Toy Review - DotM Deluxe Roadbuster

[Lord_Zed]

I recently started modifying movie toys from the last line, Voyager Hook Prime and Ratchet from the previous HFTD line, they sure look a hell of a lot better for minimal effort (and I already own the paints). I may bring one to the Parra fair if I get time for a second coat.

Got mine from Big W.

My Local Big W had only a space where Movie toys might fit, Lazy gits. And the standard Target/ Toys R Us prices are a turn off, so I'm still DOTM toyless.

[Decepticon]

He wont hold his damn gun in his hand!!!!!

[SkyWarp91]

He wont hold his damn gun in his hand!!!!!

His hand or his side panel?

Just opened the fig today. Pretty decent, I like it. The transformation reminds me a bit of ROTF Sideswipe with the arms forming the doors and the legs hiding underneath the car body in alt mode. He does need a tad more paint on his abs and mine has a loose right arm. Some parts of the instructions do need to be cleared up though, like Step 5 was a bit confusing. Otherwise a good figure.

[Decepticon]

His hand or his side panel?

Just opened the fig today. Pretty decent, I like it. The transformation reminds me a bit of ROTF Sideswipe with the arms forming the doors and the legs hiding underneath the car body in alt mode. He does need a tad more paint on his abs and mine has a loose right arm. Some parts of the instructions do need to be cleared up though, like Step 5 was a bit confusing. Otherwise a good figure.

His chainsaw/gun. The way his hands are molded prevents him from holding his gun tightly.

[SharkyMcShark]

I've just opened mine so these are my thoughts as at time of first play

Vehicle mode: I don't know anything about cars really so I can't speak to whether this is accurate to the model it's trying to portray, but it looks nice. Painted tail lights is a bonus (although that's a sad reflection of the times really).

Something I absolutely lovely is that the mechtech 'port' (what used to be called 'a hole for a peg to go into' on previous transformers) has that bit of plastic that pops up when the weapon isn't attached, not only awesome so it doesn't look like you've got a car with a hole in the roof, but furthered by the fact that it's painted to match the 88 logo on the roof. It's a fantastic touch.

The white paint stripes down the side are a bit sketchy - there's a bit of bleeding over onto the green on the bonnet and on the back its slightly patchy on the right side. That's it for my complaints really. Actually wait I lied, painted hubcaps would have been nice.

Robot Mode: Instantly appreciated for the fact that everything is the right tightness (more or less every RTS figure I bought required me to go to work with superglue on the ball joints). All the articulation I expect in a modern transformers toy (head, shoudlers, elbows, hips, knees, ankles) with the added bonus of the shoulders being given a 'shrugging' joint (which is one of the transformation joints).

The mold looks nice too - it's nice to see that theyre finally getting the hang of the movie style squashed hood look in toy form. The trucker cap head doesn't bother me nearly as much as I thought it would and surprisingly looks a little bit G1 Roadbuster esque too. There's a phenomenal amount of detailing - obviously his chest area but his legs are very good too - his calves/shins are made of what looks like the support cage you often find inside these kind of cars, which I thought was a really good touch. There are the same disguise weapon ports (did I mention that I LOVE these disguise weapon ports?). The mechtech weapon is nice enough - I know they've received a bit of criticism but I'm really not that fussed as in this case it fits and isn't too extravagant. HOWEVER, and this brings me to main main criticism...

The amount of grey kills it a bit - it's not that 'Hasbro grey' that I know a lot of you love to whinge about (I put him next to ROTF Leader Prime for comparison, this grey is darker) but it still would have been nice if it was broken up a little. As with RtS Jazz paint seems to have taken a back seat to gimmicks (in this case the shoulder missile racks which fold out extensively). As with the clip on speakers from RtS Jazz, I would have lost these (or at least a few of the joints from these) to free up some money in the budget for paint.

As a final criticism it's a bit... shellformery. You do end up more or less with an entire car body hanging off his back (the only bits used for the robot itself are the hood parts, the doors on the arms, and the rear end as the shoulder rockets).

In essence basically all of my criticisms except the above one could be fixed by some kind of 'premium' style release with a bit more paint. Whether this comes from Hasbro down the line a bit or Takara, who knows, but I'll definitely be buying it when it comes out. If I had to put my feelings into a number out of ten it would be eight. 8/10.

[SkyWarp91]

My worry is though, weren't the Wreckers depicted in the movie carrying a huge load of weapons on them in their alt modes? Roadbuster seems to be lacking those on this version, I hope they release a more screen-accurate version!

[GoktimusPrime]

His chainsaw/gun. The way his hands are molded prevents him from holding his gun tightly.

I don't think they're intended to hold weapons - you're just meant to plug them into the MechTech ports on the forearms. Same with Voyager Megatron and Deluxe Bumblebee too.

Something I absolutely lovely is that the mechtech 'port' (what used to be called 'a hole for a peg to go into' on previous transformers) has that bit of plastic that pops up when the weapon isn't attached, not only awesome so it doesn't look like you've got a car with a hole in the roof, but furthered by the fact that it's painted to match the 88 logo on the roof. It's a fantastic touch.

Yeah, all the MechTech DotM toys have this.

The white paint stripes down the side are a bit sketchy - there's a bit of bleeding over onto the green on the bonnet and on the back its slightly patchy on the right side. That's it for my complaints really.

That sounds like a QC issue. When I grabbed Roadbuster and Bumblebee, I looked through several different ones and grabbed the ones with the best looking paint apps. I saw quite a few that looked sloppy and passed them up.

Makes me feel like shopping for fruit... ya know when you wanna buy a bag of apples and you pick each one up and inspect it for freshness/quality. I miss the old days when I didn't have to do that for Transformers; where you'd just get a toy and chances were it'd probably be okay. Now chances are you might get a defect. My Deluxe Bumblebee's paint apps on the front grill is sloppy and there's a black smudge where there shouldn't be -- although excess paint smudges can be easily removed with rubbing alcohol. My Drift came with an ugly smudge above one of the wheels -- it easy to remove with rubbing alcohol.



I'm gonna try the same thing with Bumblebee.

My worry is though, weren't the Wreckers depicted in the movie <snip>? Roadbuster seems to be lacking those on this version, I hope they release a more screen-accurate version!

Thanks for the spoiler warning.

It wouldn't surprise me if Hasbro released different versions of Roadbuster with different accessories according to what he had in the movie -- much like what happened with Bumblebee. I'm not fussed about that kind of thing.

[LordCyrusOmega]

[QUOTE=GoktimusPrime;240831]Yeah, all the MechTech DotM toys have this.
QUOTE]

Crancase doesn't.
I'm not buying all the different versions just so he can be armed like he is (supposedly, I haven't seen anything yet) in the movie

[Autocon]

too much grey not enough detail. would have bought it too and thus begin my spiral into collecting again

[SkyWarp91]

Thanks for the spoiler warning.

It was in the trailer!