Review: #269
Name: First Aid
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Generations - Combiner Wars
Year of Release: 2015
Size Class: Deluxe (Wave 3)
Mold Status: retool of Combiner Wars Offroad
COMIC:
First Aid comes with The Transformers #36
(or Combiner Wars #12), Prowl as well as the Decepticons catch up to Spike and
it's a fight to see who captures him first.
The reason? Spike has knowledge
of a certain artifact, something both sides want. The events in this issue has a lot of action,
being that Prowl and the Constructicons are chasing Spike through the streets
of Tokyo, causing heaps of destruction in the process. However, there isn't too many things happen
in the grand scheme of things. Of note
is that this issue was originally released in December 2014, and First Aid
first appeared in April 2015, that's an impressively short turnaround.
VEHICLE MODE:
First Aid transforms into an Advanced Life Support vehicle, it's not an ambulance anymore but it's very close.
Like the other Combiner Wars figures, the back is where it falls apart a little bit. Not only is it unpainted (but has some decent sculpting), the robot feet juts out and ruins the disguise.
First Aid is a Deluxe figure and he feels nice and solid in your hands.
First Aid is also a heavy retool of Offroad, it's effectively only sharing the engineering considering the amount of massive changes made (the most obvious one being that First Aid doesn't have a tray anymore).
You can also attach all weapons in this mode, and the combiner weapon pegs on top of the roof. It is specifically designed to attach like this.
A fantastic vehicle mode that serves as the perfect update to First Aid.
TRANSFORMATION:
Transformation has not changed compared to Offroad, the only difference is that the feet is thicker as it has more bulk now. The hood folding back as his backpack still doesn't clip in as securely as you would like. To summarize, to get First Aid into robot mode you open the halves of the rear of the vehicle, extend and then clip together again. The arms come out from the sides and the head is naturally revealed.
ROBOT MODE:
Red becomes the predominant color in this mode. The slight downside to all these Combiner Wars figures is that rarely they incorporate the vehicle mode as highly visible kibble, they usually just wear it as pieces attached to them. While accurate to G1, it's slightly disappointing.
He wears the vehicle hood on his back. His feet are also very thick since they are the rear of the vehicle with no attempt at slimming it down.
The head sculpt is good. Love the blocky look as a throwback to the original.
He comes up at slightly shorter than Universe Drag Strip but still very decent in height.
Having him next to Offroad, you can see that he is a remold more clearly now. However, the only pieces shared is the combiner port (chest piece), upper arms and thighs. Everything else is a new sculpt, very impressive.
Poseability is excellent although the bigger feet means it is slightly more awkward to pose him with.
His arms also look slightly too thin/small compared to the rest of the figure, especially with the panels on the outside of his arms.
His weapon is an ax, although it doesn't really suit a support officer such as First Aid...
The ax is able to be held in either hand.
Just like Offroad, the shoulder pieces get in the way with the vehicle hood backpack so you'll have to adjust them while posing.
His other weapon is a four barreled gun made from the combiner mode piece.
It actually looks somewhat decent as a handheld weapon, even though it is proportionally too large.
Hard to fault this robot mode, it looks great and plays great.
OVERALL:
First Aid is a nice figure but at the end of the day, it is very similar to Offroad and very similar to other Combiner Wars figures. That is the downside of the line, it has some smart remolding but you cannot get too excited since they each have very similar transformations. Anyway, First Aid is a rare update to a figure and is actually a good figure, so definitely consider him a worthwhile purchase and of course, a necessary component to Defensor.
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For other Combiner Wars reviews, have a look at this page.
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Defensor will be covered in his own review but let's take a quick look at First Aid's other two modes.
First Aid normally forms an arm for Defensor and he has one of the best looking arms out of the whole line. Even better than Offroad because of the extra bulk offered for his forearm.
As a leg he is very decent as well, since he offers a kneecap.
In combined mode, Defensor looks amazing and the best in the line thanks to the bulky look.
The articulation is there but he is too heavy to use it all to its full potential.
That's it for now, thanks for reading!