Dave's Transformers Legacy Rant: Deluxe Wave 7 (Evolution Wave 4)

Cyberverse Universe Shadow Striker (sports car)
Insecticon Bombshell (beetle, extensive retool of Shrapnel)
Robots In Disguise 2015 Universe Strongarm (police SUV, extensive
retool of Elita-1)
Detritus (offroad vehicle, heavy retool of Siege Hound)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Deluxe7

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Deluxe5 - Shrapnel mold
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Deluxe2 - Elita-1 mold
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeS1 - Hound mold

Note, Detritus was an e-HOBBY redeco of a G1 Hound reissue, which makes
it a little weird that this retool wasn't released as Hound first. News is
that Hound was originally scheduled to be a Buzzworthy exclusive, but Target
backed out, and it got moved back to a Generations Selects multipack due some
time in 2024. (Source: Seibertron.com) Annoyingly, it's likely to be a five
figure multipack, along with Jazz, Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, and Trailbreaker.
Not terribly interested in that, as I have enough copies of all of those
molds already...and as the most-like-a-new-toy figure in the set, it'll
probably go loose on eBay for most of the cost of the set.
I picked up a clearanced copy of the most recent Walmart reissue of G1
Hound recently, I'll compare Detritus to it and have a few notes about it.

CAPSULES

$25 price point.

Cyberverse Universe Shadow Striker: The only fully new mold in the
wave. It homages at least three different Shadow Strikers, not just the one
it's named after. An interesting and not too troublesome transformation.
Robot mode is a little weird, though. Recommended.

Insecticon Bombshell: Original mold was recommended, and despite only
really changing the head, torso, and weapons, they managed to get a distinct
toy out of it. Recommended. (Note, this was major scalper bait for months,
and part of why this review came out so late, but it does seem to be hitting
more stores at the end of 2023/start of 2024.)

Robots In Disguise 2015 Universe Strongarm: Original mold was
recommended, but this replaces the entire upper half of the robot and a
little bit of the boots. The result makes for a rather too slender robot
mode, but a surprisingly good vehicle mode. Recommended.

Detritus: Original mold was recommended, but this is also a major change
to it. While it doesn't quite make it all the way to G1 Hound in shape, it
gets credibly close. Might have some issues with QC unless I just got
unlucky. A character you're unlikely to find for a reasonable price
otherwise, which is always a plus for "redecos." Recommended.

RANTS

Packaging: Same as previous Evolution waves, but the QR codes stopped
working around November 2023. Fortunately, TFWiki user Boingus archived the
information.

DECEPTICON: CYBERVERSE UNIVERSE SHADOW STRIKER
Assortment: F7197
Altmode: Sports Car
Transformation Difficulty: 18 steps
Previous Name Use: None with all those bits
Previous Mold Use: None
Function: Combat Specialist
Special Unit: None
Origin Universe: Cyberverse (sort of)
Signature Weapon: Combustion Blaster - Launches explosive blasts that cause
objects to disintegrate on impact
Evo-Fusion: (none listed, package shows the rear bumper stuck on the gun)

STR 6 INT 6 SPD 7 FRB 9

Shadow Striker was built for combat, outfitted with an array of weapons
and targeting systems that make her a dangerous enemy.

Note, Shadow Striker was a pretty prominent character in Cyberverse, but
got really shafted on toys. Just a partially-transforming gimmick-Scout
(released repeatedly) and a brickish gimmick-Ultra. She never got a Warrior
or Deluxe, so as much as this toy isn't purely the Cyberverse character (see
below), at least she finally got a toy that both transforms and has
articulation worth a damn.

Packaging: Four plastic ties hold the robot to the inner tray, and a
taped up tissue bundle in back has the roof-shield, pistol/club, and rear
bumper. The entire front side of the instructions consist of suggestions for
mounting these three things in various ways on the robot mode.

Robot Mode: Interestingly, while the face and some of the vehicle mode
elements are based on the Cyberverse incarnation (well, the version prior to
being frankensteined), there's probably more of the Universe version from the
Official Transformers Collectors' Convention (not-BotCon) in 2003 in the
robot mode. Even the bumper-gun Evo-Fusion is more of a Side Burn thing.
Her chest is basically the Side Burn/Speedbreaker engine block, but her head
is pure Cyberverse, with her "one regular eye, one monocle" being the only
real remaining bit of her asymmetry from that show. (It would be very easy
to do a Roulette redeco to complete the OTFCC set, but unless something like
Generations Selects comes back I'm not entirely sure what the market for her
would be.) The thigh gap is quite wide, and the proportions are generally
kinda weird, if symmetric. The doors hang down as a sort of cape with a
panel behind each shoulder and a small gap between them.
4.75" (12cm) tall in black, dark purple, red, and silver. The roof
shield is clear red plastic. A sort of dull purple plastic is used for the
piece that's the back of the head and the neck, the shoulders, the back of
the pelvis, the ankle joints, and the hinge-and-peg that lets the roof
connect to the arm or back. Black plastic is used for the folded up backpack
core hingeplate chunk, the biceps, hands, spinal core, hips, thighs, feet,
wheels, and pistol/club weapon. Everything else is a vibrant dark purple
plastic.
They did a pretty good job of making the gloss purple paint match the
main purple plastic, and it's used on the thighs and the non-window parts of
the roof. Black paint on the shins helps continue the dual-color look of the
thighs, and the sinister eyebrows are painted black. Silver is used on the
face, the chest engine block core, the top of the pelvis, and the border of a
pentagonal detail on the lower pelvis. The pipes on the engine block are
painted gloss red, which is also used for both eyes, the "third eye" on the
helmet crest (which has a silver border), the center of the pelvis pentagon,
the wheel hub designs, and the taillights on the bumper accessory. Pale
silvery purple paint is used on her chin and the piston details on the tops
of the forearms, plus the Decepticon symbol printed on the left forearm is in
that color.
The neck is a ball joint with the socket in the upper torso rather than
in the head. The waist is a smooth swivel, and the cape halves are hinged to
lift up out of the way of the hips. The shoulders are a bit weird, hinge and
swivel joints where the swivel's axis points forwards from the backpack
rather than being connected directly to the torso. There's bicep swivels,
hinge elbows, and swivel wrists. Hinge and swivel universal joint hips,
upper thigh swivels, hinge knees, double direction hinge ankles. The heel
spurs are very long, to compensate for the backpack. The peg for the roof is
on the end of a double hinge, so it can go on either arm while still being
off-center whichever way you prefer.
The hands hold 5mm pegs and have a gap between fingers and thumb.
There's 5mm sockets on the forearms, one on the center of the back, one on
the back of each calf, one under each heel. The left cape flap has a 3mm
socket for gun storage.
The roof forms a large shield 2.5" (6.5cm) long with a 5mm socket
roughly in the center of its face. The rear bumper forms a smaller shield
1.75" (4.5cm) long with a 5mm socket in its center opposite the 5mm peg on
its back, so mounting either of the shields on a forearm doesn't cost you the
socket. The socket in the bumper shield is a bit shallow, though, and I've
found that 5mm peg Fire Blasts don't stay in very well (more relevant in
vehicle mode, where the Fire Blast would be a rocket thrust).
The gun club is a weird little accessory, a single piece of black
plastic 43mm long. It has a 5mm peg grip, and the longer end terminates in a
5mm socket, while the shorter end is a 5mm peg with what appears to be iron
sights...albeit blocked by a hilt guard detail. So, it's either a large bore
hand cannon, or a sort of bullpup carbine. If you thread the sights tab
between fingers and thumb, it becomes a sort of baton or club, with the
sights tab locking it in place once you rotate the guard to the front.
Certain Fire Blasts placed in the muzzle turn the short club into a sort of
energy assegai or greatsword, depending on how big the Fire Blast is.
http://www.dvandom.com/images/ShadowStrikerSword.JPG for an example
using Studio Series Ultra Magnus's Fire Blasts.

Transformation: Of course, the roof and rear bumper being "accessories"
means this is a bit of a partformer. You can technically leave the roof on
one arm the whole way (as the instructions suggest), but I don't really
recommend it...a LOT of stuff needs to be forced to get tabs in slots, the
whole thing has a bunch of tight fits, not to mention tabs and slots that are
hard to even see due to being black or dark purple plastic. For instance,
the thighs have to be tabbed into place properly or the feet won't both tab
in place at the same time (but one at a time can go in).
Lots and lots of folding panels in this design as well, to the point of
feeling more like an origami sculpture than a traditional Transformer. Be
careful with the panel under the center of the chest, it's really easy to
push it in instead of pulling it out, and you have to mess around with the
fender bits to get it back out.
When going back to robot mode, or just when removing the roof shield in
general, there's a good chance the roof will leave its peg assembly behind,
as the hinge where it meets the roof is only snapped in rather than pinned.
Also, getting the hips unpegged takes a bit more force than I'm comfortable
using.