Cliffbee.com G2 Sideswipe Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Sideswipe
Series: Generation 2
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Warrior
Alternate Mode: Lamborghini Countache



CAR MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 11cm Width: 5cm

   A classic black Countache, Sideswipe has clear windows and a red front bumper. If this sounds like a swapping of colours from the original, that's because it's very close. The red is a little brighter now, but it's essentially a colour swap. He's got air intakes on the doors and pop up headlight seams. There are bright green stickers on the front set of headlights, the indent on the roof and spoiler, confirming that this somewhat sedate colour scheme is in fact G2. He has his name rather obviously printed in black on the green stickers on the spoiler, and he has "SS" on his doors, again with his name inside the letters. He has a G1 Autobot logo sticker on his hood.

   A very nice mould, and aside from the green a nice colour scheme too. The wheels are chrome, the tyres rubber, all the windows clear - there's even a windscreen wiper moulded onto the windscreen. The back half of the car, save for the spoiler, is die-cast metal.

   There's quite a lot of detail in the moulding, though as you might expect a lot of it is lost in the black colouring. As well as the wiper, he has indented air intakes, moulded head & taillights, engine canopy and boot seams. Inside the cockpit there's room for one driver - a Diaclone driver, of course. You can actually mistransform him so that his head is visible in this cavity!

   Play value is limited to rolling on his wheels, which is about as much as you can expect from a car mode, short of a pull-back motor. It doesn't have axles, and hence doesn't roll straight (or very far) unassisted. But it looks that good it that overall it's still a fantastic car mode. You can also attach his lime & blue missile launcher to a hole in the roof, but considering how bright it is, you'll probably choose not to.

   A good colour scheme, with bad stickers, but still better than a lot of car modes G2 dished up. The fact that it's a great mould means that on balance this is still a good car mode.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Pull back the engine block, separate it into two halves to form the legs. fold down the front around 90° and then pull out the doors to form the arms. You can them completely fold down the front to become his chest, and swing out the head from under this front section. Swivel up his roof to form the backpack, position the arms, give him his weapons and you're done.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 11cm Width: 7.5cm

   The black is joined by white and a lot more of that bright red in this mode, with the addition of chrome silver. He's got a red head with a silver face, with silver eyes. The chest is black, being the front of the car. His arms are silver & black, with tyres on his shoulders and red hands. The waist is white, the groin black. His thighs are white, shins red, the sides of the lower legs are black and the feet silver. Again the red & black are swapped from the G1 version, the white is the same as the original.

   He's got some blue present on stickers on his forearms and feet. For what it's worth, the stickers in robot mode are identical in design to the original.

   From what I can see, there aren't many mould changes between the original and this version. In fact the only obvious one is the hole on his back to which you can attach that missile launcher.

   He comes with a standard Sideswipe gun, which is white, and that Day-Glo missile launcher. Aside from being bright, it's also huge, so I'd recommend leaving it out and giving him the handgun only. The toy's poseability is limited to only the shoulders, which can swivel 360°. At any rate, the strength of Swiper in this mode is his display value, as in car mode.

   Overall, a very good and well proportioned robot mode, with great display value. And he's very show accurate. The red's not as nice as that on the original, but it's better than a lot of plastic choices in G2.

VARIATIONS

   None, though he is a repaint.

OVERALL

   A great mould, with attention to detail, a realistic car mode, a fairly good colour scheme and quality of manufacturing (metal, clear windows) all work in Swiper's favour. While it's not quite as nice as the original, this is a nice colour scheme in it's own right. The stickers in car mode are pretty bad, but you can always remove those. I'm not sure I'd recommend it if you have the original, but as repaints go this is a good one - 8/10

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