Sunday, 1 May 2016

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

Pricepoint/Vintage: Legend, 2015/2016.
Modes: Robot, Spaceship, Combiner Gun.
Transformation Style: CW legend, simplistic triplechanger.
Play Patterns: Robot and vehicle, “sixth member” combiner to Onslaught, 5mm weaponry, targetmaster.
Points of Interest: Homage to the G1 episode “The Revenge of Bruticus”. Rare new mould in Combiner Wars.




The Good
Nearly everything. The ship mode is very close to his original gun form, while the robot is a more of modernisation via the video games. Both look great, and the robot is almost ideally articulated for the size. There's a balljoint for the head, great motion in the shoulder through a balljoint/swivel combo, similar in the hips, and better knees than me. Joint count is 14, the neck being above and beyond the call of duty, so making natural poses with the gun arm is easy. He operates excellently as a big gun for Bruticus, being able to store on his back too.





The Bad
To emulate the G1 toy, translucent plastic is extensively here, most worryingly in the elbows. Breakages will be a thing to watch for. The forearms are a weak point, generating kibble in all modes. Achieving the gun mode is a matter of flipping a handle down, and while this can store on Onslaught's altmode, it doesn't sit well. There was also a tiny spot of misapplied paint on my example.





The Mediocre
Shockwave is specifically designed to work with Combiner Wars gestalt hands, and a bar of plastic before the peg will interfere with many regular hands, not to mention the weight.






The Alternatives
As a distinctive G1 original, Shockwave is extremely well supplied for toys, most recently with a Masterpiece release. Within Combiner Wars, the most obvious alternative is the Powerglide mould, specifically the Viper repaint. This would arguably fit the Combaticon theme better, BUT that's a weaker toy with tabbing issues. There is also the Botcon 2016 Relector pack remoulded from this, which I have, and adore, but its going to be expensive.





The Verdict
Shockwave is an unabashed success. Its difficult to image a version of the character at this size and price done better. As a partner mould to combiner, he's the best example of the concept. Yeah, he's basically a targetmaster whereas the other toys tried something new, but its a tried and true gimmick executed well. I would personally prefer that translucent plastic wasn't so big a feature, but its early days, and it makes the toy look good in a 1984 sort of way. Pick him up.

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