Combiner Wars, Reviews, Transformers, Transformers: Generations

Review: Combiner Wars Deluxe Class Prowl, Sunstreaker, Mirage, & Ironhide (Transformers Generations)

Transformers Generations: Combiner Wars Deluxe Class Prowl, Sunstreaker, Mirage, & Ironhide
$15.29 Each from Target

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It’s been a long while since I took a look at Transformers on my channel, but having been (possibly?) the first person to find these at retail in the US, I took it upon myself to give a little to the fandom I’m silently a part of, and take a look at these guys. The fourth wave of Combiner Wars Deluxe figures includes Prowl (a retool of Protectobot Streetwise, which is in turn a retool of Stunticon Dead End), Sunstreaker (a retool of Stunticon Breakdown), Mirage (a retool of Stunticon Dragstrip), and Ironhide (a retool of Stuticon Off Road). As with all Combiner Wars Deluxes, all four of these guys can turn into an arm or leg for any of the Combiner Wars Voyager class toys. The quartet is meant to combine with Battle Core Optimus Prime (a white retool of Combiner Wars Optimus Prime) to form Optimus Maximus. For the sake of the video (since I haven’t found Battle Core Optimus), I’m using the original Combiner Wars Optimus. It’s my preferred body for these guys anyway. Each toy comes with one comic book pack in from IDW’s ongoing “The Transformers” series. I picked up each of these for $15.29 at my local Target.

Prowl is my favorite of the bunch. I always liked the Dead End mold when the Stunticons were new to me, and you’d think I’d be sick of it with this being our fourth version of the mold, but Prowl is a super nice use of the mold. It isn’t a huge departure to what I think a Prowl would look like, and it just works. Unlike a lot of molds in this line, Prowl makes for a great arm or leg, adding a lot of versatility to combinations. Prowl includes his hand/foot blaster as well as a shotgun, which is just awesome.

Sunstreaker is weird. The mold actually ends up working well for him, and the head sculpt in particular absolutely nailed it. I also like the ability to plug the hand/foot blaster into his back to give him a back mounted engine look. Same thing applies to the vehicle mode that not only nails it, but also has the engine compatibility to make the mold ooze Sunstreaker. Sunstreaker also makes a great arm or leg, with this mold being the only one to have a horizontal elbow rocker to make for a slimmer profile arm. That being said, Sunstreaker just seems like an odd choice to me. His brother is no where in sight, and he never seemed like an overly important character, despite being a fan favorite for sure. I can’t help but feel Wheeljack would have been a better inclusion here. Sunstreaker includes a bladed gun weapon and his hand/foot blaster.

I really liked the Dragstrip mold when it came out in a wave full of jets and helicopters, but as more cars came out, I just sort of grew bored with it. Mirage adds a little bit of life to it since the color scheme is nice and breaks up Dragstrips see of yellow and maroon. The mold is still just okay, and I’m not really a huge fan. He makes a great leg, and an alright arm, now that I discovered those little slits the top of the shoulders sit in. Mirage includes a bladed gun weapon and his hand/foot blaster.

Finally Ironhide is a mold I’m so iffy on. On its own, I really like the Off Road mold. A pickup works great in the sea of cars that was the Stunticons, and seeing as Ironhide has been a pickup truck before, it just works. The colors even work fantastic on the mold. I think Off Road makes for one of the more solid individual figures, and is certainly a lot of fun. That being said, while he makes a nice stable leg (complete with knee pad), his arm mode, at least for me, isn’t stable at all, and there’s no super comfortable formation for his robot mode arms, even with the small friction tabs you’re supposed to use. It just doesn’t work. Needless to say, he’s always a foot for my combinations, but that doesn’t stop him from being a nice figure overall. Included with Ironhide is an axe weapon and his hand/foot blaster.

At first I wasn’t sold on this concept. These guys were never part of a combiner! What heresy! But the more I thought about it, the cooler it became. These are five incredibly popular characters that are given the opportunity to combine. Sure, the end result is basically just a Optimus Prime version of Menasor, but that doesn’t stop it from being great. The Optimus mold’s normal red and blue color scheme work wonders on this guy, and I honestly can’t imagine wanting Battle Core Optimus at this point. The colors mesh well and look really fun no matter what combination you’re using. I do have to say that the Prowl/Sunstreaker combo as arms and the Ironhide/Mirage combo as legs really do it for me. It’s posable, stable, and just really great looking. I can take or leave Rodimus though. I feel he not only got the shaft, as a whole he is just unnecessary. The combo works better for me without a little car in his chest.

If you’ve liked what Combiner Wars has had to offer so far (the Stunticons in particular), and really like the concept, these are must haves. While I was unsure at first, having a combiner filled with characters I still cherish to this day is just really cool, even if they’re just the Stunticons at the core. While I was certainly on the fence, I’m glad I bit the bullet. They work far better than I ever thought they would.

[youtube http://youtu.be/u9fyADzaGto]

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s