Guess what was officially revealed today? I'm beyond shocked that he didn't leak in some capacity before he was officially unveiled!

https://news.tfw2005.com/2024/02/06/transformers-legacy-united-leader-sandstorm-revealed-503643

The dune buggy mode looks great, and it includes both the regular driver compartment, as per the G1 toy, and the "extra" roll cage that the cartoon added, mostly because they were probably working with an unstickered G1 toy for reference. Helicopter mode is fantastic, very much the correct shape and styling, and in a cheeky move they repurposed the roll cage as a rescue cage (or capture cage!) which is honestly a very clever idea.

Robot mode is perhaps on the outside edge of what I would have liked to see.. It borrows a ton of detail from the design of the G1 toy, especially the stickers on the fronts of the legs and chest, which I don't necessarily hate. His cartoon model is fairly plain, so this added some visual interest to his design.

The masked face in robot mode does bug me a bit, as it's a significant deviation from his cartoon look. We've been enjoying some strong fidelity to the cartoon look since Siege, so to deviate from it now feels like they're changing horses in mid-stream. We already got a radically reinvented Sandstorm during Generations, so I was kind of hoping this version would play it close to the vest. But, I'm sure there will be a third-party replacement face at some point.

So, I wouldn't call him a slam-dunk success, but he's very good. With a different face design, he might have been great. But, what can you do.

Zob (very fond of Sandstorm)

On Tuesday, February 6, 2024 at 8:00:31 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> Guess what was officially revealed today? I'm beyond shocked that he didn't leak in some capacity before he was officially unveiled!

Getting revealed stuff when we're actually supposed to is great.
> The dune buggy mode looks great, and it includes both the regular driver compartment, as per the G1 toy, and the "extra" roll cage that the cartoon added, mostly because they were probably working with an unstickered G1 toy for reference. Helicopter mode is fantastic, very much the correct shape and styling, and in a cheeky move they repurposed the roll cage as a rescue cage (or capture cage!) which is honestly a very clever idea.

It seems that the back wheels of the Buggy mode become the winch for the Sea Stallion, which is incredibly creative.

> Robot mode is perhaps on the outside edge of what I would have liked to see. It borrows a ton of detail from the design of the G1 toy, especially the stickers on the fronts of the legs and chest, which I don't necessarily hate. His cartoon model is fairly plain, so this added some visual interest to his design.

Interestingly the top of his head is coloured the same as the body, wonder why.

> The masked face in robot mode does bug me a bit, as it's a significant deviation from his cartoon look. We've been enjoying some strong fidelity to the cartoon look since Siege, so to deviate from it now feels like they're changing horses in mid-stream. We already got a radically reinvented Sandstorm during Generations, so I was kind of hoping this version would play it close to the vest. But, I'm sure there will be a third-party replacement face at some point.
I've always preferred the Toy's mouthplate over the Cartoons face but that's a matter of which version of Sandstorm you like best, either the Bio's excitement craving and peace objecting adventurer or the Cartoons pacifist.
> So, I wouldn't call him a slam-dunk success, but he's very good. With a different face design, he might have been great. But, what can you do.

I saw someone on the TFW2005 forums theorizing that they might do another Wreckers set with the cartoon face but I'm not sure they'll do the same thing twice in that way.

Swivelbot (Can't wait for the inevitable Octane and Broadside)

Zobovor wrote:

> Guess what was officially revealed today? I'm beyond shocked that he didn't leak in some capacity before he was officially unveiled!

> https://news.tfw2005.com/2024/02/06/transformers-legacy-united-leader-sandstorm-revealed-503643

He looks great.

I don't mind the masked face at all, since I think he might want the Paradronian refugees to know how gleefully he is smiling as he tries to kill.