Dreadwing
(Energon)
(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 Mirage. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Energon Mirage here.)
Dreadwing's paint job
makes him look like some kind of evil specter-- which is appropriate, given
his mysterious statistics. Hasbro obviously had a really cool backstory
for this guy in mind when they made him-- I'm hoping we learn about it
in some form or another. Anyways, he's almost completely the ghastly colors
of light blue and gray. The black, metallic gunmetal, gray, and purple
paint apps help to spice things up a little, though. And some of the paint
apps are really decorative-- take, for example, the purple curly pattern
on his forehead, or the yellow runes in the center of his boat mode, or
the black curly patterns that are visible on the front of the boat and
also when you open up his wings. They look REALLY cool, and give him a
real sense of power-- of an ancient evil kind, of course. However, overall,
I'd have to say that Mirage's color scheme is better. Why? Well, for one
thing, most of the different colors on Dreadwing are only used here and
there, and aren't a major color. The only main colors Dreadwing really
has are variations of blue and gray. He really needs another main color
to make him a bit less dull. Also-- and this is a related problem-- even
though Dreadwing has roughly the same amount of paint apps as Mirage, it
doesn't look like it. This is because many of his paint apps, again, are
concentrated in smaller areas, and although they're more decorative, it
still leaves large spaces of him rather undetailed, such as his lower arms
and wings (if they're not open), and his legs.
No mold changes have
been made to Dreadwing, but I am VERY pleased to report that the one major
problem I had with Mirage- namely, the fact that the legs tended to pop
out of their sockets far too easy- has been completely fixed with Dreadwing.
w00t!
Dreadwing is certainly
a unique repaint, and his magnificent, rune-like paint apps really give
him a sense of power. However, he a few more paint apps on some of his
large, flat areas, and he could really have used another main color. Normally,
this would have docked him more than just 0.1 of a point when compared
with Mirage, but the leg-popping problem has been fixed, and that's a big
plus. Still, I'd have to recommend Mirage slightly over him, just because
Mirage's colors and paint apps were very well put-together, and that's
not quite the case with Dreadwing.
Review by Beastbot