Toy Review: Sonic the Hedgehog x Transformers Collaborative Wingtail

Review:  #909

Name:  Wingtail

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Sonic the Hedgehog x Transformers Collaborative

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class:  N/A

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Wingtail is based on Tails, a character from Sonic the Hedgehog, and he transforms into a propeller biplane.

It's a great alt mode, looking good from all angles.

Being a plane helps its size, as it looks bigger than a Deluxe.  However, Wingtail feels lighter than he should.

The robot weapon acts as a thruster at the bottom of the plane, complete with a blue fire blast effect.

Take the blaster away and Wingtail can still balance on its three landing gears (although the wheels cannot roll, they are cast in one piece of plastic).

A shot with Blue Booster, and Wingtail looks much bigger.

The propeller can spin, and the canopy can open.  It's a fantastic plane mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

Despite the simplicity, Wingtail can be a pain to transform as there are a few parts that are only held on by 5mm pegs and they like to pop off.  The back section splits into two and they are just kibble around the robot's waist.  You can then unfold the legs from the back.  The front is the torso, while the arms are right behind it and you can fold the four wing panels around the arms.

ROBOT MODE:

Wingtail tries to take elements of both its inspiration, and a mechanical robot, so that it looks somewhere in between.  It's a very cartoony look.

Wingtail has a massive amount of kibble, and it's ridiculous.  Effectively half the plane hangs off the robot, but in particular, the back of the plane around the waist constantly gets in the way.

The head sculpt is okay, it's a tad bit too organic looking, with only the solid blue eyes kind of the main robotic element.

In terms of height, Wingtail is around the typical Deluxe, but looks way more simple, and like a toy for a younger audience.

A comparison against Blue Booster, and Wingtail looks chunkier and clumsier compared to the slightly sleeker look of Blue Booster.

If you look at Wingtail from the side, you can only see the legs, that's how bad the kibble is.

Articulation is okay, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles.

His robot weapon is a silver blaster with a blue fire blast effect.

He can hold the weapon in either hand.

His legs are hollow, as are his arms, so he has a feeling of cheapness and hollowness around him.

It's not the best robot, and despite the kibble, at least he is not unstable.

OVERALL:

Wingtail is the weaker one of the set.  It has an awesome vehicle mode but the robot mode is a letdown.  It looks too cartoony and unlike a robot, while the sheer amount of kibble just detracts from the figure as a whole and makes him unfun to play with.

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Toy Review: Sonic the Hedgehog x Transformers Collaborative Blue Booster

Review:  #908

Name:  Blue Booster

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Sonic the Hedgehog x Transformers Collaborative

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class:  N/A

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Blue Booster's vehicle mode is based upon the blue race car that Sonic drives in the Sonic racing series.

It's a good vehicle mode, and he looks good from all angles.  There's a decent amount of paint applications, including the rear taillights, and the red rims.

He is roughly Deluxe size, but as you can see, he's quite a bit shorter than the usual vehicles.

The canopy can open up, although you can't really sit anyone inside, not that the sets comes with a Sonic mini-figure or whatnot (which now seems like a missed opportunity).

He is comically short, so he feels stunted and deformed.

It does look slick from the front though, the curves look really good on this figure from certain angles.

He comes with two accessories, but they can't both be stored in vehicle mode, so the shield is designed to peg onto the item capsule and be set aside.

The item capsule itself has two sides that you can rotate between, one side is an Autobot insignia, while the other is the invincibility power-up icon.

The wheels roll and that's the extent of the play value.

Blue Booster comes with Wingtail, which is based upon the vehicle that Tails drives, and yes, they do look good as a set.

A good vehicle mode, the only negative is the short length, which is semi-accurate to the games, but just looks really deformed in physical form.

TRANSFORMATION:

The figure kind of starts to fall apart from the transformation, in terms of that it is not designed very well.  The front extends to form the legs.  The back splits into two along with the arms.  Then you stand him up.  It's a simple transformation, the problem is that the way the pieces are jointed together seem to be awkwardly placed and doesn't move quite the way you would expect them to.

ROBOT MODE:

Blue Booster's robot mode is nowhere near as good as vehicle mode.

He has blocky limbs, which isn't necessary a bad thing, but they are too big and so will get in the way of each other, especially his bigger shoulder pads.

The head sculpt (and the robot design as a whole) is based upon Sonic the Hedgehog.  The head sculpt manages to straddle the line between robotic without being too organic and still look familiar to its inspiration.

Again, he's roughly Deluxe size in robot mode, although he feels lighter and more fragile, given that he has a lot of hollow parts (which is surprising given that this is a Collaborative figure, and they usually don't skimp out with overly hollow parts).

Next to Wingtail, they look fine, Wingtail is a bit more cartoony than Blue Booster.

Articulation is theoretically good, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with two accessories, a shield, and the item capsule which has a fold out handle.

The shield attaches to his forearm, while he can hold the item capsule, so it's kind of like a handle weapon.

The articulation is theoretically good because in practice, for one reason or another, such as the tighter joints and awkward placement of said joints, Blue Booster is not fun to pose.

Blue Booster can at times even feel like a floppy mess, even though it's not actually flopping.  The legs in particular are not great, and his arms feel like solid blocks.

The design is also overly simplistic, so it's lacking some sculpted details that can elevate the sophistication of the design.  Instead, it's too cartoony and looks off.

It's not the worse robot mode in the world, but it's not great either, and it's a slight disappointment given the usual higher quality of Collaborative figures.

OVERALL:

Blue Booster is one to get if you can either find the pack cheap, or you are a big fan of Sonic the Hedgehog.  The figure has flaws, in terms of that it feels like that there was a lazy designer, or that the budget was too tight so they had to cut some corners.  It's fine if you just leave him for display but if you wanted to pose and play around with the robot, it can be disappointing.

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Toy Review: Transformers Earthspark Aftermath (Deluxe)

Review:  #907

Name:  Aftermath

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Decepticon

Line:  Earthspark

Year of Release:  2024

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 6)

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Aftermath transforms into a purple tow truck, that has a vintage look to it, although the giant cow catchers at the front are a dead giveaway for this robot's allegiance.

While the front looks good, the back is so so.  There's a silver exhaust sticking out the back.

Aftermath is a decent-ish size for a Deluxe, although along with the rest of the Earthspark toys, he is a bit lighter than a Generations figure, as he's a little bit more hollow.

The tow hook assembly is good, at least it's not a mess like some other figures, although the hook is molded in such a way that it is difficult to actually find a Deluxe car to tow.

Looking from the bottom, it is more obvious how incomplete the rear part is, as there is a big hollow piece there.

Despite the flaws, Aftermath has a certain charm to him.

TRANSFORMATION:

Transformation is relatively simple for a Deluxe figure, but compared to other Earthspark figures, he is maybe a little bit more complex.  The back splits to form the legs, unfold the feet from the back, and fold the front wheels to complete the shins.  While the front forms the torso by pulling the arms out, rotating the cow catchers for the shoulder pads and folding the hood down.  The balljoints are tight, especially the shoulders, making it feel like you're going to shear something off.

ROBOT MODE:

It's great that we get a new and unique character when the line is focusing so much on a new take on the same characters.  Aftermath looks great with his bulky looks.

He has a massive backpack though, it's the tow hook assembly sticking out of his back.  While it's show accurate, it's still not amazing on a figure though.

The head sculpt is really good, it has enough detail without being too busy, and he looks very Decepticon-like.

He might look like he's big and imposing, but in reality when compared to other Deluxe toys, he's only the average height.

From the side, you can see how much his backpack sticks out.  Another thing to note is that he has noticeably hollow limbs, so he has a lighter feel to him compared to what you'd expect from his looks alone.

Articulation is good, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with two weapons, one is a blaster and another is a hook.

With the blaster, he can hold it like a conventional gun.

Otherwise, his forearms has 5mm holes on them, so you can peg those weapons onto his forearms just like the show.

The purple plastic used here has a slight metallic sheen to them, and the purple paint used on his head definitely has some sort of metallic flake.

His shoulders are kind of awkward to pose due to how big they are, and how the balljoint is situated, and he does have flat feet.  However, this is still a unique robot design that looks great.

OVERALL:

Aftermath is one of those original characters that is visually interesting and made a good translation from onscreen to physical toy.  His vehicle mode has flaws, and the transformation isn't particularly amazing, and his robot mode also have its own issues, but as a whole package, and how he looks, Aftermath is a not a bad figure at all.

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