General Information:
Release Date: March 2011
Price Point: $7.99 (varies depending on retailer)
Retailer: General (Toys R Us, Target, Wal-Mart etc.)
Accessories: None
*Text below and images from Transformers.com
Race into action with this fierce CHOPSAW figure! Press the button to reveal this figure’s robot allegiance and then prepare him for a battle. In robot mode, this fighter is as tough as they come. When it’s time to chase down his enemies, convert him to chopper vehicle mode so he can “tear up the streets” in hot pursuit! Ages 5 and up.
Most of the "Reveal the Shield" line thus far has been made up of new sculpts, but there are some redecos tossed in here and there. One of the more storied ones is Chop Saw. It's not so much the character (since he's new), but who he came with in the same wave. The Autobot Windcharger was part of the same wave that Chop Saw came in, and this wave in particular was very hard to find. Being a redeco, not as many people went after Chop Saw but that did not make him easy to find in stores. The few online venues that sold him charged a premium, with some stores going as high as $18.99 for a figure that would normally be $7.99 in stores.
Chop Saw is a redeco of Hunt for the Decepticons Brimstone with no retooling. This review will focus on the changes made to the figure for this release. For more details on the sculpt and design, read my Brimstone review.
Robot Mode:
With so much of the Brimstone sculpt's robot mode being made up of the machinery and joints of the vehicle mode, it's no surprise that any color chosen for those parts dominates the toy. This time out, the silver color found on Brimstone has been replaced with a flat, grey color with a yellowish tinge. The metallic blue parts on Brimstone are metallic violet on Chop Saw while all the parts that were black on Brimstone remain so (including the hands and the wheel in the center of his body). This color combination works nicely and definitely serves to distinguish Chop Saw form Brimstone. Sure they're both brightly colored, but in very different tones.
Green, silver, yellow and violet are the paint colors used on this figure. Yellow is no surprise as the purple to violet plus yellow color scheme has been used before on figures like Armada Sideways. Unlike Brimstone, there are no flames here, just stripes found on his upper body, arms and legs. The green is used for his beady little eyes and silver makes up most of his face. Violet paint is used on his thighs, where it joins yellow to fill in some details while giving the grey plastic some much needed color. Thanks to the strength of the sculpt, it cannot be said that Chop Saw is boring looking in any way. The colors are dynamic and contrast well against each other and I still love the oddball unconventional sculpt. He looks fantastic. on the top of the chest is the heat sensitive rub symbol.
All of Chop Saw's joints are tight so no worries about the tooling going bad just yet (and on only the second use of the sculpt, there shouldn't really be such issues anyhow.
Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
- Connect the two legs together by using the tab and clip on the insides of the lower legs.
- Turn the robot head around.
- Swing the legs along with the black seat piece up onto he front of the figure, covering the robot head.
- Fold the robot legs in, tucking them to form the engine.
- Swing each of the robot hands in.
- Swing each of the robot arms forward at the shoulders.
- Swing the black seat piece on the back down.
- Swing each of the sections the arms are attached to back and connect them together.
- Connect the saw blade weapon pieces together to form the front wheel of the motorcycle.
- Connect the panels with the robot hands together and swing them up over the front wheel.
- Swing the handlebars on the back up.
Vehicle Mode:
The vehicle mode is a consolidation of the parts from the robot mode, allowing for the violet parts from the robot mode to come together and truly shine. The front wheel cover, the middle section and the rear of the vehicle all have strong, bold violet sections on them in this form. The yellow stripes also come together here quite prominently. I am going to "ding" my particular figure a bit for a bit of sloppy paint work where some of the yellow paint was accidentally brushed onto the side of the panel that covers the front tire. My Chop Saw that is on card does not have this issue, so it's not a line wide problem from the looks of it.
Gold paint is used to color the headlight and the seat is cast in black, just like on Brimstone. In contrast to Brimstone who has a bright, but "cooler" color tone, Chop Saw is bright but almost feiry looking thanks to the brightness of the violet color.
Chop Saw rolls on his wheels without a problem in this mode. All the joints used in the course of his transformation are nice and tight and there are no bits of flash or anything else that would get in the way of a smooth transform.
Final Thoughts:
Chop Saw is an unexpected but neat little treat to find in this wave of figures. He has a great sculpt and cool colors. My only reservation is the sloppy paint job on the front end (who knows? maybe there's another few out there in cases of these figures). Other than that, I can happily recommend this figure.
