Transfomers: Combiner Wars: Deluxe Autobots

If there’s anything that I’ve learned in the early goings of blogging, it’s that I need to work on my photography skills and my toy posing skills. Small moves.

Hey, remember the Combiner Wars Stunticons? They were repainted as Autobots. Man, I have no interest in them at all. Every time I see them in stores, I think “those look pretty nice, but I don’t like them enough to buy them.” Good thing I’ve got willpower, ‘cause the last few times I’ve walked down the toy aisle, those repaints have been looking pretty nice.

Hey look, here’s the Autobot repaints of the Stunticon molds that I wasn’t interested in. Sunstreaker, Prowl, Mirage and Ironhide from the Breakdown, Dead End, Drag Strip and Offroad molds. I started eyeing Sunstreaker and Prowl, because they were the best looking and best figures, respectively, but thanks to a sweat 25% off Cartwheel deal, I wound up with all four. I’ve already reviewed the figures, so this entry is more about the look of the repaints.

Ironhide is the easy one: Offroad in all red, with a new head that resembles the Prime Kup head. That’s all. He’s the weakest looking, and there’s not much else to say about him, really.

Mirage is the one that has surprised me most. The Combiner Wars Drag Strip mold isn’t particularly good at doing anything, but Mirage makes it work nicely. This figure actually looks like Mirage, as opposed to being a nameslap repaint *cough like Ironhide cough cough* Oh, excuse me. I must be coming down with something. Mirage is a nice blue and white, as Mirage is, and the figure is much nicer looking out of the package than in. The stock images of him really do make him look like Drag Strip with a different head, but live and in person it is a completely different looking figure. Despite the simple color palate Mirage is much more of a looker than the original owner of the mold. I’m really impressed with Mirage. His head is a little strange, almost like it’s too small, but I think it’s just because of the way the head attaches to the figure. Since it is separate from the body, and moves independently, unlike the other three where the heads are attached more stably to the bodies, there is always a small gap between head and body. It’s not a big deal visually, but it does make the head seem a tad bit too small. 

Prowl is another one where there’s not much to say, mainly because Prowl is a repaint of the Streetwise version of this mold, and is, like Streetwise, a police car. So this is a police car repaint of . . . a police car. I was interested in Prowl because I really love the Dead End/Wildrider/Streetwise mold. The only real differences are the headsculpt, which is so Prowl, and the black paint of the legs, which is sharp. Prowl is also actually white, not the off white that Streetwise is, so he looks a lot more crisp.

Sunstreaker was the one that I wanted, and knew I probably wasn’t going to be able to pass on forever. The mold is probably my least favored of the Stunticons, but as Sunstreaker is it a different toy. Mostly yellow with enough black to make him pop, Sunstreaker is the winner of the wave. Personally, I’m not sure a Sunstreaker figure will ever be better than the 2008 Classics version, but that’s not to say one really has to. Like Mirage, Sunstreaker is not simply a repaint figure, but rather one that does the mold better than the original does. Car mode is super slick, although most of the car is just yellow, so visually it is a little boring. Like the original Breakdown, it’s a nice car that looks fine with the paint it wears, but is just sort of a sports car. The head is too small, and that is really noticeable in the way the Sunstreaker ears are compressed. 

Overall, these are some very nice repaints, despite not being very inspiring before you get them in hand. Better versions of these characters have already been done, and I’m not a big supporter of the “Everyone’s a combiner now!!” element of the Combiner Wars line. Without a doubt there is a degree of familiarity with these toys as well, as they’ve all been done and their do-overs aren’t even physically different aside from the heads. At the $12 I paid for each of them, they are terrific; at the current non-Cartwheel rate of just below $16 that Target has them for these days, no way. Much more satisfying in hand than in package, but I wouldn’t recommend them at their regular retail price for their sameness.These are some perfect sale/discount toys.