Dave's Earthrise Rant: Slitherfang (and reissue Rung)

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Transformers Earthrise Rant: Battle Masters Wave 2

Slitherfang (Snake/Ramp)
Rung (reissue)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/BattleE2

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/Battle4 - Rung original review


CAPSULES

$6 price point.

Slitherfang: Good use of the ramp concept so as to not be a bot with a
ramp hanging off the back. Missed some opportunities, though. Recommended.

Rung: Original was mildly recommended, this is the same except for
packaging and assortment stamp.


RANTS

Packaging: Same as wave 1, which I now realize had map pieces in the
form of those rhombuses. Yeah, I picked up an extra Rung for the map piece.
And then another because I found them on clearance because the local Target
put 'em out while clearancing the Siege Battle Masters.

Slitherfang is part of a new faction, called Mercenary in some of the
early release promos, but clearly a Quintesson faction. Their symbol looks
like someone who normally designs death metal band logos drew the skull face
side of a Quintesson. The faction also includes Deluxe Allicon (the type
from the movie that is first encountered, and offered energon goodies), a
Voyager Quintesson judge, and a big exclusive playset pit of judgement with
the judge, an Allicon, a redeco of Legends class Gnaw, and PVC figures of a
Lithone and the single-faced Prosecutor. The packaging for Quints lacks the
badges/sigils.


MERCENARY: SLITHERFANG
Assortment: WFC-E13
Altmode: Ramp/Shield
Transformation Difficulty: 5 steps
Previous Name Use: None
Previous Mold Use: None
Fire Blast: Orange explosion
Function: Battle Master
Division: None
Unit: None
Rank: None

Packaging: Two ties hold the snake into the blister, one holds the
explosion Fire Blast. The package photo/render is accurate if the figure is
under very bright light, but under normal light the purple looks
significantly darker. The map piece has a section of route line, but no
other features of interest.
The instructions show the ramp mode attached to Airwave, and the shield
mode held by Optimus Prime.

Beast Mode: This is basically a chibi robot cobra, with the tip of the
tail attached to the first ground-touching body segment (which has tank
treads). To be a more proportional cobra, it'd need about a dozen more tank
tread segments. Although, if it were blue instead of purple, it'd be a
plausible Cobra mech.
In a typical "rearing back" pose it's about 2.25" (5.5cm) tall and 2"
(5cm) long, in light silvery gray, dark gray, clear purple, and a little
red. The head and hood are clear purple plastic, while the rest of the body
is silvery light gray plastic. There's glossy dark gray on the head, part of
the chest, and some bits on the back of the hood, and both the eyes and the
area around the eyes are painted red.
The head is hinged to move up and down. Where the hood meets the body
is a hinge, then there's a swivel purely for articulation in this mode (it's
not needed at all for transformation), and another hinge connecting to the
tank tread piece. Then there's a short tail that folds out on a hinge. The
tail ends in a 5mm peg, and there's a 5mm socket on the underside of the
head. Not much it can do, due to clearance issues, and it's completely
covered up in altmode, but I suppose you could use it for an unfolded shield
to hang on a peg somewhere? (I suspect this might be a relic of an earlier
stage in design...they changed some other part and made the socket less
useful, but there was no reason to take the time to redesign the head to
remove the socket.) There's a 3mm stud in the center of the back of the
hood, and one on front of the hood on the lower right corner of the chest
piece. There are two nonstandard slots on the underside that go onto
rectangular tabs in altmode, which I feel was a missed opportunity...using
3mm sockets and pegs would have let Slitherfang attach to another figure's
3mm studs to climb up their body. The tail peg can sort of accomplish that,
but there's more 3mm studs in the right positions.

Transformation: Fold the tail in between the treads, fold the snake head
straight up, flip the chest piece up around the head, and then fold the gray
body parts around to connect to the rectangular tabs now accessible.
The only difference between ramp and shield mode is whether the tail tip
is left folded out as an attachment peg.

Altmode: A ramp that's slightly shorter than Soundbarrier's ramp mode.
Unlike Soundbarrier, there's no attempt made to put gun barrels or other
weaponry on the shield. It does look like a very small ground aircraft
carrier, though, thanks to the flat top and the treads on the underside. The
hood protrusions even look like short runway bits. (The tiny Aerialbots from
Broadside/Tidal Wave in Titans Return look about right on its deck, althought
their 2mm sockets have nowhere to grab on.)
Slightly over 2.5" (6.5cm) long, all purple and dark gray on top with
the silvery light gray as the underbody. The snake eyes are hidden in this
mode, and both 3mm studs are now on top. Folding out the tail tip to make
this a shield has the connection point about 1/3 of the way from the head
end, so if that's meant to be the top end of the shield it's a shield wider
at the bottom (4.5cm) than at the top (3cm). It has the usual AIRLock
connections at either end.

Fire Blast: Orange clear plastic in your basic "cotton ball burst" with
spikes coming out of it, including a long top spike that makes the whole
thing 3cm tall. It has the usual 3mm socket on the bottom, but no 5mm post,
so it's not really meant to be a rocket thrust or muzzle flash, just an
explosion.

Overall: Pretty clever beast-style figure that makes good use of the
ramp/shield format, really only suffers from some missed opportunities.
Recommended.


AUTOBOT: RUNG
Assortment: WFC-E14
Altmode: Cerebral Circuit Scanner
Transformation Difficulty: 4 steps
Previous Name Use: Gen:Siege
Previous Mold Use: Gen:Siege
Function: Therapist
Division: Ground
Unit: Artillery
Rank: Private

This is just a repackage. Near as I can tell, the only difference is
the serial number printed on the torso under the right arm (#E8253 for the
new one, #E7145 on the original).

Packaging: 2 ties on the robot, two ties on the pair of Fire Blasts.
The card art is the same figure but on a new background, and the map piece
has a small bit of route line but no other details. It does appear to
connect to the reissue Smashdown's piece. (According to TFWiki, Direct-Hit
and Power Punch are getting re-released, I suspect their map piece will
finish off the hexagon that Rung and Smashdown started.) Instructions show
Optimus Prime holding the gun.

Color Swaps: None.

Paint Apps: Same except for assortment stamp.

Mold Changes: None.

Other Notes: None.

Overall: Well, the case is half Rung and half a troopbuilder ramp piece
figure, so at least Rung should be easier to find now.


Dave Van Domelen, gonna dye a spare Rung black as Nemesis Rung, and
maybe do another in Cybertron Primus's blue and gray. (Dyeing already done
on Nemesis Rung, the Fire Blast took to purple very well. But other stuff is
in the painting queue ahead of it.)