Cliffbee.com Legends Sandstorm Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Sandstorm
Series: Movie Tie-ins
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Dune Buggy



DUNE BUGGY MODE
Height: 3cm Length: 6cm Width: 4cm

   A small light orange dune buggy with darker orange fenders, a rollcage and black tyres. The darker orange is essentially a standard orange - of a similar shade to that found on G1 Sandstorm, although the light orange here is much lighter than on the G1 toy. While he's tributing a G1 toy, he's a repaint of Legends Beachcomber. Sandstorm has a black spare tyre on the back, along with a black gun. There are black seats inside the open cockpit, yellow headlights on the fenders and a black hood, rounding out a colour scheme which does a good job of matching a mould designed to tribute one toy character to the colour scheme of another.

   This buggy is very angular, although there aren't many right angles, moreso a bunch of wide angles. Sandstorm has a fairly high ground clearance and there are shocks sculpted in the rear wheel bays which are clearly visible since there's a fair gap between the tyres and rear fenders. His tyres have moulded grip, including the spare tyre on the back. As on the original, the knee joints are visible on the front. There is a moulded flaw on this vehicle mode - the left side of the rollcage (which is actually composed of four pieces), doesn't quite line up with the rest of the cage, and this was something seen on Beachcomber as well - it's a shame this mould flaw wasn't addressed.

   The play value is pretty limited, which is to be expected at this size. His wheels roll although not well. The spare tyre and gun are a single piece which can be removed and repositioned (the post is hexagonal) allowing you to aim the gun.

   A pretty good dune buggy mode as legends go, despite the moulded flaw. The colour scheme and paint job work well and the detail here is pretty good. As co-opted moulds go, this tribute works well and his colours look nice anyway. The rollcage defect is a significant flaw, but not a killer at this size scale.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Pull the rear fenders/rollcage sides out to the sides to form arms, flip over the front to form boots. Split the boots, fold the seats down to form feet. Stand him up and push the chest down into place, which reveals the robot head.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 7.5cm Width: 4cm

   A twotone orange and black robot, Sandstorm has a darker orange chest, light orange arms, boots and and head while his thighs, head and feet are black. There's a red Autobot logo stamped on his chest above a silver patch. The face is silver white with a silver eyevisor. While the original intention of this mould as Beachcomber is very obvious, the tribute is still reasonable here, thanks to the colours - especially on his head. The colour scheme here actually works very well anyway.

   The detailing here is pretty good, even if it's clearly based on G1 Beachcomber. The face looks very much like something from the G1 cartoon and the chest detailing works in a G1 way as well - in silver it looks like an engine of some sort. The front of the buggy is visible as the boots while the rear tyres are visible on the shoulders and the front tyres are on the back of boots. There's a lot of the character here, which is something I really like about this mould.

   The poseability is fairly good here. The head and waist are fixed while the shoulders have both hinges and restricted ball joints. The hips are also ball jointed while the knees are hinged. The seats for decent heelspurs and while the lack of lateral movement in his knees does limit the range of action poses here, the heelspurs support what is available.

   A very good robot mode for a Legends sized toy, Sandstorm has an attractive colour scheme and decent poseability. Despite the obvious fact that this robot mode's shape is Beachcomber, it's a nice looking repaint thanks to good colours. The G1 Sandstorm tribute is actually fairly weak here.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of.

OVERALL

   A good Legends toy with a paint job that works well, to the point that it overcomes the distinctly Beachcomber feel of this mould. The play value is good at this size and the colours work well aesthetically. The misaligned rollcage is a notable flaw but not enough to curb my enthusiasm for this mould. As the Legends pricepoint, I'd recommend Sandstorm even if you have Beachcomber - 8/10

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