Thunderclash
(Botcon 2009 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 Rodimus. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Energon Rodimus here.)
Thunderclash here is
an homage to the late-G1 figure of the same name, more in color scheme
than anything else. Although he's a truck here just like his G1 version,
it's a much smaller, less bulkier truck, and the robot mode similarities
are minimal design-wise, so it's not really the best homage as far as the
design goes. Thunderclash's color scheme, for the MOST part, is pretty
original and nice-looking. The off-white makes a nice, fairly rare main
color for a truck, and I love the dark red, black, and bronze used to offset
the white. The dark blue is also a particularly fantastic shade, whether
we're talking about the paint and solid blue plastic used for his head
and wheel rims or the transparent plastic used for his missile launcher.
Unfortunately, one color ruins it all, and that's the ick-tastic sea foam
green. There's a reason he's briefly described on the TFWiki as the "yuck
truck"-- the green just completely clashes with everything. (Hey, maybe
THAT'S why he's named Thunderclash...) The green is minimal in truck mode,
but it's quite prevalent in robot mode, unfortunately. Now, this same green
was used on the original G1 Thunderclash, so I can hardly blame Fun Publications
for re-using it, but that doesn't stop it from being a horrid color. If
there's a BUNCH of horrid colors on a toy, sometimes that can look good
to some for its sheer ridiculousness where it's so ugly it cycles right
back to awesome, but with only one relaly horrid out-of-place color, Thunderclash
doesn't reach that point. He's just plain ugly. The toy has a ton of paint
apps, though, so there certainly aren't any big unpainted spots on him.
I particularly like the mix of dark red, bronze, and blue used for the
front half of the truck mode. (The Elite Guard symbol is rather randomly
placed in that mode, though-- on the left side of the front, over the wheel?
Seriously?
No mold changes have
been made to Thunderclash-- however, the rear spoiler panel halves are
a LOT looser than on my other versions of this mold, so he's probably suffered
a little from mold degradation.
Botcon 2009 Thunderclash
is an excellent homage when it comes to his color scheme, even if the actual
mold isn't that good of a fit. But, even though it's accurate to the G1
toy in terms of colors, the horrid sea green ruins the good vibes given
off of the toy by its other colors. Add all this onto the fact that it's
just not that good of a mold, and Thunderclash is my least favorite exclusive
in the 2009 boxset and my 2nd-least favorite exclusive if you include all
of the Botcon 2009 figures.
Review by Beastbot