(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 the original RotF Human Alliance Sideswipe toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original RotF Human Alliance Sideswipe toy here.)

    Shadow Blade Sideswipe is the first Human Alliance mold to be repainted, which is honestly a bit unfortunate as I find it the worst mold in the subline to be released thus far. However, that aside, his color scheme is pretty attractive, and certainly worthy of the "Shadow Blade" name. Yes, he's mostly black, but it's the secondary colors and paint apps that really make the figure, along with the transparent purple bits, which are a really attractive shade. The silver stripes along the sides and top of the car mode look really slick, and he doesn't actually have any real "gray" plastic-- it's all been painted silver, which really makes those parts look stunning in robot mode. The dark brown and dull tan serve as nice fairly neutral plastic colors in robot mode, though I would've made the brown perhaps a tad lighter to help with the contrast a bit better. The couple of blue paint apps in robot mode also really contrast well with the silver and make the mode pop even more.
    Shadow Blade Sideswipe has no mold changes made to this version, though the miniature Mikaela Banes figure has a different head on this version (with her hair pulled back into a ponytail). (However, otherwise the Mikaela Banes minifig is merely repainted from her previous Human Alliance appearance.)
    Shadow Blade Sideswipe is a seriously sweet repaint, with the way the silver, purple, and black play off each other being particularly eye-catching. Short of paint apps this toy's not. Unfortunately, well... it's the Human Alliance Sideswipe mold, so the robot mode is very limited in its poseability and has a ton of kibble. Recommended over this figure's other deco jobs, but that doesn't change it being a mediocre mold at best.

Review by Beastbot

Back to Transformers: Autobot Alliance Index