The exclusives continue thick and fast in the Transformers: War for Cybertron: Siege toyline. In fact nearly 40% of this toyline is made up of figures you can only purchase in particular US stores or otherwise online.
Last time we looked at Greenlight, who was only available through the US Amazon Prime site. Today we are looking at some more Amazon exclusives, though thankfully you can get them through the AU store. Today we look at the Autobot Alphastrike Counterforce.
This pack is made up of three bots but four characters – Covert Clone Sideswipe, a new Battle Master character named Trenchfoot, and vehicle only characters Raindance and Grand Slam who combine into Slamdance.
Covert Clone Sideswipe
Robot Mode
Yep – despite the name we all know from the colour scheme this is really G2 Sideswipe. Except the inversion of the red and black colours, this figure is exactly the same as the regular Sideswipe that came out in the main Siege toyline. At least with all the blaster adaptability you can beef up his weaponry – which consist of a Photo-Pulser Proton Launcher and a Gryo Blaster that can combine into a RR Gryofuse Axleswitch Hyper-Blaster – so he resembles more his more hardcore G2 incarnation.
Cybertronian Sports Car Mode
No sir, I don’t really like it. It’s not bad, but with all the red under the translucent dome the colour scheme really screams the Decepticons Wildrider or Runabout. Once again, adding lots of weapons is your friend here to give him that G2 Sideswipe feel.
Trenchfoot
Trenchfoot is a recolour of Decepticon Battle Master Caliburst and his colour scheme makes it clear he is more intended to be paired up with Sideswipe than Slamdance. I think he works really well in both modes, his gun apparently being a Foxhole Counterblast Cannon. Interestingly he is one of the very few completely original characters in the Siege toyline so far.
Raindance & Grand Slam
A little history lesson. In 1988 G1 Blaster finally got a 3rd set of cassettes – Raindance and Grand Slam. What made these characters unique was that they had no robot or robotic animal modes whatsoever (until they combined) – they both turned from cassettes into vehicles.
Raindance
Here Raindance once again has no robot mode of his own, and not even a cassette mode! He is however a very cool looking blue earth jet, replacing his Cybertronian Jet-Drone mode.
Grand Slam
G1 Grand Slam turned from a cassette into a red Cybertronian Tank. Like Raindance he has also lost his cassette mode but turns into a pretty sweet red tank fairly reminicent of the original, sporting a big A2A Proton Missile Launcher on the front. Both Grand Slam and Raindance can sport each others weapons as well (Raindance’s being a Smokecloak Blaster)
Slamdance
As mentioned, the original G1 Raindance and Grand Slam toys could combine to finally give them a robot mode – Slamdance – and here he is once again. A slight retool of Siege Skytread but with a new head, he stands that slight bit taller than your average Deluxe figure. This is a great shout out to a pretty obscure character!
Beware the left ankle!
There have been many reports of people snapping the left ankle off their Slamdance! And indeed having this knowledge in advance I was very careful with mine and found that yes, his left ankle is very tight and stiff. However I found that giving the area a quick squirt with some spray lubricant like WD-40 and then leaving him for half an hour resulted in a much less stiff and more fluid movement in the part, so now I transform him without worry. I highly recommend doing the same when you first remove yours from the box.
Is this set worth getting?
Well there are no brand new moulds here. All 3 (or 4) moulds have already been released in the main Siege line so if you are looking for something new look elsewhere. That said, this has been the cheapest version of G2 Sideswipe we’ve had since the original, its the first time in over 30 years we’ve had a Slamdance figure and Trenchfoot is that rare thing becoming more elusive – a whole new character. The price is around $80(AU) online which really isn’t too bad for 2 Deluxe’s and a Battle Master so you can feel like you are getting decent value for money. This is really a take or leave exclusive which I primarily picked up for Slamdance, and I am quite happy I did.
Got anything to say about this set of figures? Pop it in the comments section below!
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