. A bit of a tease if you ask me, but Hasbro seems pretty intent on doing that to US collectors recently. If you've seen the ridiculous amount of Asian market only exclusives they have planned for this year, you know exactly what I'm talking about.



So how is he even though he's a runt and his big brother in Singapore never calls? Not too shabby really. He has ball joints at his shoulders and hips, his shoulders can swing forward and back a bit and his knees bend. Evac is primarily a really vibrant blue with silver, red and a bit of yellow highlighting areas. His face is a light grey with sky blue eyes and a small red Autobot symbol gracing the right side of the chest. A drawback to an otherwise very nice robot mode is that there is no way to lock his chest down, if you try to lift his arms, the chest will rise right up with them. A minor issue, but I feel like one simple tab could have remedied this.



The only other complaint I have with Evac is his weapon. Like his case mate Soundwave, Evac doesn't get a new weapon like the rest of the mostly Prime based Legion figures he ships with, but gets Arcee's dual-barreled blaster instead. The weapon is cast from an odd plastic; very slightly rubbery but still stiff enough that I'm afraid the barrels might break off if stressed too much. I'm always a fan of translucent weaponry though and the idea behind the weapons in this line is neat. Each figure's weapon has additional posts or the occasional hole in addition to the traditional handle you'd expect on a gun, allowing you to combine various weapons in a variety of configurations. Evac's blaster for instance has an additional post at the back of the rounded shield like portion and a hole through the center for attaching other bits. Weapons from earlier Cyberverse figures are compatible with these as well, I tested Commander class Guzzle's weapons with this one and built quite the cannon.




Evac's vehicle mode is very interesting, I can easily see this blown up to life size and fitting maybe four or so people in it as it runs through the ride's track. Outside the context of the ride, it looks like a very futuristic car/SUV hybrid. With a  raised body, flattened rear spoiler and a giant engine in the back, this vehicle looks like it could really build up some speed, even over rough terrain. The silver front grill has central details that could be interpreted as headlights or weapons and there are additional silver barrels that really look like weapons protruding from where most cars would have headlights. Where non Mad-Maxian cars would have them at least.


Here's a somewhat blurry rear shot. From this angle, you can see the giant turbo engine and fat tires. Since I bought him I've thought Evac's vehicle mode looked somewhat like Deckard's Spinner in Blade Runner, but looking at this angle, I can't believe I never saw how much it also resembles the Tumbler Batmobile from the Dark Knight trilogy.



Some of you may be wondering why I mentioned disliking his weapon without going into why. Well that's because it's not the weapon's use in robot mode that bugs me, it's how it interacts with Evac in vehicle mode. As the handle of the blaster is too short, most ways of attaching it results in it either striking his front fender or rubbing against one of his rear wheels, preventing it from turning. Again, this is a minor issue but it would be nice if it could attach in a way that didn't impair him. As easy fix (at least in my mind) would be to just swap Evac and Soundwave's weapon choices and recolor them in the correct colors.

Doesn't that look better? Just imagine the colors switched and problem solved. Plus, recoloring weapons previously only available to a specific "side" gives kids more options of play involving the weapon combination aspect. It's probably more cost feasible to simply throw a weapon in a color you've already got thousands cast in instead of paying to cast new colors, but it's a nice thought.



My final thought is that Evac is a pretty worthwhile figure. He has an interesting history, cool vehicle and robot modes and a really bright, eye-grabbing color scheme. At $5.37 at Walmart, I would recommend him if you enjoy obscure Transformers, loved Minibots as a kid or want a small, fun toy for your own kids at a reasonable price.