San Diego Comic-Con is this week, and one of Hasbro’s Transformers con-exclusive sets is the lengthily-titled Transformers Generations: Combiner Wars Combiner Hunters Action Figure Collection. The set is a trio of fembots – Arcee, Chromia, and Windblade – in exclusive new paintjobs sporting giant combiner-slaying weapons, making this a companion piece to this year’s big SDCC HTS exclusive-design Devastator. The Combiner Hunters title is also a one-shot IDW comic book, and a special variant of it will be given to fans who purchase the set at SDCC (while supplies last). Hasbro’s SRP on it is $75, available at SDCC via the HasbroToyShop booth #3329 and in limited quantities after the convention at HasbroToyShop.com. With 3 hard-to-find molds sporting new looks as they threaten combiners, it’s got some charm. Read on to learn more.Â
Packaged: The box comes packaged in an outer sleeve with the exciting character art on the front and an incredibly subtle galaxy map pattern lightly embossed into the top and back. The shiny Transformers logo from the box beneath juts out the left side. It’s a nice design, but on my sample the sleeve is loose and doesn’t seem designed to be secured on in any meaningful way, so this may be difficult to avoid losing.
Once the sleeve is removed, the box beneath has a large window showing off the figures and accessories, as well as different character art on the back, and the bottom has the set’s backstory and bio notes for each of the combiner-slaying weapons.
The instructions for all 3Â figures are nice and clear on a color-coded single fold-out, the back of which is a galaxy map poster where the Combiner Hunters have dealt with their prey.
Arcee: A stealth repaint of the Generations figure, Combiner Hunters Arcee lacks only her single-carded version’s blaster pistol. The expression sculpted to her face is in stark contrast to the battle-angered art from the packaging, but otherwise is a solid representation. She can hold the Combiner Slayer sword in her hands and even balance, with patience. The Combiner Slayer sword is a repaint of the TF: Beast Hunters Ultimate Optimus Prime, which explains the dragon theme. The oversized weapons do give me a little worry for all three figure’s tiny thumbs breaking, but so far they’ve not shown stress marks or any trouble of that kind.
Arcee is better than expected and looks pretty good in both modes. Her regular swords can be tabbed into several different slots in both modes, including her forearms, her thighs, the vehicle rear deck, vehicle fenders, and even under the front end if ground clearance isn’t your thing.
Chromia: A re-distribution of colors for this repaint of Chromia, who was already a significant remold of TF: Prime Arcee. The tribal fire-type designs at the front of the motorcycle are a little odd, but the rest looks quite nice. Chromia wields the Primeon Blade, an accessory from the TF:Prime Titan Heroes line that sports a very nice paint scheme but a rather rough sculpt and a hilt that is slightly larger than 5mm, though there’s thinner spots above and below the main grip. Note that the Primeon Blade sports 5 kill-marks in the form of Devastator’s chest armor.
Chromia has great balance and strong joints, she’s by far the most stable figure in the set. She also comes with her single-carded figure’s blaster accessory (not terribly appropriate for a Camien who normally uses melee weapons). Vehicle mode looks nice and Tron-esque, the front wheel turns and the weapon plugs into the lower faring on either side. At first, during transformation the rear wheel didn’t want to come together all the way, but at the last second before photography it just popped into place.
Windblade: And finally, the fan-designed character has gone from black and red to… red and black, and gold! Windblade’s look isn’t as strikingly different as the others in the set, the most notable change is her “hair” color that sets her face in a somewhat different look to go along with a slight “makeup” design change, though still kabuki-esque. Windblade comes with the Spectrospear, another TF:Prime Titan Heroes accessory, this one is the longest of the three but also the least-intimidating, though it has a long 5mm center grip.
Windblade is the absolute worst at standing thanks to her high heels that hinge forwards and don’t lock. She also comes with her original, single-carded figure’s removable sword in its scabbard accessory. Just like before, the scabbard can be stored in vehicle mode, and in several ways in robot mode.
Overall: As a set, the Combiner Hunters three-pack delivers a surprisingly nice experience. The paint jobs are well-applied and have a unique look, they’re all hard-to-find figures that are out of main line production and – aside from Arcee’s blaster – they are complete versions of those molds. The tie-in to SDCC Devastator by having these fembots hunting down combiners, is a nifty touch, and the oversized weapons are an interesting way of balancing the scales, plus they have matching colorschemes to their bearers. The packaging is decent and has some little touches that help it feel special; the two-sided poster instructions add to the experience. The price tag is a bit heavy for a trio of figures that were MSRPing last year for $15 each, but finding those figures was extremely challenging, so I would say it depends on each collector’s specific needs.
Review sample supplied by Hasbro