Name: Wars
Series: Robots in Disguise
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Stock Racing Car
CAR MODE
Height: 2.5cm Length: 7.5cm Width: 3.5cm
A red "NASCAR" style stock racing car, Wars' major colour in this mode is a metallic red. He has sparkly blue painted windows, yellow stripes along the top of his spoiler and bottom edge of the doors and a silver headlight & bumper assembly painted onto his front. There's a splash of silver paint on his hood with a black Japanese character (which is "Wars") on top. Yes, He has a silly name, but I suppose it sounded less silly in Japanese and Hasbro didn't want to redo the paint mask. Sure, it's a dumb name but there's plenty worse. There's also silver paint splashes on his doors, with the his name (in English) formed by gaps in the paint (ie in red). He has a G1 Autobot symbol stamped onto his roof, and silver struts on the front window - part of the rollcage.
The rollcage is a nice detail in this mould, but it's not executed that well in terms of colour. The front struts are silver, rear ones red and the driver's window mesh is painted blue like the rest of the window. I do like the fact that this toy has a lot of detail in it's mould for it's size, even if the paint job doesn't do it full justice.
One of the weaker moulds of this series, but Wars still has the axles that allow him to roll quite well, and fit in Hot Wheels tracks, so he has play value. He may not look like a stock car in his paint job, but the red plastic is a nice shade, and in truth his colours are probably better than most NASCAR vehicles carry anyway. Sure, there are weaknesses, but overall this is a decent little car.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Pretty simple. Pull down the rear to form the legs, fold down the hood to form the chest, pull out the arms.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 6.5cm Width: 4.5cm
The red is joined by more yellow and black in this mode. His chest and arms are red, his head and thighs black, and his lower legs yellow. He has a silver face, which has reasonably good moulded detail but most of it is lost in the silver paint. The Japanese character is now on his chest, forming something of a centrepiece to this mode.
While the colours work, the shape of this robot mode doesn't work very well. His thighs are very short, his arms too long and his chest is huge (and it sticks out more conspicuously than most SpyChangers). The arms themselves aren't _that_ long, but the panels on their outsides formed from the car doors are. So he's all arms and chest which almost no thighs, making him look rather squat.
The shoulders rotate and that's it for poseability. I don't expect much more of a toy at this pricepoint, but I do expect more of the proportions. The paint job and shoulders aren't enough to save Wars' robot mode, unfortunately.
VARIATIONS
The Japanese version had silver windows and no Autobot stamp on the roof (replaced by a heat rub on a window). There's been a few clear versions, both in Japan and the Anglophone markets. He shares his mould with the G2 Gobots Gearhead and Soundwave.
OVERALL
A good car mode and good colours are pretty much ruined by a badly proportioned robot mode. Still, he's the best of the three main versions of this mould, thanks to his colour scheme. Not much of an achievement in the case of Globot Soundwave, mind you, but this is a pretty cool colour scheme. The only reason I grabbed Wars was because he came packaged with Crosswise - he's not really worth it on his own, to be honest - 5/10
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