Name: Offroad
Series: Combiner Wars
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Truck
AMBULANCE MODE
Height: 5cm Length: 12cm Width: 5cm
A grey pick-up truck with red windows and red lightning style stripes on the doors. Offroad has black plastic tyres with silver hubcaps and silver headlights. His hood has a raised section that's painted a gunmetal colour with a Decepticon logo stamped on the left side. There's more than a hint of Wildrider in this colour scheme - Offroad was released along side 4 other Combiner Wars Stunticons, with Wildrider coming later... which I guess explains why he's stolen Wildrider's colours. It's a decent vehicle mode although I'm not sure he feels like a Stunticon.
As is common for the line, there are attachment points for his weaponry in this mode - aside from the rolling wheels this is all the play value we get. There's a rather visible tab on his rear tray for the foot/hand accessory, but since it's one of those "let's call it a gun" affairs, you're probably best leaving that off. His blade weapon can plug into holes on either side just in front of the rear wheel well with the handle serving as a gunbarrel. Since both weapons are purple they don't really gel with Offroad's truck mode. I'd recommend leaving both off.
A simple but effective vehicle mode with nice colours but awkward shades of Wildrider. It's not that Wildrider has a monopoly on the colours, mind you. The weaponry is a bit of a waste of time here. It's a reasonable vehicle mode, but not an outstanding one.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Pull the doors out to the sides as arms. Unclip the rear underside as boots, swing them part of the way back. Unclip the rear roof and swing down as calves. Clip the boots together & stand him up. Unclip the front of the vehicle and swing down onto his back, clip it into place. Rotate his head, position the arms and give him weapons as desired.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 15cm Width: ~9cm (depending on pose)
Offroad is now a grey robot with silver accents on his knees and some spots on his chest. The central stripe on his chest is grey while his upper arms and thighs are composed of blue-turquoise plastic. There's some red on his chest along with a Decepticon logo on the left side. His face is yellow with red eyes and a blue-turquoise crest. It's a pretty nice colour scheme which no longer alludes to Wildrider - Offroad definitely has his own personality now. It doesn't really fit into the era of the G1 Stunticons, so I feel like he's the black sheep of the set.
While there's no Wildrider here, there's more than a hint of Ruckus in the well detailed head sculpt. It's not a coincidence as he was designed as Ruckus but evolved away from that character during the process. I don't mind this as it does give Offroad a very detailed head.
His backpack is fairly bulky and doesn't actually clip in firmly; instead relying on the tightness of joints - and while he gets away with this while new, that may change over time. Mine's still firm but then I'm not transforming him on my display. It does inhibit shoulder poseability a little too, but not to the point of it ruining the play value.
Poseability is fairly standard for Combiner Wars. Ball joints in the neck, shoulders and hips. His elbows and knees have hinges and rotators. The feet are fixed in that slightly-spread pose. His ankles, wrists and waist don't move. The blade-weapon can fit in either hand as a scimitar-esque weapon (looks okay) or a gun (looks weird). The purple weapon doesn't look out of place in robot mode as Offroad has a lot more colour here than truck mode. The foot/hand piece can also be handheld but looks silly - as they all do.
A very unique robot mode amongst Combiner Wars - Offroad has Ruckus' head sculpt and colours that feel more like they belong to the Pretender era of G1 than the Stunticons. I suppose the colours fit into the G2 Stunticons (ironically he was the only CW Stunticon who didn't get a release in the G2 giftset). I like this mode mode quite a bit, despite the kibble limitations - just not so much as part of the Stunticons.
VARIATIONS
None as such, although he shares his engineering and transformation with First Aid.
OVERALL
On the one hand, Offroad has a very unique and visually appealing robot mode. On the other, his truck mode has stolen Wildrider's colours. He doesn't quite fit into the Stunticons - even with Wildrider's colours - but he's still a nice toy. I'm sure most G1 fans would prefer Wildrider over Offroad, but Offroad is a nice enough toy on his own. And hey, if you do like him as something new for the Stunticons, he's a good CW figure on his own - 8/10
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