Windstrike

Allegiance: Autobot
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Light blue, orangish "cheesy" yellow, and some black, silver, and red
Individual Rating: 3.7

    Windbl-- I mean, WindSTRIKE's alternate mode is a sword. Well... it's her robot mode with a sword for a head. Really, it's pretty hilarious. I mean, it's awful, but it's also hilarious. The entire body from the robot mode is just RIGHT THERE, but instead of the head you've got half of the sword blade sticking out of the head. There's a peg on the bottom to hold her, as well as a peg on the back if you want to plug her into Sideswipe's chest for his gimmick. The sword blade is a "cheesy" yellow-- the same type of shade used on many of the Movie Bumblebee toys-- and it contrasts decently enough with the light blue that's used for most of the main body of the robot-- er, sword. Anyways, the robot parts themselves have some pretty neat stylized details, like angular overlapping "armor plates" on the shoulders, little circular bits on the feet, and armor-like details on the waist, arms, and upper legs that make her look like she's wearing knight armor, with bits of black paint on the mid-arms, upper legs, and stomach enhancing this look and helping provide a bit of contrast as well. There's also a nifty red Autobot "crest" detail on the chest, and some minor yellow-painted angular bits on the lower legs. The proportions look pretty nice, too-- unfortunately, the body can't move. Like, at all. It's one solid piece-- all the other pieces on this toy are involved in the rotation of the sword and head pieces, which is definitely a missed opportunity.
    To "transform" Windstrike to her robot mode, you just take the two halves of the sword piece and then rotate one piece one way and one piece the other. The head folds up in place, and she's got... well, two swords behind her. You can pose them in a diagonal manner which looks... alright, but those are pretty darned big, obvious extras, there. The head looks pretty good, with small antennae on the sides, a couple of minor forehead details, and eyes that make her look more obviously female, along with a mouth. Her face is painted silver, but unfortunately so are the eyes, which doesn't look great. She can stand up fairly well, though if you're looking at her from the top down you can see the obvious gap in her left shoulder where her head slides in for sword mode. The body, of course, is the same in this mode as in sword mode, and she still doesn't have any articulation.
 

Sideswipe

Allegiance: Autobot
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Dark red, black, and some silver and metallic silvery blue
Individual Rating: 6.3

    Power Surge Sideswipe's vehicle mode is a pretty large version of... well, what you'd expect-- a dark red-and-black sportscar. By and large if you've seen my reviews of most other RID2015 Sideswipe toys, there's not much to say about this mode. The dark red and black are basically the same exact shade as on most of his other toys, and work just as well here as on those toys-- well, okay, slightly worse, since the toy is so much bigger. Sometimes there's just too much unbroken dark red. There's some black paint on the windows and front bumper and a nice shade of metallic silvery blue on the headlights, but that's about it as far as paint in this mode. The basic details are all here-- the VERY basic details. The car doors and handles, the angular bits on the front, and some angular taillights on the back bumper (which is completely unpainted). All in all they could've added in a few extra details, especially given the large size. There's also no Japanese symbols on the sides, which really helped to break up the red back there, and I wish was painted/molded onto the toy. There's no robot mode extras in this mode except for on the aforementioned back end, where the bottom of the feet are fairly obvious-- but really, it's fairly minor. On each side of this mode, right near the front are peg holes for Power Surge Mini-Cons like Windstrike. I'm glad that she can be held in this mode, but it's a pretty odd part of the car to mount the Mini-Cons on.
    Sideswipe's transformation is VERY simple. You just stand him up on the back end, fold down the front of the car behind his upper back, then push out and up his arms a bit and separate the legs. That's it-- even given the RID2015 more simplistic toys and the electronic gimmick, I think this is pretty underwhelming for a $30 U.S. toy. I mean, he's got a LOADS of kibble-- the top of the car mode is sticking out VERY obviously from behind his entire body and upper legs, and it extends down to his knees so it can interfere with his hip articulation a bit as well. The front section of the car also just hands unceremoniously behind his upper back, though at least it folds up against the back a bit. The lower legs are too chunky and have the sides of the car hanging off them with the wheels, and on a lesser note the car doors also hang off the arms, too (they're pretty small comparatively, though). As for the actual "core" robot mode, he's got the basic details to make him accurate to the show-- a faux stylized car hood-chest, some angular bits around his abs (along with the holes for his speaker), some very basic details on his legs and arms, and a head with his his characteristic smirk and "punk hair". The black makes up more of the color scheme in this mode which helps break up all that red some more, but there's also quite a bit of metallic silvery blue paint-- not just on his eyes and faux car headlights on the chest like you'd expect, but on really nifty circuitry detailing on his upper chest and lower legs. This is presumably the "Power Surge" he gets from linking with a Mini-Con. There's also the expected silver on his face. For articulation in this mode, Sideswipe can move at the shoulders (at three points), elbows (at two points), and at the hips (at two points). No knee articulation unfortunately, which is quite frankly unacceptable at this size. At least the upper body is fairly articulate. And now we get to Sideswipe's electronic "Power Surge" gimmick. If you press down on Sideswipe's head, you'll hear: "Mini-Con Power up!", "Power up for battle!", "Thanks for the power upgrade!", "Two is better than one!", "This calls for more firepower!" or "This battle's gonna be a blast!", in no particular order. Unfortunately, it's not Sideswipe's show VA; just a kinda smarmy-sounding teenager voice. If you leave him alone for a few seconds, you'll hear a "power down" sound". You can also slot Windstrike into his chest, and you can hear some slashing noises. In addition, when she's plugged in you can hear some more slashing noises, "Sword Strike Activated", and "Enguarde" (mixed in with his other voice clips). As part of the Power Surge gimmick, you can ALSO plug in one of the other three Power Surge-sized Mini-Cons, and he'll react uniquely to those, which is kinda cool. Plugging in Starscream's Mini-Con Lancelon gets you: More slashing noises; "That's Sir Sideswipe to you!"; "Swing and a hit!". Plugging in Bumblebee's Mini-Con Buzzstrike gets you: Slashing noises; "Timmmberrrrr!"; more slashing noises. Finally, plugging in Optimus Prime's Mini-Con Aerobolt gets you: Bird noises; "Woo-hoo, now this 'bot can fly!", and "Soar to mach speed!"

    Power Surge Sideswipe is honestly a waste of $30 for all but completists. The transformation is far too simplistic and limited for the robot mode even considering the gimmick; he's got a TON of kibble; and Windstrike's "sword mode" is a joke. The Power Surge gimmick is admittedly kinda cool, especially if you've got other Power Surge Mini-Cons, but out of the $30 Power Surge toys this is definitely the weakest overall. If you're looking for a simplsitic, larger Sideswipe, the 3-step changer is a superior mold.
 

Reviews by Beastbot

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