Sideswipe
(Rally) [Wal-Mart 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 the Autobot Alliance Sidearm Sideswipe toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the Autobot Alliance Sidearm Sideswipe toy here.)
This "Rally" Sideswipe
redeco has far more changes than your average movie redeco (which tend
to be more of a variant, really), with Sideswipe's main color scheme being
primarily changed to a striking dark blue and bright yellow color combo,
in an homage to his Generation 2 Go-Bot toy. He still has some of his characteristic
gray, though this has been primarily moved to his robot bits, either as
a dark gray or as a rather blah light gray. (Thankfully, the light gray
is the least prevalent of his "main" colors.) The accent colors of black
and light electric blue go quite well with his main colors, and the transparent
blue plastic used on his windows is dark enough where you can't see his
robot parts inside in vehicle mode. The best part about this Sideswipe
redeco, though, are probably all the ridiculous (mostly obscure) homages
that go into all of his fake decals in vehicle mode. The "04" racing number
symbols call back to G1 Sideswipe's Japanese number; "Axalon Rattraps--
Safe and Humane (Yeah, right!)" is a fake sponsor that includes nods to
both the Beast Wars character Rattrap and the Maximal ship from the same
series, the Axalon; "Sun Bro" is likely both a nod to Sunstreaker being
his brother in the original series and that it sounds like "Hasbro"; and
"Lithonian Drivetrain" is a nod to the planet Lithone from the original
series. The best and most unexpected decal of all, though, are the red
symbols behind his rear wheels-- they're the Transtech Autobot symbol.
Yes, that's right-- the Transformers series that was supposed to follow
Beast Machines but was cancelled now has one of its faction symbols on
an official toy. Too cool!
No mold changes have
been made to "Rally" Sideswipe.
This is my favorite
version of my favorite mold of the movie Sideswipe character; thus, it's
a pretty easy recommendation, even if you have another version of the character.
You've got a great mold with a striking (yet not too loud) color scheme;
plenty of paint apps; and fake racing decals that homage things from all
over the Transformers mythos. Other than the couple of pieces of blah light
gray plastic in robot mode, it's hard to see a downside here.
Review by Beastbot