(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 Combiner Wars Dead End. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Combiner Wars Dead End here.)

    Well, this is certainly one of the last characters I expected to see as a BotCon exclusive! Unit-3 is the more sensical name for Under-3, one of the goofiest Beast Wars Happy Meal toys that transformed from robot detailing inside a shell into a lion... head. It was so simplistic because it was only for kids under three, hence the name. Given that Under-3 formed ONLY a head, making a "vehicle mode" version of that seems a bit easier than vehicle forms for most other characters that had animal alt-forms, with Unit-3's alt mode having several features of a lion's head. The central portion of the bumper is painted black like a lion nose (alternately you could see the neat red-and-black headlights as nostrils, with the front bumper being the mouth). There's wavy lines near the back end like a lion's mane, interrupted only by the unpaintable plastic in the middle of the car doors-- this plastic is a noticeably paler shade of yellow than the rest, but it's only used very sparingly. The black windows (even the rear window is painted!) make for decent "eyes". The robot look is a surprisingly close match for the original Under-3 toy, with the paint apps on the head, legs, and to a lesser extent the arms and chest all fairly accurate to the Happy Meal toy, with a few extra details given the larger size and detail of Unit-3. As for Unit-3's color scheme itself, much of the plastic (particularly in vehicle mode) is mostly a fairly straightforward yellow color, which makes sense. I'm not that big a fan of the color yellow in most instances, but the black details-- especially in robot mode-- really contrast against it quite well. What really makes the color scheme pop is the light red, though-- used on the back, headlights, and Maximal symbol on the vehicle mode, and on the lower arms, lower legs, eyes, and abs of the robot mode. It really contrasts extremely well against both the yellow and black, and keeps Unit-3 from having too much of a "Bumblebee-esque" color scheme. Silver is also used here and there, like on the head, chest, lower arms, and wheel hubs-- mostly to help Unit-3 match his Happy Meal toy a bit better, but the additional paint apps on a toy that already has quite a few of them is appreciated. (Really, the taillights in vehicle mode are the only details that could've used some paint that don't have any.) Unfortunately the hand/foot/gun weapon is a blah light milky gray plastic, but thankfully that's the only part of the toy that's that color.
    Unit-3 has the same mold changes made to the base mold as CW Streetwise, but no mold changes unique to this release. Which is fine, since Streetwise's head and detailing works darned well for the character.
    Unit-3 may not exactly have a lion beast mode, but there's enough "lion-like" details on his vehicle mode to make it a bit lion-like without going TOO far in that direction, and the robot mode coloration and paint apps just homage his Happy Meal predecessor PERFECTLY. Plus, it's one of the best molds from the Combiner Wars line. Out of all the BotCon 2016 exclusive toys, I feel that this is the most creative from a concept standpoint, and just a darned fun/unexpected homage. Highly recommended if you're in the market for BotCon exclusives.

Review by Beastbot

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