Roadbuster's more G1-centric Voyager-class Generations version isn't quite as faithful as his buddy Whirl's, with this version's alt mode being an armored Humvee instead of a jeep like G1 Roadbuster's toy. Overall this mode looks (and is) quite compact, with the proportions mostly being okay, except for the windows-- they're a bit too small, as the roof doesn't rise above the front section as much as you think it would. The back end is also pretty weak, as it's very obviously simply Roadbuster's bent knees, with the upper legs also quite visible on the lower part of the rear section; there's really no rear bumper to speak of. His overall look in this mode looks rather flat and unadorned-- good thing one of this toy's highlights are how many weapons he comes with! He comes with a (non-firing) missile pack, two small guns, a (rather overly sensitive) spring-loaded missile launcher, a larger rifle, and a larger extension for said rifle-- all 5mm compatible. Roadbuster has 6 5mm ports on the sides and top of this mode, so you can really deck him out-- and most of his weapons have other 5mm ports on him, so you can really combine and customize the weapons to an impressive extent. The core color scheme of military green, brown, and orange is still alive and well on this toy, though, and generally I think all of the colors work well together. The brown and green are certainly appropriate "dirty" shades for a military-esque vehicle, and the orange serves as a decent contrast color for them both while also making Roadbuster look a bit more individualistic in terms of his overall scheme. (There's also some black on some requisite parts like the wheels, but these are more secondary colors at best and don't really contribute to or detract from the scheme.) For paint apps, there's quite a lot of green/brown/orange paint to help the colors blend together well, though little of any other colors-- there's some silver near the top of the roof and near the front, and his windows are clear plastic (you can't see anything inside them), but nearly all of his other paint apps are of one of his three "core" colors. To give Roadbuster more of a military vehicle vibe, though, he comes with a bunch of stickers, just like his pal Whirl does (most of them are of variations of military "CAUTION" wording). Also like Whirl, there aren't concrete places given for all of the stickers-- for some it's up to you where to put them, with the pictures above being only one of many configurations. (Of note is that he comes with both an Autobot and a Wrecker symbol for his chest-- I chose the Wrecker symbol, to make him look a bit more individualistic.) Beyond the paint detailing, the mold detailing in this mode is also quite impressive at points, with rather intricate details like pistons on the roof, bolts along his windows, and even a painted-on (non-working) "winch cable" on the front end.
    Roadbuster's transformation is fairly simple for a Voyager toy, with it mostly consisting of folding up his shoulders, folding down his chest, and rotating out his legs. The end result still looks pretty good, though, as Roadbuster is definitely the big 'n burly guy he's always been, with wide shoulders, thick arms and legs, and is just generally a beefy-looking guy (but without overdoing it to a cartoonish extent). That doesn't mean that there aren't a few issues I have with this mode, though. For one, his feet (which form part of the roof in vehicle mode) are overly flat and long proportionally and look a bit odd. His lower legs are also a bit more 2-D than I'd like, though on the flipside I like that his rear wheels fold behind said legs and out of the way. I wish the wheels on his lower arms had somewhere to go; they're rather blatant extras that don't accentuate his silouhette but just look odd hanging off his wrists like they do. I do love how securely his chest pegs into his back and how the windows/roof on his back stay out of the way, as well as how his front bumper folds up a bit for his waist. His robot parts are a bit more sparsely detailed than his vehicle bits, but given how much of his vehicle mode shows through in this mode having a bunch more detailed parts wasn't really necessary. That said, his headsculpt is spot-on and looks great, being a slightly updated version of his G1 "gas mask" noggin, and his hands are also detailed quite impressively with molded-in "hinges" visible on his individual fingers. Given how extra-free and well-balanced Roadbuster is in this mode and how big his feet are, he's quite posable-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), hips (at three points), knees (at two points), and ankles (at an impressive three points). I wish his lower arms could move a bit more (they can only move back-and-forth at both of their points), but otherwise he's pretty great in this respect. As you'd expect, his hands have ports to hold some of his arsenal of weapons, but a nice surprise is that there's also ports in between his chest and each shoulder for shoulder-mounted weaponry possibilities as well. (This said, the pieces these ports are on don't peg into place and tend to give a little under pressue, so they often will move a little when you're plugging in a weapon or moving Roadbuster's ratcheted shoulders-- a minor annoyance.)
    Generations voyager Roadbuster is largely a great update of the G1 character, with the highlights being just how much weaponry he has and the lack of a bunch of kibble/extras in either mode. That said, a few minor proportional maladies like his rather flat lower legs and feet, overly low roof, and no real back end to his vehicle mode keep him just shy of getting a "must buy" score of 9.0 or above. That said, I'd still recommend him, particularly if you like customizing your TFs with various weapon loadouts.

Review by Beastbot

Back to Transformers: Generations Index