Dave's Transformers Selects Rant

Artfire (Inferno redeco) with Nightstick (Firedrive redeco)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/VArtfire

So, this is mostly a redeco of Inferno:
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/VInfernoK

Who is a retool of Grapple:
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/VGrapple

And comes with a redeco of Firedrive:
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/Battle1

Plus bonus Fire Blasts in the style of Aimless's:
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/Battle2

Congrats, it's all three years of War for Cybertron in one set! Inferno
is Kingdom, Grapple is Earthrise, Firedrive is Siege. And it's an homage to
a Japanese-exclusive Targetmaster redeco (with minor retooling) of G1
Inferno. Unlike Stepper, he got to keep his original name because Artfire is
not a real word nor anything another company would have tried to grab. And
hey, G1 Artfire did come with Nightstick.

CAPSULE

$36.99 at Hasbro Pulse, still in stock as of mid-January 2022.

Artfire and Nightstick: Inferno and Firedrive were both recommended.
This is a good execution of an obscure G1 retool, and while they could have
gone a few more steps to improve it, it's worth picking up if you have any
interest at all in the character.

RANT

Packaging: Regular brown Siege-era Selects box, labeled WFC-GS26, using
plastic ties to hold things into the blister. So, not yet low-waste.

AUTOBOT: ARTFIRE
Assortment: WFC-GS26
Altmode: Fire Truck
Transformation Difficulty: 18 steps
Previous Name Use: No mass-market US
Previous Mold Use: Gen:Earthrise, Gen:Kingdom

I'll be comparing to Inferno, so that makes this a bit of a nested
review, sorry.

Packaging: The robot is held in by just the blister shape, as are most
of the accessories (rifle, hand-replacement, head hose, boot hoses, Fire
Drive Fire Blasts). The Singe-style Fire Blasts (two of them) are held in by
a single tie that doesn't have to be cut.
The robot is packaged with both fists out, and I'm tempted to not give
him the nozzle-hand to further differentiate the mold.

Color Swaps: Some of the red stays red, but some is now white. Of
course, Inferno had multiple shades of red in the first place, so. But first
the easy stuff. Black stays black (and keep in mind Inferno had black
plastic thighs, just painted over), silvery gray stays silvery gray, clear
smoky becomes clear blue (and more of that is left unpainted now). The
"darker under UV" red used in the ankles, shoulder roots, and biceps/elbows
stays the same. The feet, shoulders, and forearms remain about the same red
as on Inferno. All the other red plastic is now white, including the ladder
strut pieces that were the "darker under UV" red on Inferno.
All the Fire Blasts are clear medium blue. And yes, between Nightstick,
the head-hose and the rifle, all four can be used at once. The Singe style
looks nicely like water.

Paint Apps: Because the sprue gating apparently didn't quite work out
for this, there's a lot of paint used to make red parts white and vice versa.
The entire boot chunk on each leg is white plastic painted red (good match
under normal light), and there's red paint on just the roung thigh details
(both inner and outer ones on each thigh). There's a red stripe on either
side of the cab (standing in for a sticker on the G1 toy, but without the
Japanese writing), and as with Inferno the wheel hubs are red. Most but not
all of each foot is painted white, and the middle of the chest bit is painted
white with a red Autobot symbol printed on it. The lights on top of the
chest are left unpainted clear blue plastic (but the strip between them is
painted white), as are the headlights. The rest of the grill and bumper are
painted silver, plus there's silver on the face and the helmet crest. The
helmet horns have metallic blue vents, and that color is also used for the
eyes. The vent patterns on the shoulder fronts are painted matte black,
while the windshield border and wipers are gloss black.
In vehicle mode, nothing new is revealed.

Mold Changes: None that I could find. It retains the solid pegs of
Inferno rather than the C-shaped breakable ones of early Grapples.

Other Notes: The fist sockets are a bit tight, it's hard to get
Nightstick into a hand without untransforming it somewhat.

Overall: Like a lot of Selects, it's trading on quasi-nostalgia for a
toy few of us had at the time and now couldn't afford. Oddly, they missed a
few places where they could have made it more G1-accurate (like black instead
of white on the sides of the boots).

AUTOBOT: NIGHTSTICK
Assortment: WFC-GS26
Altmode: Gun
Transformation Difficulty: 4 steps
Previous Name Use: G1
Previous Mold Use: Gen:Siege

Packaging: No ties, just held in by the blister shape.

Color Swaps: Black (torso/head) becomes light gray, white (everything
else) becomes black.

Paint Apps: The face is red, that's it.

Mold Changes: None that I noticed.

Other Notes: As noted above, he gets two sets of Fire Blasts, bright
blue versions of the original Fire Drive set, and a pair of bright blue Singe
Fire Blasts (Singe himself only got the one).
The instructions give no guidance regarding what to do with him in
Artfire's vehicle mode. The 3mm peg gets in the way of having it attach to
the other side of the back unless you angle him up about 30 degrees. Robot
mode can sort of ride the ladder. I guess adding a socket to the ladder so
he could ride like in G1 was too much strain for the budget.

Overall: To get the correct "Artfire's Nightstick" colors would have
required painting the arms gray or redesigning the sprues, but this worked
well enough for the homage.

Set Overall: Two solid molds that haven't been too badly overused, and
homage an obscure but not TOO obscure bit of G1 lore. Basically, if you
don't have any interest in Artfire, and already have Inferno, don't bother.
If you are interested in Artfire but weren't sure if they'd screw it up, it
turned out fine, go ahead and order yourself one.

Dave Van Domelen, last review before the start of the semester, woot.