Transformers Movie 2 Deluxe Sideswipe
Transformers Movie 2 Deluxe Sideswipe
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars That Guy Sideswiped Me!
Sideswipe is one of the hip new autobots who will appear in the Revenge of the Fallen movie. According to the packaging he likes close combat and is a sword expert.
For kids:
This guy is a sweet ride. He’s a silver Corvette concept with blue windows and is probably one of the sportiest cars in the line. He transforms fairly easily but has tons of little bits and parts that move and come apart and go together. Because of this he doesn’t seem quite as durable to me as some of the others. His swords are one of the coolest “mech-alive” features I’ve seen yet though and he’s got a pretty cool looking robot form. I think he might frustrate younger kids but most kids will like both the car and robot forms.
For adults:
This guy is still a sweet ride. I even want to drive him around and make engine noises. He is painted silver instead of just molded in a certain color and this makes him pop visually. The downside is that over time I see this paint job chipping around the edges and rubbing off on corners. Another down side is because his is an involved transformation and he’s such a bright color there are many visible seam lines.
His transformation isn’t difficult but it is intricate with many pieces of the body of the car that move and swivel and break apart. He feels a bit delicate but so far has proven durable. Still, if someone went a little nuts on him he might break easy.
Once in robot mode he looks pretty cool with a sleek head, his shoulders that are the rear fenders of the car and a couple of neat points of articulation action. He has pistons and sliding knee covers in his legs that move as you bend it at the knee and he has four hydraulic rods connecting his leg to his body that slide up and down as you move his legs. The rods are a soft material so they won’t snap. That’s all pretty neat. He does have a bit too much of the car stuck onto his back though to look fully streamlined. But the biggest complaint is his feet. They look fine but the wheels are at bottom (as in his feet don’t sit flat on the ground) which makes standing him up a bit of a chore as you have to wiggle him and his feet around to find balance.
His swords are two thin strips of the doors attached to each elbow. The cool part is if you grab one of the two and pull it around in an arc toward the front of his arm the other one swings in the opposite direction automatically via a cool little gear set up. They meet right in front to form the sword on each arm. It’s a cool mechanism and works well. Plus you can take the two parts of the sword part way to make double swords or scissor like weapons or half way to make a shield like weapon. It’s versatile and can be used to change up the look.
This is a tough one, I’ll rate him four but three and a half would be fair too due to his inability to stand well, many seam lines, his chipping paint job and his delicate nature. Then again he looks cool and has those swords…
4 Stars the new jazz… sorta
The majority of all transformers have similar characteristics. Whether it be the overall design of either car or robot mode, they all have a unique style at the same time. In Sideswipe’s case, he is a prefect ballance of two different Autobots. The two being Jazz and Barricade, at least in the movie incarnations. Sideswipe is a Corvette Concept with silver paint and blue tinted windows, similar to Premium jazz’s appearance, though with better quality. The headsculpt bares resemblence to Decepticon Barricade. However, everyone knows that Sideswipe is an Autobot. Could he be somewhat related to the two? Who knows what sub-plot this autobot has in store in the film Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. This figure has great posability with a great sculpt a wonderful attention to detail. The only problems I have are the occasionaly popping off of parts during his transformation and having minor balancing issues with the way the feet have to form in robot mode. Other than that, this is a great figure with great modes throughout.
4 Stars Jazz v2.0?
Sideswipe from Transformers ROTF is a new character from the movie.
PROs:
- Painted body in vehicle mode: The whole car’s plastic body panels are PAINTED silver. This is a first for Hasbro in a regular Deluxe toy! (the old regular Jazz received this treatment with the Premium Deluxe toy line, which came very late. Such a Premium line won’t probably happen again).
- Clear plastic headlights and tail lights: These look very cool, and in the older Jazz, these were only painted.
- Complex transformation and tons of articulation: The robot mode has a lot of articulation and piston-like bits that work, which is way cooler than Jazz, Bumblebee and other toys from the first movie.
- Robot mode proportions are more slender than the bulkier old toys. Sideswipe’s weapons are his arm mounted blades, which are quite cool to rotate into position. The hands and other molded details look fantastic.
CONs:
- Big clear plastic parts: clear plastic is always more brittle than regular plastic, so it may break easier. I’ve damaged 2 pieces already.
- Complex transformation (level 4 out of 5 if I recall correctly): The instructions are not clear and won’t let all the pieces fall into place, like the back windshield + trunk portion: you can see it jutting up in the product picture. When transforming to car mode you need to move face its head down so that it’s looking inside his chest. This way the back windshield hinge fits behind its “ears” and the back windshield and tail will fall in place.
- Lots of panels in vehicle mode = lots of visible seams.
- Robot mode looks great and somewhat accurate to concept art… except that it lacks any paint. I mean, even ol’ regular Deluxe Jazz (not the Premium Deluxe Jazz) has more paint applications in robot mode than this guy! Sadly, this seems to be the trend with the ROTF Deluxe line of toys: great paint in vehicle mode, but NO paint in robot mode. Good thing is, with the molded detail in these toys, a little touch up will do wonders.
This toy then is geared towards children older than 7, because of its complexity and small parts that can detach. It will appeal also to older collectors, like me, who will need to fill the void left by one of the greatest transformers toy line of all: Takara-Tomy Binaltech.
