Dark of the Moon Deluxe Sideswipe Review

[GoktimusPrime]

it is flat and one toned in a grey that if you painted a room that colour would make the inhabitant manic depressive in about 3 days.

lol

Why couldnt they have some method of keeping the weapon fully deployed at all times?

Boxed Mech Tech TFs can keep their weapons deployed (they have a lock mechanism - though I haven't worked it out for Skyhammer yet ) -- but yeah, the Deluxes can't lock out, which is stupidly annoying. It's especially annoying when the mechtech weapon is a melee weapon, because you can't have one hand deploying the melee weapon and play with the figure to make it fight at the same time... not properly anyway. It becomes downright impossible when you're controlling a second figure for it to fight. So for example, it's jolly hard to make Sideswipe deploy his blade and make him duel with a Decepticon toy at the same time.

Just as well he already has blades. I actually prefer Sideswipe's mechtech weapon in its undeployed mode as a gun, since it actually serves a purpose as a range weapon. The dude already has two blades - doesn't really need a 3rd. I use it as a "surprise" weapon, like one time I had Sideswipe fighting RtS Lugnut and Luggie had trapped both of Sideswipe's blades, and it would've been too close for Sideswipe to launch his explosive rounds at Luggie without copping damage to himself, so Sideswipe just flicked his blade and slashed Lugnut by surprise. This only made Lugnut mad.

But it's more aggravating with toys like Roadbuster who doesn't already have a melee weapon... Thundercracker has a blade... but come on, what's the fun of having a chainsaw if ya can't use it!! (I really wanna make 'em go all "Armies of Darkness" on each other. )

Only worth getting if you are a Sideswipe lover, someone who cna paint him in a nice metallic paint (if it will stick) or can get him reasonably cheap, he is not worth the $25-$35 he is being sold for in most stores.

Agreed. If you can find him now at Kmart for $22 then it might be okay, but definitely don't pay full retail for it. I paid $19 for mine, which I think is okay... mind you, it was loose. So $22 for one MOSC is good IMO.

Btw, where's the Autobot insignia on this toy? Mine hasn't got one cos... ya know... it's a "Premmie." <cough>

[Fonecrusher]

I think the mold looks great, better than the ROTF or Sidearm ones, but yeah that Hasbro gray plastic is just a killer for me. I've seen some people do some amazing custom paint jobs, but since I lack the skill, I'll wait for a redeco or retool.

[STL]

+great robot
+good mechtech weapon

-horrible plastic colour and they still use the shiny painted pictures on the packaging
-alt mode looks off with the 'convertible' area
-mechtech weapon is redundant since sideswipe already has two blades.

i gave his mechtech weapon to skyhammer - imo its much better suited.

I had the same rationale too. And it does look much nicer on Skyhammer. I want two now so that in copter mode, he's got matching massive cannons and matching Sideswipe blasters.

And agree w/ all above comments. Great robot mode. It's just the colours make this so off. If this was silver, I can see a lot more people behind this figure. The headsculpt and the design is great.

[GoktimusPrime]

I think the mold looks great, better than the ROTF or Sidearm ones, but yeah that Hasbro gray plastic is just a killer for me. I've seen some people do some amazing custom paint jobs, but since I lack the skill, I'll wait for a redeco or retool.

IMO RotF Sideswipe is definitely a better toy over this one.

[LordCyrusOmega]

Picked him up cheap along with Scanning Sideswipe.
Nice mold and simple enough transformation. Think they pulled off the roofless car nicely. Mech Tech weapon is also really nice.
This has the worst colours of movie Sideswipes to date. He just looks so drab next to the rest of them.

[SkyWarp91]

just opened the figure recently and started playing with it. This new mold is amazing but the colours and feel of the plastic is sooooo cheap. I also managed to paint the car-mode using Humbrol's Chrome Silver Enamel paint (which is NOT real TF Chrome). Be careful though, the paint still scratches off even with a good layer of Hardcoat.

[SkyWarp91]

Here's my noobish paintjob, even though it sucks it's still 1,000,000x better than original paintjob imo

[snaketales]

I finally opened mine this week (I can be a procrastinator ) and I like it.

I bought it mainly for the convertible car mode. As far as I know it's the only one of its type. Yes he has no floor but you can't really see it unless you're looking straight down on it

I would have preferred it to have a more shinier paint app but to be honest I don't mind the grey.

I'm not a big fan of the grey tabs that poke out the back of the car. But I do like he has a steering wheel, which I discovered while playing with it in robot mode ("what's this thing sticking out? ooooooo a steering wheel!")

Unlike ROTF Sideswipe/Swerve this is hella easy to transform. I was even able to do it without the instructions while watching TV last night, which for me with a movie toy is an accomplishment. I had no trouble with making panels click together.

The mechtech weapon is a bit superfluous - even my kids asked why a car would need a sword - but it doesn't hurt to have it.

One gripe is that the screw holding his head together doesn't seem to attach properly. First time I transformed him his head broke into two. Unlike my experience with Swerve I was able to put his head back on.

[griffin]

Well this toy sucked on so many levels... it's almost the poster boy for everything that went bad with the DotM line.
It's a smaller figure.
It's virtually unpainted.
The grey colour they used for the plastic makes it look like a cheap knockoff.
The texture/density of the plastic makes it feel like a cheap knockoff.
The sword is not painted that lovely blue colour shown on the packaging.
Making it a convertible exposes how much empty space & gaps the body of the toy has, making it look even cheaper. If they rely on roof panels to hide parts on regular car TFs, then maybe they should have given this one a floor panel to make it more solid looking.
Eh, scratch that idea, as this one has big enough panels sitting on its back already.
And most annoyingly, some of the side panels of the car mode don't interlock cleanly enough, which is going to be worse as play bends & distorts the plastic over time.

Okay, the good points...
Uh, it was in the movie.

Despite this one being a little easier to convert, just on its colour alone, I recommend the (metallic looking) TF2 version over this one. Easily.