The final member of the Warbotron team, Fierce Attack is a
Third Party Onslaught, and represents somewhat of a mixture of the entire team
aesthetic of sticking to the original inspiration, and trying to doing
something stylized and different. I’m not sure it’s too successful, but I’m also
not sure that it’s Fierce Attack’s fault.
The largest figure of the set, Fierce Attack is large and
very bulky. The upper body is almost laughably large, with the arms being just
a tad too short and the legs being pretty much standard legs. In fairness, the
entire figure is much better served having the large cannon backpack attached,
despite that making the figure almost intolerably back heavy and difficult to
pose. Fierce Attack needs to be slightly hunched over forward, which ruins the
Onslaught profile by making Fierce Attack seem like he’s supposed to be this
hulking brute, and not the calculating tactician that the Combaticon leader
canonically is. There is also the matter of random parts of vehicle sticking
off of the robot, such as the wheels on the shoulders and panels on the sides
of the legs. These parts don’t really do anyplace, and the panels on the legs
are far more forgivable than the shoulder wheels that really do just stick
straight up. Everything about Fierce Attack is designed to be large and
imposing, and the discrepancy between upper and lower torsos is addressed via a
pair of stackable rocket pods that plug into the waist and cover a gap created
by the robot abs, essentially making a straight visual line from under the
shoulders to the hips. Now, the head just seems small . . .
The backpack cannons separate from each other and are, in
theory, handheld weapons for Fierce Attack, but there is no way he can hold
them and have it look good. The weapons are too large, and the pegs they have
for a figure to hold are too stubby for the figure to actually be able to hold.
It would make some sense if the idea was that Fierce Attack was supposed to
hold them on his shoulder, like a bazooka, but all of that shoulder kibble
prohibits that from working. The cannon backpack also hides the combiner face,
plainly visible on Fierce Attack’s back, hidden a little better than it is on MakeToys Metalstorm, but still not all that well. There are no other handheld weapons
that Fierce Attack comes with.
Overall in robot mode, Fierce Attack gives off a pretty
Optimus Prime vibe, with the prominent chest windows and general appearance of
the legs. This will be covered in more detail later, like in another article,
but given that Fierce Attack on his own does not turn in to a full torso, but
rather an upper half of one, I could see this being repainted into an Optimus
Prime, really needing only the removal of the combiner head from the back. It
probably won’t happen, but I think it could work.
Vehicle mode is a two-step process, but first, an aside.
Right out of the box, my Fierce Attack had a bent pin that held the two side
panels together on the left side of the truck. The pin was bent so slightly,
but just enough and in just the right way that the panels would not fold over
each other, which inhibited transformation. I ended up pushing the offending
pin out of the connection, which then meant that the lower panel was not
connected to the vehicle, but really it’s made little difference in the
vehicle, and does not affect the robot mode at all. This was, at the time, and
perhaps still is, my only QC issue with a Third Party figure, which I thought
was pretty good, considering the scene was not that long ago maligned as being
cheap and poor quality.
Anyway, vehicle mode is initially a cab for a military
truck, again evoking Optimus Prime quite a bit, or maybe Megatron in his Dark of the Moon live action movie
vehicle design. It is a nice truck mode, doing that thing that the figures of
this set generally do, where it’s recognizable as Onslaught but is doing
something a little differently, and that is something that has been really
enjoyable about this entire run of figures. But, there’s a second part to
Fierce Attacks’ vehicle mode, and that is a detachable, long flatbed, complete
with extra wheels and the ability to carry other members of the team and/or the
Warbotron foot components, which are interesting pieces themselves. With the
additional trailer part empty and the cannon backpack attached, Fierce Attack
does look like G1 Onslaught quite a bit. That extra trailer part will
ultimately become the thighs for the combined mode, since Fierce Attack himself
only converts into shoulders and a chest, and the trailer integrates into
vehicle mode pretty well, considering that it is a totally separate piece and
the wheels don’t match those on the main truck and the trailer is clearly a
piece that is more functional than aesthetic. But, team members like Sly Strike
and Heavy Noisey (still the worst name. –mr) can fit on the back, and then
panels fold up to keep them from rolling off.
The combiner feet are odd, and should get some attention
before they become “just” feet for the combined mode. Each of them are molded
to look like they have treads, implying that they are independently mobile
entities, with twin cannons on the top, and a very flexible toe on the front.
These parts are sort of a mystery, as I can’t tell what they are supposed to be
on their own. The molding and blasters would seem to indicate that they are
separate, like drones or something, but the toe, which moves to a 90 degree
angle, allows them to stand straight up and point their cannons forward, like
blaster emplacements or some kind of barricade device. Considering that the
Warbotron figures come with an original comic, there isn’t any mention of these
things, which would have been nice, since then we’d be aware of their function.
If you were to treat them as drones, one can be towed on the flatbed attachment.
The feet feature a really amazing ankle, but we’ll talk about that later, when
we look at the combined form in its entirety.
To round out the set of figures, Fierce Attack does good
things that some of his teammates do, and then is also occasionally weird.
Honestly, of the five figures, this one is the least impressive, almost like it
was designed for functionality and not individual impact or pizazz. I mean,
it’s a perfectly fine transforming robot, but lacks the charm of Sly Strike and
the accuracy of Heavy Noisey and the wonder of Air Burst. But, is much, much
better than Whirlwind. Pretty middle of the road honestly, but that’s not
entirely a bad thing. Prior to the new crop of Masterpiece sized combiners that Third Parties have been producing,
Bruticus was a really underrepresented combiner, with Warbotron really being
the only entry. So, it’s not like there are multiple 3P Onslaught options, or
at least, there weren’t before, and Fierce Attack is a fine one. It’s kind of
just tough to find anything really glowing to say about him.
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