Energon retro review thread
Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 8:19 pm
I'm selling a bunch of my stuff. Partially to appreciate these toys one last time before I sell them off, and partially to generate discussion (since some of this stuff will be going to other members of the board, especially!), I've decided to review a few of them, both in their original context and against their contemporaries; I'm sure it'll be interesting to see how some of these stack up against their modern day counterparts.
Without further hoo-doo, here's my review of Energon Dreadwing.
Dreadwing is a repaint of Mirage, who was portrayed in the cartoon as being an upgrade of Tidal Wave, although this is more or less confirmed to not have been Hasbro's intention for the design. (Apparently there was a lot of this in the Energon cartoon. I believe the excuse at the time was language barriers and production time constraints, which I can believe.) Repaints are still common in TF, but it's easy to forget how unbelievably common they were in the ArmEnerTron era--so much so that a very, very frequent response to seeing brand new toy reveals was, "I'll wait for the inevitable repaint and decide which one I like better." Dreadwing was a victim to this, myself--I wasn't too interested in the original purple-and-yellow colour scheme, he was going to be a "replacement" for Tidal Wave (a character I'd have preferred to stay as, well, Tidal Wave), and he had a name that didn't really match his personality or abilities. (I still don't know why they slapped "Mirage" onto that toy aside from a desire to keep the name, which they fought for for years to keep and strengthen, and then proceeded to barely use since 2006.) However, the toys do share identical moulding, so some of this review will probably apply for Mirage as well. As it was in 2004/2005 (a god damn decade ago!), decide which colour scheme you like best, and buy that.
Dreadwing's main appeal upon his release was that he was a baby blue boat. For some reason, this yelled out "SCOURGE!" to a lot of fans, including me. Remember, in 2004, it was very rare for "old" characters to get entirely new "toys" and be the same character. Even toys like Energon Rodimus may have been intended to be "new" versions of those old characters, but with drastic changes to altmode, names, personalities, colour schemes, or more. And then there was the wealth of characters who had old names slapped onto them despite not resembling those characters at all. Dreadwing is, in part, also a victim to this. He could have been named Scourge, except Hasbro had already given that name a few years prior to the (very notable) RID Black Convoy character...who since got renamed "Nemesis Prime" in any subsequent releases. Whatever. The weird thing is that he's named Dreadwing and he's a boat. Although he has some "wings," they're boat wings, and not really the kind that you would fly with. But this era was ripe enough with this kind of inconsistency and weirdness that we would just look the other way and pretend he was whoever we wanted--in this case, Dreadwing became a "replacement Scourge" for many, until the 2006 Titanium Scourge, who was later superseded by 2011's Generations Scourge. (Was it 2011? Jesus.)
But that shouldn't take away from the toy and character now, should it? Well, hard to say, because Dreadwing has no character to speak of. His bio is one-note (he's a generic Evil Decepticon who will stop at nothing in his way, like every single ROTF Decepticon) and, according to some sources, he's a soulless clone of Mirage. So is he a clone of Tidal Wave? Or of the toy Mirage who isn't Tidal Wave, maybe? Whatever. Make him whoever you want. That was half the fun of these toylines, they were usually so fast-and-loose with characterisation that you could get away with outright ignoring the official fiction (which was usually at least as bad as the Michael Bay films--SHOTS FIRED!!) and nobody would bat an eye.
But enough about fictions and characters--what about the toy? Like I said, Dreadwing is a boat. Boat TFs are kind of a rarity; there's maybe two in any given line, and unless you're eight and play with toys in the bathtub, it's usually pretty difficult to get them to be "convincing" in any kind of play situation. (Jets are the easiest for this, followed by cars.) Still, if you like boat TFs, this is a pretty cool one. He also has four plastic wheels underneath, which is supposed to let him roll on surfaces, I guess, but it doesn't work very well. He's outfitted with FOUR different missile launchers, all useable in either mode, which was pretty impressive then and is doubly so now. Even a decade later, they hold together very well, and don't trip accidentally very easily, which is about as much as you can ask from these. They shoot a decent distance, too! As far as robot kibble goes, he's only got a little on the back, with the robot feet and arms being a little visible, though disguised relatively well as vehicle bits.
These days, we often complain about lack of painted details and cut deco, which is something that only sort of affects Dreadwing. It seems like the repaints would generally get an objectively "better" deco with more paintapps an details in these lines, which may have had something to do with them being repaints in the first place. Dreadwing has a bunch of nice gold and black detailing on his ship parts, although there's a lot of unpainted panel detailing all over the back end of the vehicle as well. While I'm not a fan of blackwash in general (I think it makes toys look "dirty" rather than bring out any details), I think these could have done with a little bit to maybe bring that out a bit. I have no idea if this stuff was painted on Mirage, since I don't own him.
As far as transformation goes, he's pretty cool. He's a shellformer, which was still semi-common in those days, but significantly less so than a lot of, say, the Movie offerings, with very little of the panel massaging bullcrap, and more "align the robot parts underneath the shell." Thankfully, there are even pegs and holes to guide you, and once you rotate everything into position, it's fairly intuitive. While it was with the first Movie toyline that we really started to see the effects of "small vehicle explodes into huge robot" syndrome, there were hints of it in the earlier lines, like this guy. The boat looks relatively unassuming and while it's long, it's also relatively short and thin. You'd be surprised at how much bigger he seems in robot mode.
It's funny I mention ROTF Decepticons up there, because that's what Dreadwing looks like in robot mode--a non-movie ROTF Decepticon. He fits right in with the likes of Mindwipe and Bludgeon and Lockdown, although maybe not with his colour scheme. From his Gundammy feet to his beastly rebreather face and crested head, he looks like he's five years ahead of his time. He's also got tons of smooth articulation, rivaling any figure that came out in his time or currently--Mirage's mould came from a time in Energon where I feel like the newer design team was starting to get a handle on what kids and fans wanted. In 2004, I was one of the few who was kind of riding both sides of the fence--I was 14 or 15, so I was too old to really be "playing" with toys but not old enough to be an "adult" collector, so I was able to see both sides of the fence; still able to enjoy gimmicks for what they were but still able to appreciate articulation, deco and detail. And on that front, Dreadwing delivers, with huge amounts of sweet articulation, including double jointed elbows and swivels in all the joints, waist, neck, and great leg and ankle articulation. He's got sweet heel struts and his hip kibble can be folded away in lots of neat-looking ways. He's got a spring-loaded gimmick on his back cannons that launches them forward onto his shoulders, which works okay but isn't very impressive or necessary--it works better in vehicle mode. There's also some electronics, which I assume still work, but don't have any spare batteries or desire to check.
Dreadwing was, I believe, at the $20 Mega price point, which in Cybertron became the $20 Voyagers that are, at this point, the $22-$25 Voyagers that we know today. In that respect, he still feels like he competes with today's Voyagers, being really complex and having some good height to him, while also having some electronics, missiles and articulation.
I would honestly recommend Dreadwing to you if you like boats, non-Movie style Movie Decepticons, dudes with lots of missile launchers, light blue guys, huge Decepticons, or just want to beef out your ranks. He's a very solid addition; if you see one, or a Mirage if you prefer that deco, for a good price, I'd say get him. (I would definitely not pay more than $20 for him, personally, which is about what I sold him to Prowl for, so!)
So why am I getting rid of him? Well, to be blunt, I need the space and the money. I haven't had him on display in years--part of my reason for getting him was as a Scourge stand-in, and that role was filled since 2006. I'm not that fond of boat TFs, and without the Scourge connection, the colour scheme really doesn't appeal to me. It doesn't help that his "character" is absolutely zilch, leaving me without any solid emotional connection to the toy, the way a notable character with a "worse" toy like Scorponok or Demolishor might. I suppose in a few years I might regret it and buy another one, or a Mirage--although if Hasbro repainted this guy in some new colours, I'd probably eat it right up. Unfortunately, that's pretty unlikely due to his expensive electronics package and the mould possibly being too "dated," although that might be more a concern about the physical mould's integrity than the toy itself, because there's nothing "dated" about this guy design-wise; Energon had its share of weird clunkers that definitely do feel out of place in the modern era (Scorponok could use another go, and the Basics definitely can feel a little half-baked at times) but this guy was definitely a forerunner.
Without further hoo-doo, here's my review of Energon Dreadwing.
Dreadwing is a repaint of Mirage, who was portrayed in the cartoon as being an upgrade of Tidal Wave, although this is more or less confirmed to not have been Hasbro's intention for the design. (Apparently there was a lot of this in the Energon cartoon. I believe the excuse at the time was language barriers and production time constraints, which I can believe.) Repaints are still common in TF, but it's easy to forget how unbelievably common they were in the ArmEnerTron era--so much so that a very, very frequent response to seeing brand new toy reveals was, "I'll wait for the inevitable repaint and decide which one I like better." Dreadwing was a victim to this, myself--I wasn't too interested in the original purple-and-yellow colour scheme, he was going to be a "replacement" for Tidal Wave (a character I'd have preferred to stay as, well, Tidal Wave), and he had a name that didn't really match his personality or abilities. (I still don't know why they slapped "Mirage" onto that toy aside from a desire to keep the name, which they fought for for years to keep and strengthen, and then proceeded to barely use since 2006.) However, the toys do share identical moulding, so some of this review will probably apply for Mirage as well. As it was in 2004/2005 (a god damn decade ago!), decide which colour scheme you like best, and buy that.
Dreadwing's main appeal upon his release was that he was a baby blue boat. For some reason, this yelled out "SCOURGE!" to a lot of fans, including me. Remember, in 2004, it was very rare for "old" characters to get entirely new "toys" and be the same character. Even toys like Energon Rodimus may have been intended to be "new" versions of those old characters, but with drastic changes to altmode, names, personalities, colour schemes, or more. And then there was the wealth of characters who had old names slapped onto them despite not resembling those characters at all. Dreadwing is, in part, also a victim to this. He could have been named Scourge, except Hasbro had already given that name a few years prior to the (very notable) RID Black Convoy character...who since got renamed "Nemesis Prime" in any subsequent releases. Whatever. The weird thing is that he's named Dreadwing and he's a boat. Although he has some "wings," they're boat wings, and not really the kind that you would fly with. But this era was ripe enough with this kind of inconsistency and weirdness that we would just look the other way and pretend he was whoever we wanted--in this case, Dreadwing became a "replacement Scourge" for many, until the 2006 Titanium Scourge, who was later superseded by 2011's Generations Scourge. (Was it 2011? Jesus.)
But that shouldn't take away from the toy and character now, should it? Well, hard to say, because Dreadwing has no character to speak of. His bio is one-note (he's a generic Evil Decepticon who will stop at nothing in his way, like every single ROTF Decepticon) and, according to some sources, he's a soulless clone of Mirage. So is he a clone of Tidal Wave? Or of the toy Mirage who isn't Tidal Wave, maybe? Whatever. Make him whoever you want. That was half the fun of these toylines, they were usually so fast-and-loose with characterisation that you could get away with outright ignoring the official fiction (which was usually at least as bad as the Michael Bay films--SHOTS FIRED!!) and nobody would bat an eye.
But enough about fictions and characters--what about the toy? Like I said, Dreadwing is a boat. Boat TFs are kind of a rarity; there's maybe two in any given line, and unless you're eight and play with toys in the bathtub, it's usually pretty difficult to get them to be "convincing" in any kind of play situation. (Jets are the easiest for this, followed by cars.) Still, if you like boat TFs, this is a pretty cool one. He also has four plastic wheels underneath, which is supposed to let him roll on surfaces, I guess, but it doesn't work very well. He's outfitted with FOUR different missile launchers, all useable in either mode, which was pretty impressive then and is doubly so now. Even a decade later, they hold together very well, and don't trip accidentally very easily, which is about as much as you can ask from these. They shoot a decent distance, too! As far as robot kibble goes, he's only got a little on the back, with the robot feet and arms being a little visible, though disguised relatively well as vehicle bits.
These days, we often complain about lack of painted details and cut deco, which is something that only sort of affects Dreadwing. It seems like the repaints would generally get an objectively "better" deco with more paintapps an details in these lines, which may have had something to do with them being repaints in the first place. Dreadwing has a bunch of nice gold and black detailing on his ship parts, although there's a lot of unpainted panel detailing all over the back end of the vehicle as well. While I'm not a fan of blackwash in general (I think it makes toys look "dirty" rather than bring out any details), I think these could have done with a little bit to maybe bring that out a bit. I have no idea if this stuff was painted on Mirage, since I don't own him.
As far as transformation goes, he's pretty cool. He's a shellformer, which was still semi-common in those days, but significantly less so than a lot of, say, the Movie offerings, with very little of the panel massaging bullcrap, and more "align the robot parts underneath the shell." Thankfully, there are even pegs and holes to guide you, and once you rotate everything into position, it's fairly intuitive. While it was with the first Movie toyline that we really started to see the effects of "small vehicle explodes into huge robot" syndrome, there were hints of it in the earlier lines, like this guy. The boat looks relatively unassuming and while it's long, it's also relatively short and thin. You'd be surprised at how much bigger he seems in robot mode.
It's funny I mention ROTF Decepticons up there, because that's what Dreadwing looks like in robot mode--a non-movie ROTF Decepticon. He fits right in with the likes of Mindwipe and Bludgeon and Lockdown, although maybe not with his colour scheme. From his Gundammy feet to his beastly rebreather face and crested head, he looks like he's five years ahead of his time. He's also got tons of smooth articulation, rivaling any figure that came out in his time or currently--Mirage's mould came from a time in Energon where I feel like the newer design team was starting to get a handle on what kids and fans wanted. In 2004, I was one of the few who was kind of riding both sides of the fence--I was 14 or 15, so I was too old to really be "playing" with toys but not old enough to be an "adult" collector, so I was able to see both sides of the fence; still able to enjoy gimmicks for what they were but still able to appreciate articulation, deco and detail. And on that front, Dreadwing delivers, with huge amounts of sweet articulation, including double jointed elbows and swivels in all the joints, waist, neck, and great leg and ankle articulation. He's got sweet heel struts and his hip kibble can be folded away in lots of neat-looking ways. He's got a spring-loaded gimmick on his back cannons that launches them forward onto his shoulders, which works okay but isn't very impressive or necessary--it works better in vehicle mode. There's also some electronics, which I assume still work, but don't have any spare batteries or desire to check.
Dreadwing was, I believe, at the $20 Mega price point, which in Cybertron became the $20 Voyagers that are, at this point, the $22-$25 Voyagers that we know today. In that respect, he still feels like he competes with today's Voyagers, being really complex and having some good height to him, while also having some electronics, missiles and articulation.
I would honestly recommend Dreadwing to you if you like boats, non-Movie style Movie Decepticons, dudes with lots of missile launchers, light blue guys, huge Decepticons, or just want to beef out your ranks. He's a very solid addition; if you see one, or a Mirage if you prefer that deco, for a good price, I'd say get him. (I would definitely not pay more than $20 for him, personally, which is about what I sold him to Prowl for, so!)
So why am I getting rid of him? Well, to be blunt, I need the space and the money. I haven't had him on display in years--part of my reason for getting him was as a Scourge stand-in, and that role was filled since 2006. I'm not that fond of boat TFs, and without the Scourge connection, the colour scheme really doesn't appeal to me. It doesn't help that his "character" is absolutely zilch, leaving me without any solid emotional connection to the toy, the way a notable character with a "worse" toy like Scorponok or Demolishor might. I suppose in a few years I might regret it and buy another one, or a Mirage--although if Hasbro repainted this guy in some new colours, I'd probably eat it right up. Unfortunately, that's pretty unlikely due to his expensive electronics package and the mould possibly being too "dated," although that might be more a concern about the physical mould's integrity than the toy itself, because there's nothing "dated" about this guy design-wise; Energon had its share of weird clunkers that definitely do feel out of place in the modern era (Scorponok could use another go, and the Basics definitely can feel a little half-baked at times) but this guy was definitely a forerunner.