Allegiances: Autobot
Set Price: $100 (U.S.)

(NOTE: Because this set is composed of repaints, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the set and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the original versions of these molds. For a review on CW Legends Groove-- the mold used for Rust Dust-- go here. For a review on Alpha Bravo-- the mold used for both Skyburst and Stormcloud-- go here. For a review on CW Dead End-- the mold used for Dust Up-- go here. For a review on CW Breakdown-- the mold used for Jumpstream-- go here. For a review on CW Hot Spot-- the mold used for Pyra Magna-- go here.)
 

Dust Up

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Leg: Very Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Arm: Easy
Color Scheme: Light pale green, moderately bright red, and some silver, black, light milky gray, and moderately light blue
Individual Rating: 9.0

    Like the rest of the Victorion toys, Dust Up is not a new mold, but a redeco (and, in her case, partial remold) of a previous Combiner Wars toy. Luckily, she's a remold of one of the best molds in the line. Like most of the rest of the "Rust Renegades" or the "Torchbearers"-- depending upon what part of the official fiction you want to follow-- Dust Up's primary color scheme is primarily a moderately bright red and a light pale green. The first color looks pretty decent by itself, and would look great on, say, a G2 figure with other bright colors. However, the light pale green is just a horrible, bland shade that doesn't look good by itself and looks very weird against that bright red. It's just a bad color scheme-- and I get that (in general) it was fan-picked, but that doesn't change my opinion that it looks awful and is ill-fitting on a sportscar, as well. In general the toy does a pretty decent job of making sure no area of Dust Up has too much of either of these colors and varies them up, but like the rest of this set, she needed another main color. That said, the red is a bit more prevalent than the green on her, particularly in robot mode, and out of the two colors I prefer that one more. She also has some black-- used on the tires-- and silver, which is used on the wheel hubs, face, and front bumper. (Unfortunately there's no paint details on her rear bumper.) I do like the additional colors, but neither of them really contribute enough to the color scheme to make it anything more than still just two-tone. She also has just a touch of that blah light milky gray-- used for her hands-- but that's it, so it's easy to overlook, thankfully. One neat addition to her paint scheme is that Dust Up has Cybertronic writing on both sides of her vehicle mode, which read-- together-- "Just like us... you soon will rust".
    Dust Up has some mold changes as well-- she has a remolded head, chest, hands, and a new weapon. Her headsculpt is really well-done, and I love the "ninja" elements of it, with a red "mask" and wavy lines on the head, as well as bit of silver on her visible face and some nice blue eyes. Her chest and hands are remolded to make her slightly more feminine-- which are minor changes, but I still appreciate them. That said, the hips could've used a little "rijiggering" for a fembot, and her arms are a bit bulky. Still, the mold fits a female okay, overall. Her weapon is pretty awesome-- she has a C-shaped blade that she can hold, and it's just a really unique weapon and has some nifty curved details on it. I don't like the milky gray plastic, though, and wish it was painted silver like most of the other weapons in this set.
 

Jumpstream

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Leg: Very Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Arm: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Light pale green, moderately bright red, and some silver, black, transparent icy blue, and moderately light blue
Individual Rating: 7.2

    Jumpstream is a remold of one of the worst Combiner Wars deluxe molds, so I was rather disappointed to see it chosen for this set. Some of the molds aren't great at feminine proprtions, but this mold is bad even at male proportions, much less trying to make it female-- it just doesn't work at all. Her color scheme is pretty similar to Dust Up's, but with a bit more even amount of the green and the red. I do like the broad red stripes along the sides of the vehicle mode and the constant flipping back-and-forth between one color and the other to prevent any area from being too one-tone, but it still just looks rather bad. Just like Dust Up, she has a few other minor accent colors-- you've got the obvious black on the wheels, but there's also some silver paint on the wheel hubs, windows, face and forehead, and parts of the chest and hands. They're okay accents, but again, don't really add much to the scheme overall in the amount that they're used. Like the other Victorion members, Jumpstream has Cybertronic writing on the sides of her vehicle mode, which read "All shall be... turned to dust".
    Like most of the other Victorion members, Jumpstream has a new weapon, a new head and chest sculpt, and re-sculpted lower arms that are slimmer to help her look *at least a little* more feminine. The lower arms look decent enough, as does the new chest, and there's some nice vent and bolt details on the latter, to boot. The headsculpt is off, though-- the face is too small, and proportionally the head-- and especially the forehead-- is just too wide and looks weird. The "Leia-like" red hubs on the ends don't look like the "curls" they're suposed to because of how relatively far they are from her actual head. The face itself is painted well though, with some nice blue eyes, little red lines below the eyes and on the lips, and some red and silver on the forehead. Jumpstream's weapon is kind of a weird shield with a couple of spikes on the side-- it looks pretty good as a defensive weapon, but without an offensive weapon it's kinda odd for her to just hold a shield.
 

Pyra Magna

Size: Voyager
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Torso: Medium
Color Scheme: Moderately bright red, light pale green, and some silver, black, moderately light blue, light milky gray, and transparent icy blue
Individual Rating: 8.9

    Pyra Magna has the usual bright red and pale green color scheme that most of the rest of the Victorion members have, but nearly all of her red is focused on the fire truck mode-- which certainly makes sense, and actually makes her look quite a bit like a normal fire truck, I'm honestly surprised it took this long to get this mold in red. In robot mode is where most of her pale green comes through-- mostly on the arms, upper legs, and a bit on the chest and head (though there are some green stripes on the vehicle mode). More so than any other member of Victorion, Pyra Magna has a good amount of milky gray and silver-- the milky gray plastic is mostly used on her ladder, with the silver paint used on an impressive number of details like her windows, side vents, shoulders, lower inner leg details, and the like. In either of her modes, there's no area that's too much of one unbroken color, which is always good, even though I'm still not a fan of the green/red combo. Beyond the expected tires, she also has black on some minor connector parts, part of the ladder, and hips to give a bit more "dark" to her color scheme. Like the other members of the group, she has Cybertronic writing on both sides of her vehicle mode-- together they read, "If Cybertron... Be your home".
    As far as new mold changes, there's the Victorion head, which is very poorly hidden at the top of the ladder-- with Hot Spot, the Defensor head fit in color-wise and also folded in half, whereas Victorion's head is just... there. Pyra Magna's new headsculpt looks okay in terms of detail, but it looks rather unoriginal-- it's basically a female Prowl headsculpt with no other changes beyond the color (though the blue eyes always look nice against the silver face). I wish it was more individualistic. She also has a remolded chest, which has to be rather flat because of the transformation, but does "feminize" her slightly, and her hands are remolded to be a bit skinnier as well. However, overall-- what with the big shoulders and lower legs, the rather thick arms, and the like-- this mold definitely makes for a better male than a female. Her weapon is AWESOME, and is basically a two-bladed scythe. I hate that it's that blah milky gray plastic, but I love all the spiky details on it and just the size of it. On one final note, Pyra Magna's "hinge" pieces in the middle of her legs are misassembled. It's not a huge, toy-breaking deal, but with tabs on the wrong sides of these hinges, it prevents her knees from locking in properly in robot mode (though she can still move around just fine, they just don't lock). She can also store the combiner hands and feet in her vehicle mode in rather odd, very obvious places, if you need to store everything somewhere. She certainly looks MUCH better with them off, though.
 

Rust Dust

Size: Legend
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Armor: Medium
Color Scheme: Light pale green, black, and some silver, moderately bright red, and moderately light blue
Individual Rating: 7.4

    Compared to most of rest of the set, Rust Dust's main colors are BLACK and light pale green, with the red relegated mostly to a secondary color-- mostly just on her lower arms and head. This honestly looks a little better-- like I said earlier, the green and red are of such different shades it's like Hasbro couldn't pick a theme, whereas here they have-- they chose the duller color scheme. The black still contrasts fairly well against the light green (the latter of which I still don't like as a shade), but it doesn't conflict with it. There's also some silver paint on the knees, face, and the windshield. I particularly like the paint on the windshield-- the "crack in the glass' helps Rust Dust look a little more rundown just from one paint app. Also, Rust Dust has Cybertronic writing on the sides of her windshield, which reads "Far Away, Never Roam". Rust Dust's face is also painted quite well, with a blue visor, a silver face, and some red on the center forehead vent.
    Rust Dust is the only one in the set who doesn't have any mold changes from the original-- which I actually don't mind, as the fairly skinny, long-legged nature of the robot mode actually works a little better for a female than a male. The facesculpt also fits the team, too, what with the visor and stern silver face and all.
 

Skyburst

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Leg: Very Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Arm: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Light pale green, moderately bright red, and some silver, black, white, transparent icy blue, and moderately light blue
Individual Rating: 7.9

    Skyburst is one of the helicopter "twins", and like the others, her color scheme is a pretty solid mix of light pale green and the fairly bright red; on Skyburst, both of the colors are used in a pretty equal manner, though (excepting the weapon) even less of the accent colors are used compared to the others, making her desperately in need of some more color variety on a scheme that already isn't that great to begin with. Most of the paint details on her are rather asymmetrical paint apps on her helicopter mode, along with some red on her toes, waist, and tailfins. As for accent colors, she has some black on her propeller blades, and some silver on her windows, the latter of which helps tie her in even more thematically with her teammates. As with the other Victorion members, Skyburst has Cybertronic written on her vehicle mode-- on the right side, in silver, on top of red paint. It says "Hear my message, listen and fear".
    Compared to Alpha Bravo, Skyburst has a new head mold, as well as remolded lower arms, a remolded upper chest, and a new weapon. The headsculpt is pretty good, with a fairly "normal" silver face with nice blue eyes, silver round side antennae, and some nice details on the forehead that are painted red. The lower arms have been remolded to be a bit skinnier and more feminine, and the missile pods have been removed and replaced with little side wings, making her helicopter mode look less military-like. The lower part of the main body "block" is the same-- and doesn't really look feminine as a result-- but the upper section has been slightly remolded with asymmetrical details-- one side has a flat red square near the top and another red diamond on the chest with a bolt molded onto it, while her other side has a little circular "blaster-like" detail and an Autobot symbol underneath it. Her weapon is pretty straightforward-- it's a fairly long blade. The base plastic is transparent blue, but it's mostly painted over, with a good amount of silver near the handle and a be-yootiful blade, with some nice blue-fading-to-white paint apps on the feathered details. There's pegs on it to be held either in her hand or on the underside of her helicopter mode, stuck in the same place where the hand/foot/gun accessory would've plugged in.
 

Stormclash

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Leg: Very Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Arm: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Light pale green, moderately bright red, and some silver, black, white, transparent icy blue, and moderately light blue
Individual Rating: 7.9

    Stormclash, being the "twin" of Skyburst, not only shares a mold but the same basic color scheme and mold changes. The main difference is that all of the asymmetrical red paint apps from Skyburst? They're reversed on Stormclash. The red paint apps are so "randomly" placed on the helicopter mode, though, that it's very difficult for me to tell them apart-- more difficult than I think it should be, even for twins. I think it would've worked better if one half had been painted red and the other green, or something a bit more obvious. Even for redecos, these gals are just too similar. Stormclash has Cybertronic writing on her vehicle mode as well, though on a red patch on her LEFT side. It says "Danger comes, the end is near". Every other paint app and plastic color placement is the same on Stormclash as on Skyburst.
    Stormclash has the same general mold changes as Skyburst, though the chest details and sword details are flipped, again emphasizing how one is basically a "mirror" of the other. The only exception here-- the only thing that is truly Stormclash's own-- is the headsculpt. She shares the same general shape, but the details are subtly different. Most obviously Stormclash has a visor as opposed to two individual eyes, but her side antennae are also slightly more angular and square, and her central forehead crest slightly more angular as well. Other than the visor the changes are pretty subtle, though.
 

Victorion (Combined Form)

Individual Rating: 7.8

    Obviously the upside of every member of Victorion having the same color scheme is that the combined form looks a bit more like one bot-- the black, gray/silver, red, and pale green are all pretty well dispersed over the entire figure-- the only exception here being that if you take off Rust Dust, there's a bit too much unbroken red on Victorion's chest. Victorion's "normal" configuration has the helicopter twins as the feet and the cars as the arms, but having bulky arms and skinny legs seems a bit flipped for a female, so my preferred configuration is that shown above. What's mostly worth commenting on here, of course, are the mold changes. Victorion's headsculpt is very well-done for the most part-- it's very angular, with a sharp red head crest above her silver face with a light transparent blue visor and red chinstrap. The back of the head is pretty square, but the various designs on the head are well-detailed both in terms of paint and the mold itself. That said, my one issue with the head is that her face seems a bit too small proportionally (or her forehead is too large, take your pick). The new feet look pretty good (beyond their milky gray blah plastic), and are more stable than the traditional Combiner Wars feet. Plus, they have slight ankle tilts to give Victorion slightly more poseability options. Her hands I am not big fans of-- I like that they're a bit skinner for a fembot, but she can't actually hold her weapon in the traditional manner-- there's actually a hole in the plastic near the base of her thumb, and it just looks wrong having her hold her sword pegged in there instead of actually holding it in her fingers. (Speaking of the fingers, her hands can move at the base of the index finger and the other three fingers, with the latter all as one piece-- but no thumb articulation, so it's a wash compared to the hand/foot/guns in that respect.) The best part of the mode is definitely the awesome combined sword weapon. Yeah, there's a little bit of that blah milky gray plastic near the hilt of the sword and down the center of the blade, but most of the plastic is either transparent blue, painted silver, or a REALLY nice blue-to-white fade on the blade. All the parts come together pretty darn nicely, and make Victorion a bit more individualistic with such an awesome accessory.

    Victorion is an interesting idea, and I do love (for the most part) the extra bits Hasbro has given her and her components-- the new faces, the remolded chests on most of the individual components, the gestalt head/hands/feet and, of course, the incredible sword. However, it's very much a mish-mash of different ideas, and once you learn that this was the Fan Vote combiner, it makes a lot of the choices more logical. The end result, though, is what I feel is the weakest of the Combiner Wars giftsets-- the main color scheme is both bland and a bit too bright at the same time and should have had at least a little more variation between each component, most of the molds don't fit females all that well, and the combiner hands are frankly pretty terrible. If Hasbro wanted to do a female combiner, they should have made most or all of the characters out of new molds. These molds have already each been done multiple times, and in better color schemes. Not recommended unless you're fans of the character(s).

Reviews by Beastbot

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