Happy Turkey Day, everybody. I’m off spending Thanksgiving with family but I wanted to drop in with an update before heading off to the festivities. I grappled with the idea of posting some long winded and sappy prose about all the things I’m thankful for, and believe me there’s a lot, but then I realized I’m always thankful for a new Transformer, so here’s a look at the Autobot’s Security Chief from the Generations line. -FF.
Red Alert comes packaged in his vehicle mode on the standard Generations style card. While Red Alert’s gun stores under his vehicle mode, Hasbro chose to mount it in the bubble beside the vehicle. You can also see that Red Alert has the clear windshields from the Sunstreaker mold, rather than the painted windshields from Sideswipe. I know some folks don’t like to see their robot’s kibble through clear windshields, but I prefer this style to Sideswipe’s painted windshield. The back of the card has the usual biographic blurb, which is cool since it comes pretty close to admitting that Red Alert is paranoid and borderline crazy, which is always what I remembered about the character the most.
Hasbro did a fine job on Red Alert’s repaint. He’s sculpted in white with a red deco on his underside and clear plastic headlights. The only real structural difference with the toy is the added lightbar on the roof. Yep, he’s still got the removable engine component that both Sideswipe and Sunstreaker have. I really dig the Fire Rescue lettering on the doors and the hood deco is fantastic too. It’s not a perfect recreation of the original toy, but the inspiration is definitely there and I like it. Red Alert’s also got a new license plate that reads 05 Alert. As already mentioned, the windshield and windows are now clear and I love the way the Autobot insignia shows through from the top of the dash.
In robot mode, Red Alert’s new deco still looks awesome. The limbs are now red and grey and the red inserts on his thighs look really nice. The head sculpt is exactly the same as Sideswipe’s, which is accurate to the original toy. I’m going to be a real nitpicker and say that I would have preferred if Hasbro went ahead and colored his helmet red like the cartoon version of the character, but the black still looks nice. The only real downside here is that Red Alert’s engine piece won’t clip on his back in robot mode because of his lightbar.
Red Alert’s articulation is excellent. His head is ball jointed. His arms have ball joints on the shoulders, double hinged elbows and swivels in the biceps and wrists. His legs are ball jointed at the hips and ankles and hinged at the elbows. Like the Lambor brother’s he’s a fun action figure to play around with when he’s in bot form.
The only reason I can see to not pick up Red Alert is if you really are dead set against repaints or just don’t have any fondness or nostalgia for the character. Red wasn’t exactly one of my favorite Autobots in the G1 continuity, but he became fairly prominant in the cartoon and I still have fond memories of owning the original figure as a kid. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s based on one of the better molds in the Universe 2.0lineup, and that’s saying quite a lot. As Generations continues the heritage of updated figures for G1 characters, Red Alert here is a homerun.
FigureFan Zero 