Name: Onslaught
Series: Superlink (Energon)
Allegiance: Destron
Alternate Mode: Armoured Missile Truck
TRUCK MODE
Height: 8cm Length: 13cm Width: 6.5cm
A cobalt blue and silver missile truck with a huge blue missile rack on top - the parallels to G1 Onslaught are obvious immediately. Onslaught has two larger sets of black wheels at the front and two smaller sets at the back, and along with the front-heavy missile rack this gives him a front-heavy look. The cabin is heavily armoured with transparent blue windows. He sports twin green headlights, and between these is an upside-down spark crystal, and there are two stamped Decepticon logos on top of the missile rack. It's a fairly dark colour scheme, and Onslaught is the only member of this team who matches to dark colours of the G1 Combaticons. I'm happy to report that it works for him.
So you might be thinking that my Onslaught's spark crystal is a manufacturing defect - but it's deliberately aligned to be the centrepiece of Bruticus' chest. At any rate, it's a little offputting. Luckily there's lots of cool stuff here to outweigh this blemish.
One of the best features of the original Onslaught was the fact he was basically a giant cannon on a truck. And this time it's even more pronounced! The missile rack attaches to the rear of the truck and rests on a stand midway, with the eight painted launcher holes sitting about 3cm from the front of the truck, above the cabin. The entire assembly is sloping upwards at about 20°, and really is the dominant feature of this truck - moreso than the giant front. The base is a ratcheting swivel, the rack can rotate 360°, and there's a hinge above the swivel with a range of about 170° - Onslaught can aim in any direction. I suppose it would have been nice if the missile rack could actually fire projectiles - but it becomes Onslaught's legs and Bruticus' thighs so this is asking too much unfortunately.
Onslaught rolls fairly well on his ridged tyres, and the ridges make a nice loud rumble on a smooth surface - which is appropriate for a rolling armoury. There are three hardpoints on this toy, one on either side of the missile rack and another on the left side of the truck proper. Sadly, he comes without any detachable weapons (just as Afterburner lacks weapons), although I can live with this for a guy who turns into a massive weapon anyway.
Despite lacking any detachable weaponry, and despite the odd spark crystal, this is a truck mode I really like. It just looks so damn menacing and powerful. It's a great homage to and update of G1 Onslaught, with colours that really remind me of the G1 Combaticon theme. This is by a fair distance the best vehicle mode of the combining Energon deluxes.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Quite complex for a deluxe, although it's not really difficult once you know what you're doing. Detach the missile rack's base and swing it back, clipping it onto the rear of the truck to form the waist. Split the halves of the rack itself to form his legs, unclip the tips and swing them down to form his feet, rotate the shins (you'll see why any sort of launching mechanism is impossible here) and deploy the heelspurs. Unclip the cabin section from the front, it'll collapse onto itself and over the stand to form a fairly solid backpack, although for this to happen you'll have to loosen the doorpanels a little. Fold down his arms, rotate the forearms into position. Fold down his head and rotate to reveal the face.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 14cm Width: 9cm
Now a silver, cobalt blue and lime green robot mode - which again fits in with his very strong G1 homage. Onslaught's torso is silver, his shoulders and boots blue with green highlights while his forearms and thighs are black. If you're especially keen you might notice that these colours are not only a match for G1 Onslaught's, but in the same locations. In fact the blue head is really the only major difference - G1 had a black head. It's a pretty good colour scheme and the silver torso especially works very well.
The homage just keeps on going - Onslaught's rear wheels now sit on the sides of his torso, and he has breastplates similar to the single breastplate on the original. There are even axle-stubs as on the original, now augmented by various mechanical details, including one axles reaching right across the waist and moulded shock absorbers, which is very cool.
I should point out that there's a lot more here than just tribute - and Onslaught has a significantly different head, which features circular ears that kind of remind me of a certain Princess in a certain galaxy far, far away. The Force aside, the face itself is silver and his eyes are blue - with a very effective lightpipe. The overall bodyshape is blocky and stocky, and there are panels on the outsides of his forearms which look like great shields, while he has tyres on his elbows.
The backpack is quite hefty but sits flush against his back, minding it's own business. The heelspurs make for a very stable toy, the backpack is big but dealt with exceptionally. There's actually a giant Decepticon symbol on top of it which is the only one you're likely to notice in this mode, although he does have smaller ones on the outsides of his boots.
Onslaught's blockiness masks a very poseable toy. The head turns, the shoulders, elbows, knees and hips are all double jointed and his waist turns - along with the heelspurs this all makes for a very well articulated deluxe. The feet can move around to some extent, although they're not really meant to and any placement would just be for show since the backpack means he'd never topple forward anyway. The only downside is his lack of a weapon, but he can easily borrow one of Blast Off's or Vortex's twin handguns - so assuming you have one of the airborne Combaticons you can easily arm Onslaught. Considering this guy is the core of a Gestalt, this articulation is astounding.
For me this mode is the strong point of Onslaught, because the poseability is far better than most Energon deluxes - most of whom don't have to form the core of another robot. The tribute also impresses me, and the blockiness of the toy fits in with his overpowering vehicle mode. Aesthetically this robot mode works very well, even ignoring his G1 likeness.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of, although his Anglophone name is Barricade. Heatwave is a retool of Onslaught.
OVERALL
In my opinion one of the best toys Energon (well, Superlink) has produced. Onslaught has it all - a kickass vehicle mode, a really well done G1 tribute, great looking robot mode with excellent poseability and there's enough left over for him to form the core of a very good Gestalt. Even if you don't care for the Gestalt I'd recommend this toy. If he came with his own weapon I'd give him a perfect score, but even without one he's still fantastic - 9.5/10
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