Toy Review - DotM Legion Sideswipe

[griffin]

Toy Review - DotM Legion Sideswipe

(Please post photos, comments or even a fully comprehensive review - these are just brief details)

Toy Review - Bumblebee
Series - Dark of the Moon
Sub-line - Cyberverse
Size/class - Legion
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 1
Released here - May 2011
Approximate Retail Price - $7-9
Approximate Size - 7cm
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode - Corvette Stingray convertible
Main Features/Gimmicks - none
Main Colours - Grey, black
Main Accessories - none

[SMHFConvoy]

I've had this guy for a while now and he is so much fun! He's tiny and he turns into a corvette - with no roof!

In all seriousness legion class Sideswipe is a really nice figure. A total of four points of articulation - hips and shoulders. Although 'Swipe's shoulders are ball jointed and hinged so they can rotate back or all the way forward. May I point out that Sideswipe's feet in the promo shot haven't been rotated properly so he's actually standing on his wheels. The sculpts for the legs is unreal! They really capture the mechanical aspect of the movie aesthetic.

The only let down I found with the bot mode is that the chest slopes at too much of an angle. I fixed this by putting a tiny screw into the torso of the figure to stop the hood of the car going lower. It doesn't affect transformation, its subtle and leaves Sideswipe with his broad chest and thin waist.

Transfomation: rotate the feet and heels up. Fold the top of the back of the car down and tab the section into the feet. Flip the chest back to form the hood of the car. Now fold the arms in and tab them into the thighs/ car seats (you'll see.)

Car mode: It's awesome! Sideswipe's convertable alt mode is really, really lovely. It's all curves, the only hard angles are at the front near the grille and the rear tail lights. It all works together so well. I'm not a car enthusiast by any means (I drive a '94 Barina) but this vehicle mode! It's low to the ground and it looks like a cloud of silver in profile.

Sideswipe is a must buy, awesome robot and vehicle mode. The transformation is well engineered and fun. Worth a $7-9 purchase. GO! GO NOW!

[griffin]

Is it possible for a Legion class be better than a Deluxe class toy? Well, just like Ravage, Rampage and Wheelie in TF2, this TF3 Sideswipe is probably the better option to its Deluxe counterpart.
The grey plastic is at least shiny, to be closer resembling the silver on the packaging of both... while this one holds together better in car mode without it being as obvious as the larger one that it has a no floor inside the car. (would you want to drive a car like that???)

Not a great toy, but probably one of the better Legions... and about as good as the Dlx version, which makes this one better value if you want to buy just one TF3 Sideswipe toy (especially if you have a TF2 version and want a cheap convertible/topless version).

(and we haven't had a "topless" Transformer since BotCon Arcee... )