Kitbash: Stargrave Mercenaries

Now, a sprue I've used an awful lot in my Chem-Dog army is the Stargrave Mercenaries kit. My original Chem-Dog prototype was one of those models, and various stowage and gubbins have been sprinkled through my builds since. Had I not found that Cannon Fodder box, it could very well have been that I built my army around them. I recently acquired another box cheaply, a benefit as I was refitting my infantry, and it followed that an article about them was overdue.

 

So, a brief review. The Stargrave Mercenaries kit is made by Northstar Military Figures, a company which seems to be a kind of low key awesome. While Stargrave is thier sci-fi system, they also do historical, and they do a lot of rules/miniature agnostic stuff, offering support of Gaslands and Xenos Rampant. Their sprues tend to be a kitbasher's joy, if possibly lacking in flair. The Mercenaries were talking about today, for example, have a very varied selection of weapons and armour styles, something of real benefit to theft/looting style of the Chem-Dogs. The overall style tends towards Cyberpunk, maybe? The downside is that they lack a compelling melee option for the sarge, and tend towards a realistic 28mm scale rather than a heroic one, so some kitbashing is unavoidable to make them fit 40K conventrions. If you're making human sci-fi infantry though, getting a box of these is highly recommended as a bits resource. And if the style of this one doesn’t appeal, Northstar do a bunch, and a lot of female coded models too.

With these, I decided to continue the recent trend, and do them up as a battleline unit I hadn't previously fielded: Cadian Shock Troops. Yes, I know this is dumb when I've used actual Cadians for Catachans, but I was always a contrarian. The justification for this is while these models seem better equipped than the Cannon Fodder I mainly field, they don't strike me as elite. More like a slightly more professional unit that got first dibs on some better kit. Following on from that, I decided to use leftover Cannon Fodder arms and backpacks to help them fit my theme, but I kept these as male coded. At least so far as the term applies to gaskmask wearing soldiers at 28mm scale, but you know what I mean. I've done a lot of girls lately, lets have a few boys in the interest of balance. Mechanically, Shock Troops function like a less cool middle ground between stock infantry and Death Korps, having less options than either, but have what is known as a "sticky objectives" ability. I see these chaps as having convictions for armed robbery, call 'em The Payday Squad.

 

These were modelled and painted in my usual manner, although I did make one Innovation. I sculpted gasmasks onto the heads while still on the sprue. I was going for a less bulky, more practical style than my usual, and this was a nice convenience. Actual painting was however delayed due to a head cold, and when I returned I was surprised at the rate they moved forward. I don't think I’m a good painter, I know I’m not a good painter, but I am an efficient one, and having done a hundred or so of these soldiers in various forms? Well, perfectionism gets worn away, and optimizations are found. So, here's my technique for speed painting some penal legion plebs.


1) Basecoat with Color Forge Trench Brown spraypaint.
2) Drybrush your guns and obvious metal bits with a gunmetal. I mixed my own here, aiming for darkish tones, but your preferred metallic grey is probably fine.
3) Pick out the boots, backpacks, and gasmasks in Vallejo German Grey. This is a near black which suits military garments. Pick out the occasional additional element like the odd helmet too.
4) Pick out the rags, and the occasional fabric detail, in Vallejo English Uniform.
5) Now apply a drybrush of Vallejo Hot Orange to what remains, I.e the main body. How hard you go at this stage will dictate how bright it will be. Avoid flesh areas.
6) With the main colours done, now go in add a few little details. I.e. a silver to pick out cutting edges, a gold for contrasting on the guns, a brown or yellow for haircuts, and your preferred method for lenses.
7) Tidy it all up.
8) Now start on the flesh areas; apply some watered-down Armypainter Tanned flesh.
9) Once dry, apply some watered-down GW Kislev Flesh, trying to keep to raised areas, and let that dry.
10) Wash the entire model with GW Agrax Earthshade.

 

Done, right? Well, there's the bases. I tend to come at that at the start of and the end of the process.
A) Before spray-painting, but after the model was attached, texture the base. I normally use a very thin coating of poundshop gap/filler paste, but better options exist. You don’t need a lot, just enough to remove the smooth finish of the base and add imperfections.
B) With the model largely painted, now use a paint like GW Stirland Mud on the base. You can mix your own, I do, or use another brand, we're basically looking for a brown texture paint with sand in it.
C) Once that dries, drybrush it with GW Zandri Dust. Maybe pick out areas like the knees at the same time to suggest dirt and wear.
D) Apply some flock to the base if you have it. I used some 6mm tufts here.
E) Finally, paint the rim of the base with Vallejo Black.

OK, perhaps not my best or most interesting work, but hopefully tableworthy, and of use to you. Cheers.

 

Transformers: Kingdom Wheeljack is Something That Exists

Yes, yes. I know. Kingdom Wheeljack is just Earthrise Wheeljack in a new box. But it is how I got it, and this how it shall be titled.

The 1984 Transformers Wheeljack toy

Unlike a lot of the 80's originals, Wheeljack is a character I have some nostalgia for. I didn't have the original toy, but I did have the Actionmaster, and his evil counterpart Slicer. I did see a few cartoon episodes where he did stuff, and read a few of the later Marvel comics. Wheeljack benefited from fairly distinctive character model, and a role/personality that was simply "science/inventor guy", which meant a writer could easily find a role for him. Thus he created the Dinobots, any number of doohickeys, and most memorably to me, a comic appearence where he tended to the horrifically wounded Optimus Prime, in the minutes before his death. That last one doesn't get any nicer in context, so let's move on. While Wheeljack has definitely had his quota of new toys and tributes over the decades, he's a touch more malleable than most. The version we got in Transformers Prime was a swordfighter, not an inventor, while other versions take inspiration from Albert Einstein, Jamie Hyneman, and Steve Urkle. Part of that is undoubtedly the weak writing in 80's toy media, but the thing is, Wheeljack was very obviously replaced by Perceptor. Whom was a microscope, and thus more immediately convincing as a capital S Scientist. This left Wheeljack no unique selling point, and simply being a fast car amongst the Autobots wasn't enough. This is a bit of a shame, because if you look a bit harder, Wheeljack is not so much a nerd as a rally driver whom built his own car. While being it.

 

Wheeljack's original altmode was the Lancia Stratos Turbo, in a paintjob so specific you can find model kits of it. That's a rally car, and while I'm not knowledgeable on the topic, I do understand that its a somewhat more rugged affair that takes place outside of a purpose made race track. Rather than the bleeding edge of Formula One, Rallying suggests a more rough & tumble event, often using road legal cars. This modern toy attempts to capture the look of the original, while filing off the legally actionable parts of the design. The resulting car passes the squint test most admirably, with lots of paint and in-jokey sponsorship decals. Its nearly ideal as these things go, it avoids the common flaws like unpainted hubcaps, while working in a few 5mm ports in unobtrusive places. However, this general high quality does place what flaws there are into stark relief. There's a case of Visible Head Syndrome on the underside, something begging for a concealing panel, and an odd gap beneath the spoiler. Also, it feels maybe a touch bland with respects to play value. Its not bad by any means; it rolls okay, and it has weapon storage, but Earthrise tended to downplay the 5mm port thing and that's evident here. Maybe get some blast effects so he looks like he's rocket powered? What people, well, collectors/weirdos like myself, are likely to fixate on though are the translucent windows. These are a smokey sunglasses black, an element common to more modern takes on the character but not the 1980’s. Or they were aiming for original toy, and darkened the windows as there was little to see inside, I dunno. I personally think this is just fine, and there’s no reports of breakages as such, but chunks of the windscreen end up storing in the knees, and I wonder about the long term. Despite my nitpicking, its a solid car mode favouring the original toy visually.

 

 
The robot mode does better on the play value front, and similarly scores well on the squint test. He obviously favours the old Sunbow model here, but between the vehicle bits and the greebling its a not 1 to 1 update. I'll come back to that in the conclusion, but I will say for now that the only real visual weakness is the gappy lower legs. This is noteworthy as this is the first time Hasbro really tried to strongly match the G1 look, with the previous three(!?) attempts being remolds and thus having some compromises. I like his proportions and how his chest is formed, the vibe very much being there. Functionally its a step up too, with nothing to apologise for on the articulation front, the shoulders are good due to the conversion, and a full selection 5mm ports coming into play. The spoiler is also on a 5mm peg too, so you have some options, which is nice. His actual accessory is his missile pod, which can be handheld, but has dedicated tabs for the shoulder mount. This is absolutely fine, and I honestly don't think Wheeljack was ever really associated with a sidearm, but there is an absence of something to round things out. A wrench maybe? A sword? They could have gone the Cliffjumper route, and added in a one scene accessory. The Masterpiece version had a pistol. Otherwise, its a nice robot form, that does the vast majority of things well, and only one ignorable thing badly.

 

While working on this article, I slowly came to a realisation: this was probably the best, mass market Wheeljack ever made, it wasn’t quite the G1/Sunbow love letter I expected, but it also felt somehow off by a small degree. Its a solid performer in almost all ways, with most of its flaws falling into the category of personal preference or cut for the budget. Maybe this was meant to a more generic Wheeljack than a specific one, and it ended up in the very Sunbow Earthrise. Maybe something got left out; when they did Slicer with the mould, it did come with extra guns. Or maybe this was built along the same lines as Cliffjumper etc, and it just didn’t work out as well on those terms. And there is that Generations Selects version that is full Sunbow, removing the translucent plastic, but otherwise looking like a sidegrade. Given Hasbro’s habit of releases and iterative remakes, you’d almost think this was deliberate, but I digress. Regardless of which variant you go for though, and there’s a few, you're getting a good all-rounder here. And the package variant that is Kingdom Wheeljack is definitely something that exists.

Orktober: Orky Dice Tower

For this Orktober, I will admit to struggling for ideas. As previously noted, I've done basically all I want to do with orks, and thus my forces are on hiatus. However, I still wanted to do something for Orktober, and I eventually settled on a dice tower. I will also admit that I got the idea from one earthmanbrick, whom made one last year. I looked into the concept, easily finding plans, you can make one out of a Pringles tube for example, and decided that I could trashbash one, doing the mechanisms first, and then dressing it with bits. As to what a dice tower precisely is? Well, its an apparatus for rolling dice. You put the in the top, they bounce off ramps and bollards, before coming to rest at the bottom. Such things are a supposed space saver, as while these can be bulky, at least they keep the dice on the table.

I'd ended up starting this later in the month than I wanted, but it progressed quite smoothly. The actual worky bits were made on a Monday afternoon, using a detergent box, the chipboard I use for scratchbuilds, and hot glue. It went together like one of my old scenery projects or one of my bigger scratchbuilds. This required some trial and error, but it was functional on the day. The remainder of the week saw the visual additions, gap filling, and riveting. This process made it look even more like earthmanbrick's attempt, a face arising almost immediately, although in my defence I always put teef on things. A lot of this process was done in and around work shifts, staggered for the benefit of drying times. Spray painting started on the Saturday morning, afterwhich it was a rummage for the craft paints and such. Drybrushing, sponging, and washes followed.

While this is by no means my most complex or interesting project, it did remind me of why I love making Ork stuff. I knew the sort of thing I wanted, and it just happened. Like going nuts with the pizza toppings, or being some-kind of obnoxious freestyling jazz poet. Mistakes get made, sure. Nothing about this is clever. But it all adds up to something very orky. And very me.

I dunno when I’m going back to Orks, but there’s something there to go back to.

 

Transformers: Legacy United Animated Universe Optimus Prime is Something That Exists

 

Animated Optimus Prime’s wiki picture

When you get right down it, Transformers: Animated was an anomaly. Effectively serving as a Plan B should the 2007 film fail, it didn't, Animated was by radical departure from the bayverse and Transformers in general. Animated stepped back from technical realism in favour of bright, dynamic, cartoony and above all else, characterful designs. The thing Animated did so well was creating Transformers whose mere appearance spoke volumes, only for the vocal performances and writing to utterly endear them to fans. Of course, that wasn't the only thing it did well, and I'd easily put it in the Top 3 Transformers media of all time. What Animated arguably did less well was the toys, the art style not being the easiest to replicate in plastic, and once the line concluded, Hasbro never tried something like that again. At least until Legacy got going and started drip-feeding those characters into the mix. Today I talk about the first voyager attempt.

The 2008 Transformers: Animated Optimus Prime toy, voyager class

 

So, Animated Prime, what's his deal then? Well, he's a fairly nuanced take on the archetype to be honest, with a debt to Optimus Primal. He's not the leader of the Autobots, Prime is a common rank in this continuity, and he's in charge of a Space Bridge repair crew. He's got the same idealistic, big good vibes as Optimi tend to have, but he's much lower in the hierarchy, and is depicted as young and inexperienced. Not the kinda guy you'd expect to be doing infrastructure. The precise reasons why he's in that command are actually very tragic, he's in disgrace, and his arc through the show is him overcoming that. This isn't an Optimus Prime that starts out at the top, in a rivalry with Megatron. Animated, though cut short, ends when he's god-damn earned that.

 

The actual toy then, and its vehicle mode first. Optimus' alt mode was honestly a bit ill-defined on screen and in plastic. He's more or less the front end of a scifi fire truck, although if you took the light-bar off, and you can here, you wouldn't know that. The show was a bit woolly about this, he had at least two trailers, but the actual toys didn't implement that. The original voyager had a functioning water cannon instead, for example. This new Legacy toy then focuses on the truck cab then, and its doing an OK job with it, but its not doing anything spectacular. On the plus side, it compares favourably with both the animation model and previous toys. There's a Generations greeblie filter being applied, but it passes the squint test. It not a Bulkhead or Skyquake situation, the likeness was prioritised here. There’s also some easily missed interior details, like a steering wheel, which is nice. The downside is however the feet, which ended up in the trailer hitch area and look a bit obnoxious, while the axe can stow but not integrate. The feet in particular are the subject of much speculation; there's a pair of slots there of no obvious use, prompting hopes of some Wingblade version down the line and the creation of at least one third party add-on set. This sort of visual flaw seems to occur a lot with modern primes, and I'd tolerate it more if something could obscure it, but this is at worst average as Legacy alt modes go. Shame about the production scars though.

If the truck form was more adequate than great, the robot form nails it. Lets talk about characterisation again. Optimus is a big guy, but big in a specifically heroic and cartoony way. He's very wide in the chest and arms, but thin in the legs and hips. He's a triangle of upper body strength, which is possibly more exaggerated here than in the 2d art, but its perfect for him. There's nowt brutish about it either, he's in bright, friendly colours, and most importantly, NO MOUTHPLATE. This adds so much, revealing his youthful face. Its a bit, umm, mainline Generations, but its him. He's Captain Carrot Ironfounderson, if he were a giant robot. And then there's the rocket axe. The vintage toys often didn't capture this right, but its perfectly replicated here with a blast effect port on the back, and an extending haft. This combines with the articulation to make a superlative robot mode. Its just about possible to do a two handed pose, and it presents posing options just not found in other toys. And its not just good articulation, its good articulation in service of character, and this robot mode has a lot of character. Maybe the forearms needed some details painted, but otherwise this is doing what it should with unexpected vigour. Oh, and its got the 5mm port thing covered.

 

In truth, Animated Optimus Prime was probably not the obvious choice for an update. Nowt wrong with him, and certainly someone you'd need eventually, but he's not one of the breakout characters from his show. And truthfully, even at the time, there were a lot of Optimus toys, and even more now. But this honestly impressed me. The altmode is at worst acceptable, and suffers from high expectations, but its doing OK. And the robot mode shines. While this toy seems to have gone under the radar and straight into discount, lost amongst so many other Primes, its well worth your time.

Kitbash: Wargames Atlantic Cannon Fodder Part 2

 

Today, I'm gonna talk about the Wargames Atlantic Cannon Fodder 2 kit (Females), how I used them for my Astra Militarum army, and how you can use this kit for general kitbashing. This is part two in a two part series, please take a look at part one, as I don’t want to repeat myself.

 

Why Kreig? I gave a brief overview back in part 2 of Project Chem-Dogs, but some context here won't hurt the word count. With one of the least subtle names in the 40k setting, the Death Korps of Krieg are more or less scifi WWI. We're talking folk memories of gasmasks, trenches, mud, bayonets, and absurdly wasteful expenditure of human life. They are a gasmask wearing death cult with no concern for thier own losses or individuality. This makes for a good addition to 40k in general and the Astra Militarum in particular, but their prominence is relatively new. Stop me if you've heard this one before, but the Death Korps were something Forgeworld was very interested in, that has since made the jump to plastic, and are due a range expansion shortly. Mechanically, they are one of those odd units whose options are (currently) dictated by a Killteam boxset. These feature more specialist weapons than the other battleline units, and a resurrecting model mechanic. The reason I wanted them is to act either as frontline troops or APC passengers, thanks to their weaponry and odd ability to become better fighters as they loose models.

 

Using Cannon Fodder as Death Korps of Krieg: The use of Cannon Fodder for these is somewhat head dependant. The bodies don't have anything about them that screams Verdun, but you do get full space helmets on the sprue. I'd made most of mine with green stuff gas masks, thus making them passable as Kreigers, incorporating wire and tiny beads for the hoses. That's fiddly work even if you've sculpted before, so don't be afraid to source heads from elsewhere. Otherwise, turning the girls into the Death Korps is a similar challenge to regular Infantry Squads; you don't need heavy weapons, but you are looking at a greater density of specialist weapons, and the need for a medic.

What I did: As before I made these as plugins for an Infantry Squad to simplify matters, while taking the opportunity to make a few weapon specialists to round things out. The heads here were often leftovers from the Bulldogs, as well as assorted bits from the Stargrave Mercenaries sprue. I probably need to talk in more detail about that last one actually, I use that kit a lot. Expect an article, um, Novemberish. Meanwhile some crude recasting was used to create the medpacks, and melta nozzles for use with the energy weapon on the Cannon Fodder sprue. I did the same thing for flamers and such in part one, you can do a lot with a new barrel and some new furniture. Menawhile, Sniper rifles were created by using the CF scope with a regular gun, a fiddly little bastard of a thing, with a bead as a barrel extension, and sculpted rags to hide the join. The grenade launchers are from the aforementioned Stargrave sprue, lengthened wih a bit of tube. Painting then followed, and turned out OK.

I hope this brief series was of use to you. Next week, back to Transformers.

Kitbash: Wargames Atlantic Cannon Fodder Part 1

Today, I'm gonna talk about the Wargames Atlantic Cannon Fodder 2 kit (Females), how I used  them for my Astra Militarum army, and how you can use this kit for general kitbashing. This will be part one in a two part series, because, well, I had ideas.

 

So, Ive played a few games with my Chem-Dogs, and I think Ive found my balance with them. The army has deviated from my original intentions though. Initially, I'd wanted a very old school infantry gun line sort of affair. A meat grinder designed to rope-a-dope a foe, and then jump on any mission objectives later on. That's why I have 40 basic infantry, 2 command squads, and 2 heavy weapon squads. That's more less a classic infantry platoon, with a few extras. Unfortunately, that isn't really how 40k is played at the moment. With the mission how they are, they may be different by the time you read this, need you to be active and playing to objectives almost immediately. The capitalised Infantry Squad does well with the home objective, and static dakka, but I find the other battleline choices more appealing. So I needed to expand and alter my footsloggers. My first instinct was to modify some squads into Catachan Jungle Fighters, but then I thought, “Why not others?”, and so this became a two-parter.

Its probably necessary to provide an overview of the kit in question. Coming from the Death Fields series, the Cannon Fodder (Females) box features 24 models, six to a sprue. These notably lack bases, an omission common to Wargames Atlantic's entire range, although thats more of a sundry expense these days. The individual models are largely setting agnostic, although their guns have a lasgun vibe, as well as a convict theme. These are ladies in jumpsuits, with the choice of head and colours affecting their overall vibe. One image of the box shows off the kit done up as 50's style silver spacesuits, whereas going for caps and green makes for a second line infantry look. There's also a fair few bionics in the mix too, as well as a bounty of alternative heads. Actual equipment though is a touch more limited. There is a bulky energy weapon, drum magazines, fiddly scopes to make a passable sniper rifle, and a few pistols on each sprue, but you don't get a fancy melee weapon for the squad leader, or a real choice in weapons. This seems to be a weakness of the male Cannon Fodder box too, and you may wish to look into compatible kits, like the Bulldogs. I got lucky during Project Chem-Dogs, I’d chanced upon an old Cadian BattleForce box which provided a lot of sundry bits and weapon options with made running them as regular infantry much easier. Recasting these bits was not entirely successful, and I would probably recommend other solutions going forward. My sarges where equipped with bolters, easily found, and power weapons, less so. Vox units were recast with wire aerials. I would likely just add an aerial to a spare cannon fodder backpack next time, its probably a more elegant solution. On the plus side there's a number of bits that lend themselves well to Heavy Weapon teams and similar, like binoculars and pointing hands. You have enough for the rank and file, but for the squad specialists you'll need some bits and some creativity. You'll also note that mine have a lot in the way of sculpted gasmasks and capes. I'm not talking about that too much today, and its definitely not required for your models.

 

So, how to make these as Catachan Jungle Fighters? Well, these have famously limited options, so making these is fairly straightforward versus the other battleline units. I built these as "swaps" for existing Infantry Squads, so I skipped the Vox units. You need a melee weapon for the sergeants, here being leftovers from my attempt at Rough Riders. The flamers were a combination of old Black Templar examples, and the energy weapon from the Cannon Fodder sprue. I cut the business end and canister off a flamer, and attached them to the existing weapon, which had been trimmed for length. These were then painted in my usual way, and came out pretty well.

 

At the same time, I took the opportunity to make a "counts as" Sargeant Harker. That’s a bit of change for me, I don’t think I’ve fielded a named/special/epic character like this before. At least outside of Bloodbowl. This was based off a Bulldog body for increased size, but had the same basic idea as the flamers above. While this worked out nicely, it does highlight a potential weakness with the Cannon Fodder, they are somewhat slight of proportion. I'm also not good at faces.

Up next: Death Korps

Transformers: Legacy United Star Raider Cannonball is Something That Exists

Eh. Explaining this one is gonna be like finding the end of a roll of sticky tape.

The 2006 Transformers: Cybertron Cannonball toy

 

 
OK, Cannonball is a pirate, part of the Star Raider group. He works under Thundertron. The origins of the group are fairly obscure, with thier best known iterations being a line of Botcon exclusive toys, and I recommend Chris McFeely's video on the topic. (It taught me things I didn't know.) This group has been chosen as another repaint/retool centric sub-line to Legacy United, of which Cannonball is one of the first I saw in person. Cannonball is basically a "Dread Pirate Roberts", and this new toy is a goddamn Gordian Knot of retooling, pretooling, and self-referencing. OK, the first Cannonball toy was a repaint of the 2005 vintage Red Alert toy, a deluxe hailing from the last act of the Unicron Trilogy. This chap had first appeared in Armada, had skipped Energon, but had come back for Cybertron, thus having gone from one design extreme to another. Red Alert started out as a big gimmick toy, and ended up as a small toy with an unusual transformation. Which was then a pirate. He wasn't really a direct update of the G1 character, so much as the team medic archetype that inexplicably looked a bit like Robocop. So, even before Cannonball existed, the toy he was repainted from was a bit of an odd duck. The reason why that toy became a pirate was likely that it didn't have the usual number of hands, instead having a gunarm with tool accessories. Which makes him a bit Robocop 3, but he doesn’t fly. Advance to the modern day, we have this toy, using the Skids mould, and pre-empting the presumed/certain Red Alert version. Moreover, this isn't merely a headswap, its a second and substantial retooling, omitting translucent plastics, while largely replacing the vehicle mode and accessories in the process. Its not merely shared engineering, they've reshelled Skids for a second time. I mean, its not totally unprecedented, but its not normal to get a toy that's a double retool and pretool at once. That's definitely something that exists.

 

The vehicle mode is where the changes are strongest. Its wheelbase and overall proportions are of course the same, and it retains the doors from Crankcase, but virtually everything else is new. Its a generic van or minivan rather than a legally-distinct Dodge like the original, but clearly distinct from its mould mates. The emergency services bit is granted by the light bar, but given the Mardis Gras vibe, I find myself wondering what the emergency would be. I mean, with the day-glo skull on the side... Has a rave run out of glowsticks? Mobile DJ? Don't get me wrong, its a great look. Black (p)repaints with metallic details always look grand, and this one clearly does. Its a good time, with numerous 5mm ports and a decorative light-bar and cyberkey bit with a faux kibble scalp on it. Yes, this is one if those Transformers with faux parts to suggest the transformation of an older toy. I can take it or leave it, and it is removable so that’s easy, but I don’t think I would have minded if they used that budget elsewhere. As a van it rolls well-enough, and there’s certainly enough 5mm ports, if having some panel issues on my example. One door doesn’t fit well, but your mileage may vary. Otherwise, its same van you've seen before.

Robot mode is of course achieved in the same manner as the other Skids-reuses. This reveals many familiar robot bits, if nicely presented ones. New elements include the head, the gunarm which I will return to presently, and faux kibble doors on the shoulders. Unlike the light-bar this doesn't add to the effect so much as look odd. I mean, replacing the clip-on wheels with something better looking probably wasn't an option, but maybe taking a lead from some other version of Red Alert might have been a better call. Unlike a lot of retools though, we have a substantial change in play pattern, while retaining the character appropriate shoulder guns from Crankcase. The left hand is replaced with a Diaclone style gun barrel onto which you can mount a hammer or a claw. These even store in the legs, although I find tricky to remove afterwards. This is obviously quite fun, massively characterful, especially on conjunction with the head. Its got a visor, and thus no distinct eyes, but he has what can only be described as a half mask, or maybe the implication of an eyepatch, painted on. So, while the robot mode is definitely familiar, the best is being made of it, and it wasn't bad in the first place. Its got Legacy standard articulation, and all that, with no glaring flaws.

 

I’ve focused a lot on the differences here, as I have brought this toy twice before, but Cannonball is very much more of the same. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the base mould was sound, if not exceptional, and effort clearly has been made to differentiate this version. If you have to re-release a Transformer, modifying it as thoroughly as this one goes a long way to justify it. On the other? Well, I getting the vibe of a later Combiner Wars boxset or Power of the Primes release here. Just the slight feeling that an otherwise fine toy is being overused or remixed beyond a sensible point. He’s fun, but I’d be lying if I said that I wouldn't have preferred a new mould. Skids probably should not become another Sideswipe. Thus, should the appeal of being being a Mardi Grass Pirate Van isn't enough, or you have several of these already, you can probably skip Cannonball. If you do pick him up though, I think you'll have a good time.