Out of all the deluxe Combaticons, Brawl was probably the one I looked forward to most, simply due to his alt mode. As a G.I. Joe fan, I really dig seeing Transformers geared up as true military machines, even though I break out in hives thinking of the twisted up scale of some of these vehicles.
Brawl is the one completely new figure amongst this crew of repaints, and in vehicle mode, I love it. The tank looks cool and distinct, standing out among the crowd, impressing with its armor and cannon when intermingled with repainted pick up trucks, scrawny fighter jets and sports cars. Brawl means business.
Unfortunately, once you get Brawl into robot mode, it starts to feel like maybe Brawl is going out of business. At first glance, he looks great. Broad shouldered, stocky, and very aggressive looking. Pretty much how you’d expect a tank that turns into a robot to look. But once you start posing him, you run into some annoying problems. His shoulders are connected at a very restrictive shoulder joint, connecting stubby arms directly to his torso, and limited his arm movements by a considerable margin. The result is a figure that can do little more than flap his arms or rotate them very close to his body. At the waist, there’s no real connecting joint either, so the top half of the figure just kind of floats there and doesn’t hold together, so he’s constantly pulling apart and is tough to move into a really nice pose. It’s disappointing, because these are two pretty key issues that, from a design standpoint, Hasbro has overcome, at least until now.
Throughout the bulk of the Combiner Wars line, they’ve (almost magically) been able to mesh design with articulation, and give us two very effective modes without sacrificing play factor. In the case of Brawl, they don’t quite succeed, which is all the more frustrating since this is the only newly tooled figure of the wave. The hope would be that this one newly tooled figure would be great enough to rise above all the repaints, when in fact, it ends up drawing the rest of the wave down a bit.
I love the colors, I love the concept, I desperately want to enjoy Brawl, but the fact remains that he’s the wave’s greatest disappointment, which is extremely unfortunate.
Combiner Wars Brawl
Character
Articulation
Vehicle
Robot Mode
Transformation
2.8
Summary
Maybe I wouldn’t be so harsh on this figure if I wasn’t looking forward to it so much, but the end result of my experience with Brawl can simply be summed up as “disappointment”. To date, Combiner Wars figures have excelled in both modes, managing to give us great, fun vehicles with exceptionally well designed and articulated figures. Brawl does great in the vehicle department, but with funky shoulders and no connecting joint at the waist, completely falls short of the robot mode. He can barely move his arms, and he has a tendancy to flop backwards at the waist, which makes him almost useless in robot mode to me. Again, maybe if I wasn’t so excited for the only completely new figure in the assortment I wouldn’t have been so disappointed, but I was and I am.
Sometimes, when you’re an avid, nostalgia-fueled fan, certain decisions by modern toymakers can drive you up the wall. Even if you know the reasons (more often than not financial) these choices can be infuriating.
At times like this, sometimes I’m glad I was mostly a fringe Transformers fan in the 80s, so when Blast Off is represented as a fighter jet instead of a space shuttle in the Combiner Wars line, I can kinda shrug it off and say “makes sense to me”. I mean, after all, what kind of “combat” vehicle is a friggen space shuttle?!
Granted, the Takara version of Blast Off does look pretty friggen sweet.
As mentioned, this rendition of the Combaticon air support member is a jet instead of a shuttle, a repaint of several previous releases within the Combiner Wars line, including Quickslinger. In fact, this figure is a direct repaint of Quickslinger, included the head sculpt, which has caused some understandable consternation among Transformers fans. Even if you’re not going to give folks the full blown space shuttle experience, it feels like a new head would have at least been a good bone to throw to the fans out there.
Because Blast Off is such a straight repaint, it’s tough to find a whole lot more to talk about with the figure itself. I still really love the base figure here, and it was one of these fighter jets that got me interested in Combiner Wars in the first place, way back when. The transformation is really straight forward, easy to pull off in both directions, and the figure is very nicely articulated, something that’s especially important to a long time G.I. Joe fan like myself.
Blast Off is colored in much the same way as the vintage version, with a metallic gray and purple mixture, both complimenting each other remarkably well. The small hints of yellow add some nice color, without being too intrusive.
No, Blast Off is not a space shuttle, but in my opinion, he fits much better with his peers in this form. I can certainly understand the complaints of the long time fans who want a G1 update to go along with these others, but from a practical standpoint, I’m cool with the version we got.
Combiner Wars Blast Off
Character
Articulation
Vehicle
Robot Mode
Transformation
3.2
Summary
A straight repaint of Combiner Wars Quickslinger, many vintage fans will complain about this guy being a plane rather than a space shuttle, and while I can understand those concerns from a G1 homage perspective, I think a warplane makes more sense from a “combat” sense. That being said, it would have been pretty cool to see some new tooling here, instead of just a straight repaint of a figure we already have. The colors are nice callbacks to the vintage version, however.
In a way, when Hasbro first released Alpha Bravo back with their first wave of Combiner Wars figures, fans everywhere immediately knew that Vortex was just a matter of time. Not only was Vortex the same distinct kind of helicopter that Alpha Bravo was, but even the head sculpt was pretty unique to that Combaticon. With Quickslinger’s release, Alpha Bravo became the odd man out of the Aerialbots, so at this point, even though Vortex is a straight repaint of that figure, it doesn’t feel like a big deal, because the original version of the helicopter combiner has been rendered more or less extraneous.
I’ll admit Alpha Bravo was never my favorite of the first run of Combiner Wars, and that opinion is maintained with Vortex. The transformation feels a little clunkier and the robot isn’t quite so fluidly articulated as some of the others. That being said, looking at the Vortex source material, Hasbro did a pretty spectacular job of updating that character to a modern version, while maintaining much of the spirit and uniqueness of the original.
Most of Vortex is gray, like the original, with just the right hints of that nice shade of green. Even the yellow painted missiles are a nice mimic of the yellow stickers adhered to the side of the original G1 Vortex.
Even with the transformation being not as intuitive as other releases, it is still relatively easy and accomplished quickly, allowing for much more enjoyable “play time” for those of us who are Transformers novices.
I love the colors, really like the character now that I know him better, and consider this a pretty great update to the G1 original.
Combiner Wars Vortex
Character
Articulation
Vehicle
Robot Mode
Transformation
3.1
Summary
The original Combiner Wars helicopter, Alpha Bravo returns in the form of Vortex, and most Transformers fans agree this is who he should have been from day one. A very Vortex-esque head sculpt with a great vintage accurate paint scheme, brings us the assault copter version of the Decepticon Combaticon, only with two propellor blades instead of the vintage four. Using a very familiar base figure with cool transformation and great articulation helps the end result, though Vortex feels exceptionally familiar.
Seems like forever that fans of both properties have been clamoring for some kind of official toyline joining the G.I. Joe and Transformers lines together. Certainly there have been some heavy homages over the years (including the Combiner Wars Viper figure just released last year) but this joint exclusive between the G.I. Joe Transformers Club and the G.I. Joe Collectors Club was the first time the joint effort was made somewhat official. Yes, there were ComicCon boxed sets (that were pretty awesome), but is the first real in Sunbow continuity attempt to make both universes gel.
Both this installment as well as the Marissa Faireborn/Afterbreaker pack use Season 3 of the animated series as a heavy influence.
Long before 80s nostalgia fans dreamed of ways for G.I. Joe and Transformers to co-exist, Sunbow tied the two universes together during Season 3 of the Transformers cartoon featuring the mysterious “Old Snake” an obvious connection to COBRA Commander. It only seems right that if the Collectors Club were to revisit a joint G.I. Joe/Transformers series that they start by building off of that old school connection.
Old Snake appeared back in the 80s as a man in a reflective mask with a hat and trenchcoat, with some easily identifiable COBRA Commander trademarks and just enough additional disguise to not be too obvious. The Collectors Club uses these trademarks in developing this figure.
COBRA Commander’s head with Rise of COBRA Storm Shadow torso/coat and arms give the figure the familiar face and trenchcoat. Underneath the coat they use Resolute Snake Eyes legs to represent a baggy pair of blue pants underneath. While the Rise of COBRA Storm Shadow jacket does restrict movement quite a bit, due to the nature of its design, the elbow joints and knee joints are nicely poseable and utilize some relatively modern parts.
The color scheme is gray throughout the coat and hat, with the pants a familiar blue, looking a lot like COBRA Commander’s original uniform from the 80s and from the Sunbow series.
Accessories
There aren’t a ton of accessories here, with the RoC themed laser pistol (which fits in the holster) the backpack that originally came with Retaliation Lady Jaye, as well as a pair of Energon cubes. I will warn folks to be careful with the backpack. The straps are very thin, and one of mine snapped when trying to put it on Old Snake’s back.
The end result of the Old Snake figure is a pretty effective looking version of the classic future-COBRA Commander character that looks and moves the part.
Stealth B.A.T.
I’ve always had a weird relationship with Transformers. I’ve never been especially attached to the familiar G1 aesthetic, mostly because I collected them as a kid and their restrictive movements always left me frustrated when attempting to “play” with them as a youngster. As a result, while I was captivated by Transformers for a short period of time, it was a hobby that went out of vogue around the same time as Transformers: The Movie killed off all my favorite classic characters. Hasbro’s marketing scheme backfired in that case, and instead of being inspired to buy a whole new cast of characters on store shelves, I merely retired my Transformers collection and moved on to other things.
However, in the 90s my Transformers love was reignited by Beast Wars and in the years since I’ve collected most Transformers that jived with their animated appearances. I didn’t do the Energon trilogy stuff, but I did collect Transformers: Animated and Transformers: Prime. Because of my interest in Transformers: Prime, I was already familiar with the figure that the Stealth B.A.T. is based off of, Transformers: Prime Soundwave. As a Transformer that uses a Predator type drone as an alt mode, it makes a lot of sense in the G.I. Joe aesthetic. The Soundwave figure doesn’t necessarily look a lot like classic fans view Soundwave, so there’s no conflict there with the classic G1 universe.
The size of the figures works well, too, because they are a little larger than your standard G.I. Joe figure, but not so large that they fall out of scale (or out of the price range) of the collectors who want to buy them. As with most of the recent Transformers offerings, articulation is pretty great here, too, with nice knee, hip, and elbow joints. Clearly the Club is using deco to translate this figure to a B.A.T. type android, using the familiar black and yellow paint scheme with a semi-translucent red face mask, as we often saw in the Sunbow animated series.
The transformation is relatively straight forward for an inexperienced rookie Transformers fan like me, and both modes work pretty well. The Predator-style drone looks like it would fit within the aesthetics of the modern G.I. Joe universe, and would be an effective COBRA weapon even in vehicle mode. I could see the Stealth B.A.T.s being used in vehicle mode as surveillance, then transforming and attacking in a devastating new way in robot mode.
The small detachable mini drone is a cool touch, too. With the original Soundwave figure it was basically a Transformers: Prime version of Laserbeak. Here it’s a separate spy drone component that adds a neat new element to the figure and is also a cool (if perhaps unintentional) throwback to the old school Night Raven.
At the end of the day, the two Stealth B.A.T. figures look like somewhat oversized attack robots that you might find in the G.I. Joe universe, and the paint scheme works as a B.A.T. type offensive weapon, too. It’s a nice combination of base figure and paint scheme and adds some interesting twists to the Old Snake pack.
These Stealth B.A.T.s manage to be a nice combination between Transformers design and G.I. Joe aesthetics and is a really nice marriage between the two in both robot mode and alt mode. It’s a fun and flexible toy that works as a bridge between two universes, but also is just a flat out fun G.I. Joe themed action figure as well.
All in all, there are some great vintage homages here as well as some great new elements. Something that appeals to many different crowds. This set is expensive, to be sure, but I’m finding it surprisingly enjoyable and a neat new take on the typical G.I. Joe stuff.
Old Snake was a character that many G.I. Joe and Transformers fans have locked onto for the past nearly three decades, an obvious link between the G.I. Joe and Transformers franchises in the 80s. Along with a few other attempts over the last year, the Collectors Club developed a unique formula for Old Snake, also pairing him with two Transformers: Prime Soundwave repaints as Stealth BATs and the end result is actually quite impressive. A great mixture of parts gives us a very nice looking vintage inspired Old Snake, and the pair of Stealth BATs will appeal to G.I. Joe fans with their derivative paint scheme, but could also draw Transformers fans in as well. It’s a great pack of figures that does both franchises credit and adds some nice elements to each side of the aisle.
Along with the Old Snake/Stealth B.A.T.s 3-Pack, the Collectors Club sparks that G.I. Joe and Transformers connection with Marissa Faireborn, member of Earth Defense Command, and daughter of Flint and Lady Jaye. Pulled from her Transformers Season 3 animated appearance, this figure takes some great queues from that old school Sunbow look and brings in Afterbreaker (formerly Afterburner) member of the Technobots and her partner during some of her Season 3 adventures.
Along with Old Snake, Marissa Faireborn and the Earth Defense Command made that tenuous connection between the G.I. Joe and Transformers universes much less tenuous in the Sunbow days. As the daughter of Lady Jaye and Flint, Marissa was a direct correlation between the G.I. Joe universe of the 80s and the Transformers universe of the post-2005 third Season of the animated series.
As a pseudo futuristic story (taking place after the events in Transformers: The Movie) Season 3 had the opportunity to sort of continue that Sunbow universe that was started in years previous. As you can see from the video above, too, Marissa Faireborn was a pretty important character throughout much of the third season of the animated series, appearing in several separate episodes.
Like Old Snake, Marissa Fairborne uses purely existing parts, with the Cover Girl/Sparta head, Resolute Scarlett/FSS Jinx torso and arms, and Rise of COBRA Cover Girl legs. These are relatively modern parts and as such the articulation and sculpting look good, although like FSS Jinx, the neck does seem a little longer than correct human proportions might dictate. Also, my figure did have a little smudge of worn off paint on the nose, which is a bit disappointing, but not a huge deal.
Her paint scheme is pretty appealing, actually, leveraging the white and blue color scheme from her original appearance. She’s got a very neat and well applied EFD logo on her right shoulder as well. You don’t see many white figures these days, so the color really does stand out nicely.
Accessories
Looking at accessories, she comes with the JUMP jetpack in silver, with an ammunition hose connected to Arctic Destro’s freeze gun. The weapon looks fantastic as a more futuristic “laser” gun, I like that quite a bit. Unfortunately due to the long, sweeping hair, the jetpack and head position combination can be challenging, and if you want to move her head, you kind of have to reposition the jetpack to do it, which can be a bit of a pain. Marissa Faireborn also comes with a small laser pistol, a silver repaint of the Iron Grenadier laser pistol, too, finishing off her somewhat future oriented arsenal.
When doing some research on Marissa Faireborn, I was pretty surprised (and impressed) to see just how many times she appeared throughout the third season of Transformers. I hadn’t realized what a key player she was, and I’m glad to see her in action figure form. She most closely resembles her look from “The Killing Jar” I believe, eschewing the skirted look from Five Faces of Darkness.
Not knowing much about the Transformers angle on this particular set, I wasn’t sure where Afterbreaker fit in, but apparently the character (previously known as Afterburner) accompanied Marissa Faireborn on a hunt for reknowned smuggler Dirk Manus during the episode “Money is Everything” during the third season of the Transformers series.. As one of the Technobots, he was a gestalt combiner in the original toyline, but for obvious reasons is presented here as a non-transforming version of the character colored as a futuristic orange motorcycle, which fits the original toy and animation model pretty nicely.
Unfortunately, the motorcycle itself leaves a little to be desired. Based off the G.I. Joe: Retaliation motorcycle that Firefly came with, the vehicle is more or less a thick block of plastic with a launching third wheel. It’s a sturdy and playable toy that has some nice detailing in places, but is far from the high standard that G.I. Joe vehicles have achieved in recent years. That being said, to fall within the price point that the Club wanted to offer, I’m not sure if there were many alternatives here.
The variable orange color scheme looks pretty nice, and is relatively reminiscent of Afterburner (Breaker’s) vintage styling. I know there have been some vocal complaints out there regarding the lack of a transforming companion for Faireborn, but considering how much that would have likely raised the price, I can see where the Club was coming from here. There are options for transforming motorcycles out there, but not many of them are really in the G.I. Joe scale.
While Afterbreaker himself isn’t necessarily a highlight of the set, the combination of the two is cool enough, and I like the tie in to the Sunbow continuity. Marissa Faireborn herself has a great 80s aesthetic, and her animation consistent accessories (she flew a jetpack in the Five Faces of Darkness episode) are a really nice touch.
I wasn’t anticipating being a huge fan of this set, but I’m happy to say I was pleasantly surprised. Ultimately I prefer the Old Snake pack, but this one has its own fun elements as well.
Marissa Faireborn w/ Afterbreaker
Marissa Faireborn Character
Marissa Faireborn Sculpt
Marissa Faireborn Articulation
Marissa Faireborn Paint Deco
Marissa Faireborn Accessories
Vehicle Design
Vehicle Paint Deco
Vehicle Play Features
2.7
Summary
I was surprised to see just how prevalent Marissa Faireborn was in Season 3 of the Transformers series, and in a few of those episodes, her animated depiction is pretty close to what we see here. Figure construction is pretty good and while I’m not a huge fan of the G.I. Joe: Retaliation motorcycle, it makes for a decent futuristic bike to represent the Technobot Afterbreaker (AKA Afterburner). It’s a fun set with some neat accessories and cool paint deco and a great introduction to this shared G.I. Joe/Transformers universe.
