I didn't see a proper thread for this behemoth, so figured I might as well be the one to start one. Let's get started. Afterburner Probably the most contested over deco-wise, Afterburner here is a very rich, very strong red with a hint of orange. As someone who is very picky about show-accuracy sometimes, I must say that it echoes the cartoon model very well. Being a retool of Groove, he has a fair amount of differences to set him apart from his predecessor for the most part. There's a fair bit of white in robot mode to break up the sea of licorice red and hint of burgundy. The only retooled parts are his head—which has some kickass light-piping in there by the way, canopy/windshield, and guns. The canopy is cast in a translucent blue and covered in red paint. The nifty thing about this new assembly is that the 5mm port that is carried over from Groove is actually in use whenever Afterburner is in vehicle mode. It's a neat little design trick that doesn't sacrifice a weapon port because the canopy has one that is molded into and on top of it. Speaking of vehicle mode, the rims are painted silver—a welcome touch as always. His other new parts, the guns, are practically BFGs. They're different molds; one is a double barreled rifle, the other a sleeker, sniper-like rifle. These look really cool, to sum it up briefly. Articulation-wise, his backpack is the only minor hiccup for an already great mold. I found a way to have a somewhat condensed backpack that still resembles the original's silhouette. Otherwise, he's on par for CW articulation; pretty good, all things considered. He's probably my least favorite of the group, if only by process of elimination. Lightspeed I'll admit that this mold has its flaws, but hot damn does he look good. I am actually in the minority where I like this mold a fair bit. Being a retool of Breakdown and also Wheeljack (whose tooling is used here), Lightspeed is a great reuse of the mold. It captures the spirit of his original futuristic alt mode, as well as updates it very well. Looking at the cartoon model, Lightspeed is basically all red, which makes for a relatively boring color scheme. Takara actually used the burgundy in all the right places, breaking up another sea of red. He even has black paint apps on his shoulder to emulate the tires from the G1 version. The silver in both modes is nice and doesn't seem to be thin, fortunately. The headsculpt is also dead-on to the original, with two big bright blue optics striking out amongst a silver face and red head. It's a peculiar shape; it's not rounded. It's more like a parallelogram. Not that I mind, though. Moving on to his weapons, he comes with two beige rifles that tab into his shoulders the same way his moldmates do. They're a nice change of pace from the same weapons that are carried over from each release of the CW molds. All-in-all, he's a rock solid deluxe, despite the fandom's problems with his mold choice. Nosecone Okay, I love the Rook mold and this makes it even better. Seriously. He takes all of Rook's strengths (heh) and improves on them to create something truly unique. Nosecone retains the multitude of 5mm ports across his body, and adds a few more to it. Included in these is a new cockpit/drill-arm assembly that can plug anything 5mm into it... including his badass drill. Of the new accessories, the drill is obviously my favorite. It actually has a spring-loaded tip that if pushed, it goes back into the drill. It's a really nice touch, honestly. The drill has a 5mm bar on a swivel, as well as a port on the back of the drill. The way the hole is designed is so that it plugs in nice and snug into Nosecone's front end in tank mode. His other new accessories, two blasters and a rifle, for lack of more specific terms, are nice additions as well. All three pieces are adorned with 5mm plugs and ports to help beef up your Nosecone. They can all still plug into his hands, meaning he can have the HFG in one hand and the drill in the other. Otherwise, Nosecone has retooled tread sections to help him be a tank. It's a very nifty design choice, because they don't intrude on any body parts and actually have tiny little rolling wheels on them. I should mention that his drill arm assembly kind of sticks up in robot mode, but it's just the most minor of nitpicks. Overall, he's probably my favorite because of his damn drill... and being a Rook retool. Strafe I was totally okay with missing out on UW Blast Off, since my only issue with the Hasbro one was the head. Strafe is the former's retool, and a damn good one at that. From what I've seen, Strafe is transformed differently from his predecessor, and it looks good. In robot mode, he still has his signature twin rifles from vehicle mode sticking out behind his head, and looks like he just walked out of the screen from the cartoon. His jet mode is of Cybertronian design, and it looks like it's right out of a sci-fi movie of some sort. It's really quite unique, actually. His white and red color scheme is near perfect, along with his headsculpt. Like with Lightspeed, his bright blue optics are nothing but striking. I know that Blast Off had issues with his head not staying on, and unfortunately that still carries over. I found that if you transform him a very certain way, the head won't fly off into parts unknown. It's all about making sure you pay attention to what you're doing and how you're doing it. Otherwise my only other nitpick about him is his twin rifles. They are somewhat cumbersome during transformation because they like to get in the way of seeing what you're doing. I began to take them off the more I played with him, so note that. He includes a new pistol as well as his HFG, which can plug into the many 5mm ports he sports (hah). Interestingly, he has 5mm holes in his thrusters/hands, making the Technobots the only team to have two of the same fun feature. In conclusion, he's a solid mold and quite fun to fiddle with if you know how. Scattorshot The leader of the team, Scattorshot is nothing but a beefcake. Having even more retooled parts than his original mediocre Hasbro release, he packs plenty of awesome detail into a super solid mold. The only major changes to him are his legs and torso, more or less. I'll cover more of these details in combined mode, but they really help him resemble his original counterpart and differentiate him from the other three or four releases of the Silverbolt mold. For paint, he also looks like he's straight out of the cartoon, with a bright blue visor to match. The paint on these guys as a whole is just breathtaking. His jet mode is also really cool looking, especially his trademark cannon. Anyways, he brings two new rifles instead of Silverbolt's overused shield-and-long-ass-rifle combo. I really can't help but retread ground with his other releases, but he's definitely my favorite of all the torsos (sorry Onslaught). All-in-all, a definite improvement over his previous offerings. Computron He's badass, full stop. He's the right amount of beefy and thin-ish in a combiner from CW. It takes an already good torso, combines it with equal-level limbs, slaps a beautiful and striking paint deco on them and a new head, voila. He's just so, damn, good. Computron is my fave out of all the combiners cause he actually unifies his members, something the others tried to capture and fail. His weapon is also badass; it combines Scattorshot's two rifles, Lightspeed's two rifles, and one of Nosecone's guns to create a huge weapon worthy of being wielded by Computron. The fun thing about Scramble City type combiners is that you can have Nosecone instead of Strafe as his arm and plug his drill into the front of his vehicle mode and have a drill-hand for Computron. It's so goofy yet so damn fun. Conclusion This set combines all the best aspects of the line - especially, y'know combining - and creates a centerpiece for your combiners. Compy is nothing but fun, and is what a combiner should be nowadays. Hope you guys enjoyed this review! If there're any questions, speak up and let me know. "Probability of being a superior combiner toy: 99.3869%."
I got mine last night, but wanted to get to bed and figured I'd enjoy him today. Full disclosure, I got the PE set as well, because, well, I loathe the HFG's as feet. Thoroughly, completely, in virtually every way possible. So mine have never used the HFG's. My first exposure to the cycle, Silverbolt, and Strafe molds, so they were all new to me. I was a fan of the Rook mold. While I think the Breakdown/Wheeljack/Sunstreaker mold is troubled, I also think it fits Lightspeed very well. As individuals, Strafe surprised me the most. I was not expecting to like the mold as much as I do, it was fun and is a neat alt mode. It almost seems a shame that this will be it's only use. As much as CW had re-use fatigue, seeing him again would've been nice. Nosecone is full of win, but I expected no less due to the use of the Rook mold. Lightspeed has lots of very tight joints. I have Breakdown and Sunstreaker, and both of them seem like floppy messes by comparison (and they are not floppy messes by any stretch of the imagination). The Silverbolt mold is an interesting one, as I said, my first exposure to the mold. It does some interesting things, but I can see how getting it too often would be a turn off. Computron. Glorious. I'm not sure any other word can sum him up. Seeing him there is just wonderful. He looks like Computron, he feels like Computron. It was mentioned in the Computron in the News and Review forum that some owners had some issues and while mine is all correctly assembled, painted beautifully, and has lots of tight joints (some almost frighteningly so) I have a similar problem in that Lightspeeds combiner peg has some give to it, which combined with just a bit from Scattorshots hip, can make him a bit wobbly. While the PE feet eliminate that in base robot mode, I found that with the gun the problem returned. My personal solution was two-fold. 1. I only used the combined Scattorshot gun, not everyone elses tacked on. This reduces the weight (on the PE wrist as well) and looks darn good. 2. I actually clicked the right hip joint back one click on the ratchet. This puts the right leg about 3/4 an inch behind the left leg toe to toe. This (for me) eliminated virtually all the wobble and made him quite stable, with or without his gun or even with his arms out.
Would you believe that I'm still waiting for my UW-08 Computron set to be shipped from TF Source? Come on already, 5 days until the end of the month.
UW Computron is the best combiner ever: the new designs, amazing colors, weapons galore. My only complaint was the colors of Afterburner, replaced with CW Afterbreaker.
I am very happy and impressed with Unite Warriors Computron. Just 2 scary moments when I was transforming Scattershot: the front of the jet and the combiner head joints were scary tight, but managed to figure them out without breaking any pins. The paint apps are solid, no overpainted parts, and everything just works. I also had the PC-12 upgrade kit, and it makes Computron much taller than my other combiners. Computron takes the top spot as my new favorite combiner.
This is my preferred transformation for Computron. It really frees up both shoulders and makes them a lot less busy looking.
So I missed out the Preorder for UW Computron,had a lot going on since then and now all my favorite retailers are sold out and most likely wont get any back in stock. I did find today TFSource has him in stock again but for $180,compared to my favorite retailers who had him for $130. Is he worth that much?
If he came out that price... I wouldn't have any choice and I'd still buy him regardless. One of those must-own sets, to me at least. Ironically, ended up $205 with all upgrades said and done
