Sideswipe
(FoC)
(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 Generations FoC Jazz. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Generations FoC Jazz here.)
Sideswipe is "just" a
remold of FoC Jazz, but he's a mighty extensive one. His vehicle mode has
been almost completely retooled to resemble his design in the FoC video
game; only the wheels and rear side section of the car mode are unchanged
from Jazz. It's a really lovely nice, angular look, and I love how the
white and silver stripes down the center-- with black paint apps on the
sides-- help make it look like he has a "roof" and "side windows" even
though he really doesn't. In robot mode is where his similarities to Jazz
become more apparent (with the transformation, as well as with him sharing
more robot mode parts with Jazz). This is also, unfortunately, where this
remold tends to fall apart. He has a new head, but just as with FoC Jazz
it looks "off"-- only moreso. He has-- for lack of a better term-- "chubby
cheeks", and his eyes have a dead, slightly creepy look to them. The remolding
done to his vehicle mode panels also make it even harder to get his internal
chest pieces aligned, so Sideswipe's head tends to be even HARDER to get
into a decent-looking position in this mode than was the case with Jazz--
he's almost always looking down into his chest. His design is also not
quite game-accurate; on the game model, all four of Sideswipe's tires are
clearly on his arms, whereas on this toy he shares Jazz' design of having
two "fake" wheels for ankles. It's not a huge deal, but I was a bit bummed
they left that detail on, particularly since this design DOES technically
have all four car wheels on the arms (two of them are just hidden). Sideswipe
doesn't come with Jazz' little pea shooter, but rather a MASSIVE blaster
with a telescoping barrel and a ratcheting, rotating drum. It's definitely
the Path Blaster weapon from the game, and looks both huge and sweet-looking.
There's also a clip on the back end that can attach the gun-- at an angle--
to the rear spoiler of Sideswipe's vehicle mode, allowing you to place
the gun in a more central location on the figure instead of making it look
too weighted to one side by plugging it into one of his conventional ports
on his sides or covering a lot of his cool roof detailing by plugging it
onto the top port on said mode. The color scheme of red, white, black,
and a bit of silver is pretty decent, though basic. The red and white contrast
against each other quite well, though much of the black is actually a dark
charcoal gray, and-- though not a bad-looking color-- would've looked better
as a solid black (particularly on his weapon). He's got plenty of paint,
so no issues with too much unbroken red on this figure.
"Fall of Cybertron"
Sideswipe has a pretty decent color scheme and paint apps, as well as a
really nice remolding job done to his vehicle mode and an awesome weapon--
I like him slightly more than Foc Jazz. That said, this mold is still just
as blah as ever, and the design's chest issues and Sideswipe's ugly face
don't help matters. I'd highly recommend getting the much-superior Universe
2.0 version of the character instead.
Review by Beastbot