Name: Wildrider
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Terrorist
Alternate Mode: Ferrari 308 GTB
CAR MODE
Height: 2cm Length: 8cm Width: 3.5cm
A grey Ferrari with red windows, black plastic tyres and silver hubcaps - which are the rivets that keep his tyres attached. Wildrider has a silver lattice-pattern sticker on the front, which includes a Decepticon logo. There's a rubsign indent on his roof, and the rubsign is facing backwards. It's a very simple colour scheme that works well, although I'd prefer it if there was more red to break up the dark grey and black.
The moulding includes headlight covers, an engine grille and air intakes on the doors. He even has front indicators moulded onto the bumper, but the back of the car is a mess, since it's the soles of his feet as well as the attachment point for various accessories.
Play value is about what you'd expect - he can roll on his wheels and adding the big black guns on top creates his attack mode. An attack Ferrari is a little strange, but the black guns suit the colour scheme.
A well defined Ferrari, but a little drab thanks to all the grey. Still, there are worse combiner limbs in G1 - Wildrider pulls off his alt mode which is more than some manage.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Very simple. Extend the rear to form his legs, lift the front of the car onto his roof, stand him up and position the arms. Give him his handgun.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 9cm Width: 3.5cm
A fairly standard looking square peg combiner, Wildrider's grey is now limited to his legs and the outsides of his arms. The arms themselves are red, his torso is die cast metal with a central black stripe, at the top of which is his head - black with a red face. Some silver stickers on his arms, toes and torso add some more colour while another on his groin sports a Decepticon insignia. This is a better colour scheme than the car mode, mainly because there's less grey.
Wildrider's facial detail is unclear - there is an eyestrip and a mouth but it's difficult to really pick them out amongst the red paint and assorted bumps. His head lacks the antenna sticking out the side that the animated Wildrider's has, although the colours are the same. I don't mind the fact that it doesn't look like the show - since the toy came first - but I wish he had a clearer face, rather than a mess of red lumps.
The play value is laughable by modern standards - his shoulders rotate and that's it. While this is typical of the G1 combiner limbs, for a toy with such a simple Transformation, it's disappointing.
While the colour scheme is nice, I'm not so impressed by the facial sculpt, which really spoils this robot mode for me. On the plus side, there's a lot of die cast metal in this mode, which is rare amongst combining Transformers.
VARIATIONS
There were two releases of this toy - one in 1986 and another in 1990 in Classic packaging. I've been unable to find any differences between the two.
OVERALL
A nice colour scheme, but Wildrider's too simple to really excite me. The face sucks, and while his character in the cartoon was interesting, he's not really much on his own. I'd only recommend Wildrider if you're after Menasor - 4/10
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