Video review of Studio Series SS-78 RotF Sideswipe

Jolt is looking great, very excited to get ahold of it. Sideswipe looks snazzy too, I like the darker plastic color with the added silver paint in bot mode. The lack of headlights is pretty weird though.

william-james88 wrote:Is that a new headsculpt on Sideswipe?

I think it’s the same sculpt but with some new silver paint. The paint does make a lot of difference, though!

Kinda prefer the original, probably because of the smaller backpack and a spoiler on the car -plus I'm using it as WFC Rid steeljaw anyways.

JazztfLaw wrote:As much as I love the ROTF vehicle mode, it still suffers from past figures of this form... the ugly backpack. Best thing that could've happened to, Sideswipe, was becoming a convertible.

Agreed

Jazz really does make the best travel companion. this little dude is still my favorite SS figure. and he has the honor of maybe being the highest in altitude transformer ever photographed? 41,000 feet!

Great pics, D-max! Really like the outdoor pics.

Brought a few figures with me to my new place, Evasion Prime isn’t Studio Series but he does scale nicely with them! These are some of my favorite figures:


I also brought Thundercracker and Scrapper as future customs projects while I’m here.

I’ve been looking for Grindor around here but have been unsuccessful so far. Haven’t seen any Studio Series between 3 Targets and 3 Walmarts now. . .

Autobot Roadburn wrote:Had a really weird find at Target today - I finally tracked down a Studio Series Grindor today and only realized after I picked it up - it wasn’t Grindor. As far as I can tell, the box is still sealed, the plastic ties are still in place and the tray has Ravage in his spot, so this is either the most skilled and elaborate toy swap I’ve ever seen or the factory tossed an old wave one Blackout in the box. I’m still pretty confused right now

My bet is on a toy swap. If you are careful enough you can cut a piece of tape the same size to go over the one you cut when opening. In theory the ties can be removed carefully with tweezers from the back of the clamshell to free the figure and in theory replaced the same way from the front but it is REALLLY hard to do.

Now, to be clear, I am not some shady toy swapper. I'm just OCD and at one time (years ago) tried saving all the packaging, even the ties to be able to put them back to almost new condition. The difficulty of messing with those ties changed my thinking really quick. So my bet is on a toy swapper with an incredible amount of patience and skill.

Ig89ninja wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Autobot Roadburn wrote:Had a really weird find at Target today - I finally tracked down a Studio Series Grindor today and only realized after I picked it up - it wasn’t Grindor. As far as I can tell, the box is still sealed, the plastic ties are still in place and the tray has Ravage in his spot, so this is either the most skilled and elaborate toy swap I’ve ever seen or the factory tossed an old wave one Blackout in the box. I’m still pretty confused right now

My bet is on a toy swap. If you are careful enough you can cut a piece of tape the same size to go over the one you cut when opening. In theory the ties can be removed carefully with tweezers from the back of the clamshell to free the figure and in theory replaced the same way from the front but it is REALLLY hard to do.

Now, to be clear, I am not some shady toy swapper. I'm just OCD and at one time (years ago) tried saving all the packaging, even the ties to be able to put them back to almost new condition. The difficulty of messing with those ties changed my thinking really quick. So my bet is on a toy swapper with an incredible amount of patience and skill.

It’s actually easier than that to open SS boxes, you just have to carefully unfold the flaps at the bottom and then fold them back when you’re done (not a toy swapper, just like reusing boxes for cityscapes.)

Oh duh, how could I have forgotten that. I learned that the hard way paying extra for a packaged version of Ratchet from a Chinese eBay seller last year, when it was obviously a factory defect shoved into a new box. That was the 1 and only time I tried a Chinese eBay seller.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Autobot Roadburn wrote:Had a really weird find at Target today - I finally tracked down a Studio Series Grindor today and only realized after I picked it up - it wasn’t Grindor. As far as I can tell, the box is still sealed, the plastic ties are still in place and the tray has Ravage in his spot, so this is either the most skilled and elaborate toy swap I’ve ever seen or the factory tossed an old wave one Blackout in the box. I’m still pretty confused right now

My bet is on a toy swap. If you are careful enough you can cut a piece of tape the same size to go over the one you cut when opening. In theory the ties can be removed carefully with tweezers from the back of the clamshell to free the figure and in theory replaced the same way from the front but it is REALLLY hard to do.

Now, to be clear, I am not some shady toy swapper. I'm just OCD and at one time (years ago) tried saving all the packaging, even the ties to be able to put them back to almost new condition. The difficulty of messing with those ties changed my thinking really quick. So my bet is on a toy swapper with an incredible amount of patience and skill.

I’d assume that’s most likely what happened. Either way if it was replaced it was really well done and I’m surprised they bothered leaving Ravage in the box. Oh well, I’m probably gonna return it then and try to find an actual Grindor

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Autobot Roadburn wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Autobot Roadburn wrote:Had a really weird find at Target today - I finally tracked down a Studio Series Grindor today and only realized after I picked it up - it wasn’t Grindor. As far as I can tell, the box is still sealed, the plastic ties are still in place and the tray has Ravage in his spot, so this is either the most skilled and elaborate toy swap I’ve ever seen or the factory tossed an old wave one Blackout in the box. I’m still pretty confused right now

My bet is on a toy swap. If you are careful enough you can cut a piece of tape the same size to go over the one you cut when opening. In theory the ties can be removed carefully with tweezers from the back of the clamshell to free the figure and in theory replaced the same way from the front but it is REALLLY hard to do.

Now, to be clear, I am not some shady toy swapper. I'm just OCD and at one time (years ago) tried saving all the packaging, even the ties to be able to put them back to almost new condition. The difficulty of messing with those ties changed my thinking really quick. So my bet is on a toy swapper with an incredible amount of patience and skill.

I’d assume that’s most likely what happened. Either way if it was replaced it was really well done and I’m surprised they bothered leaving Ravage in the box. Oh well, I’m probably gonna return it then and try to find an actual Grindor

I bet we'll eventually see someone even more skilled and shady leaving behind a Grindor with Blackouts hands after doing a hand swap instead of the whole figure.

Oh dear god I hope not lol. I’ve had a hard enough time finding these things as it is. I did manage to find the Netflix Primal and Rattrap set though so it wasn’t a total bust.