Cybertron Sideways is pure love. Let's start at the beginning... Sideways comes packaged on a card that's half Autobot, half Decepticon- so his nature as a double dealer is evident right there on the packaging. His bio basically states that he can talk his way into and out of any situation, and you're never quite sure which side he's on. I like that. Also, he comes from the mysterious 'Planet X,' which is apparently a Decepticon-run planet, as he has a Decepticon force chip key packaged in with him. Sideways also came packaged with a DVD of the TFC episode 'Hidden.' I wish all the Wave 3.5ers had come with different episodes, but that's no biggie. In jet mode, Sideways is some sort of futuristic Stealth bomber. The body is mostly black. The next most dominant color is silver, featured on the nose, rear wing edges, the front of the tail fins, and a small bit on the top of the plane. Orange, green, and gold highlights are also present, as well as some translucent orange plastic. You may not think that all of these colors would work together, but on Sideways, they look sharp. Also, on the top of the nose, there's a strange design where you might ordinarily find a faction symbol- perhaps it's a symbol for being from 'Planet X.' In jet mode, the force chip activates two gimmicks. First, inserting the force chip with the fuselage in it's regular position changes the faction symbol from Autobot to Decepticon, and in a much better way than Armada Sideways. If you raise the fuselage up, the chip not only changes the faction symbol, but also spreads out 4 orange 'combat blades,' which look pretty cool. Transforming to bot mode isn't difficult, but certainly not the easiest deluxe either. The sides of the plane form the legs, so fold them out, fold out the feet, and remove the wings (you'll need 'em later). The part that the wings attach to will rotate and fold down to create a more kibble-less leg. The pelvis comes together from the underside of the plane. Swing the entire leg area down so you have access to the arms. The left arm is attached to the fuselgae/ blade gimmick, so you'll have to lift the fuselage out and twist it to get the arm out. You can now swing the black piece the legs are attached to back into place, and lock the pelvic piece in. The head is hidden in the nosecone of the plane. Lift up the door, swing the head out, turn the head around, and replace the nosecone. Fold down the back of the plane, and you're done. In robot mode, Sideways is quite initimidating, with a lot more orange showing with the black (just in time for Halloween!). The orange shows up on his forearms, shoulderblades, pelvis, shin guards, and lower neck area. Gold highlights are featured on his shoulders and feet, with silver on the knees, chest, and outlining the head. His left arm carries his blade weapon from the plane, but there's also a fist there, unlike C. Thundercracker. The legs have knee guards which could be useful in a fight. The head sculpt is just awesome. It's an upside down triangle shape with horns at the top. The mouth area is translucent orange, and is wide open. Very evil looking. In fact, my 19 month old daughter looks at him and says, 'booooo,' a phrase normally reserved for jack o' lanterns and ghosts. None of the plane parts on Sideways look kibble-ish to me. In fact, just looking at his robot mode, you'd be hard pressed to tell exactly what his alt mode would be. In robot mode, Sideways has a couple of different weapons. First, the wings that we took off before while transforming become a pair of blades- you can put one above and one below a fist, or just have him hold one in each fist. The force chip once again activates the 'combat blades,' leaving him very equipped for hand-to-hand combat. Sideways is well articulated. The head turns, the shoulders rotate, the upper arms rotate perpendicular to the shoulders, the elbows move up and down, the wrists turn, the legs are on ball and sockets, the knees bend, and the feet bend, making for lots of possible poses. Sideways is very stable on his feet, and can stand in a variety of positions. Altogether, Sideways just might be the perfect Decepticon toy. His looks, weapons, alt mode, bio, and supreme playability make him, in my opinion, the best deluxe ever, and better than most of the toys in other classes, too. Go get him, if you don't already have him. -Tony! Will place Sideways on his 'shelf of honor,' once he builds such a shelf.
Found Sideways yesterday, it's a wonderful figure. Some of the best articulation of any Transformer ever and it just looks so damn cool. Every Transformer fan should own this one. Easily one of the best of the Cybertron line.
Alright, this might be nitpicking, but here's a couple of problems. While transforming him the legs can pop off easily, not a big flaw, they pop right back on. I suppose over time with a little wear they could get pretty loose, but that could be fixed with a little supergule in the joint. Another thing is the cyber planet key, when I put his key in turning him into a Decepticon it comes out very easily if I just tap him it shoots out of the back of his arm about six inches. I guess he just wants to be an Autobot. Other keys stay in frimly, his key just seems to be a little thiner or will not stay in for some other reason. Anyway, those are my gripes about an otherwise almost perfect Transformer.
Hmm, having Noisemaze, I have neither of those problems. Legs have never popped off unintentionally, and the key stays in firmly. The issue with Noisemaze though is that his hips are slightly loose right out of package, so I did the superglue fix to tighten them up.
Great review! I agree, Sideways may just be the best deluxe figure ever made. I also love the sinisterness of the design. *hopes this isn't considered a threadjack, 'cause it's not supposed to be* I see a request for pics, so I thought that I may be able to assist.
Picked him up today and he is Fabulous! I love how such a sleek, stealth type jet turns into such an articulate and detailed robot! Also very impressed with the paint detailing on this guy.
You know, I think we need to have an updated Punch/Counterpunch figure to balance out the espionage equation. Oh and Sideways is a damn nice figure.
I don't have Sideways yet, but have had Noisemaze for sometime and he is pure love. Like someone else said I have had no problems with legs popping off or a loose cyb key, but I do have slightly loos hips. I cannot wait to find Sidways too because this mold is too nice not to have 1 to keep carded.
this figure rules. one of my favourite. allthough not sure what his force chip weapon actually is, as he doesnt use it often in the show.
got him about half hour ago and love him to death! Best figure yet! I hope there is a LOC figure made of him.. he deserves one...
I have Noisemaze, and it doesn't look like they changed him much, so I'll be passing on him. Noisemaze is an awesome figure, easily one of the 10 best TF molds of all time, IMHO. I did have a bit of a problem with his legs, which I used the clear nail polish trick to tighten them up. As for the Force Chip, nothing like that here. Anybody have Noisemaze and Sideways and can tell any of the tell-tale differences between them?
I saw him at my local Target yesterday and it was BAD... Horribly painted and there was no chrome on the wings like Noisemaze has...
Funny. My Sideways had no problems.. But my snarl's wolf front legs can't support his weight after only messing with it a few times.
I BOUGHT the Sideways you passed up and compared him to Remy's photos, and the paint jobs are almost identical. The biggest difference is two missing paint blobs on the wings -- and that's really subtle. The other differences are flat-out nitpicks (a TINY bit of gold missing around the cockpit, more gold paint on the orange shoulder/engine sections, a bit of missing silver from the lines around where the key goes into the blade weapon). This isn't Vector Prime. If you took Sideways and Noisemaze and put them side-by-side, I'd bet that no one would notice any difference except for MAYBE the wing blobs -- and even then, most people wouldn't care. As for the figure -- he's Slugslinger 2005, but better. Less flaps, more kick-ass. The waist ball joints are loose (which impedes transformation a bit), and the Cyber Key did shoot out once, but that's no big deal. The instructions suck (as usual), but plane-to-robot is pretty obvious; robot-to-plane less so (but still doable). He's extremely fiddly, but very posable, and (with the exception of the waist ball joints) tightly put together. The blade weapon can actually be deployed in a couple of different ways; once you pop out all the blades, you can push the inner set back in and leave the outer ones out, or push in the blades on just one side, etc. You have to remove the Cyber Key first (there's that key storage problem again), but it's worth it. Plus, the wings = instant swords, deployable on one or both fists, RiD Megs-style. If you see this guy, buy him. If you pass him up, you will regret it. If you pass him up for the GF version, you should just give your money to me, because there's barely any difference. Final grade: A -XCN-
I have to disagree... I'd call the non-chromed wings more than subtle or nitpicky... And I didn't say anything about paint differences... I mentioned how badly they were painted on... I didn't have any issues with the Snarl I saw at Target because the paint job wasn't nearly as sloppy as the Sideways... I have Noisemaze and compared to the one I have the paint job on that one Sideways I saw was bad... It just looked horrible...
Dude, you must have REALLY high standards. If the wings are really chromed on Noisemaze, then that would make some difference ... but I'm sure I could pull off the same thing with a bit of Future polish. The rest of the paint apps are fine -- there's no bleed or anything. Compared to the pics on Remy's site, it's almost identical. I just don't see anything bad about the paint job. -XCN-
My standards aren't ridiculously high... And compared to your reviews, your standards are much more nitpicky then mine are... I just compared it to the Noisemaze I have and compared to that, Sideways looked horrible... And the chrome on the wings of Noisemaze is stark... Like mirrors... And from looking at Sideways wings there's no way of getting that to look like chrome short of finding chrome paint and applying that on...
