Review: #275
Name: Sideswipe
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Robots in Disguise
Year of Release: 2015
Size Class: Warrior (Wave 3)
Mold Status: new
VEHICLE MODE:
As expected, Sideswipe transforms into a predominantly red sports car, with some splashes of black. It has some nice angular elements, that also hints at the aesthetics of Lamborghini vehicles.
The sculpting of this mode is really good, the rear of the vehicle is designed to look like a real car (i.e. no gaps or robot bits sticking out). Too bad it is left unpainted. The sides of the car also has some kanji which reads "speed" (rough translation).
Unfortunately, and you can tell in the photos, but the reds don't match. In particular, his hood and doors are a noticeably different shade of red, made even more obvious in artificial light.
In terms of sizing, he is roughly a Deluxe sized figure, but more simple in terms of engineering.
Other than the color mismatches, this is a fantastic vehicle. I really like the design and the car looks amazing and seemingly built for speed.
The only play value here is that his wheels roll.
His robot weapon stores on top which looks stupid. Too bad that the designer was too lazy to try and incorporate it better into the vehicle mode.
A great vehicle mode overall, it really is too bad about the red shading.
TRANSFORMATION:
While in theory Sideswipe should be simple, he is very fiddly, particularly around the way his shoulders and arms peg into the torso. It's clever, just that the execution is severely lacking. Basically, the front fenders end up rotating 180 degrees and then pegging into the torso to form the shoulder spikes, but rotating the pieces is fiddly and hard to get a grip. The legs unfold from the back like you'd expect but more fun.
ROBOT MODE:
Onto the robot mode, which isn't as great. This is mainly due to the weird lanky proportions. The legs are a bit too wide and fat to look that great.
He had a decent amount of kibble on his back, being the vehicle roof and hood, they are panels which sits there, it doesn't get in the way though.
The headsculpt is average, while accurate to the cartoon, it's a bit thin and long. It is situated on a balljoint but can't really look up.
He comes off as much shorter than a Deluxe in this mode but the lankiness helps hide this fact.
Poseability is as much as you'd expect. His waist is fixed but he has the other standard joints plus ankle up/down motion thanks to transformation.
There is a design flaw here in that the shoulders do not peg is properly to the torso. It is designed to but the clearances must be off because whenever you try to move Sideswipe's arms, the shoulders dislodge and it is very frustrating and annoying.
His weapon is a long black sword.
He can hold the sword in either hand and thanks to his versatile feet (including the size, providing good stability), Sideswipe is able to be posed in various ways.
It is surprisingly at how screen accurate the toy is, although it does cheat with the faux vehicle hood as his torso.
A good robot mode in the end. Sideswipe looks better in some sort of pose than when he is standing at attention.
OVERALL:
Despite the fatal design flaw of his shoulders, Sideswipe is a neat toy. The vehicle mode is the clear winner and it looks fantastic. The robot mode is unique and has personality and overall, Sideswipe is worth purchasing if you can find him.
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