Combiner Wars deluxe Drag Strip is a classic member of the Stunticons. Released in CW wave 1, Drag Strip ships not with a comic book but a collector card instead, making him the first Stunticon in the new line. Drag Strip transforms from Formula One-type race car to robot to arm and leg; he comes with a hand/foot accessory and a sword accessory. Read on for the full review and photos.
Packaged: Drag Strip has the wave one packaging style that’s smaller because it doesn’t include a comic book, has 4-language text, and a minimal bio, but it is a bit simpler to open. Because he ships with wave 1, his callouts on the side and back of the package for combining show Superion instead of Menasor.
Vehicle Mode: Drag Strip is a Formula One type of race car, an open-wheel and open-cockpit racer. The G1 character transformed into a very special 6-wheeled Formula One car from the 1970s, but as racing has evolved in the 40 years since that Tyrrell P34 hit the scene those exotic designs have disappeared, making CW Drag Strip fit in better with the modern open-wheel scene. The sculpt and paint are a bit on the simple side, leading first glance to feel like an upsized Legends toy, but taken as a whole it’s surprisingly satisfying. Drag Strip holds together fairly well in vehicle mode, though the nose might lift a little easily.
With 3 different 5mm holes in this mode, Drag Strip can hold both his accessories, but the design also includs a 5mm peg that the hand/foot weapon mounts to, giving a dual cannon weapon similar to the G1 version.
Robot Mode: Transformation is surprising in how different it is from other wave-1 figures and even from the other Stunticons. The front end folds down and rotates around while the head is left in place, the arms fold up, the legs slide down, finally the waist rotates around. It’s not terribly complex, but it works better than expected. The figure is mostly solid, but the boots are a bit wobbly from how they telescope.
Drag Strip is somewhat of an odd design. His head doesn’t remind me of G1 at all, it’s like he’s become a Marilyn Manson fan, and the shape seems like it was trying to be a pastiche of the cartoon and comic but got lost along the way to become something new, and while I expected not to like it, in person it’s got personality enough to win me over. The torso is where the issues start, although it’s not as much about that combiner joint sitting there as it is the 4 screw holes facing forward, the only Stunticon to suffer such a fate — Skydive in the Aerialbots has a couple, but they’re not as intrusive as it is here, Drag Strip doesn’t have as much bulk to carry detail in his upper body, so it’s much more obvious for him. Sculpt detail overall doesn’t have much going on, but there are elements here and there which help carry that simplicity into a design premise rather than laziness, including the back of the legs and the combiner joint in the chest. Paint is also on the simple end, but works adequately.
Articulation has no surprises. Range of motion is decent enough, but the design of the feet can’t quite make up its mind if it’s flat or angled, between that and the wiggle in the boots there’s no one-legged poses to be had. Due to how the head joint works, you could fold the combiner joint out of the chest to make a big ol’ cannon. He comes with a hand/foot accessory that can be held as a gun; and a nicely-sculpted sword that, like his headsculpt, feels more modern than the other Combiner Wars figures, more angles and shapes. The sword has a second peg that lets it be used as a gun, while there’s no traditional barrel there is a central channel to the blade that suggests an energy weapon.
Limb Modes:Â Drag Strip is traditionally the right arm of Menasor. As an arm, the layout involves rotating the arms around (there’s a notch in the lower torso that accommodates the top of the shoulder, although on my sample and I suspect all samples, the left side notch is very shallow), folding the head out of the way, and telescoping the legs down. It’s not a bad-looking arm mode overall, and I like the form that the arms make at the top. The hip joints aren’t as strong as the rest of the joints on my sample, so often they will twist and bend before knees-as-elbows and waist-as-rotation joints will turn.
The leg mode (not pictured) is not just the car mode with the front end folded out of the way, though the instructions would have you believe that thus leaving that leg mode a quarter inch taller than the other CW legs. In addition to those steps the very rear of the car folds up to reveal a second hole for the foot that’s the proper height, and makes for a more satisfying leg design.
Overall: I didn’t think I’d like Drag Strip much based on previews, especially that head, but in person I actually like the sculpt and unique touches of this figure quite a bit more than expected. Drag Strip has a lot of character and he doesn’t feel as much like perfunctory G1 fan service as some of the figures, which helps smooth over some of the issues that definitely could take down a figure. Every mode on Drawback has drawbacks but something uniquely positive going on to help offset that, so the figure may not be for everybody but it’s not a flop either.
Review sample supplied by Hasbro