General Information:
Release Date: Second Quarter 2008
Price Point: $4.99 (varies depending on retailer)
Retailer: General (Toys R Us, Target, Wal-Mart etc.)
Accessories: None
Text from Hasbrotoyshop.com:
Team up with AUTOBOT forces and take on the DECEPTICON adversaries! This quick conversion figure is ready for action and prepared for whatever adventure is in store! Battle even the mightiest opponents in robot mode and then convert the figure to mobile race car vehicle mode and roll out!
Tech Specs:
| Strength: 5 | Intelligence: 7 | Speed: 8 | Endurance: 5 | Rank: 7 | Courage: 7 | Firepower: 7 | Skill: 8 |
When it was announced that the popular Classics line would live on as "Universe", several previously released Cybertron Legends figures were given new decos as G1 characters. Cybertron Legends Hot Shot was chosen to be recolored into Red Alert, the G1 emergency vehicle. In the original Transformers series, Red Alert was a Lamborghini with emergency lights added on top. This made using the sleek form of Hot Shot a good (and interesting) choice to redeco into Red Alert. This review will focus on the changes made to the figure for this release. For a more detailed look at the figure, please read the review for Cybertron Legends Hot Shot.
Robot Mode:
No retooling was done to this figure, so all of the changes are cosmetic. The plastic color swap on this figure was very simple. The blue plastic on Hot Shot has been replaced with white. His black (wheels) and red plastic parts (spoiler wings, shoulders and thighs) remain. For the most part, the designers used the same color scheme in robot mode. Black and red paint are used for the detail work. His visor and face are both painted red while his chest and waist are painted in black almost in the exact same pattern as Hot Shot. The only difference is that the section with the Autobot symbol on his chest has a white background behind the tampographed Autobot symbol. At first I thought the white plastic had simply been left unpainted, but in fact it's painted a glossy white with the Autobot symbol on top.
While these colors may seem rather plain, they actually fit in with the colors of the original Red Alert, which were primarily black, white and red. The shoulders and legs remaining red really help break the potential monotony of the white color. My only disappointment is that the face was not painted silver as it was on Hot Shot. That would have looked a lot nicer.
Vehicle Mode:
Whereas Red Alert's vehicle mode is very similar in color pattern to Hot Shot, the vehicle mode is completely different and it seems the designers wanted to put most of their deco efforts behind this form. Metallic blue and red paint colors are used to provide detail in this form. The windshield and side windows are painted metallic blue (as opposed to Hot Shot's gold color). The hood is painted red with a large Autobot symbol in the center. The red goes from the front of the car and wraps to the sides. On each door is a shield symbol, something G1 Red Alert had as well. My favorite paint detail is a bit of red used on the front portion of his engine section on the top of the vehicle. The way it is colored, with a slight "U" shape, it looks a lot like this was meant to be the "siren" for this emergency vehicle.
Final Thoughts:
This is a nice little redeco. It's nothing extraordinary and it is a sculpt that has been released two times previous to this. I would mildly recommend this for most people unless you missed the sculpt the first couple times around. Those who enjoy G1 style redecos should definitely pick this one up.
