Transformers: Siege Decepticon Mirage is Something That Exists

 

The 1984 Mirage toy

Now, I freely admit that a lot of my purchases as a collector come down to "because it was cheap". I'm not a completionist these days, and I make periodic attempts to be financially responsible. I do like a bargain though, and I will happily roll the dice on something if I've not tried it before. Hence today's subject, a repaint nobody asked for that I found for less than retail at a Toy Fair.

The 1990 Barricade toy

So, who is Mirage? Or possibly, whom? He's of an old money background and possibly a closet centrist. Mirage is one of those tier 2 Autobots that kinda faded into the background of the cartoon & other media. He's definitely been around, as there is demand for a dude who can turn invisible or some such, is kinda shifty, and is also a F1 car. He's the sort of fellow they go to when they are doing an assortment and they want a bit of variety, and the obvious go-to for high end race cars. If you've got a F1-themed Transformers toy it would be weird if it wasn't called Mirage at some point. Not a great character, I feel, basically a "that guy" at the end of the day, but he could be more. As to why he's a Decepticon in this case, what the thought pattern was here, I'm unsure. The rather bland Netflix cartoon, it's not an anime, don't be daft, justified this as a disguise he used in one scene, as well as the basis for a few crowd fillers. The wiki points out a similarity to IDW's take on the Micromaster Barricade, although that entire situation is a bit confused. Purple is the Decepticon colour, so the logic may be as simple as that, but calling him Decepticon Mirage is so massively uninspired as to make me think it was a placeholder that stuck. Even if we assume Dragstrip, Barricade, and such were off the table, there had to be a better name somewhere. As such, I will now refer to this toy as "MorBot", which certainly was not the intention, but I think is valid given how out of the box Legacy has been of late. 

 

The 2016 Rescue Bots Rescan MorBot toy

I've just realised that this is the third Netflix Siege toy I have A) written about and B) been markedly discounted. Bloody hell. I'm not sure if that's vindication of the line or not. 

 

Anyways, the vehicle mode. I'm gonna make two observations here that I've made before, in that it's not an especially alien alt mode, and it's doing some legitimately good work here with the paint. None of the purple or blue-gray on MorBot is actually plastic, it's all paint and I'm still surprised they go that far. It's the same basic idea I use when painting Ork vehicles, go dark and dull for the basecoat, and you avoid the edges when painting a brighter colour to suggest wear. This is a marked contrast to the previous two uses of the mould which did not attempt battle damage at all. While clearly a good-if-subdued paint job, the effect is undermined by the back end, which stuffs the arms under the rear spoiler, above a cheating robot mode chestplate. It's kinda hard to avoid looking there TBH, it gives the impression of a car with two front ends, and it's got the only Decepticon badge. Otherwise, the car form is pretty functional, rolling well and featuring the Siege era focus on weapon ports. There's only two ports, buts it's exactly what it needs, and they are well placed. It fulfils the brief, and generally looks great as long as you don't stare at the bum end. There has been 5 iterations of this mould so far, BTW, and so far none of them have swapped out that chest plate for something less dumb. It seems like an obvious thing to do... 

 

Transforming to robot mode is a game of two halves, with the upper body being very simple due to how the arms store, but there's a lot going on with the legs. It's a somewhat finicky process, but MorBot side steps the problems of his predecessors by not using any translucent plastic in his construction. As alluded to above, the scheme is completely different from G1 Mirage, even as the faux kibble chest and head sculpt try to evoke that version. As for the robot mode? Well, I'm not gonna mince words, that head is gorgeous. The paint work is really nice, and, yes the general look screams "Decepticon". Whereas the vehicle mode was built for speed, this robot tends towards the wide & powerful. The transformation also reveals a few more 5mm ports, so he can make good use of his three weapons and maybe combine with Brunt. On the downside though, the lower legs end up messy from behind, as most of the vehicle form is crammed in there, also meaning there's not that much you can do with the feet. With the play pattern being strong, but the transformation being on the weak side, I'm inclined to say this mould itself probably sits on the mediocre end of Siege, although I wouldn't be surprised if MorBot ended up being the best iteration of it. Between paintwork and the abandonment of translucent plastics, it's a quality makeover. 

 

My point? Only that Decepticon Mirage is something that exists. And that his name is dumb.

Transformers: Siege “Spoiler Pack” Ultra Magnus is Something That Exists

The Original 1986 Ultra Magnus Toy

Now, as a collector, I'm not fond of blind boxes, for the basic reason that I want to know what I buying. If you're not a kinder egg, you'd best be bloody cheap. So, I don't pretend to understand the logic of a blind box leader class transformer. Hasbro did several of these as tie-in for their recent Netflix cartoons, labelled as Spoiler Packs, the first of which we’re talking about today. I doubt that I'm alone in thinking that there was little to actually spoil, but you do you. The spoiler was not so much the toy, as the coded messages on the packaging. However, my example came loose with some inexplicable minicons, but minus some blast effects and energon cubes. As such, I'm not gonna talk about the bits I don't have, and just do my usual ramble about the toy and character, while taking a passing shot at Hasbro business practices.

The 2015 Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus Toy

Who is Ultra Magnus? Well, he's a character made famous by the 1986 Transformers film, and is basically a well-meaning chap that kept making bad calls, but he's had numerous reinterpretations over the years. The original toy is notable for being basically Optimus Prime with a new and combining trailer, effectively pre-empting the Powermaster version by at least two years. Toy accuracy was not great for this version, with the "white Optimus" mode being completely disregarded in fiction. Then Dreamwave comics happened, with some fanfare, and Magnus quickly became the goto for Prime repaints that didn't feature the inner-robot-armour gimmick. Mind you, more worthy successors did occur, often revamping the relationship between him and Optimus, such as the ones in the 2000ish RID line and Animated. Probably the most memorable one is the More Than Meets The Eye IDW comic version, whom had difficulties adjusting to peacetime, was actually a SPOILER, and was currently REDACTED. I remember people being upset at this plot twist in a kinda Star Wars way, but you'd have to be a real Purple Monkey Dishwasher to be holding a grudge about that today. That version got a toy though, an actual spoiler in toy form, rather than a regular toy in a spoiler box, and its pretty good. It doesn't hold its weapons well, but its got the trailer transformation and what is technically an inner robot. This was the only Magnus I really needed, because I liked REDACTED SPOILER, but the Siege version would still eventually find its way into my collection.

That's 400 odd words of context, am I nearing a point? Well, the Siege mould was the first toy to properly do the inner robot thing, and which latter toys have yet to implement as well. There was a concurrent "Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime" remould that I love dearly, but I will admit suffers outside of super mode, and the Kingdom retool is lukewarm at best. But lets put a pin in that for now, and talk about the vehicle form first. This evokes the RID 2000 version in the front end and overall appearance. It also draws on the G1 toy for the back-end and rockets, while pre-empting the Galaxy Upgrade retool by having its leg guns. Its a melange of homages then, something uncommon these days and the premium paint job is definitely helping the Siege grimdark grunge motif. Play value is aided by the fact he's got five weapons and numerous 5mm ports, so he can be a big rolling battlewagon of doom. The effect is slightly undermined by the feet which are unhelpfully angled, and the open structure revealing other sins. I should probably also mention that it's not really a functional car carrier unless you decide to entomb some micromasters or the minicons that were somehow included with mine. Mind you, it's a very detailed sculpt, and benefits from the premium paint job. All red areas are now paint over grey plastic, with some nice transition between colours. While this feels like faint praise, the flaws are made up for by the visuals.

 

You can detach the front third for a "truck cab", but its not hugely good by itself. No matter how ya spin it, the arms are very noticeable. So, let's take a brief moment to acknowledge Battlefield Rung exists and ask why he's here? And why is he that colour? The consensus is that he's probably standing in for Alpha Trion whom did the whole ghost/A.I mentor thing in the cartoon. It's a perfectly fine toy, although the colours don't really work with Magnus. Tangent over. The cab transforms into the "non-ultra" Magnus robot mode, most of it being telegraphed by exposed robot bits, although there is one legitimately clever aspect to it. The front bumper slides up a rail onto the back, having previously rotated the waist into position and lock the rail together. It helps clean things up a lot. The resulting robot is a stocky Optimus-look-alike, not actually the same as the concurrent Optimus toy, no retooling here, but hitting similar design queues in white. It's proportions and heavy-duty joint design are a direct result of the Magnus armour, and let's be real here, you probably won't keep him like this. However, Siege era robot modes were of a high standard, and you don't lack for play value. There are a total of nine 5mm ports, and ankle tilts, which is plenty. It's just a shame that the armour parts have nowt to do just now, and while you don't really need a base mode for this character, an opportunity was missed.

The main event, the full robot mode, is where the toy shines. Not that it lacks charm otherwise, but this is what the designers had to get right, and they knew it. Ultra Magnus is a massive great chonker of a chap, with loads of detail, a nice head sculpt, and some more clever touches when armouring up. The top and side panels of the carrier origami down dramatically to form the boots and torso. It's great, if slightly let down by those angled feet again. Posability is unaffected above the waist, but the toy tends towards an 'A' stance. Again, I feel I am either damning or excusing the toy with faint praise, but Ultra Magnus is one of those big dudes whom doesn't really call for ninja poses, while what he does do is nothing to apologise for. Ultra Magnus does however commit very strongly to the whole Siege play pattern, with sixteen 5mm ports, and five weapon accessories, of which 3 have their own ports. Ultra Magnus will happily kill you to death, even before getting weaponizers involved. 

 

My point? Well, the Siege Ultra Magnus mould is a pretty good toy from a pretty good line. I don't think it's quite good enough to replace the Combiner Wars version in my collection, but each is doing rather different things, so I don't feel bad about having both. Having the spoiler box version is a boon to the experience, but I doubt you'd suffer if you went for another. But this all pales next to the following piece of trivia. While Ultra Magnus held the position of Autobot leader in at least two continuities, this toy and its iterations lack Autobot badges. In fact, the super mode of each has but one, and it adorns his mighty butt plate.

Ultra Magnus' tramp stamp is something that exists....

Transformers: Siege Hotlink is Something That Exists

So when the largely middling Netflix Cartoon based on the War for Cybertron: Siege toyline aired, Siege proper had ended and Earthrise was already a thing, prompting a run of exclusive toys. These featured alleged more cartoon accurate colour schemes, although it's probably more accurate to describe them more enthusiastic paint jobs. These doubled-down on the grime and wear motifs that many had disliked about Siege, and this premium paintwork was the justification for a higher price. These exclusives varied from the desirable to the unneeded, the very obscure, i.e. today's subject. As exclusives go, they weren't super hard to find, scalpers notwithstanding, as a retailer in each major region carried them. Today's subject is the Japanese version, and the phrase "Japanese Exclusive Transformer" has historically been the subject of much fervently irrational desire. Not so much this case; Takaratomy does still occasionally do its own thing, like masterpieces, but mainly they just re-release stuff. Apparently, not everyone got the memo, as this was reduced from 55 to 25 quid by a specialist toy supplier. Good if you're a completionist, I suppose. Or if, like myself, you saw an inexpensive indulgence, and a chance to try something you passed on at the time. As to whom Hotlink is, and why he is? Well, he's a Seeker, one of the army of Starscream repaints that were used to fill crowd scenes in the 80's cartoon, and subsequently named in later fiction. Hotlink appeared in episode 1 and while he had a gimmick I'll get to, he's a blank slate. I suspect the only reason why he's here is that they were saving the Coneheads for Earthrise, and they'd done the similarly obscure Rainmakers as a three pack. He had a Botcon toy under similar circumstances and a few appearances since, but as lore goes, he's a niche within a niche. He didn’t even have a name until decades after the fact. Even the paint job here is taking liberties, as Hotlink more of a uniform purple and grey on screen, whereas this toy edges into Skywarp territory. I’ve seen at least one person repaint this into Skywarp because that toy is harder to find. On a conceptual level then, this is largely harmless exclusive; its not taking a popular guy out of circulation, Earthrise, I’m looking at you, and as its so obscure, it can afford to mix things up a bit.

Now, the siege Seeker mould got some well-earned criticism at the time due to its engineering. Its basically a shellformer, where robot form balls up, and is concealed by the backpack. I'd compare it to something out of the Gundam franchise, one of its function over form mecha where the transformation is about adding utility, rather than passing for a jet. Something along the lines of the Gundam Airmaster, perhaps? My example was also suffering from some spotty QC which prompted the use of a craft knife to ease a transformation joint and general touching up. Not great, but also not unexpected given the price and inevitable mould degradation. I have mixed feelings about this design approach, as I have pilloried certain Earthrise toys for doing similar, and objectively it's flawed. The difference is, I suppose, is that it feels actual creativity was used to catch the spirit of something, rather than simply a lack of imagination. If you're gonna cheat, cheat to create an alien attack polygon. Don't cheat to create a car. Visually, the jet has a lot of moulded detail, and many have made the comparison with the Colonial Vipers from Battlestar Galactica. Its certainly got that 80’s, real model, universal greebly vibe going on. What’s specific to Hotlink is the colours, a transition of black to purple to lavender, with orange highlights. There’s multiple tones going on, with both plastic and paint, putting me in the gentle use of an airbrush. Its a good scheme. Functionally: the tetra-jet isn’t doing too much, but you can have fun with blast affects attached to the thrusters, and you end up with a total of 6 under-wing mounts for the null rays.

 

The robot mode attempts the same trick, but its not as unified, and generally comes across as darker in the extremities. This draws the eyes to the torso, with his orange faux not-cockpit and lavender codpiece, which is a sentence, but the overall affect is pretty good. This is also where the base mould starts to shine, because there’s numerous little touches that suggest the time they saved on engineering to make things a little nicer. There’s notably good movement at the shoulders and knees, with two points of articulation for each wing. If you get a flight stand for this chap, he’ll look great, and he’s fully in the Siege play pattern, so he can carry a lot of guns. The general sort of Underbase Saga, real model, greebling also continues, and the eyes are light-piped red. I acknowledge the backpack as the beginning and end of all this toy’s design problems, but they did kinda nail the robot mode, with good posability and presence. I don’t think I would army build this mould, but I will say its got more appeal than I thought.

 

We now come to the unique selling point of both Hotlink and the set in general: flamethrowers. Hotlink’s one claim to fame is that in the first ever episode of the Transformers cartoon, he tried to trap Wheeljack and Bumblebee in a ring of fire. It didn’t work, but, I say again, flamethrowers. He’s got two little battlemaster chaps to represent this, Heartburn & Heatstroke, so, yes, he dual-wields flamethrowers like a goddamn Redemptionist. Both are recolours of the Blowpipe mould, and are functionally identical, and by omitting half of the blast effect, they now spurt fire. As my tone may have implied, I find this rather fun, but possibly the execution isn’t great. In what I assume is an attempt to more closely match that one scene, both are in a light blue, which doesn’t really work. Maybe they would have been better in some other tone, but this mould was used 7 other times, so maybe all the good colours were taken…

 

 

My point? Only that Hotlink etc are something that exists. And, sometimes, a mould can surprise you.

Transformers: The Legacy of Siege

So, after Legacy Impactor was announced, and the discourse that followed, I found myself thinking about War for Cybertron: Siege again. It was something I've thought about writing on before, what that toy line was, and what it proved to be. So, today, I talk about Siege’s legacy. Which, of course, isn’t the same as Transformers: Legacy, but does include the new Legacy line. Don’t worry, it will make sense.

Context

Coming under the Generations banner, War for Cybertron: Siege was advertised at the time, as well, a War For Cybertron, the first of a 3 part franchise set on the home-world of the Transformers. This wasn’t the first time they did this, but you might ask why not? Its fun. This was coming after the disappointing and truncated Power of the Primes line, too, it looked promising. Seemingly hurried to the US market in late 2018, early 2019 elsewhere, there was barely a gap between the two. Siege got a lot of respect for its play features, but also criticism for its muddy battle-damage look, and also a bit of a heavy focus on G1 characters. There was a lot of that happening at the time, with the Bumblebee movie going quite G1, and Cyberverse using similar cast. This was then shortly followed by Earthrise, and Kingdom, whom did many of the same characters again, often with iterative retools, reused engineering, and old toys in new boxes. The specifically Siege toys became repaint fodder, which happened in bulk for the Netflix cartoon, as well as more recent examples like TakaraTomy’s Premium Finish line and the aforementioned Impactor. As a result: Siege is reasonably described as a stopgap and a repaint mine. How many repaints, you ask? Well, I went and ran the numbers. I got out a spreadsheet, and trawled the wiki. Here are my findings.

Distinct Siege moulds: 49

Uses so far/pending: 161

Not counting: blast effects, unchanged TakaraTomy releases.

Assuming: ER Prime is a retool, but ER Smokescreen is not.

The 2019 Seeker 3 pack

The Generations Grab-bag

The thing about Generations and similar collector lines is that it can lack a strong theme. It's a melange of homage and updates, and the extent which there is a solid unified theme has varied over the years, even when going back further into the old C.H.U.G days. In the time of Combiner Wars and Titans Return it was notably strong, but more typically Generations operates as a grab-bag, usually a few big names, but with obscure stuff around the edges, and maybe some new stuff if we’re lucky. The thing about Siege is that it talks a big game about its theme, but when you actually look at, its all set dressing. Its actually a Generations Grab-Bag. We must ask ourselves the following: which toys in Siege explicitly and unambiguously have a Cybertronian vehicle form? And is this vehicle form distinct from their Earth form, or what might be considered their "iconic" appearance? I put it to you that only three-maybe-four moulds of the forty-nine actually started out as purpose built pre-earth designs. The rest were either late-G1 characters that were sci-fi vehicles in the first place, and/or characters fated to be released again in Earthrise 18 months later with a face-lift. The Starscream and Soundwave moulds are the only toys that actually tried to have new & alien vehicle modes, and not an especially good one in 'wave's case. You could argue Shockwave, but that gets a little muddy as shockers largely doesn't have an earth mode and isn't allowed to be a gun any more. The aforementioned Impactor is a similar case, he’s never had an Earth mode as a comic original, but then he does have that odd habit now of being repeatedly retooled into himself. Overall, Siege doesn't hit the same visual style as the conceptually identical War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron video game toys, which had gone hard on the alien-ness, so almost everything could fit unobtrusively into a "neo-G1" collection and truthfully many would not look that out of place as an Earth mode. And then Earthrise came along with functionally the same toys, but with a better defined cartoon look, and made a whole whack of stuff obsolete, often via exclusives which were hard to get. This understandably annoyed people. And then we got the Netflix branded Siege stuff, which cost a little bit more and tried to be more cartoon accurate…why? So, even if you liked the Siege moulds, they got obsoleted again, and if you missed them the first time, there’s now a confused market with a bunch of overlapping toys. Did the cartoon get delayed or something? Because this is an inelegant way to do things.

The 2019 Siege Sideswipe toy

The New Autobot Seeker

To illustrate my point of how generic a lot of Siege moulds are, I'm going to talk about possibly the most aggressively re-used toy of Siege, Sideswipe. It's a perfectly fine toy in most ways, and actually a favourite of mine. I am not especially a car fan, but that is not a Cybertronian altmode. That looks more like a legally distinct Lamborghini. Or any super car stand-in. Car modes such as these are the bread & butter of Transformers in general. The thing is, we already had a pre-earth Sideswipe, and that wasn't a great toy, but that a least that made an attempt to be alien. Siege Sideswipe fits in everywhere, because a specific style is harder to reuse. And then it got retooled into something more specifically G1 for an exclusive, as well as nine other things. The whole Cybertronian theme never was a serious effort. It was a stopgap. Siege exists mainly as a reset point for Generations, lessons learned from Combiner Wars etc, setting a new design standard and laying the groundwork for a repaint-based business model. Because if you didn't like the battle damage paintjobs in Siege, almost immediately you'd be able to get a cleaner version, and it would likely be a limited release too. And if you liked the dirt, well, there’s Netflix, innit? Why does Hasbro do this? Well, its basically a cost saving measure, and you can see similar things in their action figure lines. For example, with their Marvel stuff they get away with base moulds for the varying body types, call ‘em “Brawny”, “Skinny”, and so on. It makes a lot of sense, especially when certain characters recur. And since a lot of people like the G1 guys and try to have a complete seeker team, we were easy marks for it. Just look at Kingdom if you need more examples. The downside is that Transformers are inherently more involved as toys, so its more obvious, and you end up with a self-confirming loop. Only only certain characters sell, because that’s only what is sold most of the time.

Eh, that’s capitalism for you. However...

 

 

The 2012 FOC Sideswipe toy

The Legacy of Siege is not Just Repaints

So, if Siege failed to deliver on its theme, what did it deliver on? Play value, posability, and general quality. Siege toys were legitimate fun to play with, and added entirely news concepts to the brand. It popularised the use of 5mm ports for accessories, and while the basic idea wasn't new, the execution and standardisation was praiseworthy. Factoring into that was a revolutionary new style of Transformers, the Weaponizer, who made full use of those ports, and the toys were robust enough to take the added weight. These embraced partsforming to provide a toy whose job it was to be made of guns, and if you don't think that's fun, I can't help you. Finally, there the Battlemasters whom brought their beloved blast effects to the table. So, while the words Cybertron & Siege in the title were questionable, at least the word War made sense. And because I don’t want this article to be just about repaints, I’m going to talk about each price-point a bit.

 

The 2019 Siege Rung Toy

BattleMasters

Famous for the blast effects mentioned above, these were inexpensive little dudes that turned into weapons, and came with little translucent explosions. They were a joy. While this price-point would see a lot of variety with new characters, melee weapons and Rung getting his first toy, it was front-loaded with orphaned targetmasters to go with toys from Titans Return, in another example of the Generations Grab-Bag. Its a tragedy that Earthrise replaced them with ramps, and Kingdom dumped the idea entirely.

 

The 2019 Storm Cloud & Visper toys

Micromasters

There's no delicate way to put this, but these failed. The teams were cut down from four members to two, and given a largely unconvincing combined weapon mode. The individual toys meanwhile offered little posability or visual improvement over the late-G1 originals, and largely didn’t commit to the theme. Soundwave's menagerie also ended up here, and I don't know hard I should be on those as they just had to turn into a slab, but I'd say Laserbeak did alright, while Ravage was overfed. If you’re into Micromasters, they aren’t bad, but if you aren’t? Stick to Storm Cloud & Visper.

 

The 2019 Siege Cog toy

Deluxes

All killer, no filler. The toys featured here are notably consistent performers across the board, with the possible exception of Chromia, only marked by distribution woes and the occasional QC fault. Pick your fave, then pick a weaponizer, and you’ll have a good time. Add a Battlemaster for a fantastic time. Its mostly Autobots, but the Deceptions are a good bunch of chaps too.

 

 

The 2019 Siege Soundwave toy

Voyagers

This price-point is probably the one going the hardest on the whole “Cybertron is supposed to be a messy warzone” thing, featuring some big names, and most of them looking pretty sci-fi. Unfortunately, as characters like Optimus Prime and Starscream live here, successive re-releases and over-exposure makes the toys of this slot less appealing. They aren’t bad, but don’t pay too much. Notable exceptions include Apeface, whom has not been re-released, and the Megatron which I feel came out better than the Earthrise version. There’s also a Springer with the misfortune of following arguably the best voyager of all time. He’s OK though.

 

The 2019 Siege Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime toy

Leaders

At the time, many people felt that these were merely voyagers with more accessories, something typified by the Shockwave and later Astrotrain releases. Its not an unreasonable view, given overall design, and the general vibe of “biggish dude armouring up into bigger dude”. That overshadows the actual merits of the price-point though. The Ultra Magnus brought back the long-absent inner robot gimmick, and paid tribute to the 2001 RID version at the same time. Its nicer than all the subsequent versions, TBH. Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime brought a welcome bit of Unicron Trilogy to events, and you’d have to very grumpy not to appreciate the four-arms-but-only-one-hand super mode of Shockwave. And to bring up the matter of theme again, Astrotrain is a steam engine with a coal tender. On Cybertron. Just saying.

 

The 2019 Omega Supreme toy

Big Boys: Commander & Titan

This is a slot that I regret my own inexperience with. Jetfire and Omega Supreme where however well-received, so I assume they’re good if you can find them. Omega is currently unique, too.

 

The 2019 "Final Strike Figure Series" artwork

Concurrent Exclusives

Sorry, gotta talk about repaints again. There were 12 concurrent exclusive releases, of which 7 were multipacks, usually if 3 or 4 toys of the straight repaint variety. Generations Select had a further 9 solo releases, and TakaraTomy did a Nemesis Prime. As Starscream was present, this group included the seekers, and similar common repaint candidates and army builders. This trend would continue into Earthrise, and would generate much of the general annoyance discussed earlier. There was also more oddball stuff though, like the Powerdashers, a well-regarded toy-style Refraktor set. The Hot Shot repaint/retool is another personal fave here, but maybe don’t get Slamdance. He breaks.

Conclusion

Transformers in the modern sense largely starts with Siege, and its legacy is that of a bunch of good toys, basically ran into the ground. There’s not much actually bad in the line, as everything is fun to play with and holds up well. The problem is that it was immediately followed by Earthrise. Earthrise was certainly more pleasing to certain sets of the fanbase, and a worthy sequel, but it made people regret buying into Siege like an early adopter. More so after the Netflix business. The extensive use and reuse of Siege moulds, either as repaints or retools or suspiciously similar engineering, has devalued them. This is a real shame, as Siege is generally excellent outside of the Micromasters, and even they have an appeal. I actually kinda miss it, and hope Legacy can live up to it in every sense of the word.

Transformers: Siege Barricade Is Something That Exists

My creative process, such as it is, does not come when I call. Its more that things rattle in my brain until expressed, or I latch onto something and obsess. Or I have travel time, and a stream of consciousness congeals on my phone into an article. This is one such article. Its subject, Barricade, came dead last in a twitter poll, but I couldn't quite give up on it. So, after some pruning, here we are.

While not the first character to bear the name, Barricade is of course a notable from the Michael Bay Transformers films. I hesitate to call him a character, because Mr Bay is not interested in characterisation, especially of giant robots. Rather, Barricade embodied a theme that Bay was not political enough to explore: the idea of law enforcement being malevolent. A proper discussion of this matter is beyond the scope of this article, and is something I do not wish to trivialise, but the Heroic Cop ideal is a feature of American pop culture, so having an evil Decepticon disguise themselves as one was somewhat subversive at the time. But if you've watched the news recently? Perhaps more true to life than we'd like? You know what I'm talking about. The comics of course did it better, with IDW taking the character of Prowl, already a reputed prick with a police altmode, through moral ambiguity, and right out the other side. And then side to side. It has been my pleasure to describe Barricade as "less-evil Prowl" ever since. Despite a lack of screen-time, Barricade got a revamp for the 5th Bay film, had comic appearances, and a place in the Authentics line-up,so it looks like he's made it into the pantheon. Perhaps inevitably then, Barricade found his way into Siege as a Prowl retool, making him one of a vanishingly small number of break-out characters to imprint themselves onto G1 after the fact. In all fairness though, describing this chap as a Prowl retool is a touch imprecise. He is just as much a Smokescreen pretool, as this toy would be used as that character, minus the light bar. If indeed any of the "fairlady carformers" are the true original, I suspect they were developed as one. The look of the toy is based off Guido Guidi's attempt at a G1-styled Barricade, which was based on Smokescreen, whom is of course, the second Prowl retool from G1. This, if anything, makes the fact that Barricade was a mass market release more surprising, as there was a more obvious character right there. Smokescreen ended up in Generations Selects instead. I can only assume they felt that this would help with the faction ratio in Siege, Autobots being very over-represented in the deluxe pricepoint at the time.

 

Eh, that's 460 or so words of context, what's the toy like? Well, he's striking, if possibly a tad frail-looking. Let's start with the car mode. This is allegedly a Cybertronian altmode, but it never struck me as alien. A lot of Siege toys were like that. The Prowl and Smokescreen look so normal in this form due to their paint jobs, I would have happily used them as I.P-friendly Earth modes. Not that I have any real knowledge of cars, mind you. Don't they all have translucent wheels? Barricade however looks like cyberpunk vehicle, it's the purple and cybertronic lettering. I would not be surprised to see this driven by corporate security. Its on the small side for a Deluxe, but not obnoxiously so, and the battle damage paint apps are noteworthy as other versions of the mould skip them. Limited to the front fenders, its both appropriate and restrained. The transformation is a tribute to 1984 Prowl toy, and is generally pretty good, but things up skinny and hollowed out for the robot mode. Most of the lower body is best viewed from the front, and the heavy use of translucent plastic is a concern in the long run. Barricade is however nicely articulated and fully compatible with the Siege play pattern. Of particular interest are the accessories, which foreshadow Smokescreen. There's two guns meant to be shoulder mounted, but these can also combine into a double blaster or be held separately in hand. As the mould is covered in 5mm ports, including an easily missed hole on the light bar, you can do all kinds of gunplay/carmageddon stuff. There's also some good synergy with Brunt, in a brains & brawn pairing, and with especially with Earthrise Slitherfang coming shortly after. The dude looks great, in a sinister kind of way, with multiple options for both modes, and if if you get him a buddy with complimentary colours, it only gets better. Good mould, good looks, the complete deluxe experience. His only problem is one that affects so many Siege toys, he was made obsolete by an Earthrise exclusive with almost indecent speed. I could tangent fiercely about that trend, but that's also outside the remit of this article. Perhaps another time...

 

My point? Just that Siege Barricade is something that exists. There is however a lot of interesting context outside of the toy, and said toy is actually pretty good. And that's why I'm here, at the end of the day.

 

Wheee!