Yes, folks, this plague of Third-Party Roboconverters continue to hijack Transformers Thursday. Last week I checked out DX9’s take on the Renegade Go-Bot Cy-Kill. Today I’m having a look at their version of the Renegade Femme Fatalle, Crasher. Unofficial Go-Bots, folks! Does it get more low-rent than that? I’m just kidding, it’s not low-rent. I like the Go-Bots. And these things are expensive.

Last time, I marveled at the art direction on display for Salmoore’s packaging and Cocomone got the same exquisite treatment. It’s not quite as colorful, but the art is just as gorgeous. Otherwise, there’s nothing too complicated here. It’s an enclosed box with the figure inside on a tray. I should also point out that just like Salmoore was re-purposed as Wreck-Gar, Cocomone here was re-purposed as Mirage. Transformers and Go-Bots sharing Third-Party molds… when will the madness end? Anyway, Cocomone is packaged in her robot mode, but let’s start in her vehicle mode.

Cocomone is an Formula-1 style racer and Go-Bots purists will no doubt notice that this is not Crasher’s original alt mode. I don’t know a lot about these kinds of racecars, but a little research suggests that she was originally a Porsche 956, or at least that’s what her toy looked like. Obviously, DX9 wanted to make the Mirage release a priority here. Still, the coloring and the fact that they’re both high performance racecars helps sell it to me. As does the fact that I’m not about to get all uppity and upend any tables over a Go-Bot’s alt mode. This mode lock together pretty well, although I tend to have problems with the alignment of the rear tires on mine, as they don’t roll smoothly. The bulk of the sculpted detail here lies in the exposed engine behind the driver’s seat. So, all in all, simple and elegant.

The deco consists entirely of black, gray, and red, and a lot of that is the color of the plastic as opposed to paint. You do, however, get some nice silver paint on the front edge of the driver compartment. The colors are attractive, and the overall result is an aesthetic that lends itself to more of a simple animated style than a realistic one. That works for me. DX9 also included stickers to help spruce things up. They’re OK, but not great, and sadly they don’t include anything for the face of the spoiler. They do include a pair of lipstick graphics, which at least speak to her being a femme-bot. I do wish some of them, like the “1” for the front of the car was cut closer or had a background that matched the gray plastic.

Other than Salmoore, I have no Go-Bots to compare her to, so I wanted to see how she staks (Get it? Staks? That’s a Go-Bot, folks!) up to an MP Transformer. So there’s a picture of her with Smokescreen. They scale pretty well, and that’s to be expected since we know this mold was also used for their Not-MP Mirage. She doesn’t scale as well with Salmoore in alt mode, but that’s also to be expected because sadly mass shifting doesn’t exist and so you need a big motorcycle mode to create a robot that’s in scale with the others. As for the transformation, I feel it features just the right level of complexity, and it goes fairly smoothly. There aren’t any scary clearances like on Salmoore, and I was actually able to get Cocomone transformed without consulting the instructions at all.

So, just like the alt mode, the robot mode is obviously intended to be Mirage first and Crasher second. In fact, from the neck down, I don’t think there’s anything here that was re-sculpted to be unique to Cocomone, so really we are dealing with a straight-up repaint of their Not-Mirage. That’s obviously going to be a sticking point with all the Go-Bots enthusiasts out there. The deco doesn’t change much in robot mode either, but that’s fine because the colors look great on her.

From the back, Cocomone looks pretty good too. I appreciate that DX9 included two hinged plates, the only purpose of which is to help cover her hollow legs. The wheels are a little awkwardly placed when viewed from behind, and they have to be positioned just right to keep her from falling backwards. It’s a shame they couldn’t have found a way to make the rounded driver section of the car land on her chest instead of her back, because it would have really helped to hammer the homage home.

I’ve seen a lot of complaints over this head sculpt, but I think it’s pretty good. There’s no doubt to me as who it’s supposed to be, the details are well defined, and the paint is excellent. I do think that DX9’s heads are a little undersized, but not ridiculously so.

Cocomone comes with one accessory and that’s her rifle. I’m sure I mentioned in my Salmoore review that Go-Bots don’t generally tend to carry guns, they just shoot energy beams out of their big goofy fists. Me? I prefer my robots with guns, so I’m glad DX9 included it.

In the end, I think this is a fun and good looking figure, and she compliments Salmoore quite nicely. The plastic quality feels a smidge better than Salmoore and the engineering is a lot better thought out. I’ll grant you, DX9 put a lot more effort into making Salmoore work as Cy-Kill than they did making Cocomone look like Crasher, and that’s certainly going to be a sticking point with some collectors. On the other hand, if you aren’t too hung up on the Go-Bots, you can easily just slap a Decepticon emblem on her and have a new MP-scaled figure for the woefully outnumbered MP Decepticons. I couldn’t really recommend Cocomone at the original price point of around $70, but at half that price, I’m mighty glad I picked her up.