Here we are, it’s Transformers Thursday again and today I’m opening the last of the Deluxe Protectobots. I saved First Aid for last for no particular reason at all, so don’t read anything into the order here. Somebody had to be last. Truth is that so far this lineup can do no wrong and I’m rather excited to see what this guy has in store for me. So let’s take a quick look at the packaging.

Nothing new to say here. First Aid is packaged in robot mode and you get a free comic, which is always a treat. Also, the bio on the back is the first one of the Protectobot Bios that doesn’t make the character sound like a homicidal killer, which is a nice change of pace. You know, because they’re called Protectobots. As usual, I’m starting out with his alt mode.

First Aid is a futuristic looking ambulance. He’s also similar to Streetwise in that he uses the core design of another mold, but there’s so much resculpting that you wouldn’t really know it. In this case, First Aid is built off of Offroad, and if I hadn’t been privy to that information beforehand, I doubt I would have been able to tell until I started to transform him.

Overall, I think this is a solid alt mode, although the sides feature a lot of jagged seams, which sort of reminds me of Universe Ratchet, and while that’s not a good thing, it isn’t enough to ruin the toy for me. When going into car mode, it helps to give him that final squeeze that seems to snap all the plates together and diminish the seams. The coloring is pretty basic with blue windows, a silver grill, and some red on the sides, but it’s still a bright and pleasing deco that really pops. My figure has some stray red marks on the driver’s side, but nothing too bad. There are also peg holes on the sides if you want to store his axe.

As mentioned, transforming him is identical to Offroad and the result is oh, so satisfying. In robot mode, you can make out some more of the Offroad connection. He wears the front of the car as a backpack with wheels behind the shoulders and the torso is the exact same sculpt. Beyond that, everything else is new. Even the shoulder door-armor is different. The new deco for robot mode is mostly red and white, with some nice touches of blue and silver. The “RESCUE” tampos from the alt mode land perfectly on his shoulders. This is a great looking figure!

Naturally, First Aid is sporting a new head sculpt and it is pure G1 love. The pronounced crest on the “helmet” looks just like the combiner post head from the original figure and the blue and silver paint looks great. There’s a little red spray on his visor, but you have to get in pretty damn close to notice it.

In addiiton to the combiner foot/hand part, First Aid also comes with an axe. This is a repaint of the same weapon that came with Offroad, recolored to black with a silver blade.  It’s kind of a good fit, because rescue workers often carry axes to hack there way through debris and it doubles nicely as a weapon.

This jaunt through the Protectobots Deluxes has just gotten better and better. Blades was nice, Streetwise was very solid and Rook and First Aid are absolutely top notch. It’s impressive to think that everyone but Rook here are either repaints or remolds of previously released figures. I’d dare say that this team has come together just as well as the Aerialbots and I absolutely love that set. There’s only one figure left to look at before moving on to Defensor, so next Transformers Thursday, I’ll check out Hot Spot!

As promised, it’s another Transformers Thursday on a Friday, because Force Awakens hogged up the rest of the week. Today, I’m continuing on with my look at the new Protectobots and with Blades and Streetwise behind me, I’m up to opening my third of the Deluxe limbs. Let’s check out Rook!

There’s the obligatory packaged shot. Again, I’m warming up to these packages and the fact that Hasbro is bribing me with a free comic book doesn’t hurt. If you aren’t up on your G1 history, Rook is the imposter of the group. Much like Alpha Bravo was for the Aerialbots and Off-Road for the Stunticons, Rook is a newly created character and in this case he’s standing in for Groove, who right now appears to be a Takara exclusive and only available in their Protectobot Giftset. Will Hasbro bring him Stateside like they did with Slingshot and Wildrider? We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, let’s start with Rook’s alt mode.

Rook is an armored SWAT vehicle, and I have to say it’s a pretty good addition to the Protectobot team. Let’s see, we’re going into battle… do we want a motorcycle or an urban tank? Tank, please! Every time. He’s basically a slab of armor rolling on six wheels and I’m particularly pleased with the detail that Hasbro packed into this guy. The body is covered with panel lines, little hatches, windows, and even some axes, cutting torches, and gas tanks bracketed to the sides. The deco is pretty simple, mostly white, blue, and black, but the touches of yellow and silver are nice and the “POLICE” and “SWAT” tampos look great. Even the plastic on this toy just feels nice.

Rook has three weapon ports on the top so you can get a little creative with what you want to do. He’s also got a rather obvious peg sticking up out of the middle. This is one of the few examples, where I think the foot/hand combiner port improves the vehicle mode as a weapon. Not only does it cover that peg, but it adds some major urban pacification power to the tank and the gun can still be pegged onto the back. There’s even port on the front if you want to stick the grey weapon in there. For what is essentially a box on wheels, Hasbro really went the extra mile on this guy.

The transformation here is simple and yet oh, so good. I’ve probably said this before when talking about the CW Deluxes, but I love the level of complexity on these. It’s just enough to deliver great robot and alt modes, and yet fast enough to make playing with them fun. As a kid, I would have considered these perfect toys because you could go from robot to vehicle fast without having to stop playing to transform them.

And, holy crap, Rook’s robot mode is a sheer delight. He’s the bulkiest of the CW Deluxes I’ve seen so far, which makes sense because he’s a riot tank. And yet even with those big, blocky arms, the proportions on this guy are absolutely perfect. The top shell of the tank forms a neat backpack and I can’t even tell you how much I love the way two of the wheels land on the torso inside his arms and without getting in the way of the arm articulation. If I had one little nitpick it would be those plates hanging off his forearms. Those babies are screaming for hinges so they could be folded up. Oddly enough, Rook’s hands do not feature sockets to hold his weapons. Instead, he has sockets in the knuckles, which works for me because they look like integrated cannons. Plus, you can still plug his gun in there if you want to. You can even do the same with the foot/hand combiner part.

Rook’s portrait is sharp, unique, and full of personality. He’s got a grim expression as if he’s about to bash in your front door and bust you for downloading pirated Robots in Disguise cartoons. He’s also got what looks like a rollbar running right across his nose. God, I hope that’s there because he likes to headbutt Decepticon scumbags. Also, he wears his Autobot emblem on his forehead, which is pretty cool as it reminds me of a policeman’s cap with the insignia on it. Oh yeah, and I love the way the “POLICE” tampos wind up on his shoulders, along with those silver gas tanks.

I have no idea what Rook’s weapon is supposed to be. It sort of looks like a folded up robot arm, but I’m guessing it’s just some kind of energy weapon. I don’t hate it, but for me it just doesn’t live up to the amazing weapons that came with Blades and Streetwise.

I never had quite the same affection for the Protectobots as I did for the Stunticons or Aerialbots, and that’s probably why I’m being so forgiving of Rook as a stand in for Groove. That having been said, he really is an absolutely fantastic figure and quite possibly my favorite of all the Combiner Wars Deluxes so far. My only question will be how well he will integrate into Defensor, as I’m so used to seeing Groove as the right leg, and in this case it looks like Rook is intended to be the left arm. I guess I’ll know the answer in a couple weeks when I finish opening the last of these guys and get them combined. Next Transformers Thursday, I’ll wrap up the Protectobot Deluxes with a look at First Aid!

It’s Transformers Thursday again, last week was Blades, and today I’m opening up my second figure from the Protectobots Team, Streetwise. I shunned this guy as a kid because there was really only room for one police car in my Autobot ranks and that was Prime’s First Lieutenant, Prowl. Prowl was the shit. He could do no wrong, and he was always by Prime’s side. Who the hell did this poser Streetwise think he was? Well, now I’m older and more laid back and I’m willing to make some room for another Autobot to help Serve and Protect. I was going to make a comment about Streetwise being able to boast being a combiner and holding that over Prowl’s head, but I guess IDW has robbed me of that.

As we’ve seen a bunch of times already, these Combiner Wars Deluxes come packaged in their robot mode and are now being released with free comic books, which is always a good thing, except in this case I’m not too keen on the direction the series has taken, but I’ve yet to sit down and read it all the way through, so I’ll continue to reserve final judgement. The packaging continues to grow on me and in this case the character art for Streetwise is totally bitchin. Let’s kick things off with his alt mode!

Surprise! Streetwise is a white police sports car and he is remolded from the Brake-Neck and Dead End molds. It was a good choice on Hasbro’s part and I’m happy to say they did a lot of reworking to make this car look distinctive.  You get a completely re-sculpted front end with vents on the hood and a ramming bar, as well as newly designed headlamps. The fastback includes new scoops and there’s a light bar sculpted onto the roof. Between all these changes and the new blue and white deco, Hasbro was able to create what really does feel like a brand new vehicle to me.

As always, you can weaponize the vehicle mode by pegging his weapon into the roof or the sides. This gimmick is usually hit or miss with me and in this case as much as I love Streetwise’s weapon, it just looks silly when plugged into the car.

While the car may look sufficiently unique, the transformation should feel readily familiar to anyone who’s had a go playing around with Dead End or Brake-Neck. All the engineering is the same and while the end result is a pretty familiar looking robot, Hasbro has tweaked things here just enough to make him work for me as a distinct and different character. Streetwise still has the chestplate that partially covers his combiner port, but this one is brand new. The other big change is in the lower legs. Everything else is borrowed directly from the Stunticon twins, but the red, white, and black color scheme certainly helps to further set him apart.

From the back, Streetwise wears his hood as a backpack just like the other guys, but again the new sculpting gives a little variety there and again down on his lower legs. I think the ramming bar at the top looks pretty sweet.

Obviously, Streetwise gets a brand new head sculpt too, and I really like what we got here.  The silver paint on the face is excellent, although there’s a little spot they missed in the middle of my figure’s blue visor. It’s not a big deal, as you really need to get in close to notice it. Streetwise is sporting some major lips, which seemed to be a thing at this juncture of the Sunbow cartoon. I think the robo-lips all started with the Aerialbots.

Streetwise’s weapon is a freaking awesome triple-barreled-shotgun-looking thing. Last week I said Blade’s rifle was one of my favorites so far in this series, but I think Streetwise’s boomstick just won the day. It’s ironic to me that Hasbro is giving all the really cool firepower to the Protectobots.

In the past, I haven’t been big on giving the combiner pieces to the robots as weapons, but in this case I kind of dig Streetwise wielding this stubby twin-mini-gun, allowing this guy to Serve and Protect with Extreme Prejudice.

I was mighty iffy on whether or not Hasbro was going to be able to win me over with all of these remolds and repaints, but so far the Protectobots are two for two. Yeah, Blades was actually my first hands on experience with that mold, having skipped Alpha Bravo, but in this case Streetwise holds his own, even with two other versions of this toy on my shelf. I’ll admit that the Aerialbots are going to be hard to beat as a whole, but the Protectobots are making a damn strong early showing and I’m looking forward to see how they hold up as I continue to assemble this team.

It’s Transformers Thursday on a Friday, folks, because I spent a little too much time at The Pub yesterday to work on any content. Fortunately, I’m doing my drinking at home today so we’re all good and I’m even going to bump my planned Feature for today to tomorrow so I don’t miss anything. Today I’m embarking on my look at The Protectobots. I was originally going to hold off and get these all in Takara’s Giftset when it comes out later this year, but then I saw a couple of them at the store and I lost my Saving Throw for Willpower. I’m kicking things off with Blades because unlike a lot of Transformers collectors, this is my first time with this mold on account of me skipping Alpha Bravo.

Hasbro is winning me over with this packaging, not so much because of the design, but because they’ve started packing comic books in with the Deluxes again. YAY! I will confess I haven’t had time to read this one and the Combiner Wars stuff hasn’t been my favorite chapter in the ongoing Transformers story, but hey… Free Comic!!! On the downside, the blurb on the back suggests that Blades is some kind of bloodthirsty animal and engages in “chopper kung fu.” Oh, no… Hasbro. No no no no no no no no. Nope. Please, don’t ever say that again. It’s stupid.  Blades comes packaged in his robot form, but we’re going to start off with his alt mode.

Yes, it is indeed a helicopter and a pretty solid one at that. I have what could be possibly called a helicopter fetish in that I have a lot of books about them, I was raised on episodes of Airwolf, and I even did a whole week dedicated to Transformers helicopters here on FFZ, many years ago. So, I don’t want anyone to think that I’m anti-helicopter because I didn’t pick up Alpha Bravo. I just didn’t want a helicopter in with my Aerialbots. I was more than happy, however, to pick up the mold as Blades and I like this chopper a lot. The red and white deco is really attractive and is held dutifully in check by the grey parts. Blades also has a really cool “Autobot Coastal Patrol” emblem on his tail stabilizers and he’s got RESCUE written all over him, which helps calm the panicking disaster victims who see a helicopter coming at them loaded with missiles. “Attention Puny Humans. I come to help! These are Helping Missiles.”

I dig that the hand/foot part can be used as a stand and it even sort of works as extra guns if you don’t mind a lot of junk hanging off the bottom. And just in case a six-pack of missiles isn’t enough armament for your “rescue” chopper, you can even attach Blades’ weapon to either side. All in all, I really like what we got here, but then generally speaking Transformers choppers have good alt modes and things start to go wrong when you transform them. Remember Blazemaster from a few years back? Holy shit! Let’s hope Blades fares better.

And yes, he absolutely does. If clean looking robots are  your thing, then Blades may be one of the best helicopter Transformers we’ve seen in a while. In fact, looking at him from the front, he’s nicely proportioned and relatively devoid of any horrific chopper kibble. Pictures of him show the chopper tail bent to the side behind his back, which actually bothered me, because I like symmetry in my robot designs, so I was happy to see that you can leave it pointing straight back, because that’s what I prefer to do.

The back side is another story. Here’s where all that pesky chopper kibble is hiding, but it still isn’t too bad. In fact, my only complaint would be the rotors. They really needed to clip somewhere. As it is, I can tuck them on the insides of his tail fins, but they don’t stay put and they do tend to shift around a lot. It’s the only really disappointing thing to me about this otherwise solid robot mode.

Of course, Blades still has the ubiquitous combiner port chest, which is something I’m sort of getting used to. He also has a nice Autobot symbol stamped on the right of his chest. The head sculpt is great, although Blades looks a little angry for a rescue chopper. The blue paint on the face looks good as does the darker shade used for his eyes.

I absolutely love how the missiles from his chopper mode wind up on his arms in robot mode. I get the idea that this guy does his protecting by murdering the shit out of anyone trying to hurt people. It’s sort of a preventive measures kind of deal. Maybe not in character, but I’m all about bad-ass Autobots so I can get behind it. His hips are a tad too narrow for my liking, but that’s a minor quibble and with ball joints in the shoulders and hips, rotating hinges in the elbows, and hinges in the knees, he’s got some fun and useful articulation.

What’s that? You want your Protectobot to have more killing power? Well, fear not because Blades also sports a seriously cool looking gun. It’s the same one we saw stuck onto his chopper mode and I totally dig this piece. It’s got a wicked looking muzzle suppressor and sculpted ammo on the sides. Why does a laser gun need ammo? I don’t know, but the concept worked well enough for me in the Fall/War of Cyberton games.

So, yeah, this is a surprisingly good mold and one that I’m happily now able to embrace because it isn’t being forced on me as an Aerialbot. I’m actually impressed that Hasbro’s designers were able to keep the same aesthetic as the other combiner limbs and make it work with a helicopter alt mode. This is simple, but clever engineering and just all around solid design in both robot and alt mode, and that’s pretty much been the case for all the Combiner Wars Deluxe Class figures. I’m off to a great start with the Protectobots and next week I’ll keep the ball rolling with a look at Streetwise!