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Dave's Combiner Wars Rant: Leader Thundercracker
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Dave Van Domelen
Nov 13, 2015, 8:01:46 PM11/13/15
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Dave's Generations Rant: Leader Class Combiner Wars Wave 2
Thundercracker (Jetfire retool)
Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LThundercracker
Maybe wave 2, maybe wave 3, I just don't know anymore. I have yet to
see this on any store shelves, as Megatron and Armada Megatron continue to
linger there, but this was supposedly released at the same time as Ultra
Magnus (which I also have yet to see on shelves). I was going to pass on it
entirely, but Amazon briefly had it on sale for half off (might have been in
error, but they honored it) so I decided it was worth that.
http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LJetfire - Jetfire mold
CAPSULES
$45-50 price point.
Thundercracker: Original mold was mildly recommended. I like this
version of it a bit better, mainly because it has no chrome, although the
conversion is a little rough in places. Still not something I'd recommend
paying full price for, but I feel I got my money's worth at $25.
RANT
Packaging: Same as Armada Megatron, comes with trading card.
DECEPTICON: THUNDERCRACKER
Assortment: B1800/B0972
Altmode: Fighter Jet
Transformation Difficulty: 17 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Weapon: Sonic Detonations
Function: Sonic Warrior
Motto: "I'm the last thing you'll ever hear."
THUNDERCRACKER lives on fear. Special materials in his jet frame allow
him to unleash controlled sonic detonations that can be heard 200 miles
away. Streaking across the sky at Mach 6, he wants his enemies to hear him
before they see him. He wants them to know he's coming, and cower in fear at
their impending doom.
Yeah, good luck with that. Bio writer doesn't seem to realize that at
Mach 6, you won't hear him until he's already passed you by. (Audible 200
miles away is plausible, though, since a 190 dB sound a few centimeters from
his surface would be at a loud whisper 200 miles away, roughly. 190dB is as
loud as you can get in air, since it translates to having a vacuum in between
waves. Yes, I just covered that in my classes the week I started this
review.)
Packaging: In robot mode with wings up amd big guns atttached to the
wings. Missile launching gun and its missile are off to the side with a
single sock-tie holding the gun down and the blister alone holding the
missile. Instructions are loose, trading card is taped behind the tray (and
seems to use the same art as the box). 8 ties hold the robot in the blister,
and a rubber band holds a shield piece over the chest.
Color Swaps: Parts that were black on Jetfire are black on
Thundercracker, mostly. The hip joints are silvery light gray. The red
parts become black, and the rubbery plastic is black. Also black are the
head, forearms, groin, and the vertical tail pieces. A silvery medium gray
is used for the shoulder roots, upper arms, thighs, and the struts flanking
the abdomen that let the wings swing a bit. In addition to the hips, light
silvery gray is used on part of the nose section strut, on the tail section
hinge, and for the firing missile. The new head has lightpiping in red, and
the cockpit canopy is clear amber. The rest of the toy is a dark blue
plastic, in keeping with the G1 toy rather than the G1 animation model.
Paint Apps: No chrome, thank Primus. There's a subdued silver paint
used on the chest (including the back of the chest that becomes the tops of
the intakes), waist, face, and the stripes on the wings and tail. Fake
cockpit canopy on the chest is painted yellowish orange, not really matching
the actual canopy. There's matte black on the shin fronts. Gunmetal paint
picks out the chest turbines and the jet intakes. The tops of the wings have
wide gloss red bands, and the vertical tail sections also have gloss red
bands. There's purple on silver Decepticon symbols on the wings, and one on
the right shoulder.
Mold Changes: New head, new chest, new wings, new shoulders. The
boosters are gone, but there's two new arm cannons meant to replace the
smaller forearm cannons (although in the package, the new guns are just stuck
on the wings). The new wings are fixed rather than variable geometry, so the
robot mode is beefier-looking. The hinges are still there, but the design
doesn't actually let them swing anymore. I kinda wish they'd molded the new
wings to fill the gaps where they meet the body, though, since it's a pretty
obvious place where it's clear this is a repurposed mold, what with the big
V-shaped indents at the wing roots.
Not sure if the new chest is intrinsically harder to get into place for
vehicle mode than the original, or if this is an example of tiny difference
in mold tolerances make a big difference, but I had to get all the limbs in
just the right positions to get the chest to move into place.
Other Notes: Does not come with a tiny dog figure to be Buster, and no
Third Party people seem to have stepped up yet (it'd need to be 7-8
millimeters long to fit in the cockpit at the right scale, so a tiny Lego
puppy would be way too big). Checking Shapeways gives only bigger dog
sculptures. The design is otherwise pretty heavily based on the IDW comics
version of Thundercracker. (Maybe I should roll up a piece of paper and put
it in one hand as a script he's shopping around.)
Oddly, the lightpiping also has a glowing forehead diamond.
Overall: Definitely worth what I paid. Worth $45-50? Not really, but I
like it a bit better than Jetfire, if only for the lack of chrome.
Dave Van Domelen, wonders if they did TC instead of Starscream solely to
annoy any shippers who wanted to have twinsies of Starscream and Jetfire.
Thundercracker (Jetfire retool)
Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LThundercracker
Maybe wave 2, maybe wave 3, I just don't know anymore. I have yet to
see this on any store shelves, as Megatron and Armada Megatron continue to
linger there, but this was supposedly released at the same time as Ultra
Magnus (which I also have yet to see on shelves). I was going to pass on it
entirely, but Amazon briefly had it on sale for half off (might have been in
error, but they honored it) so I decided it was worth that.
http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LJetfire - Jetfire mold
CAPSULES
$45-50 price point.
Thundercracker: Original mold was mildly recommended. I like this
version of it a bit better, mainly because it has no chrome, although the
conversion is a little rough in places. Still not something I'd recommend
paying full price for, but I feel I got my money's worth at $25.
RANT
Packaging: Same as Armada Megatron, comes with trading card.
DECEPTICON: THUNDERCRACKER
Assortment: B1800/B0972
Altmode: Fighter Jet
Transformation Difficulty: 17 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Weapon: Sonic Detonations
Function: Sonic Warrior
Motto: "I'm the last thing you'll ever hear."
THUNDERCRACKER lives on fear. Special materials in his jet frame allow
him to unleash controlled sonic detonations that can be heard 200 miles
away. Streaking across the sky at Mach 6, he wants his enemies to hear him
before they see him. He wants them to know he's coming, and cower in fear at
their impending doom.
Yeah, good luck with that. Bio writer doesn't seem to realize that at
Mach 6, you won't hear him until he's already passed you by. (Audible 200
miles away is plausible, though, since a 190 dB sound a few centimeters from
his surface would be at a loud whisper 200 miles away, roughly. 190dB is as
loud as you can get in air, since it translates to having a vacuum in between
waves. Yes, I just covered that in my classes the week I started this
review.)
Packaging: In robot mode with wings up amd big guns atttached to the
wings. Missile launching gun and its missile are off to the side with a
single sock-tie holding the gun down and the blister alone holding the
missile. Instructions are loose, trading card is taped behind the tray (and
seems to use the same art as the box). 8 ties hold the robot in the blister,
and a rubber band holds a shield piece over the chest.
Color Swaps: Parts that were black on Jetfire are black on
Thundercracker, mostly. The hip joints are silvery light gray. The red
parts become black, and the rubbery plastic is black. Also black are the
head, forearms, groin, and the vertical tail pieces. A silvery medium gray
is used for the shoulder roots, upper arms, thighs, and the struts flanking
the abdomen that let the wings swing a bit. In addition to the hips, light
silvery gray is used on part of the nose section strut, on the tail section
hinge, and for the firing missile. The new head has lightpiping in red, and
the cockpit canopy is clear amber. The rest of the toy is a dark blue
plastic, in keeping with the G1 toy rather than the G1 animation model.
Paint Apps: No chrome, thank Primus. There's a subdued silver paint
used on the chest (including the back of the chest that becomes the tops of
the intakes), waist, face, and the stripes on the wings and tail. Fake
cockpit canopy on the chest is painted yellowish orange, not really matching
the actual canopy. There's matte black on the shin fronts. Gunmetal paint
picks out the chest turbines and the jet intakes. The tops of the wings have
wide gloss red bands, and the vertical tail sections also have gloss red
bands. There's purple on silver Decepticon symbols on the wings, and one on
the right shoulder.
Mold Changes: New head, new chest, new wings, new shoulders. The
boosters are gone, but there's two new arm cannons meant to replace the
smaller forearm cannons (although in the package, the new guns are just stuck
on the wings). The new wings are fixed rather than variable geometry, so the
robot mode is beefier-looking. The hinges are still there, but the design
doesn't actually let them swing anymore. I kinda wish they'd molded the new
wings to fill the gaps where they meet the body, though, since it's a pretty
obvious place where it's clear this is a repurposed mold, what with the big
V-shaped indents at the wing roots.
Not sure if the new chest is intrinsically harder to get into place for
vehicle mode than the original, or if this is an example of tiny difference
in mold tolerances make a big difference, but I had to get all the limbs in
just the right positions to get the chest to move into place.
Other Notes: Does not come with a tiny dog figure to be Buster, and no
Third Party people seem to have stepped up yet (it'd need to be 7-8
millimeters long to fit in the cockpit at the right scale, so a tiny Lego
puppy would be way too big). Checking Shapeways gives only bigger dog
sculptures. The design is otherwise pretty heavily based on the IDW comics
version of Thundercracker. (Maybe I should roll up a piece of paper and put
it in one hand as a script he's shopping around.)
Oddly, the lightpiping also has a glowing forehead diamond.
Overall: Definitely worth what I paid. Worth $45-50? Not really, but I
like it a bit better than Jetfire, if only for the lack of chrome.
Dave Van Domelen, wonders if they did TC instead of Starscream solely to
annoy any shippers who wanted to have twinsies of Starscream and Jetfire.
William A. Rendfeld
Nov 14, 2015, 9:43:35 AM11/14/15
to
On Friday, November 13, 2015 at 8:01:46 PM UTC-5, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
> Dave's Generations Rant: Leader Class Combiner Wars Wave 2
>
> Thundercracker (Jetfire retool)
>
> Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LThundercracker
>
> Maybe wave 2, maybe wave 3, I just don't know anymore. I have yet to
> see this on any store shelves, as Megatron and Armada Megatron continue to
> linger there, but this was supposedly released at the same time as Ultra
> Magnus (which I also have yet to see on shelves). I was going to pass on it
> entirely, but Amazon briefly had it on sale for half off (might have been in
> error, but they honored it) so I decided it was worth that.
>
> http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LJetfire - Jetfire mold
Thundercracker was in a wave by himself, after the two Megatrons. Ultra Magnus followed thereafter.
> Dave's Generations Rant: Leader Class Combiner Wars Wave 2
>
> Thundercracker (Jetfire retool)
>
> Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LThundercracker
>
> Maybe wave 2, maybe wave 3, I just don't know anymore. I have yet to
> see this on any store shelves, as Megatron and Armada Megatron continue to
> linger there, but this was supposedly released at the same time as Ultra
> Magnus (which I also have yet to see on shelves). I was going to pass on it
> entirely, but Amazon briefly had it on sale for half off (might have been in
> error, but they honored it) so I decided it was worth that.
>
> http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LJetfire - Jetfire mold
banzait...@gmail.com
Nov 14, 2015, 1:22:31 PM11/14/15
to
I don't *think* it was a pricing error on Amazon's part cuz they had it at that price for quite some time. However, I did check it today and it is back to regular price, so who knows.
This really is a great toy. My chief complaint is that he is just too damn big for a thundercracker (or any seeker for that matter). He really worked great for a Jetfire toy (sans the vac metal paint), but just too big for a seeker mold.
-Banzaitron
This really is a great toy. My chief complaint is that he is just too damn big for a thundercracker (or any seeker for that matter). He really worked great for a Jetfire toy (sans the vac metal paint), but just too big for a seeker mold.
-Banzaitron
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