Name: Red Alert
Series: Cybertron
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Armoured Missile Truck
Thanks to Tiby for loaning me Red Alert for this review
MISSILE TRUCK MODE
Height: 4.5cm Length: 9cm Width: 3.5cm
A white armoured truck with eight charcoal tyres and a giant silver missile on top, Red Alert is a vastly simplified version of Cybertron Defence Red Alert, without the blue and gold details, amongst other things. There are some grey patches on the front and bronze paint apps on the sides, but the windows at the front are unpainted. There's a stamped Autobot logo on the front and a red painted tip on the permanently-open missile, rounding out a simple colour scheme. Aside from the unpainted windows, I'm pretty happy with the detailing at this level.
While the truck shape and detailing are pretty good, there are two aspects which really hurt this mode. The first is a giant gap in the middle underneath the missile - inside this gap the robot head, torso and thighs are very visible; the second is the fact that the missile sits offset to the right and cannot move into the centre as on the larger toy - aside from looking lopsided, this means the missile is unable to hide the gap. The missile itself has a hinge and a ball joint at the base, whereas two ball joints would have allowed it to cover the gap. The missile is permanently open, and while I would have preferred it to be moulded _shut_, that's just a personal preference, and the designer was always going to have choose one position or the other at this scale and complexity. The play value here is less than I'd expect - false wheels underneath turn and the missile can aim, but lifting the missile up or swinging it to the side just makes that gaping hole more visible.
A fairly well painted missile truck with a good sculpt and a good use of colours, Red Alert should be a nice scaling down of the Ultra sized toy, but with the gaping hole on top and a missile that's designed in a way that it can't cover this hole, this is a disappointing vehicle mode.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Fold the front down and split to form legs, flip up his feet (which also flips down the attached heelspurs). Fold the rear section back to reveal (well, finish revealing) the head and torso, swing the sides into position as arms. The missile just sort of floats above his head, although you can aim it if you like.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 8.5cm Width: 3.5cm
Red Alert is again mainly white with grey on his groin and shins while his head, thighs and chest are painted blue. The arms are largely bronze thanks to the positioning of those painted elements. The silver missile sits atop his head. The colours loosely align to those on the Ultra version, although there's not as much blue - the arms are notably devoid of blue. The colour scheme is neither focused or messy - somewhere in the middle, and it's forgettable without really making any strong impression. The Autobot logo is on his left shin.
There's some poseability here, although it's mostly a result of his transformation. The arms swing but the attachment points are a little low, so lifting them too high looks odd. The missile can swing side to side and lift up, although again the single ball joint makes some positions look awkward. The hips are ball jointed and the heelspurs are decent, so we get some leg movement, although the fixed knees limit this a little. The rear section of the truck tends to swing forward and get in the way when the arms swing down, which is a little annoying.
A mediocre robot mode, which is unusual for the Legends class where the robot mode is usually stronger. The colours don't work as well as they should while the poseability is passable but with problems. It's not an awful robot mode, but there are more problems than there should be in a toy that focuses so much on robot mode.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of, although Classics Legend Perceptor is a repaint of Red Alert.
OVERALL
A disappointing Legends toy which fails to shine in either mode. Neither mode is abysmal, but the giant gap in truck mode really holds back an otherwise good vehicle mode and the robot mode has too many little problems. There's no killer here as such, but with uninspiring colours and two flawed modes, Red Alert just doesn't work as he should - 4/10
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