Buzzsaw
(Botcon 2006 Attendee-Only Exclusive)
(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 Energon Divebomb. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Energon Divebomb here.)
Buzzsaw is meant to be
the same character as the G1 Soundwave tape
minion that transformed into a robotic hawk. Well, now he's been reformatted
as a Predacon like Ravage in the Beast Wars TV show, and now transforms
from a robotic hawk into a robot! Buzzsaw shares some major colors with
his packmate, Laserbeak, to give them both "team colors" of a sort. Like
Laserbeak, Buzzsaw has black as a major color, and his Energon weapons
and spark chip are transparent purple as well. Some of the paint applications,
such as the gray and the robot face apps, are also the same. In fact, the
placement of all the paint apps themselves is the exact same as on Laserbeak,
it's just that some of them are different colors. The main change with
Buzzsaw is that his main color is a medium brown, a very appropriate color
for a hawk, to be sure. All of the colors complement the brown very well,
with the exception of the bright green spots on his upper chest, but those
are small paint apps. I especially how the transparent purple weapons look
next to said brown. The changed paint applications are on the wings, with
the gold on Laserbeak instead being red on Buzzsaw, and Laserbeak's gold
beak is black on Buzzsaw. A few other minor paint apps have also been changed,
but otherwise he's colored like Laserbeak in that respect. I do have to
say, though, that Buzzsaw definitely does NOT give off the same vibe as
his G1 toy did. Brown is a fine color for a hawk, but G1 Buzzsaw was black
and YELLOW. Now, granted, yellow wouldn't have looked as good as the brown
does, but still, at least include SOME yellow on him, and maybe increase
the amount of black on the figure while you're at it. The fact that I didn't
know it was supposed to be the same character as G1 Buzzsaw until told
so by the product bio (and the fact that he was packed with Laserbeak)
says something, I think.
No mold changes have
been made to Buzzsaw when compared to Energon Divebomb. Also of note is
that in addition to being a Botcon 2006 exclusive, you could only buy Buzzsaw
for $45 with Laserbeak at the convention-- it was not available free to
preregistrants or available at all to those who did not attend the convention.
Buzzsaw is limited to 500 pieces, so he's worth a pretty penny.
Buzzsaw is certainly
a nice repaint of an already great mold, but overall I don't think the
color scheme quite measures up to Laserbeak's or Energon Divebomb's in
terms of attractiveness. It's still certainly a good toy to pick up, though,
if you're into Transformers collecting enough to be looking at buying Botcon
exclusives in the first place, since he comes with Laserbeak anyway.
Review by Beastbot