The Energon Pub

Sonic Bomber Core has posted these new images of an upcoming Transformers Legacy toy on Facebook. It is non other than Shadowstriker from the Cyberverse series and it us our first look at the figure. It is unclear if they are going for a faithful or G1-ified take since the show itself was very G1 based but what is clear is that it is innacurate in terms of composition. The theme of Shadowstriker was that she was a Frankenstein's Monster type of design with her alt mode and robot made up of various parts put together which was highlighted by her limbs having a different deco. Here however, it's all the same indigo colour. And we know this is supposed to be her after she's been experimented on since her eyes are asymetrical.


It seems she can use various parts of her alt mode as weapons and shields, making her resemble the RID Autobot brothers. You'll let us know what you think.

Good thing, I just saw this on Facebook.

To be exact, she resembles RiD 2001 Side Burn, and for a (good) reason:


Transformers BotCon Exclusives Shadow Striker Gallery

Pretty clearly a pretool for Legacy Speedbreaker/Sideburn, a mashup of her BotCon 2003 and Cyberverse incarnations, ala Skyquake. Now she just needs a slingshot, unless we're also getting a Buzzworthy repaint of a more recent Wheelie.

It's Legacy Prime Bulkhead and Knock Out all over again.

This is a figure for no one. It tries to be everything it possibly can be all at once, ultimately being none of them.

It wants to be Cyberverse Shadow Striker, but completely fails to do so from the neck down.

It wants to be Universe Shadow Striker, but instead has RID'01 Side Burn's blue/red/silver colors for some reason.

It even wants to be ROTF Shadow Striker with those red windows, but nobody asked for that.

It's basically Dragon Ball Evolution made manifest as an action figure.

william-james88 wrote:And we know this is supposed to be her after she's been experimented on since her eyes are asymetrical.

Her eyes were already assymetrical before she got rebuilt:



This new figure just has an identity crisis.

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:And we know this is supposed to be her after she's been experimented on since her eyes are asymetrical.

Her eyes were already assymetrical before she got rebuilt:



This new figure just has an identity crisis.

That's all fine and good (and true), but I like it.

And, honestly, why is she blue? Like, that's straight up just Side Burn's deco covering the majority of the figure. She won't have to be redecoed into Side Burn, she already IS Side Burn!

Sabrblade wrote:And, honestly, why is she blue? Like, that's straight up just Side Burn's deco covering the majority of the figure. She won't have to be redecoed into Side Burn, she already IS Side Burn!

It's not Side Burn blue, but it's not quite the Cyberverse color either:



I think someone needs to change the gamma and color balance on their monitor...

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:And, honestly, why is she blue? Like, that's straight up just Side Burn's deco covering the majority of the figure. She won't have to be redecoed into Side Burn, she already IS Side Burn!

It's not Side Burn blue, but it's not quite the Cyberverse color either:

It's closer to him than anything else, especially with all that red and silver too.

Hmmmmmm bit of a mixed bag
I like the headsculpt and alt mode, colors are fine I guess
Disappointed in the non Frankenstein

And the stupid roof shield for the sideburn pretool is annoying. The backpack is yuge. And that weird hammer weapon is uggo, gun is better

Will still probably get. She can be my GotG Nebula too

Clearly Sideburn directed most of this toy and its engineering and features, but they failed to go for the Botcon Shadow Striker look beyond the sideburn engine chest.

The car mode is pretty bad.

At the end, i have no attachment to any version of Shadowstriker, but i can see this failing to be any of the versions and just not working for fans of the character.

I am curious what they’ll do for side burn, because that car mode is terrible for him.

If we do get Sideburn out of this, that vehicle mode better be retooled. Looks nothing like a Viper.

Well that's unfortunate. Not a fan of making her "Cyberverse Shadowstriker" when it's "RID01 Sideburn, but painted to look like a currently popular character"

She is very much an amalgam of G1 and Cyberverse Shadow Striker. I could hope we get a Gen Selects Version of G1 Shadow Striker (and Roulette) from it, with a little minor retooling.

Another car bot with an awful car mode as much as I want Shadow Striker, this one isn't for me. Even RID reuses of her might be a skip when the car mode is going to be that offputting compared to the original toys -even if the bot modes were a bit janky. Hope she gets a RED release.

Looking at that Shadowstriker, everyone who never watched Cyberverse would NEVER know that she's female.
But as previous comments said, that's just a pretool/prepaint of what this mold will be really for, RiD Sideburn.

Is there a point to these pretools where only the head and nothing else ressemble the character it's supposed to be?
Appart "money", of course.

Well D-Max is gonna be upset.

Personally though, this works for me? I liked Cyberverse Shadow Striker alright as a character before but always thought her design was kinda generic except for her head, and I don't care at all about Side Burn or any of his repaints, so I'm actually cool with getting this as probably my only use of this mold (although I guess I'd maybe consider Roulette if she looks good enough and doesn't come in a 2-pack with the other Shadow Striker). I very much enjoy the roof kibble being removable so you can actually pose it convincingly as a shield instead of it just permanently hanging off the arm, and they nailed the head sculpt.

Not seeing the complaint about the color, maybe there's just some weird color receptor differences going on but to me that's definitely a dark indigo that leans more purple than blue.

Sabrblade wrote:It's Legacy Prime Bulkhead and Knock Out all over again.

This is a figure for no one.

I mean, I like this Shadow Striker as well as Bulkhead (& Prowl, & Skyquake, & Arcee), so I guess it's for people like me who care about the characters but aren't as invested in 1-to-1 media accuracy at all times.

I do agree that Knock Out is bad though, I was hoping to like him when I got him in hand and the alt mode (& paint job) is great, but the robot mode is just so not fitting for him and he can't really hold the spear in any convincing ways.

....in other news, I saw Prowl and Crosscut at Target a few days ago, thus marking the first time I've seen any Legacy Evolution Deluxes at mass retail, and I grabbed Shrapnel finally from a semi-local comic store, so I am caught-up on my desired retail Legacy purchases until I either find Scarr in a store in the coming months or my preorder comes in.

In OTHER other news, people are word-of-mouth leaking details about Bombshell now too, but I think I'm gonna wait for everyone to see Shadow Striker and put their two cents in before I drop that Bombshell rumor

I'm disinterested in Sideburn, so she'll stand out well enough on my shelf. I always like tbe story about her being the victim of Shockwave's experiments but it didn't make much sense, TBH. Shockwave generally does better work in terms of functionality and aesthetics.

I can also imagine that the story about a veteran being mutilated by a bomb and coming back as a frankenstein's monster frustrated by her physical limitations and bitter towards everyone might not go over well with everyone.

I'm not attached to the character nor the show it's from to really care one way of the other, it's a non buy from day one. I do feel it's a miss in terms of the character because that's one aspect I thought was interesting, her design, this figure doesn't do her justice at all. And it's a real shame that Hasbro can't afford more unique Bots given all the other built in repaints/reuse such as the case with all the Datsun releases. With so much reuse available for those types or even the simple repaints like DK-2 Guard, DK-3 Breaker all the Seekers etc. Surely a few one off Bots could be attainable without the need for an immediate reuse.

And especially now with how the core transformer bot can be reused and just have a different outer shell/car mode rather than having to design and tool all new for each one saves a lot of resources.

Yeah, really missed the mark here. G1 Shadow Striker could have been a Sideburn recolor, but that's not what they did here. Cyberverse Shadowstriker has a very interesting, patchwork design, but they didn't do that here either. So really, as someone else already said, this is a figure for practically nobody, since both designs were very different from each other and had very different selling points, and this figure does none of them. Hoping they at least retool the hood when they do Sideburn from this, the car mode doesn't look like his at all.

Welp, time to chime in. My opinions on the G1-ified figures thus far:
Prime Bulkhead: I for one am ALL for seeing non-G1 characters being made to fit the G1 aesthetic so long as they have the look of the character's spirit embodied in their design. Prime Verse Bulkhead is an amalgam of AOE Hound, Prime Bulkhead, and even Animated Bulkhead but in a G1-esq design. I know most don't particularly like it, but i genuinely love the figure and it's actually been one of the highlights of Legacy for so far. Would I have liked a more traditionally Prime look for Bulkhead (even though I actually preferred Animated Bulkhead to be honest)? Sure, but I still really enjoy the finished product.
Prime Arcee: Honestly a decent figure, but she probably suffers the most from the legs (what with the wheels just hanging there), the basic looking face (a facial expression more desirable would been appreciated), and the obvious pre-sculpting/reuse idea for Road Rocket. Her weapons/accessories either are basic with some fun or require a strong imagination for them to be anything viable. Honestly the bike mode is the better of the two.
Prime Knockout: Again, I think it's decent, but I feel the look only works with additional paint or Toyhax labels, as the base offering is very barebones. The spear weapon's execution is underwhelming but the biggest offender is Knockout's facial expression. It's one of the things I remember the most about Knockout, and seeing no smirk on the face was a major missed opportunity.
Prime Skyquake: Next to Bulkhead, I find Skyquake the most satisfying. I can easily tell who it is supposed to be and it carries the most important elements of the Prime character design whilst also harkening back to the original G1 figure's look. The only thing that bothers me about this one is his stability, (tricky with the feet) and the chest transformation. The instructions are useless and I had to look at certain videos on how to properly fold the nosecone so it actually locked in place.
Animated Prowl: Don't have him yet, but I can at least visually say he appeals to me with the only things bothering me being the bike modes gappy back look and Prowl's face expression. (Seriously should've swapped Knockout and Prowl's faces.)
Cyberverse Shadowstriker: I genuinely was excited for this one, since I really like Cyberverse Shadowstriker's look, but man, I think this is the most disappointing one for me so far. I guess it makes sense to make the mold look like RID Sideburn, since the 03 Botcon figure of Shadowstrip shared mold with it, so it homages multiple thing at once, but considering I don't like Sideburn's design to begin with, I feel it hurts the figure more than anything. The altmode is also...not very appealing. Love the headsculpt though.

Slashercon wrote:Welp, time to chime in. My opinions on the G1-ified figures thus far:
Prime Bulkhead: I for one am ALL for seeing non-G1 characters being made to fit the G1 aesthetic so long as they have the look of the character's spirit embodied in their design. Prime Verse Bulkhead is an amalgam of AOE Hound, Prime Bulkhead, and even Animated Bulkhead but in a G1-esq design. I know most don't particularly like it, but i genuinely love the figure and it's actually been one of the highlights of Legacy for so far. Would I have liked a more traditionally Prime look for Bulkhead (even though I actually preferred Animated Bulkhead to be honest)? Sure, but I still really enjoy the finished product.

Agreed.

Prime Arcee: Honestly a decent figure, but she probably suffers the most from the legs (what with the wheels just hanging there), the basic looking face (a facial expression more desirable would been appreciated), and the obvious pre-sculpting/reuse idea for Road Rocket. Her weapons/accessories either are basic with some fun or require a strong imagination for them to be anything viable. Honestly the bike mode is the better of the two.

I skipped her for continuity purposes, but got the mold on two other occasions. I like them - just don't need a G1-ized Arcee when I have G1 Arcee.

Prime Knockout: Again, I think it's decent, but I feel the look only works with additional paint or Toyhax labels, as the base offering is very barebones. The spear weapon's execution is underwhelming but the biggest offender is Knockout's facial expression. It's one of the things I remember the most about Knockout, and seeing no smirk on the face was a major missed opportunity.

Not particularly in love with this one, but don't hate it. I guess Agreed.

Prime Skyquake: Next to Bulkhead, I find Skyquake the most satisfying. I can easily tell who it is supposed to be and it carries the most important elements of the Prime character design whilst also harkening back to the original G1 figure's look. The only thing that bothers me about this one is his stability, (tricky with the feet) and the chest transformation. The instructions are useless and I had to look at certain videos on how to properly fold the nosecone so it actually locked in place.

I have it, but haven't opened it yet. Need to get on that. However, I feel like he's hitting all the right notes.

Animated Prowl: Don't have him yet, but I can at least visually say he appeals to me with the only things bothering me being the bike modes gappy back look and Prowl's face expression. (Seriously should've swapped Knockout and Prowl's faces.)

I want him now with the DNA kit coming out, but I dislike only the chin even though that's show accurate.

Cyberverse Shadowstriker: I genuinely was excited for this one, since I really like Cyberverse Shadowstriker's look, but man, I think this is the most disappointing one for me so far. I guess it makes sense to make the mold look like RID Sideburn, since the 03 Botcon figure of Shadowstrip shared mold with it, so it homages multiple thing at once, but considering I don't like Sideburn's design to begin with, I feel it hurts the figure more than anything. The altmode is also...not very appealing. Love the headsculpt though.

Give me this, give me Speedbreaker.

It's a win-win for me, it's a fine figure! I totally saw Sideburn within as soon as I saw this figure. I one of the few hope we get Sideburn from this....'nuff said!

I'm guessing Hasbro plans on getting a lot of mileage out of this mold (which is definitely a dark purple-ish blue on both my PC and phone, not Sideburn blue). This is the "Cybertron" version and I suspect there's another version with a rounded front for the car and both a Sideburn and female heads for "Earth" Shadow Striker and Roulette.

Probably some other stuff hidden in there, I wonder if there's a Cyberverse Blurr?




Looking forward to seeing what ToyHax does with Shadow Striker.

Emerje