Transformers: Combiner Wars Defensor and Protectobots

Heavily armed to protect the shit out of you.

This set has been a long time coming. Two days before my wedding almost one year ago, I bought Streetwise and Blades. One of the only times I saw Hot Spot in a store was last August on my honeymoon, in Germany. I don’t remember when I got First Aid, and didn’t find Rook until September. Groove – real Groove, Deluxe Groove- arrived Tuesday. So it took a year, but I’m finally making time to talk about Combiner Wars Defensor. He’s been on my to-do list, but I kept putting him off for reasons unknown, and then when preorders for Groove went up, I figured I’d wait until he came in, so I could do an overall Defensor entry. 

I’ve already talked about pretty much all the Protectobot molds already, so my focus on Streetwise, Blades, First Aid, Groove and HotSpot is mostly for the differences between them and other versions of their molds, if there are any. In the cases of Streetwise and Blades, the differences are only their headsculpts, so there isn’t much new to say. 

Planned obsolescence.

But, to try and use the heads as a segue, all five Protectobots have brand new heads. No reuse of the bland Alpha Bravo head here. Groove is a new mold, so it makes sense that he has a new one. Again though, how much can really be said for G1-based combiner limb figures having heads that look like their originals? Who really knows the details of G1 Streetwise’s face? I know, I know: some people do. But the G1 limb figures had heads that were square pegs, probably less than a quarter inch across that really only served to attach the limb to the torso. Sure, some of the G1 teams got screen or page time as individuals, but not really enough to establish them as characters individually. So, while I am all for G1 accuracy, and have said so many times, and I appreciate good head, it doesn’t hurt a figure in my opinion if the head is not entirely accurate. Combiner Wars Blast Off is kind of the example exception, as the faceplate basically is Blast Offs’ face; a defining or noteworthy detail missing is different from being a dead on recreation of a face you’ve probably never really looked at any way. Maybe that’s contradictory or nonsensical, I don’t know.

What? What did I say?

Anyway, the Protectobot heads all look good, with I think First Aid being the most impressive. To my previous point, who really cares or knows what G1 First Aids’ head looks like? It’s a red square with a blue visor. The Combiner Wars update shows a lot of detail, and while the visor and faceplate combo may not be the most immediately unique arrangement, on First Aid it is a pretty unique one. First Aid is the Offroad mold, however with a covered bed, more of a van or SUV than a pick-up truck; one wonders why they didn’t use this version of the mold for either Ironhide or Trailbreaker, as the vehicle would have made better sense. You can’t even say it’s because of the lightbar First Aid adds as an ambulance type vehicle, because that lightbar sure didn’t stop Smokescreen or the pending Lightspeed from the Hasbro version of Computron.

Blades is, again, the Alpha Bravo mold reused, reheaded and in red, and while I have to say that he looks very nice, Vortex is by far the best and most visually interesting use of this figure. And that may be indicative of the general problem that the Protectobots have always had: they just are not terribly interesting. Narratively speaking, they are the counterpoint to the Combaticons, and what a mismatch that is. The team has a bland white and blue, but mostly white, color scheme, and is a police car, an ambulance, a fire truck, a rescue helicopter (never mind the missile racks…..) and a highway patrol motorcycle. I know what you’re thinking: how can I NOT get excited about this team and their rad vehicle modes? But they have never been popular. In a world here vicious animals and monsters and military vehicles and jets and race cars all transform into giant robots, how does this team compete?

Hot Spot, as a torso, does this really cool thing with his ladder. The Defensor head is located at the end of the ladder, and the ladder wraps around the robot body in torso mode to deploy it. It folds over the lower portion, between the thighs and up the back, leaving the head section to peg into the neck area. Maybe I’m too easily impressed by transforming robots, but I think that’s a terrific design idea, and a really clever way of dealing with the fairly enormous ladder in combined mode, rather than just leaving it to trail behind the back. The weapons he has make more sense with Hot Spot than the Onslaught version, but still looks thin and weak when combined for Defensor. Fortunately though, the guns are large enough that Defensor can hold both of them separately and they look fine, unlike Bruticus, where the guns mounted on the back make up a part of the overall profile of the robot.

Unlike Bruticus, Defensor’s chest is pretty lacking. While Bruticus sports that awesome chestplate, Defensor has a true-to-the-G1 set of black plates. This is where the Legends class showed its truest potential, in the form of Legends Groove. Lil’ Groove transforms from bizarrely long legged robot to sleek futuristic motorcycle to chest armor, similar to Blackjack in concept yet leagues ahead in execution. The connection between pieces is still pretty weak, and Groove doesn’t attach so much as he sort of hangs off the front, with the same basic level of sturdiness as Blackjack, but since the tiny figure actually transforms to do this, the finished look is much better than with the Stunticons. This addition gives Defensor less of a flat look, as the Hot Spot mold is pretty flat and thin. Most times I’ve mentioned the Combiner Wars Legends class up to this point, I’ve referenced this Groove as being the crowning glory of it, and essentially he was, until Shockwave came along. 

This smaller Groove also does make sense in terms of the sizes of the other team members. As a presumably human sized motorcycle, Groove should be smaller than the other Protectobots. G1 never cared about things such as scale, and the reality, or “reality,” of the situation is that combiner teams are often comprised of individuals that would not be comparable in size, and yet they must be in order to function and combine, so allowances must be made. I’ve never had the sort of issue with this as some other people have, but the smaller size of what would be the smallest member, if we are trying to maintain the ‘in disguise’ portion of the franchises’ tagline, makes sense. Legends Groove by himself is a decent little toy, but the long, lanky legs are kind of strange. If they bent backwards into the chicken leg arrangement, some of the height could have been taken up, making Groove a little less freakish looking. Ultimately it is nice to see the armor gimmick working better than it did with Blackjack, and I have been a big fan of the way this figure integrates with the larger one for a long time. If this and Shockwave were what the Legends class was supposed to be for Combiner Wars, all the other Legends figures really, really failed.

Sizes accurate to real world vehicles.

Even before Deluxe Groove came along, Defensor was mostly white, with the baby blue of Hot Spot and the red of Blades being the only differences in color. The combined mode is a little dull to look at because of the blandness of color, but there again is the curse of the combined mode. Too varied colors on the individual robots makes a composite form that is a random mess; too little variation among the individuals, and the individuals are a bit monolithic. I’m thinking of the Constructicons here, obviously. To mention Bruticus again, Bruticus/the Combaticons do the color scheme thing right, where each individual is different but they share in a color motif of that military drabness. The Protectobots, for their part, do it right as well, but they just do it kinda boringly.  

Rook was the new member of the team, but for the longest time I’d had Alpha Bravo as Defensors’ fourth limb, allowing for he and Blades to be arms, giving symmetry to the combined form. Like a rescue helicopter and a Coast Guard helicopter. It looked good, as for me, Rook is just too bulky for this team, and while I still understand the intention of his vehicle mode, I don’t think it really fits with the rest of the guys visually, or even practically.  

 I think that Defensor is going to be that combiner that is forgotten or overlooked, again. This is just not a sexy team, or a flashy team, or an exciting team. The fiction has often tried to make individual members into real characters over the years, honestly only succeeding in making Blades seem like an unhinged lunatic because he’s supposed to be some kind of street fighter. He’s a bad ass for the sake of being a bad ass, and I can’t tell you how stupid I find that. I know First Aid has had some role in the IDW comics over the last few years, but I couldn’t tell you what it has been. All of the molds that comprise him (minus the new Groove, because he’s new) have been reused as other characters, and yet it is the Protectobots that feel like the team of repaints or second uses. The first wave of Deluxe Autobots feel more like individuals because they are colorful; Onslaught feels more unique because of his team of military vehicles; Vortex is the best of the helicopters because his colors are visually catchy. Defensor is just kind of….present, and while that’s not a bad thing, it’s not a terribly impressive thing either. He looks good next to other combiners, but he is very much an accessory to the line, as opposed to a self-sufficient entry into it.