Ah, Combiners… they’re the Transformers that keep on giving. Even once you’ve played with the robot and alt mode, you still have a treat waiting for you when you collect that last bot on the team and can cobble them together. Hasbro’s track record on these in the modern age has been pretty spotty. Indeed, only with the recent releases of Superion and Devastator that I’ve been able to give them a passing grade and even there you have Menasor pissing in the punch bowl. Will Defensor be another for the plus column? I’m about to find out…

Protectobots…

Transform!

And merge…

Into…

DEFENSOR!!!! Now, you’ll note I went with an even swap out between Rook and Groove to form the right leg. To be fair Rook, Streetwise, and First Aid are all rather chunky and to me make for better legs than arms, especially when counterbalanced against Blades’ more svelte form, but someone had to be the left arm, so I stuck with tradition and made it First Aid. I have the same issue with Streetwise, where I’m never happy with the position of the head and chest plate on the knee. I went with lifting it up and out of the way, but then it exposes the back of Streetwise’s head. It’s a compromise. I’m also waffling back and forth as to whether I like Blades’ rockets straight out and locked in or angled to match First Aid’s door panels.

So, let me start with the good stuff and it’s mostly all good stuff! I love Defensor’s overall look. The engineering for Hot Spot as the torso kind of blows my mind. It’s simple, but really cool, especially the way the ladder wraps under his groin and up his back. Hot Spot just makes for such a cool and unique looking torso and it’s such a far cry from the mediocrity of poor Motormaster’s torso mode. The deco works beautifully, especially in this configuration with the red and white matching on the arms and the blue and white on the legs. It all goes well with the powder blue of Hot Spot’s legs and that gorgeous red and silver paint on Hot Spot’s thighs and chest plate really make the figure pop, especially against all that black. Stability is much better than Menasor too. Oh, Defensor still has some nagging issues, like the two chest flaps do not want to stay tabbed into place for long, but at his shoulders are so much more solid than Menasor’s making him a lot more fun to play with.

The head sculpt is pure love and the silver and blue paint look great framed by the black “helmet.” The head does have a habit of popping out of the body from time to time and it feels like Hasbro could have come up with something a little better to do with those angled flaps, but there’s nothing here that ruins my fun with the figure. I should also mention that I’m opting out of picking up the Legends Groove. I honestly don’t think Defensor needs the extra chest ornament. I like him just the way he is.

Defensor’s rifle is just Hot Spot’s two guns chained together. It’s OK, but nothing special. I do, however, like the way it looks when split and stored on his back. I think the two aerials just look neat and give him a little more personality.

I really love the way Defensor turned out and that’s a huge bonus when you consider how great the individual figures are. I haven’t taken a lot of time to experiment with him “scramble city” style, but I’m sure I’ll get around to it eventually. If we’re ranking these guys by combined mode, Defensor certainly blows away the crappy Menasor on every level, but he doesn’t nudge out Superion, at least not in my book. That may have something to do with me just having much stronger nostalgic ties to Superion over Defensor, but overall I just feel Superion is a slightly more refined robot with overall better stability. All that’s left to say is that I really hope Hasbro eventually brings the Deluxe Groove Stateside. I don’t think I can afford to double dip by picking up the Takara set, but I’d still like to get that figure into the mix and see how he does.

Alrighty, folks, over the past four weeks I’ve been through all of the Deluxe Class Protectobots and that means there’s just one bot left to look at: Hot Spot! I can remember coming close to picking up the Generations version of him, which was just a repaint of the Inferno mold, and now that Hasbro has delivered a brand new version of the character, who also happens to be part of a genuine combiner team, I’m mighty glad I never pulled that trigger. Let’s take a look…

I don’t get to show off the Combiner Wars Voyager Class packaging here too often. In fact, I think the only other one I’ve picked up was Motormaster. Don’t forget my Silverbolt came in the Takara Giftset.  The overall deco isn’t changed. It’s still a mostly black box with Transformers running up the side and a decent piece of character art on the front. There’s no free comic book, but you do get an art card. Hot Spot comes packaged in his robot mode, but as usual, I’m starting with the alt mode…

It wouldn’t be Hot Spot without a powder-blue fire engine as the alt mode and that’s exactly what you get here. While still plenty long, Hot Spot’s truck mode is a lot less bulky than I imagined it would be. That’s not really a criticism, just an observation. He still looks great with the rest of the Protectobot vehicles and while he’s a modern take on the fire engine, I find he still remains faithful to the original G1 toy. Everything tabs together beautifully making him a solid truck, although if you don’t get everything locked together just right he can have some clearance problems and you don’t want his beautiful chestplate scraping the ground.

There aren’t a lot of paint apps here, Hot Spot gets by mostly with blue, black, and white plastic. And that’s fine because he looks great. You do get a little red paint on the lights and some silver paint on the front of the vehicle. He also sports some bitchin’ “FIRE RESCUE” tampos on the sides complete with a flaming Autobot symbol. Nice! The mold also features a lot of nice sculpted details like grills, doors, equipment lockers and other doo-dads.

The ladder does raise and lower and it can rotate 360-degrees at the base, so there’s a little bit of play value there. You can also plug his guns into the side of the ladder base and they actually look like they’re meant to go there, rather than just tacked on goofiness. All in all, this is a great looking truck and a fine compromise between modern look and G1 nostalgia. He’d also make for an interesting RID Optimus Prime repaint. Just saying, Hasbro.

Transforming Hot Spot holds few surprises, but I do love the results. His legs are made up of the front of the truck with the lights forming his knees and the front of the cab his feet. The fact that the wheels land inside the legs is an interesting mix up and I dig the sculpted springs between his armor and his arms. The proportions here are quite nice too.

Yeah, Hot Spot is a fire engine, so obviously there’s going to be ladder kibble. I’ll concede that his back isn’t exactly pretty, but everything does pack away as neatly as can be expected. The ladder does clear the ground when Hot Spot is standing straight and it can be angled back so it’s out of the way for those wider stances. It does also come in handy sometimes as a counterbalance when posing him.

The headsculpt is pure G1 Sunbow goodness and between the “helmet” and that mouth plate, Hot Shot does indeed bear more than a passing resemblance to Optimus Prime. The darker blue for the mouth plate and the sharp red paint for the eyes are nice extra touches. I’m particularly impressed by the sculpted detail in the chest and shoulders and the silver and red paint really give the figure that extra pop. Very pretty!

Hot Spot comes with a pair of rifles, which can be neatly stored by pegging them into his backpack.  You know, for those times that he’s not murdering the shit out of Decepticons and actually rescuing people. These guns continue the trend of Hasbro giving the Protectobots some truly great looking weapons. They can also combine into a longer weapon, but I’ll save that for the Defensor Feature.

The Combiner Wars Protectobots have been exceptional figures from the get-go and Hot Spot is no exception. In fact, I’ll just go ahead and say that he’s my favorite of the CW Voyager Class figures so far. The only real nitpick I can level against him is that he still has those rather unforgiving ratchet joints in his hips that don’t allow for a lot of subtlety when deciding on his stance. But that’s hardly a crippling issue and when a figure looks this good, I’m willing to overlook certain things. But can a team of figures this good possibly still manage to pull off a great combined mode? Well, I’ll find out next Thursday when I combine them all into Defensor!

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!