Cliffbee.com BotCon Waspinator Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Waspinator
Series: Convention Exclusives
Allegiance: Predacon
Function: Aerial Attack
Alternate Mode: Saab Grippen Jet

Thanks to kup for loaning me Waspinator, making this review possible.



JET MODE
Height: 5.5cm Length: 12cm Width: 8cm

   A green jet with a transparent blue cockpit and aposematic black and yellow painted along the various edges, this is a wonderful interpretation of Waspinator's colours on a jet. The cockpit colour lines up to the wasp eyes while the yellow and black match the stripes on the abdomen. There are large stamped Predacon logos on the wings, facing backwards, and a smaller one on his nose, facing forward. Not only is this a great adaptation of the character, it's a striking colour scheme that brings something new to a mould that has been repainted about twelve times since its introduction back in Machine Wars.

   Whilst he's superficially similar in colour to Machine Wars Thundercracker, this particular jet is all Waspinator, which is what we want from a toy like this. There's a fair bit of pea-soup green kibble underneath and while this doesn't really hurt from above, though you can clearly see his limbs from the side. There's not much play value in this mode - it's all in the transform and the robot mode. The plastic wheels under his nose and rear can retract, however.

   I'm really impressed by this repaint - bringing something to a mould as well trodden as this one isn't easy, yet Waspinator does so with ease. It's a really great repaint in that respect in that it's striking and recognisable instantly - which is what you want from a BotCon repaint. For a flyer such as Waspinator, a jet seems to fit well, and this is a good jet mode that they've chosen for him.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Theoretically, push down on the nose and that's it. In reality, you have to fold up the landing gear first. Once you've done that he does essentially transform. The tail section actually slides up when it transforms, which is kind of cool. Position the arms and legs, and remove the two halves of his gun from inside his legs.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 10cm Width: 8cm

   A green robot with pea-soup upper arms and thighs, Waspinator has the transparent blue canopy on his chest and a transparent blue eyestrip (which has a poor lightpipe). There is again extensive yellow and black, although they don't alternate as well as on the jet mode - aside from the head. There's a set of ridges above the eyes which resemble eyebrows and they've been painted with black and yellow stripes, which looks fantastic. There's no remoulding on Waspinator, but these stripes ridges suit him well, turning an existing feature into antennae! The stamped Predacon symbol is now visible on his groin. Whilst it's not as spectacular as his jet mode, this is still a well repainted robot mode, which portrays the character well and looks good.

   This mode is quite poseable. The hips, knees, elbows and shoulders are ball joints. The head is, too, but it's almost immobile since the metal rod that his chest swivels down on is pushing up behind it. Good play value and a lot of poses are possible. The gun is a long green shotgun rifle. It looks nice, and you can remove the silencer from the front to give him a pistol, if you like. It's actually possible for him to hold both the front and rear handles on the gun. It'll point to the side, and you can't turn his head to face that way, but it still looks quite impressive, like he's on guard or something. Sadly, kup's Waspinator has stress marks where the gun connects together and on the fist (before I touched it, honest!) - no doubt a side effect of a change in plastics. Whilst it's not a dealbreaker, this is a significant flaw.

   A good repaint again and this robot mode does a job good of representing Waspinator. The poseability of this robot mode is great, and you can pop off his limbs for that Waspinator experience! I'm really quite disappointed by the stressed plastic relating to his gun - not a good sign on such a limited Transformer.

VARIATIONS

   A repaint of MW Thundercracker & Skywarp as mentioned. This mould has been used numerous times, but I don't feel the need to go through them all.

OVERALL

   What should have been a fantastic repaint is somewhat sullied for me thanks to the stressmarks on the plastic. The paint job is fantastic, especially in jet mode, it's an excellent reinterpretation of the character. It's a mould I've always been partial to, as well - although it's starting to become rather blasé now since Hasbro or Takara trot it out every couple of years. Despite the overuse, this is a repaint I _should_ be nuts about, but find myself disappointed with - 7/10

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