Dave's Titans Return Rant: Legends Wave 2

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Transformers Rant: Titans Return Legends Wave 2

Ravage (Stripes retool)
Rumble (miscolored Rewind retool)
Laserbeak (Buzzsaw redeco)

Permalink: https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LegendT2

These are all based on previous molds, with varying degrees of physical
modification. Also, as a firm proponent of FIRRIB, I consider "Rumble" to
really be Frenzy.

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LegendT1 - Stripes and Rewind
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LegendC5 - Buzzsaw mold


CAPSULES

$10 price point.

Ravage: Original mold was "wait for Ravage." This is a little better,
the new head helps. Mildly recommended.

Rumble: Original mold was recommended. This doesn't fix that mold's
minor flaws, but definitely worth picking up on its own. Recommended.

Laserbeak: Original mold was mildly recommended. This is a little
better in black, but still shows the signs of being a first try. Mildly
recommended.


RANTS

Packaging: Same as previous wave, with all of them having a sticker on
the blister pointing out that they're compatible with Soundwave. All three
are included in the PDF I've been using for extra info. The instructions
continue to show how to apply the stickers, despite the stickers being
factory-applied.


DECEPTICON: RAVAGE
Assortment: B7022
Titan Master: None
Altmodes: Tablet/Jet/Panther
Transformation Difficulty: 7 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Weapon: None (or a whole lot, see below)
Function: Sabotage
Motto: "You aren't even the smartest person in this ROOM."

Package Bio: Cunning saboteur avoids detection with an electromagnetic
shield.
PDF Bio: A loyal operative who works with Soundwave, Ravage is
ruthlessly effective at completing his missions. Hidden in the shadows, he
silently tracks his prey and strikes with ferocious force when enemies least
expect it.

B: STR 5 SPD 5 INT 8 FRB 7

Packaging: Worth noting that it's just Ravage on the package, while the
PDF calls him Decepticon Ravage. 4 ties hold the jet mode in package,
concealing the fact that the head is remolded (the package "photos" appear to
be renders, and they used the Stripes head).

Color Swaps: Black becomes light gray. Orange and yellow plastic
becomes black.

Paint Apps: Beast mode has silver on the molded-but-not-real neck hinge
and yellow on the eyes. Jet mode has yellow on the cockpit windows. In
tablet mode, the various bits that were dark gunmetal on Stripes are silver
here, and the center of the home button is painted silver rather than a
better match for the light gray plastic.
The tablet screen stickers have the same sort of generic home row
buttons as others, but the main screen is split into four sections. Upper
left is a "STATUS" graph with a series of bars and a curve connecting the
tops. Lower left has a Tactical menu (with Defense menu select-able), with
the following options: Recursive Imploder, Rail Blaster (currently
highlighted), Vorpal Claws, Energon Flechette, Heavy Ion Destabilizer, and
the amusingly named Thump Cannon. The right side sectors are for
surveillance, with a radar and ranging cone display in the upper right (three
targets lit up) and a wireframe landscape in the lower right (appears to be
the same three targets lit up). A purple metallic outline Decepticon symbol
is in the upper center on its own sticker.

Mold Changes: The head/neck piece is new, and looks properly Ravage-
like. It's made from black plastic.

Other Notes: Factory silver paint on the undersides of the wings to
evoke the G1 weapons would have been nice, but there's enough scraping to
make non-factory painting a bad idea.

Overall: A little better than Stripes, and the new head definitely
helps.


DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON RUMBLE
Assortment: B7023
Titan Master: None
Altmodes: Tablet/Tank/Robot
Transformation Difficulty: 12 steps
Previous Name Use: Prime (without "Decepticon" used a lot more)
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Weapon: Earthquake Generation
Function: Demolitions
Motto: "Sometimes my brother and I like to swap paint jobs to confuse the
Auto-bums."

Package Bio: Transmits low-frequency groundwaves to create powerful
earthquakes.
PDF Bio: Rumble is part of a spy team led by Soundwave. The demolitions
expert is a trash-talking brawler. He may be small, but he can bring down
huge targets by causing earthquakes. Is he powerful enough to bring down a
Titan?

B: STR 2 SPD 2 INT 5 FRB 9

Color note: Rumble is blue in the cartoon, red with the original G1
toy. Most toys go with the red color scheme, but the disk minion version and
the TF:Prime version went with blue (aka "got it right").

Packaging: Five ties on the robot, one on the cannon. Instructions do
not show how to make the quake-pounders by flipping down the undersides of
the forearms.

Color Swaps: Except for the head, black becomes very dark gray, light
gray becomes deep red. There's two slightly different shades of red,
though. The gun and thighs are slightly darker than the rest.

Paint Apps: Rather than a metallic gold as is usually seen on Frumbly
figures, they went with a sort of pukey light brown. In robot mode, all the
cassette tape details on the chest and the shoulder piping are in this color,
as are the tank treads molded into the shins. The face is silver, the visor
is sloppily painted bright red. It was easy enough to scrape the slopped
paint off, though. No new paint in tank mode. In tablet mode, the home
button is painted pukey not-gold, and some side grip details (not painted on
Rewind) are painted very dark gray. A small Decepticon symbol in purple on
silver is printed on the upper right edge of the front.
The stickers seem appropriate for both Frumbly power sets. The top
panel has minimized music player controls, a Seismic Imaging window, and a
partly backgrounded window showing "Substrata Density". Lower left has a
graphic equalizer with the Bass cranked ALLLLL the way up, and a warning
pop-up that reads, "Excessive bass may lead to structural damage and
(garbled word ending in -tion)." Lower right has a com panel window stuck
behind a targeting window that I think has him looking at Optimus Prime.

Mold Changes: The head is new, a very dark gray piece that is a good
update of the Frumbly head animation model.

Other Notes: If you leave the arm panels unbent in robot mode, it more
or less approximates pounders. Would've been nice if there was a way to
store the gun on the back, though.
Someone who already has Soundwave has taken advantage of the fold-down
chest panel to have Soundwave (well, his Titan Master) emerging from Rumble's
chest in a bit of role reversal.

Overall: Still has the wobbly feet I experienced with my Rewind, so not
a perfect update, but certainly a very good update of the character. Whether
you think of him as Rumble or Frenzy.


DECEPTICON: LASERBEAK
Assortment: B7585
Titan Master: None
Altmodes: Tablet/Bird/Combat Car
Transformation Difficulty: 7 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Weapon: None
Function: Interrogation
Motto: "But that was my only line!"

Package Bio: The only point this interrogator likes in AUTOBOTS: the
melting point. [Note, this is a rephrasing of his G1 motto.]
PDF Bio: Laserbeak is part of a Decepticon spy team led by Soundwave.
He is a feared interrogator who persuades captured Autobots to spill their
secrets by threatening them with his laser cannon.

B: STR 5 SPD 8 INT 6 FRB 8

Packaging: 4 ties on the bird mode.

Color Swaps: It's all black now.

Paint Apps: I think they used the same exact easily-chipped or scraped
red paint as on Frenzy's visor. In bird mode, this red pretty much coats the
"feather" pieces and is also used on the back at the base of the neck. The
beak and head "feathers" are silver, the eyes are yellow. No paints unique
to the combat car mode. Tablet mode has the home button purple in the middle
and silver around it. The speaker vents on the lower right corners (front
and back) are silver, and the volume control buttons on the sides are also
silver.
The sticker set on the tablet has three app buttons in the top row and
two small windows in the bottom row, plus generic phone stuff at top (it's
11:59 PM and he has an 84% battery charge). The apps are Spyware.exe (an
Autobot symbol with the No symbol on it), Represent (Decepticon symbol as
purplish metallic outline), and Playlist Work Mix (cassette tape symbol).

Mold Changes: None that I noticed.

Other Notes: Looks better in black than in yellow, that's for sure.
Using the same plastic colors but replacing red paint with gold (or even the
not-gold Rumble uses) would have made for a better Buzzsaw, IMO.
The fan-made jet mode looks better than either the combat car or the
official bird mode. (Swivel the wings around so that the black parts are
flush against the body and the red parts stick out as jet wings, make sure
the tail parts sit on top, straighten the neck out forward.)

Overall: If you want a bird for Soundwave's chest, get this one rather
than Buzzsaw, not that Buzzsaw is on a lot of store shelves anymore.


Dave Van Domelen, got some more new RiD Warriors, hope to get them
reviewed over Fall Break.