Human Alliance Sideswipe

[JediTricks]

Another patented JT mini-view! I'm bypassing a bunch of figures in my queue ahead of this, like the Ice Cream Twins, Dirt Boss, Scalpel, and even HA Bumblebee, but this is one of the figures I was most looking forward to.

Alt Mode: Concept Stingray Corvette, and it is sooooo sweet! Nearly perfect in every respect, even the brake disks are painted silver and the calipers painted red inside the wheels. The silver paint is a little richer but basically the same. The headlights are painted blue behind translucent clear, the brake lights red behind clear. The windows are dark blue. The exhaust pipes just clear for whatever reason. The lack of seams anywhere is a huge benefit to this alt mode, although it is a bit telling for bot mode. And for god's sake, the doors really swing-wing forward, and they do it so swank! The only let-down would be the rather spartan and kibble-laden interior, with Sgt Epps' butt hanging off the outer side of the driver's seat. I do like the little foot-wells created by the back of the thighs though, that's clever. Man is this thing sexy to look at, and in comparison to HA BB, it's about the same length and width, but a much more believable height (BB in alt mode is way too high). Sure, if you look behind the rear wheels underneath you can barely make out some arm kibble, same from the back, but you have to work to find it.

Transformation: Starting with annoyance of folding parts that don't really have clearance, moving on to big panel chunks, then some unfolding and then surprising levels of compaction. It's not a pleasant transformation and it leaves too much shell parts on the back rather than filling in the rear of the torso. Getting it back is a little easier right up until the arms have to go back in, then it's a real battle of wills.

Bot Mode: Oh Sideswipe, how I wanted to dig you more than this. The bot mode is narrow in the shoulders and hips, has "chunky" sculpting, low and weak articulation, and lacks the finer details that BB enjoys. The sculpt is fair, some nice parts, but a few too many simplistic parts detract from that, and why the face has a flip-up nose-mask I'll never get. There are some clever bits, like the real wheel feet that work (although the instructions leave out a step that I consider crucial, hinging the insole around), and the spinning hands/swords is fun in a "why is this here?" manner, but there's not enough going on it the majority of the bot mode. Unlike BB, there is only 1 spot for the figure to hang out on, the driver's seat which ends up just behind the head so he can man the shoulder guns. The other seat turns into a missile launcher he cannot use. There are pegs on the upper arms, maybe he's supposed to sit there, but I'm not buying it. The eyes are light-piped, they're painted blue over clear plastic again, it shines through though and mainly works. The legs telescope down, and then they telescope back in a little too easily, although you can neuter the rear traveling piston to act as a brace. The paint seems simplistic even though there are a few fine details. Oddly, the tailpipes end up hidden behind kibble around his back rather than acting as the mortar launchers behind his head as seen in the movie. So why do these pipes move here?!? The figure might have not had such a weak effect if there had been an actual torso behind the facade plate in front rather than a big, obvious gap. Also hurting are the narrow hips which just don't look right and don't move enough, and the weak shoulders that can't even stay upright all the way.

Overall: C+
I wish I could give this a better rating. The alt mode alone is damned fine, a true winner. The transformation is unsatisfying however, and the bot mode is fair at best, not as fun or detailed as HA Bumblebee. I sure do like that car mode though, and the bot mode has a nice Transformers panel look about it, but I can't in good conscience give it anything higher than that C plus.

[JediTricks]

A few updates on this review.

First, I need to take back what I said about the loose shoulders. It turns out that, although the instructions completely gloss over this, there are clips to hold the shoulder upright into the shell. This makes a considerable difference to the strength of that design. Now, only the left elbow is loose, the rest of the joints are very tight.

Second, there is a peg on each forearm which seems to be made to hold the hole in the back of the human figures, so they can dangle off Sideswipe's forearms for whatever good that does. But there's also a handle hidden inside the backpack kibble which is intentionally there for human figures to hold onto, it's even hinged. Very strange.

Third, also not mentioned in the instructions, but there are 2 tiny fold-out tabs on Sideswipe's midsection to give a wee bit more shape. Doesn't fill in the gappy back though.

Fourth, the instructions have the arms unfold too early, leading to a considerable amount of the frustration and clearance issues hampering the transformation. If you wait until a few steps later, the arms get much more clearance when they start.

Fifth, Epps is a really crummy-looking figure, the legs are too long and the torso too short so he looks like a cheesy muppet.

Does any of this change the figure's grade? It might be hovering between "B-" and "C+", but it's still a big kibble backpack and still a hollow torso, still limited hip articulation, and still not a dazzling amount of detail, so for the price I've got to stick with my original grade.

[BWprowl]

If Bumblebee is any indication, then the pegs on Sideswipes forearms are likely intended for Epps's feet, to let him stand up easily on Sideswipe's arm. Bumblebee has similar pegs with this intention in his *hands* which is really cool.

[Mirage]

Great review, JT-- still looking forward to this guy, though, if I can ever find him...

[onslaught86]

Hmm, good to hear about the appended parts there, was pretty concerning - I hear tell his hip articulation sucks, you mention that but don't go into detail, what're the ranges of motion like? Also, what's the deal with the bigass arms? They look oddly embedded into his sides, like the chest would cause clearance issues. Swords looked ridiculously puny and crap compared to the nifty flippy swords on the Deluxe, that's actually what made me cave on the Deluxe in the end.

Given the unholy price of HA figures here, it's debatable whether I'll even consider getting him, but I'd like to know anyway. He looks spanky enough to justify, and that vehicle mode is hella awesome.

Barricade remains the only one I will buy on sight. After all, it's Barricade.

[JediTricks]

If Bumblebee is any indication, then the pegs on Sideswipes forearms are likely intended for Epps's feet, to let him stand up easily on Sideswipe's arm. Bumblebee has similar pegs with this intention in his *hands* which is really cool.

Yeah, I saw that peg on BB's hand, thought it was meant to hold the figure sitting in his hand. Standing makes much more sense, and reminds me of artistic renderings of a thousand Japanese mech and TF with their humans from the last 30 years. You've got to be right as to why they're on SS as well, I just tried it, it does work, though it'd look better if it was usable with the elbow bent (it ends up on the outside of the forearm that way).

Great review, JT-- still looking forward to this guy, though, if I can ever find him...

Thanks, glad to hear feedback. 8) Also, I'm warming up to the figure ever so slightly as time goes on, his smaller bot size does fit the concept art size for example, but I'm not raising my grade just yet either.

Target seems to be your best bet right now, they're putting out more and more of the cases now that they're reset is done, and the pricing is $5 cheaper than TRU or WM so the turnover should be higher, which increases chances of finding it there. Good luck!

Hmm, good to hear about the appended parts there, was pretty concerning - I hear tell his hip articulation sucks, you mention that but don't go into detail, what're the ranges of motion like?

To start, the hips themselves are on side-hinges so they can splay out pretty far, maybe 70 degrees. The hips are on a rotational joint, but this is somewhat restricted by the rubbery piston detail pieces, backwards motion is at most 5 degrees (it'll go a bit further, but snap back), and forward motion you can kind of weasel maybe 45 degrees up. Just below the hip joint is a second joint that rotates the leg on the vertical axis, I'd estimate 3 to 5 degrees at most, it'd be a useful joint for personality in poses and adding a little stability, but again the rubbery pistons hinder movement here. Attached to that vertical rotation joint is a hinge joint, this would have been a very useful joint for posing and widening the hips if not again for the rubber pistons, which limit it to around 1 degree of motion. Not far below the hip joint is a knee joint that goes 80 degrees or so, this is fine by itself but being so close to the hip it's not as useful as it could be (this is certainly not the first TF lately to have high knees tho'). After the knee joint, if you care about this, the lower legs can telescope back in, this is a transformation joint but I think for some poses could actually be useful. Finally, there are the heelspurs, these are hinged for transformation, the inner spur hinges up (which makes one wish for a stop so the spur would be stronger), the outer one hinges down, so between them if you can find the proper light balance you can get them to be a little useful.

Also, what's the deal with the bigass arms? They look oddly embedded into his sides, like the chest would cause clearance issues. Swords looked ridiculously puny and crap compared to the nifty flippy swords on the Deluxe, that's actually what made me cave on the Deluxe in the end.

The arms aren't oversized, they're a little popeye-esque with the forearms having some squared design that makes them a little bigger than they should be, but there's a sculpted regular arm shape within them that mitigates this. The arms aren't overly long either. The swords aren't puny, they seem well-balanced, the ones on the deluxe have the cool scissor action which these don't and are a little bigger to the body than these, but these swords are as long as the arms, that's a sizable sword.

In terms of clearance to the chest, there is an issue, but it's far more slight than it looks. The arm needs about 30 degrees out to clear the chest completely, but if you slightly bend the elbows in, the arms look fine pointing forward. There is a clearance issue as well on the elbow, you have to bend it out to clear the upper arm in a bent arm configuration or it scrapes the upper arm and takes off that paint, it's pretty slight but smarter just to avoid completely.