Well, yours truly has managed to snag hold of a Combiner Wars Victorion from
Hasbro Toy Show using that good ole 15% off May Mayhem code, and it even managed to arrive 30 hours after ordering. A great story, but one for another time.
Now, it is time to give the Rust Renegades a good pictorial review. Now, most of you will remember that our very own
Seibertron did a nice little
Video Review as well as his typical and fantastic
Gallery, but now it is time for a different type of review. We will be taking a nice pictorial review of the figure that I received today, and we will also bring up some important characteristics of the figure, such as some remolding, some neat little tricks, and a few issues to keep an eye out.
Alright folks, dudes and dudettes, ladies and gents, lets get rolling!
First up, We will investigate the Box and the extra little pieces of paper and posterboard:
That's right peoples, she not only has a massive box, but she comes with a collectors card, instructions, and a poster of herself with her individual bots in alt mode! (Well, except for poor old Rust Dust...)
Alright, now on to the alt modes:
Now, after looking at that, some thoughts:
Dust up to me feels like she could be the winner since, despite the several uses of the mold, besides Dead End I don't have this version of the mold, so it feels cool. I only wish some of her other issues did not exist, but we'll see those later.
Pyra Magna has some issues with the front of her firetruck mode as it won't level out, so the second set of wheels is almost always off the ground. But overall, not terrible. I just wish it leveled out and had some better plastic.
The twins are a choice treat. Yes, they are the coptor mode, but they feel a little bit different and nice, and I love their heads. One issue: Their legs peg together so snug that separating them is a bit scary.
Jumpstream has a bit of a roundish and weird looking head, but overall she is not bad. Mine came with some paint chips off the chest plate, but she transforms well, and may be the most fun one to transform.
Rust Dust may be a repaint, but she is still nice, and I like her, she makes me smile.
Robot modes:
Now, you may notice that the hands are hiding inside the feet. They actually slide in there pretty nicely too. In the images shown below, you can see how this works, but the hands have a little slot on the underside of the hand in the 5mm port that enables them to slide into the feet, and they stay very snug. Nice touch.
Now, for a quick peak at her fantastic new weapon, which is the combined mode of all 5 weapons seen previously:
And now for some combined mode:
This right here is her new chest detail without Rust Dust
Nice little trick here. I have seen several reviewers have the issue of the new coptor arms clashing, but there are 2 different tabs in the arms, so you can rotate them and peg them in like this, meaning that there are no clashing parts in combined mode
She has 2 different limb configurations. Here is the "Flight mode" with the coptor twins as the feet.
And gravity control mode, with the coptor twins as the arms
Dust up is a recurring issue, as her arm mode does not like to stay together unfortunately. If hse is still she won't separate, but if you move her, BAM! She will fall apart.
So, on to my final thoughts.
Box and bonus stuff: Works for me. The poster was a nice touch and I will hang it up somewhere, and the card shall join my other cards lying on my desk. Awesome art though, as per usual boxy stuff.
Pyra Magna: the plastic is very soft and not overly heavy, a major weak point. Her knees no longer want to tab in place and I'm scared to push any farther, and her left arm does not like combined mode. I do appreciate the heel spurs, a great improvement, and she does look good. Her new chest and head are also pretty good. I'd give her an 7/10, with the alt modes, left arm, and plastic quality issues letting her down.
Dust up: The weakest of the group. Alt mode drags the ground, the chest won't tab, and the roof scares me, not to mention sticking together in arm mode. But, she does look awesome, and the Nightbird head is amazing. So, 6/10. She is the one that I fear actually breaking.
Jumpstream: the best of the bunch to me. Decent head, transforms well, the hips are now far more solid than the original Breakdown and she has some nice new arms to go with the head. Plus, she rolls nice, and looks awesome with the axe weapon. 9/10, with the only losing points going to the nose piece.
Stormclash/Skyburst: I love me some twins, and they are no exception. The mirrored paint apps and the slightly different heads make them just different enough, and they transform nice, have new parts, and they make great limbs. They may be the best pair of limbs. 9/10 for both, the legs transformation being the only letdown, due to the scariness of potential breaking.
Rust Dust: Nice little repaint. she works, and she looks alright. tabs in better than Groove too, so 10/10 for what she is.
Victorion: the main event herself, and the best of the combiners in my opinion. The uniform color scheme is awesome and matches and makes her look like a big bot made from a cohesive team. And she has loads of paint, loads and loads of it. You will not get bored looking at the amount of paint apps. this is on par with club or Botcon exclusives! nicely done there. She also looks symmetrical and the new hands and feet are awesome, just wish the hands were a touch bigger. Now, I found that she is more balanced with the coptor sisters as legs, but you can go whatever route you want. It's combiner wars! Mix and Match! And her head, oh wow, it is big and detailed and lovely. she actually has eyes, and then the visor overtop! I really like that, and the detail on the crest is nice touch. Overall, I give her a 10/10 for what she is.
Now, you may be exhausted when you consider she is entirely repaints with some retooling, but she is still well worth it. She is uniform in paint and symmetry, has special new parts, some fantastic heads, and that sword! I'd recommend her, even if you have collected all the other combiner like I have. Take a look, and should you decide to leap: Hasbro Toy Shop still has that May Mayhem coupon, so go get her!
I hope you all enjoyed this review. Let us know what you think of this new gal in the comments section down below, and as always stay tuned to Seibertron.com for all your latest Transformers News and Galleries!
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Thank you! 
