Good review mate
Yeah, completely agree - far more an homage than an update. With a different alt-mode and gender it's certainly not that indicative of the G1 character, except for the purple paintjob and the name of course.
Plus with the gender change I don't think you can really describe it as the same character. I have zero problems with gender changes in Transformers when it is a different universe (Animated Red Alert, Timelines Drag Strip etc) but if it's meant to be the G1/Generations universe then it's a bit odd. Unless Jhaxius got hold of them of course
I was going to grab this figure but now I'm wondering if I will bother. Maybe if I see it on sale. Feels like they were simply trying to get another use out of the Slash mold and Cindersaur was the only Con character they could think of. If it had been a completely new Female Con character I'd probably be searching the shops right now
I reckon the Beast Hunters version of Cindersaur did a better job of recreating the character than this toy has.