A Concise Combaticon Review of Combiner Wars Vortex In 500 Words Or Less

Pricepoint/Vintage: Deluxe, 2015/2016.

Modes: Robot, Missile Helicopter, Arm, and Leg.

Transformation Style: CW deluxe limb, collapsible legs.

Play Patterns: Robot and aircraft, combiner, 5mm weaponry, a pack-in comic in the USA.

Points of interest: Redeco of wave 1 Alpha Bravo, and suspected original for the mould.

The Good

Coming across as much more sinister version of Alpha Bravo, has a nice colour scheme and lot of guns. The robot mode has six decorative missiles, a machine gun, and twin gatling gun as a combiner accessory, and this fits the Combaticon theme. His face looks surprisingly evil given only colours have changed, and articulation is above average with 16 points. The helicopter mode retains the missiles, can use the combiner piece as a de facto stand via a port on the underside, and has two 5mm ports worked in as mechanical detailing. His limb modes meanwhile benefit from those ports, the underside port being handy, and matches well with Blast Off.

The Bad

Vortex retains all the problems inherent kibble problems of Alpha Bravo, with the most of the robot mode visible on the rear/underside of the helicopter, and the arms not going anywhere. Colour choices unfortunately highlight this, with four different tones on the head and chest area. The blades tend to get in the way for robot mode, mine got slightly bent. Arm mode also requires a slight mistransformation to get full use of the elbow.

The Mediocre

Vortex is a potential concern with respects to mould degradation. My example leans towards being over tight with joints, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'd advise caution with the elbows.

 

 

 

 

The Alternatives

Due to a quirk of fate, the Combaticons struggle for legitimate alternatives within Combiner Wars, but is well-served elsewhere. Putting aside the unreleased Takara and G2 versions, there's the Energon era toys, the Fall of Cybertron toys, and the upcoming TFSS 4.0 Mayhem Attack Squad. The Energon toys are popular, if having their own repaint paint issue, but the FOC toys aren't. The TFSS toys are based off known Combiner Wars moulds, made a bit nicer, at a bigger price. Vortex has worthwhile alternatives in each.

The Verdict

With Combiner Wars being what is it, you probably already own this guy, and know exactly what you are getting. I personally would have preferred some remoulding here, such as by changing to a more angular helicopter form, but on its own terms, its okay. And the mould really suits the heavily armed Combaticon theme. Alpha Bravo was one of the better things about wave 1, and an evil version of him is welcome. While you probably won't buy this guy without the rest of the team, if you did, there's things to enjoy here.