Dave's Transformers Legacy Rant: Core Wave 3

Bomb-Burst (Cybertronian Jet)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Core3

Wavemate is a repackaged Kingdom Core Class Soundwave, and as with the
Optimus Prime I'm not going to buy it unless I see it for $10 or less and am
in the right mood to splurge on a third copy of that mold (I got a second to
turn into Soundblaster).

CAPSULE

$12 on Hasbro Pulse.

Bomb-Burst: They're definitely getting the hang of the whole "Pretender
shell robot mode, inner vehicle mode" design trick here. It could stand to
be a little more stable, and the bat wing thing didn't quite work out.
Still, recommended.

RANT

Packaging: Same as Core wave 2, including the QR code on the
instructions.

DECEPTICON: BOMB-BURST
Assortment: F3010
Altmode: Cybertronian Jet
Transformation Difficulty: 9 steps
Previous Name Use: G1 (and a partner to Salvage in PCC)
Previous Mold Use: None
Function: Predator
Special Unit: Pretender
Origin Universe: G1
Signature Weapon: Wing laser blasters - Fires a laser beam of corrosive slime
that can dissolve any substance.

When darkness falls, Bomb-Burst is the ultimate terror. He swoops down
and drains the fuel from his fictims with his sharp fangs.

STR 8 INT 8 SPD 7 FRB 7

Note, one of the Prime Master shells was based on Bomb-Burst, but was
sold as Megatronus.
Note 2, a laser beam of corrosive slime is something that demonstrates a
lack of understanding what a laser is. In G1, he had lasers for the vehicle
and inner robot, and a slime shooter for the shell mode. I guess they
decided to just combine the two?
Note 3, poor Bomb-Burst gets stuck at Core while Skullgrin not only gets
fame as a movie star he's also a Deluxe. Could be worse, though, Submarauder
doesn't have an announced toy yet of any size.

Packaging: Three ties hold the robot with toes pointed down to the front
of the card, and each of the three weapons (two wing-guns and one "axe") is
held to the back of the card by two crossed ties.

Robot Mode: Like Iguanus, while it transforms into a vehicle based on
the inner robot's altmode, this robot mode is based on the Pretender shell of
G1 Bomb-Burst. (While somewhat dull, the Masterforce name "Blood" at least
had something to do with the premise that the shell was inspired by a vampire
bat.) The head is made of two pieces so that there can be a big toothy open
mouth with a vaguely skull-like profile, nice and monstery. Oh, and as usual
for Generations/Legacy updates of G1 designs, it's more angular, although
more rounded than most Legacy figures. Oh, and it has a big blue backpack of
vehicle bits, but that's mostly hidden from view when the figure is facing
you.
3.5" (9cm) tall to the tops of the big bat ears, in medium gray, very
light gray, and bright blue, plus dark magenta on the chest and wristbands.
Very light gray plastic is used for the head, chestplate, forearms, and
shins. Medium gray plastic is used for the upper arms, shoulder roots inside
the torso, strut inside the backpack, pelvis, thighs, and feet. Bright blue
plastic is used for the guns, the backplate, and the backpack piece on it.
The blue shade is a bit darker than on the G1 toy, but not as dark as the
package art for the G1 toy.
The insides of the ears are bright blue, the eyes are gold, the teeth
are white, and the tongue is red. The chestplate is mostly dark magenta, and
that paint color is also used for thin wristbands. A purple and white
Decepticon symbol is printed on the left pec. The kneecaps and shin fronts
are painted medium gray, a decent match for the plastic, and that paint is
also used on the bat wing patterned side of the gun wings, and the undersides
of the forearms.
The neck turns but only about 45 degrees either way, the chin runs into
shoulder claw details. The waist turns all the way, though. Ball joint
shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. The ankles are hinged to bend sideways
to keep the feet flat, and the toes and heels share a hinge to fold together
for vehicle mode (or if you need the heels raised a bit to keep the figure
from falling over backwards).
The hands hold 3mm pegs. There are 5mm pegs on the forearms, and very
shallow 5mm pegs on the backpack sides (see below).
The melee weapon is based on the axe that G1 Bomb-Burst had, but without
some of the bits that made it capable of passing for an axe. It ends up
looking more like a club with a couple of claw peens, and it's more credible
as a weapon if reversed so that it's a sort of pick axe (the online techspec
card does show it with the peens backwards). A single piece of medium gray
plastic 28mm (just over an inch) long with a 3mm peg as the grip. It can
store in the backpack in its vehicle mode position if you pull the nose out a
bit, but it's not a great fit and has to be slid in weirdly.
The arm guns are mirror images of each other, and are intended to attach
to the forearm pegs. 2" (5cm) long, with wings about at the midpoint. The
wings are technological on one side, and molded as small bat wings on the
other, with the batwing sides painted gray. There's 5mm pegs on the back
end, probably intended for build-bigger-weapons compatibility, since they
don't go on anything in this mode. The tips are 3mm studs, which not only
let them use Fire Blasts, but also lets the figure wield them as axes.
The instructions show how to use the short pegs on the backpack to store
the guns, which seems to be intended to let the bat wings actually be wings
on the figure, but the instructions show them with the tech side facing front
instead, kinda missing the point. The backpack has to be extended pretty far
to let the wings attach anyway, so it looks okay from the direct front but
stupid from any other angle. You can also reverse them and make them
shoulder cannons, which looks a little less bad but sacrifices the bat wing
thing.

Transformation: Arms to the sides, fold the backpack up over the head.
Rotate the waist 180 degrees, point the toes and heels, and then put the tabs
on the backs of the ankles into slots on the chest. Finally, put the wing
guns on the arms to complete the vehicle mode.
The arms don't lock into place, they're just held by friction and a
little tab and notch in the underarms. It doesn't really lock them, just
makes it a little harder to swing the arms up or down. The arms have to
converge in back somewhat to make this work, so the guns aren't pointed quite
the same way.

Altmode: The wings are swept further back than on the G1 vehicle mode,
with the blaster barrels all rearward of the cockpit instead of almost
entirely ahead of it. Trying to swing the arms around to put the wings
farther forwards doesn't work at all, though. That said, it's a better
looking VTOL sci-fi jet than the original. With the axe in place, there's a
nose gun and two wing guns, all with 3mm studs.
3.5" (9cm) long with a 4" (10cm) wingspan in a roughly delta shape. The
light gray parts are completely on the underside, thanks to the paint on the
forearms and the wings covering up the sides of the forearms. The VTOL fans
molded around screw holes on the center of the fuselage are painted medium
gray, and the cockpit is painted gloss red like the robot tongue. While
there's no intentional flight base points, the fist sockets are pointed
downwards in back and the joint friction is good enough you could probably
mount the vehicle mode on a flight base using one.

Overall: They did a pretty good job with limited resources to make it
work as both the Pretender shell in robot mode and the inner robot's vehicle
mode. Sure, it could stand to be a little more stable, but there's only so
much you can do with a Core budget.

Dave Van Domelen, now has all of Deluxe wave 3, so will probably do that
after a quick Shattered Glass Slicer review.