(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Revenge of the Fallen Voyager class Bludgeon. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Revenge of the Fallen Voyager class Bludgeon here.)

    Banzaitron here is a bit of an homage to the G1 character of the same name, and the only non-exclusive homage of him to date. Given that the original version of Banzaitron was an action master, the alt mode of a tank--and his general robot mode design as well-- isn't really an homage so much as the general color scheme and the samurai-like theme and look of the mold. Since the original Banzaitron had a pretty cool color scheme, it carries over quite well to this updated version of him. The very dark bluish green-- so dark it's almost black-- serves as a nice base color against which Banzaitron has a number of relatively light colors like light green, pale purple, and milky gray. The milky gray is pretty blah and honestly I would've preferred either black or the purple in its place, but the other colors look very good against the each other-- particularly the light green, which helps to make the tank mode pop visually despite it being an accent color. The copper is also a great-looking color, particularly in robot mode where, along with the silver, it helps him look a bit more like he's covered in samurai-esque armor. I wish a few more of those paint apps had been used in tank mode, however, as he is a bit relatively bereft of paint apps there, the distinct bits of light green aside. (It's particularly distracting on the treads, which due to the plastic layout of the toy, are four different colors!) The upside of this, however, is that he's quite colorful in robot mode, with everything meshing together quite well-- except the head. The head isn't remolded from Bludgeon's at all, and that head is SOOOO distinctly Bludgeon's (who else has a face resembling a skull wearing a samurai helmet?). It looks very odd, painted red and purple as it is, when a simple head remold would've really helped to sell this figure that much more here.
    No mold changes have been made to Autobot Alliance Banzaitron.
    Autobot Alliance Banzaitron is a pretty nice redeco of an excellent mold, with most of the colors going together extremely well-- particularly the light green and copper against the dark, dull bluish green used as the base color. Even the milky gray, which is boring, doesn't outright clash. However, with no mold changes made, this mold is still very distinctly Bludgeon-- there's no getting around it. I like the color scheme better than Bludgeon (despite it being more unrealistic) and, as a toy, recommend this slightly more. That aside, as an homage it falls a bit short in robot mode, and gets a little bit taken off its score because of it.

Review by Beastbot

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