Dave's Transformers EarthSpark Rant: Spin Changer Wave 1

Bumblebee & Mo Malto (sportcar and human girl)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/ES/SpinBB

I will not be reviewing the wave-mate Optimus Prime, because I don't
have a lot of faith in this gimmick not sucking, and the EarthSpark Optimus
head design repulses me. Not dropping another $35 on that even if I end up
liking this toy.

CAPSULE

$35 at Target.

Bumblebee & Mo Malto: Yeah, it's a brick with an underwhelming gimmick
and lots of hollow parts. Avoid.

RANT

Packaging: The key colors for EarthSpark trade dress are medium and
light blue with dark purple and some gold and white accents. The main
Transfirmers logo along the right side of the box front has the letters in
medium blue outline and fading from medium blue on the letter bottoms up to
white at the top. The EarthSpark logo has the Transformers part in gray
shades rather than blue, while the EarthSpark itself is light blue with a
very light blue chrome-like strip along the upper middle part, and purple
outline. Most if not all of the EarthSpark toys have Hasbro's new "Plastic
Free Packaging" logo.
As the sorta-Voyager class, Spin Changers are in corrugated cardboard
boxes with a small no-plastic window in the upper half of the front, small
enough to make it difficult to reach in and grab accessories. While not the
most aggressively weird shape for a Transformers box lately, it has two
truncated corners (front left and bottom right), plus the box front makes a
circular arc in front of the truncated bottom corner.
The upper part of the left side and the left front facet has a group
shot of Optimus Prime, Thrash, Twitch, and Bumblebee in the background with
Mo and Robby Malto in the foreground showing off their glowing gauntlets, all
in the show's animation style. The same art assets arranged more
horizontally are on the box top's right side. Under the window in front
there's a larger thighs-and-up shot of Bumblebee in robot mode, with a
callout box advertising the Spin Changer gimmick over his left shoulder (our
right). The left side also has the size class in English and Spanish. The
right side has another portrait of Bumblebee with a big Autobot symbol behind
him, the EarthSpark logo below, and the Plastic Free Packating brag in five
languages on the truncated facet. The bottom has the usual legalese.
The back shows renders of both modes and a slightly larger version of
the gimmick call out box, and it's really obvious that this is a total brick
in robot mode. Boots fused together, the arms might move at the shoulders
but that's it. The waist is probably part of the gimmick, I guess I'll find
out when I open the box. While the class is Spin Changer, it doesn't seem
like an autotransform gimmick, especially since it lists it has having 11
steps to transform. (Narrator: it sort of is an autotransform, just a
partial one.)
Inside, The figure is held by yellow rattan strings to a corrugated
cardboard tray, with some parts folded up to support the arms. The inside is
decorated in shades of blue with a rather schematic Earth globe. At the top
of the tray back is "EARTH SPARK" in Cybertronian sigils.
The instructions are loose inside, in monochrome purple with bright blue
accent colors. Similar to Legacy instructions, but no black lines and
therefore a little more washed out.

AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE
Assortment: F7662
Altmode: Sports Car
Transformation Difficulty: 11 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: None
GHOST Affiliated: No

Packaging: Five yellow rattan strings hold the robot to the tray. The
spoiler/wingpack is held into the upper left by a folded out flap, and Mo is
wrapped up in tissue and held by a similar flap in the lower left (with a
sub-flap to keep her from sliding out). The tissue has Autobot symbols on it
rather than being blank white like in Legacy.

Robot Mode: It actually approaches the animation model, albeit with the
boots fused together. The shoulders are too wide since they contain the
entire hood split in half instead of the outer thirds, although this hides
the fact that the door wings are missing (the doors end up folded against the
boots). A little underpainted and mis-painted (windshield is too dark,
headlights too light, etc), but not horribly so by Hasbro standards.
Unfortunately, it's a brick. Technically the shoulders can rotate, but
they're supposed to be locked in place in this mode with the swivels being
just for transformation. The arms can swing back in the shoulderpads, also
for transformation, but springs make them pop back forwards. The waist can
turn, but only one way without springing back, it's part of the Spin Changer
gimmick. And just as the shoulders are supposed to lock into place for
proper robot mode, there's a tab in the small of the back that locks the
waist in position for robot mode too. So...really no articulation at all,
just partial transformations.
7.75" (19cm) tall in mostly yellow and almost-black. The biceps and the
single piece that forms the butt and the backs of the thighs (as well as a
bar visible between the knees) are a glossy almost black plastic, while the
wheels are the same color but more matte. There's also some of the glossy
black plastic in the internal gimmick triggers (if you fiddle with the one
inside the left shoulder, it will sometimes launch Mo off her shoulder perch,
but I can't get it to do so reliable enough to see if it's really a launch or
just a "fall off" action). Everything else is Bumblebee Yellow plastic.
There's paint that's a good match for the almost black plastic on the
fists, the rest of the thighs, and the rally stripe bits on the shoulders,
chest, and between the boots. The grilles on the shoulderpads are metallic
gunmetal (a little lighter than the almost-black), the fake windshield on the
chest is gloss black, the shoulder headlights are light blue, as are the
eyes. The face and forehead tablet are painted silver, and the taillights on
the kneecaps are red. The molded Autobot symbol on the chest is painted red
with white outline.
The hands can hold 5mm pegs. The spoiler uses a peg with an I-beam
cross-section but it's 5mm across and can be held in either fist. It also
stores on the back in an elongated hexagonal socket. Its vehicle mode socket
is visible but inaccessible in this mode, as the kneecaps get in the way
(they fold down for vehicle mode). The spoiler is a single piece of golden
yellow plastic 2.75" (7cm) wide with a molded but not painted Autobot symbol
in the center.

Mo Malto: A single chunk of periwinkle blue plastic that does a decent
job of looking like the cartoon character, although she's a bit slimmer and
looks more like a teenager? There's some support bits that look like the
designer expected the pants and shoes to be painted, instead it makes her
look like she came out of a 3-D printer and forgot to knock the supports
off.
2" (5cm) tall, with a circular base 18mm in diameter that fits into
sockets on either of Bumblebee's modes. In robot mode, she goes into a
socket on the top of his torso, pushing down a little button that triggers
the gimmick if it's cocked and ready to go. In car mode, there's a socket
just ahead of the spoiler...so she just sort of stands on top of the back of
the car rather than getting in. This is a dead socket, no button.
Her jacket is painted gloss maroon, and her hair gloss black. Her face
and right hand are painted brown, and her left hand is silver to represent
her gauntlet. Her eyes and eyebrows are printed on in black and white.
On her back is a raised hexagonal socket that can hold the vehicle
spoiler, making it a sort of jet pack for her.
I'm not sure exactly how tall Mo is supposed to be, I'm guessing about 4
feet (1.2m), which makes this figure about 1:24 scale.

The Gimmick: Okay, if you're already in robot mode, placing Mo on his
shoulder does nothing. You need to go through about half the transformation
to vehicle mode, then placing Mo in the slot will make it spin back to robot
mode. If you don't wind up the waist before transforming the arms and head,
then there won't be any spinning but Mo will still make the head pop up and
the arms pop down. You don't actually need Mo to make the toy transform,
either push the button yourself or just move the arms, since the latches are
deliberately pretty loose.
Mold flash or something made it rather difficult to get the arms
collapsed the first time, but after that it was easy.

Transformation: The 11 steps cited are for robot to vehicle. Going back
to robot is more like five of those steps and then use Mo to auto-transform
the rest of the way. Going to vehicle mode is pretty clear, about the only
tricky parts are getting the arms to shorten the first time, and unclipping
the waist...it doesn't need to turn for transformation, but in the locked
position it gets in the way of the feet folded in.

Vehicle Mode: This is a sportscar that was described in one episode as a
"mid-life crisis" car. 1:24 scale seems about right for it, and other than
the robot toes sticking up behind the driver's compartment and some big
hinges behind the doors, it does a decent job of looking like the animation
model.
7.25" (18.5cm) long and all the visible plastic other than the snap-on
tires is yellow. The only new paint (which is technically visible on the
back in robot mode) is gloss black on the real windshield and side windows,
almost-black rally stripes on the roof, and a printed but not molded red on
white Autobot symbol on the roof. The hexagonal socked on the robot's back
is now on the roof, but it's not really useful for anything. The Mo-socket
in back isn't a snap-in unlike the one on top of the torso, so there's only a
little friction holding her in. The front wheels spin well, the back wheels
not as well.