Lets get the cat out of the bag. Yes, the side profile is dogshit. He looks like a piece of paper with feet.

Transformation is oddly not bad, probably because his coat pieces arent in a bajillion ball joints (so it’s not like BW Neo stuff where you need to have the patience of a saint and insane luck just to get everything locked in), but this obviously hurts your posing options in robot mode, since honestly, the only time the sides of his coat next to his torso look good is when he’s standing neutrally. Really wish that some parts of his body had more paint, but all the paint budget was thrown to the partsformable part, as those parts are all clear. The partsforming feature is not mentioned in the instructions.

Not a car nerd but the alt looks fine. Also, you can throw the spoiler to the parts bin, because this thing will NOT stay on during transformation and I’m willing to bet in 5 years time 9/10 eBay listings for second hand copies will be missing the spoiler. SMGs store at the side, and it is accessible in robot mode. You can still store it with the backpack attached, but I’ve removed it for the sake of clarity.


Possibility is nice, everyone’s beloved ankle tilts are there, bicep and thigh swivels (even if they are pretty tight). No waist.

You can also slot the SMG square port onto the side of his arms… because?

Overall I’d put it 6.5-7/10… in a good way. He’s got a unique (and fun) transformation and isn’t fiddly (looking at you, SS lambo Hot Rod) , but the issues are glaring I can understand why people will pass on it, and he really needs paint on the legs and forearms.

 

I think considering how streamlined and smooth the design is, this is a pretty damn good attempt at the character. He’s essentially the deluxe equivalent of what SS Voyager Galvatron did, with the difference being that he’s on a smaller budget. Looks pretty good overall.

 

Hard pass. Side profile looks awful and paint is lacking hard. Clear hinges are always negative for me. Crosshairs has no place in my personal collection but if this guy was a heavy remold of the TLK deluxe which was an honestly good figure then I would probably bite. But I am glad I won't as I will save money for better figures.

 

Yeah he looks like a figure that will look awesome on a shelf, standing there looking badass, but not sure how posing is going to work. I think I'm gonna have to get creative with how to shoot this figure. Just curious: Why not glue the spoiler on? Would that affect anything?

 

The reason why the wheel faces the front in the default confiruation is because the spoiler is too wide. Sure, gluing it would work, but it effectively cripples a LOT of options for your coat if you want to use the car shell as part of your setup. I also find that removing the spoiler is much more convenient to transform when pushing the rear. Whilst yes, you can use your fingernails to pry an opening, I just find it a lot more satisfying if I just pushed the whole setup upwards, which would unforunately hit the bottom of the spoiler.



Currently, my favorite setup is this one, as IMO the partsforming option leaves him a little too skinny. If I glued the spoiler, it would be impossible to do this, as the wheels on the side of the cloak would be parrallel to the wheels.

Here's the front view of my setup


The rear piece helps hide out the lack of a torso from the side view... but the legs are still... well, not great. considering how its waffled, maybe 3P can make partsforming rear legs?

 

Thanks for the explanation! Definitely better to have options with this figure it seems. I think they made some odd choices with this one. Why not have all that car junk food into the torso to both fill it out and make less of a backpack? Why have the spoiler not fold up? Why have the shoulders on a ball joint instead of a hinge so they can move out more? I’m still gonna get him, but there seem to be some odd choices that were made.

 

Everything on the robot sculpt is improved and using the hood to make poseable front coat flaps is cool.

However this figure isn't a huge improvement over TLK deluxe because the rest of the coat and kibble let it down. The tlk had the coat more on the sides with flaps that cover the side torso etc so looked much better, even the way the windshield sat on the back was better on the old one. Still gonna buy it as my assessment is just based on pics.

 

My personal theory is that they used most of his budget for Hot Rod. I don't get how him and Crosshairs are from the save wave.

 

Pass. Going to keep the old version.

 

Yeah one of the only SS figures that I’m not sure is an improvement over existing molds. Still I appreciate the increased accuracy in the sculpt, which is one of the main strengths of more modern figures.

Yeah they could be relying on name recognition for hot rod and assuming he will be more popular, or maybe it was just an easier figure to develop or they just felt more inspired who knows. Hot rod does have more vehicle kibble on him though, and in much more traditional places.

 

Well that’s because he’s literally ER Arcee on crack, difference is that they actually made the backpack transform. The only car parts that’s not on the backpack are the front wheels and the skirt on the side of his torso, which forms a sizable chunk of the hood

the real thing that really fucks with Crosshairs is the alt, because unlike Arcee it’s a licensed affair so they can’t throw the car mode under the bus like they did with her. The rear car part is a bit too wide so the side car pieces in my configuration actually can’t fully fold sideways (that’s why the instructions again, tell you told fold the sides forwards as everything else is at the back), the hood could’ve easily folded up but I could easily see it being a safety/ durability issue (since Hasbro does has to abide to toy laws after all), and the legs missing half of themselves is because there’s literally no space for it in the car mode thanks to the sleekness, leading to the legs work like the (insanely repetitive) CW leg hinge technique, but the hinge is now his knee and he doesn’t have the rear leg pieces

 

That's true. But it's still amazing how proportionate and clean he is with barely any backpack or needless kibble and all of that while turning into a Lambo. I know comparing him to Crosshairs is unfair but I do legit think that Hot Rod engineering wise is just peak SS when it comes to most carbots.

 

Yeah, also, Hot Rod’s been screwed twice. His TLK figure was an exclusive that ended up going to discount chains instead for some reason, and was a Lockdown retool. AOE Lockdown isn’t the worst toy, but I can see why people would be miffed. And his previous SS toy was a retool of WWII Bee, who is… apparently not the best. Being packed with the first “2000s Camaro” Bumblebee in the line (who’s an involved and pretty good figure) and the first mass-release Mercedes Soundwave who wasn’t screwed over by the DOTM toyline’s cancellation doesn’t help his case.

 

So which parts would you replace/add for a potential upgrade kit? What do you think would be most helpful to the figure?

 

Honestly, just a leg kit for robot mode (and I guess throw 2 parachutes in to sweeten the deal)? The paper torso can be sort of hidden if you go creative with the cloak, but nothing can save how thin the legs are (it also doesn't help that the grey knee hinge makes him look like he's got osteoporosis on his knees). I guess hypothetically you can suggest that Hastak should've use sliders like how the OG Laser Prime mold/ Classics Starscream's legs worked, but then it would definitely compromise the knee/ leg width (or both) and again, the legs partially go over the knees to provide rolling clearance, so it might even be applicable in the first place.

IMO he's definitely a Galvatron situation where its "yeah you tried, A for effort buddy" situation where compromises are completely reasonable once you get him in hand, even if its... very rough around the edges. I can't tell if the AOE/ TLK deluxe is any good because I've got a barrage of issues with it and never owned it(IMO the Platinum edition is the only version of the mold which doesn't suck balls in the colors department, but then the car proportions are just laughably bad for a licensed affair and the rubber bits are a huge turn off, which were fixed for the TLK release, and both toys have pretty subpar robot sculpt even for their era), but SS Crosshairs is definitely "good enough" on my book.

 

I mean it's alright I guess. I still want it but I'm not gushing over for sure.

 

This is going to be a bit of an odd request, but do you have the old TLK deluxe? Would it possible to swap the heads of the two figures? Pictures make it look like the two heads are roughly the same size. I might be tempted to pick this up at clearance if ever a head swap is possible

 

So amazon supposedly got some stock, and the arrival date was pushed up from january to this week! It's supposed to arrive on thursday but it hasn't shipped yet so you never know. When my core class laserbeak updated its arrival date it ended up getting there 5 days after the original arrival date. But hey! Next week would still be better than waiting all the way til January!

 

I got the Platinum Ed a few days ago, the new SS head is pretty snug on the body but its super loose when I put the AOE head on the SS body. Hope that helps.

 

If you mean the SS head is snug on the AOE body, then that helps A LOT. Either way, hanks for the reply.