-Submitted by: Omegus Prime Among the interesting extras for Galaxy Force that Takara did, among Red Excellion, Black Fangwolf, and Police Gasket, were the versus packs that featured remolded Armada toys. Each was molded after a character of the past, from G1 to Beast Wars 2, and among them was Buzzsaw, formerly Armada Cyclonus.
Vehicle Mode
Buzzsaw is a helicopter in vehicle mode, and a much more vibrant one than Cyclonus. His primary color is yellow, using purple for blade and tailfins and grey for wings. darker grey, dark red, and green accent the toy.
Between bulk and firepower, he looks like a copter you'd see in a future scene from Terminator. And talk about firepower... Miniguns on the front, missile pods beside the cockpit, large guns on the underside, missiles under the wings, and smaller guns near the robot hands... how he only got an 8 in firepower is beyond me.
Part of that weaponry is remolding, which is plentiful on this figure. The cockpit is redone completely to be more rounded and "buggy" like Beast Wars Buzzsaw. The sections under the wings are redone, as well, including the launching mechanisms, which are different on each side, interestingly enough.
All the gimmicks still work, whether it makes sense or not. Pull the trigger under the tail and the blades spin, and if you attach a compatible Minicon with a gear gimmick (Adventure and Destruction Teams) their own gimmicks will work. I haven't had chance to try it, but Armada Buzzsaw should work quite well with matching colors. Similarly, since Buzzsaw has no Minicon for it, those miniguns in front move when the trigger is pulled as well... well, they twitch anyway. You can even lift the cockpit up like on Cyclonus, though I don't know if you can attach Crumplezone there or not.
All and all the vehicle mode looks good. The colors might strike a few the wrong way, but it makes for a good tribute character.
Robot Mode
Transformation remains the same as Cyclonus, though a few parts seem tighter than my Cyclonus was to fit right.
The colors have no new surprises, though more purple is now shown on the head and limbs. There are some nice details painted on the arms and chest, though below the waist he's barren of paint apps which leave him somewhat plain looking there.
Here you can see why they redid the cockpit the way they did, being round and bulbous gives him the same shape as BW Buzzsaw had in robot mode. The head is remolded completely, and while it still doesn't clear it's chest as much as I'd like it to, it looks better than the old one. The head is almost the exact same BW Buzzsaw had, non-mutant, there's no mistaking who it is. The remolded arms and missile launchers are clearly seen here.
Another remolded part can be found here as the toy features new leg guns. The Minicon launching gimmick is out and now they pull out very easily into position, matching the firepower he had in vehicle mode.
Articulation wise, he offers the same Cyclonus had, so he's rather limited but not enough to be brickish or boring. He's a tribute character, and he does that well without more articulation.
Planet Key
Buzzsaw comes with the Decepticon Cybertron key, the same Starscream comes with. The gimmick using them is simple enough as it fires his missiles in vehicle and robot modes. It's a relatively weak missile, so as far as force chip gimmicks go, it's apparent this was just attached on as an afterthought.
Overall
Cybertron Buzzsaw succeeds where he needs to. He's a nice remold of a decent toy of the past and looks very good doing it. Just don't expect any new surprises if you already own Cyclonus. But for Beast Wars fans, or if you never got the toy in it's previous 3 releases, this is a nice figure to pick up.
Submitted By: Scantron
Buzzsaw
Notes
- Buzzsaw is a repaint and remold of the Transformers: Armada figure Cyclonus. As such, this review will only cover the differences between the two figures. See my review of Cyclonus for more details about the original mold.
- This figure is an homage to the Beast Wars toy Buzzsaw. Similarities between the two figures will be noted throughout this review.
Vehicle Mode
In this form, Buzzsaw is a helicopter. Yellow is the main colour on the vehicle body, but also appears on the undercarriage, surrounding the cockpit and on the muzzles of the missile launchers. Off-white appears on the wings, backs of the missile launchers, tailfins and the engine block just ahead of the rotor. The rotor itself is Decepticon purple, as are the projectiles, area surrounding the engine block, tips of the tailfins and parts of the undercarriage. Dark grey is used for the undercarriage guns, robot fists, cockpit guns, gimmick trigger and a panel on each side of the tail. The Planet Key slots are light grey and the cockpit windows are painted forest green. Red is used on the leading edges of the wings, vents behind the cockpit and the back of the tail stabilizer. A molded, purple Decepticon symbol is set atop the passenger’s side wing. While the colour scheme isn’t bad, and the purple and yellow look surprisingly good together, the yellow combines with the off-white to make the figure rather bright. Although the darker grey and purple offset the brighter colours a little, some black would have improved Buzzsaw’s appearance a bit in this form. Another problem with the yellow background is that it washes out a lot of the sculpted detail on the body, which is a shame given the molding intricacies present on this figure. Like many recent Transformers, this could really use a black paint wash. Some of the paint applications are also a bit sloppy, especially around the cockpit windows. The colour does have the benefit of referencing Beast Wars Buzzsaw, whose bumblebee alternate mode was largely yellow with black detailing. The location of Cybertron’s Buzzsaw’s cockpit is also a neat reference to the location of BW Buzzsaw’s eyes, which were also green.
Although most of the sculpting on this figure is identical to the previous release, there are a trio of remolds: First, the entire cockpit section has been altered. On the Armada release of this mold, the cockpit was flat with a few painted vents and a square gap on the bottom half of the nose. Buzzsaw’s cockpit is longer, wider and rounded, with larger windows. Mounted on each side of the cockpit is a three-barreled missile launcher, a spherical ridge and a smaller detail that appears to be an extra gun barrel. On the front of the nose, beneath the cockpit, is a pair of tiny machine gun barrels. Of all the remolds on Buzzsaw, I like the altered cockpit best, as it adds some extra firepower and a bit more bulk to the vehicle, without the need for a Minicon attachment, as on the original release. Another remold is the engine block between the cockpit and the rotor. On the original release, the engine was mostly level with the top of the helicopter and had only a few ridges. Buzzsaw’s engine block is more detailed, with an intake and more complex mechanical sculpting. The engine block also sits up higher above the top of the helicopter and looks more like a vital component of the vehicle, rather than just the back of the robot head. Finally, the Minicon hardpoints on the sides of the missile launchers have been replaced with light grey panels containing Buzzsaw’s Planet Key slots. Although these panels have some very nice sculpting detail, their size makes them look awkward beneath the wings. It also would have been nice if the panels were coloured differently to blend them into the missile launchers better; as is, the Key slots look tacked on and not like a vital piece of the vehicle.
6/10
Robot Mode
Transformation to robot form is the same as for Armada Cyclonus. The articulation is mostly identical, although the left shoulder can only be raised about 5 degrees and will immediately drop back down if released, something that wasn’t a problem on any of the previous releases of this mold. Also, the panels attached to the missile launchers can bump into the wings in certain arm poses, although this isn’t a major impediment to poseability. As on the previous release, the missile launchers form the lower arms, while the cockpit area makes up the torso and the helicopter tail hangs off the back. The lower legs are yellow, with grey shin guards, and the upper limbs are purple. Purple is also the main colour of the helmet, while the face is yellow and the visor eye-piece green. The head is the only new remold visible in this form, with the shape of the helmet and colour distribution nearly identical to the head of BW Buzzsaw. There are a few other references to the namesake as well, including the purple on the upper arms, yellow legs and the position of the helicopter tail, which is in a similar location to the bumblebee abdomen in BW Buzzsaw’s robot mode. As in the vehicle mode, I don’t mind the colour scheme and moving the helicopter tail behind the body hides some yellow and reduces the overall brightness of the toy. However, the lower legs are rather plain and could use some paint detailing on the calves to highlight the sculpting. As for the other remolds, the cockpit alterations make the chest stick out a bit more, but this adds to the bulky appearance of the figure and makes Buzzsaw look more powerful. The Key slot panels, on the other hand, look even more out of place and awkward, particularly the panel on the left arm, which doesn’t sit flush with the launcher.
7/10
Gimmicks, Weapons and Interaction with Other Figures
Like the original version of this mold, Buzzsaw has a large number of action features and gimmicks. In vehicle mode, pulling the trigger on the underside of the tail will spin the rotor, at the same rate as Armada Cyclonus. However, the gears that spin the rotor also cause the tiny grey machine gun nubs beneath the cockpit to twitch to the right, using the same mechanism that was used in the original figure to move Crumplezone’s turret. Buzzsaw’s cockpit guns are rather small and it’s difficult to see them move without spinning the rotor slowly or looking very carefully. Still, it’s nice to see the addition of some extra firepower without the need for a Minicon partner. Fitting in with the over-arching gimmick of the Cybertron line, Buzzsaw comes with a standard Cybertron Decepticon Planet Key, which can be inserted into either of the missile launcher panels to fire a projectile. The launchers are about as powerful as the previous releases, although they are more reliable and consistently get six to eight inches of distance. Buzzsaw also has a pair of features not mentioned in the instructions. First, the cockpit can flip up 90 degrees, revealing an open space. Any version of the Minicon Crumplezone can be inserted into this space and locked in place, just like on the Armada and Energon versions of Cyclonus. Pulling Buzzsaw’s trigger will then cause Crumplezone’s barrel to move. Although the Armada and Energon releases of Crumplezone aren’t good colour matches for Buzzsaw, the Crumplezone mold has been repainted to match Buzzsaw’s colour scheme for the Japanese exclusive Micron Booster line. The pictures below show the result of attaching both versions of Crumplezone and Trigger to Buzzsaw. Although Trigger is a good colour match, Buzzsaw’s cockpit piece is bulkier and obscures a lot of the Minicon from view. Also, the missile pods molded into the sides of the cockpit make it a bit more difficult to insert Crumplezone/Trigger (but not impossible). The second undocumented feature is that any one of the Destruction or Adventure Team Minicons can be attached to the underside of Buzzsaw’s cockpit and their gimmicks activated by Buzzsaw’s gears when the helicopter rotor is turned. The pictures below show Buzzsaw interacting with Armada Drillbit. I’m really impressed that the Minicon interaction gimmicks from Armada Cyclonus have been retained in this figure, especially as it undoubtedly would have been easier to just lock Buzzsaw’s cockpit in place. Interestingly, the upcoming Minicon ‘VS Pack’ repaints of the Destruction Team appear to be colour-coordinated to Buzzsaw; an additional selling point for both Buzzsaw and the Minicon repaints.
In robot mode, Buzzsaw can still use the missile launchers as projectile weapons. Buzzsaw also has shin-mounted guns, although they are deployed differently than on Armada Cyclonus. Whereas Cyclonus required a Minicon to activate the guns, Buzzsaw’s armaments can be deployed simply by pushing on the shins. Pushing the shin will cause the grey area to pop up, revealing the hidden gun. Unfortunately, the springs on these pieces aren’t as tight as the original release and the guns only pop up about 45 degrees, needing to be nudged up the rest of the way. These guns have also been remolded, resembling futuristic energy blasters rather than machine guns.
10/10
Overall
While I’m not overly impressed with the new colour scheme, and the articulation is worse in a few places, Buzzsaw still has all of the gimmicks that made Armada Cyclonus fun to play around with, plus the additional cockpit guns. The toy could use a black paint wash and the remolds are hit and miss, but the homage is decent and it’s probably the second-best of the Armada remolds, behind Longrack. I’d recommend this one if you don’t have any previous version of the Cyclonus mold, only slightly recommended otherwise.
7.67/10 |
