I suprisingly found Rollbar and Ricochet at my local WM (well, two local WMs, now). Thought I'd put up a quick review... Packaging Ricochet comes in the new Alt. style Bubble packaging. I noticed that there's already been a slight change in the packaging between wave 1 and wave 2- for wave 1 (Skids and Sunstreaker), the manufacturer's logo was on the bottom left corner of the front of the box. For Ricochet and Rollbar, it's the bottom right corner. Ricohet's motto is "If I don't catch you, my missles will." It's too bad they didn't include a imssle pack, like the ones made for a couple of the BT Smokescreen. Ricochet is Alt. # 20, for those of you keeping score at home. I've really come to dislike the bubble packaging, as three of the 4 I have have small tears along the side from opening the bubble. Car mode Ricochet is a Subaru Impreza WRX, just like Smokescreen and Silverstreak. He hasn't been remolded from 'streak as far as I can tell, just repainted. His primary color is black. He also features yellow, orange, and gold flame decals on the hood and front doors. The spoiler also has a gold sticker, and the wheel rims are painted gold as well. The decals are a little tacky, but they're growing on me. A new feature to this wave of Alts are that the license plates represent actual states. Ricochet is apparently from New Jersey, which makes sense, considering the tackiness of the flame decals FYI, Rollbar has a Colarado plate. For his interior, Ricochet has the same deatiling as the other Subarus, except he has red stripes about a 4th of the way across each seat Transformation Transformation is the same as the other Subarus. I've found that the joints on my particular Ricochet are a lot tighter than I remember those of 'streak or Smokescreen being. Robot mode Robot mode is where Ricochet really shines. His chest, upper arms, upper torso, shins and feet are black, with the hood's flame sticker still on the chest and the spoiler gold decals on his shin guards. His forearms, waist, head, and upper legs are predominantly white. The white/ black effect really helps him stand out. Ric's head is the same as Silverstreak's, but with a yellow face and black...horns. Ric also has a change in his leg paint apps. Where 'streak's legs were red until they were level with his pelvis, Ric has black paint apps just above the knee, and then his legs are white again as they become approach the pelvis. While the white on 'streak's front license plate stood out, Ric's Autobot plate fits right in with the rest of his paint scheme. And some more fun... Summary I like Ricochet a lot. The flame decos are a little tacky, but they look great in robot mode. The black and white really sets him apart from the other Alts, and gives him a nice look. If you're an alt collector, or don't have the Subaru mold yet, he's a definite buy. If you're a casual Alt buyer, it probably depends on your affection for the character, or seeing him up close. 8/10.
Kind of a stupid question, but is Rollbar red or orange? I can't find a definitive answer anywhere and the official pictures go either way
Just picked up Ricochet today myself. I must say it is indeed a cool repaint, although the face paint on mine was sloppy and had some nasty chips in the white on the nose (I fixed them with some white paint of my own, but I really shouldn't have had to). I think I may actually like Ricochet better than Smokescreen (although still less than Silverstreak).
Just finished inspecting Ricochet and just like Rollbar, he is missing a small detail... paints apps. of the WRX and Subaru names on the back of the car. Makes it look like it's a knockoff TF Alt. You know, now I'm questioning myself as to why I even bother with repaints, especially about characters I don't even know or care about (Sunstreaker is an exception). If Hasbro wants to do a straight repaint and keep the fans interested at least make it right and not put a half arse effort NIDARAM12: Yes, Rollbar is orange.
Forgot to post in here when i forst found Ricochet... There's really not much more to add. The flame details....gah. They look REALLY bad. Even Cybertron Runamuck's flame detailing looks better. If Roco was solid black it might be a major improvement. The unpainted nose doesn't bother me TOO much...it just looks like an extended nodepice from his helmet from afar...up close it looks like a major f**k up. I really only bought it and Rollbar for the number and because I like having my Alts out on display and the more the merrier, AND I understand it's expensive to make these toys and repaints offset the cost a bit, but damn...Hasbro pull your head out of your ass and put some effort into it. C-
I was worried that , since he's a third/fourth iteration of the Subaru mold, Ricochet woul have the same crapful tolerances seen in the Binaltech Asterisk line, and in Alt. Sunstreaker. All the Subarus are a bit tough to get all parts lined up for car mode, but my Ricochet doesn't appear to have any more trouble doing so than Smoke or Streak, so the tolerances seem fine to me. The colors and flame decos look very lame in car mode, but look striking in robot mode. The white nose is a little off, but not too bad really. Oddly, I think it might look better if the chin-guard were white as well. It would've been nice if Ricochet had a little more to offer than just a repaint, such as a new head sculpt or a new weapon, but overall I like the toy a lot more than I expected I would. Still can't convince myself to get Rollbar though.
I got mine about a week ago and I can't say I'm terribly impressed. The gold and yellow on the flames clash horribly, the gold rims are tacky, the nose is atrocious, and it's the third time we've seen the mold. That said, he looks decent enough in car mode. Not stellar, but he's grown on me enough that I'm not really thinking about selling him anymore. Though when Meister comes out again I may just make a custom Ricochet that'll be much more fitting.
I used an exacto knife to scrape off the gold on his face and left the goatee gold... For the side vents, I used the exacto knife and dipped it in black enamel Testor's paint and let it drip into the vents... And for the two edges of the helmet, I just used a black Sharpie...
I found Ricochet today at the local Wal-Mart. He was sitting on top of a pile of Skids... that guy seems to be a shelf-warmer locally. Anyway... - nice looking car. The deco seems a bit plain though. The flames are painted (not decals) and look pretty good, though moreso in robot mode than in vehicle. - the vehicle doesn't seem to fit together as well as Bluestreak and Smokescreen... either the mold is getting worn, or the different plastic does different things... it's particularly noticeable on the back half of the car. The license plate halves on mine have been applied at angles as well. - Gold spoiler is odd looking. - robot mode looks quite good. I like the black and white color scheme, though the other two versions of this mold look better. The white nose on the gold face is barely noticeable, honestly. It looks nothing like Bluestreak (okay, Silverstreak) due to the color choices. Arm and leg joints seem stiffer than on the previous two molds, which seems odd if the car is looser. Bottom line: well, if we had to have a straight repaint (no remolding) for Richochet, I'd rather have had Meister. But this one has a nice deco, and it's already a strong mold. B+/A-
I'm still shocked that a local Target here actually had Ricochet in stock. I was debating whether to get him or not but since I haven't bought a new Alternator in awhile I figure why not. I'm not too bothered by the flames or the New Jersey license. I like the robot mode better. The nose looks terrible in pictures. The flash makes the nose look a lot worse. Like most people I would have liked him better if Ricochet was based on the RX-8 mold. Still he's not that bad, I would recommend him if you're able to get him on sale. [img=http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/8715/alternatorsricochet65mq.jpg]
Took a second, but I noticed that Ricochet reminds me of someone (besides G1 Stepper/Ricochet), and that someone is Armada Wheeljack. They both have color schemes of mostly black with white and yellow/gold, anyway.
I just picked up ricochet and rollbar at my local walmart.. the thing is-- they didnt scan.. so the guy was lazy and instead of looking up the price.. he just etimated and charged me $9.99 each! ... so i went back and got two more...lol!
Well, I finally broke down and bought Richochet... mainly for his robot mode, which SO much better than his car mode. But I have a problem... the part that swivels his head and the suspension down, the metal rod is sticking out to far on his left side, thus the bottom of the part that connects both the hood and head cover (vent), will not go down fully, so I'm stuck with a ...not-quite-transformed robot, his head looks... up to attempt for him to look "correct". I've tried knocking on the bar that holds the joint together, if I can just get it to move a little I can have the hood fully down with no problem. But it's STRONG. Anyone else have a defunct Ricochet?
I don't mind that he isn't a Mesiter repaint. It helps the character stand out from that supposed pre-requisite and I think that's cool. He looks good enough to me. I would've liked at least a different head, sure, or perhaps a Decepticon character in his place, but whatever, I still like the toy anyway.
I got one of these after Chaos Muffin tipped me of where to find one, Surprisingly he and Rollbar are hard to find in Louisville. The Good: I was really surprised how shiny the plastic is, the black parts look like they were painted black, very very glossy. I love the "real world" license plate, they should have done this on alts from the start. Gold outlined Autobot symbol on the left shoulder! He looks better in person that he did in pics, I like the Silverstreak mold, and it looks good in these colors. It's nice to have predominately black Autobot - and he has red eyes... The Bad: The fact that he is a straight re-paint, and they used the Subaru mold. I know it's beating a dead horse, but they should have used the Shockblast mold with Meister's head and these colors, it would have sooooo ruled. Ricochet's bot mode colors would have been perfect for Prowl... The Ugly: The flame graphics look beyond cheesy, why Hasbro, why??? And why the bloody hell is his nose white, I mean REALLY!!! and the paint apps on the rest of his head are sloppy as hell... I'll have to fix that this weekend.
The paint job in robot mode makes Ricochet look quite mean and nasty - practically Decepticon nasty. I tend to imagine him as a bounty hunter or "lone wolf renegade cop" type, prefering to work alone so he doesn't need to depend on anyone, and vice versa. (because he blames himself for the death of his Targetmaster partner, of course. )
