General Information:
Release Date: October 2016
Price Point: $99.99 (Suggested Retail)
Retailer: Limited Exclusive (Amazon, Bigbadtoystore, Entertainment Earth etc.)
Accessories: Hands x 2, Feet x 2, Rifle (Scattershot), Blasters x 2 (Afterbreaker), Shotgun (Lightsteed), Drill (Nosecone)
Official images are from Amazon.com. Official text in italics are from Bigbadtoystore:
In the Combiner Wars, teams of Autobots and Decepticons combine to form giant super robots and battle with the fate of worlds in the balance. Computron is never wrong. Of all the Combiner robots, he is the most successful at merging the different personalities of his component bots. The Autobot processes input from each of Technobots and evaluates all possible outcomes to identify the perfect plan of attack.
Join the battle and build a Combiner super robot with this 7-in-1 Combiner Wars Computron Collection Pack. Get 6 Technobots figures that combine to form a Computron Combiner figure in this 1 set. The Voyager Class Scattershot figure forms the torso of the Computron Combiner figure; the Deluxe Class Afterbreaker, Strafe, Lightsteed, and Nosecone figures form the arms and legs; and the Legends Class Scrounge figure becomes a Combiner weapon.
The Combiner Wars universal connection system means these figures work with other Combiner Wars figures. Combine the Scattershot figure with other Deluxe Class Combiner Wars figures or combine Afterbreaker, Strafe, Lightsteed, and Nosecone figures with other Combiner Wars Voyager Class figures to build more Combiner super robot figures. (Additional figures are each sold separately.) The pack also includes 12 accessories, a Cybaxx mini space shuttle figure, a Combiner Wars poster, and a collectible Computron character card.
Packaging:
The packaging for Computron resembles the one used for G2 Superion. It is a huge rectangular box with a black background. The side features a vertical "Transformers" logo with the "Generations" logo above it. Most of the box's front features Computron's poster art. The other side features the poster and card art that is packaged inside the box. Below that are photos of all six team members in vehicle mode. The back features a large, vertical photo of the character with a write up about him. The individual character names are broken out along the top of the box with cropped images of each team member.
Like many "Combiner Wars" figures, Strafe is a retool and/or redeco of previous sculpts. Previous releases of this base sculpt include:
This review will focus on the changes made to this figure so check out the reviews above if you want my original thoughts on the base sculpt.
In my younger years Nosecone was the first Technobot I ever owned (Lightspeed came shortly after) so I grew quite attached to the character as he led many battles using his drill as a way to plow through enemies. Given his more cerebral nature in the animated series it was a sharp contrast that made the character even more appealing to me over the years.
Accessories:
The base Brawl sculpt was given a drill accessory in place of the cannon when the figure was released as General Ramhorn. This same drill would also go on to be used for the release of this sculpt as Drillhorn. This same drill accessory included with those two figures comes with this figure. The official transformation has the drill attached to the back of the turret section, which helps differentiate this vehicle form from previous iterations of this sculpt. The drill is cast in brown plastic with the cockpit section painted orange and the drill painted silver. It's pretty impressive that this accessory has gotten three different uses already with each one being appropriate to the characters involved.
Vehicle Mode:
Like his G1 counterpart Nosecone is a drill tank in vehicle mode. Technically you can attach the drill to the front or back of the turret and he looks cool either way.
When the designers created the deco for this figure it is clear they were using G1 Nosecone for inspiration. The turret section is cast in orange, which is roughly the same shade of orange as the top of G1 Nosecone's vehicle form. The body of the tank is brown plastic. The sides of the treads are painted black and the sides of the turret have red and silver Autobot symbols tampographed on them. Silver paint is found on the edges of the vehicle's front end. Each of these details call back to G1 Nosecone's colors but they also look great, with bright colors popping against the darker brown and black colors.
The drill can be moved up and down in this form. There are 5mm ports on the sides and the top of the turret to attach additional weapons.
Transformation to Robot Mode:
- Detach the drill and set it aside for now.
- Lift the turret up.
- Pull the front halves of the vehicle out, then swing them in to form the legs.
- Pull the sides of the vehicle's rear section out.
- Rotate the leg section around.
- Swing the rear of the vehicle up, then swing it back on the central hinge pieces.
- Swing the turret back.
- Swing the robot head up.
- Press the turret against the back.
- Rotate the arms down and extend the forearms out.
- Attach the drill to one of the fists or forearms.
Robot Mode:
In a rather disappointing move, the designers did not create a new head for this figure. Instead this mold uses Brawl's head (which winds up actually making this a unique combination of the Brawl head and drill weapon with this base sculpt). I get the need to keep costs down but unfortunately this head sculpt doesn't really work for Nosecone. It almost does in that the helmet section looks similar to G1 Nosecone's, but the face is too distinct, especially with Brawl's mouthplate to "substitute" for Nosecone's. I will give the designers credit where it's due: they tried to paint the head to look like G1 Nosecone's. The helmet section is painted yellow and his face is orange, just like G1 Nosecone.
Most of the robot mode is brown plastic including the arms and lower legs. The thighs are cast in a dark maroon like color seen on some of the other Technobots in this set. Like his G1 counterpart the lower legs have orange on the front. The silver from the vehicle mode winds up on his feet. There's also some silver on the forearms. The finishing touch is a tiny Autobot symbol on his chest. While not heavily based on the G1 Nosecone deco there are enough commonalities between the two that it's easy to tell who this is meant to be.
The joints on my copy of this figure are actually tighter than those on my copy of Brawl, which surprised me. For those who are wary of the odd hinged piece that forms the center of this figure, I hear you, it's still an odd design but at least it's tight and holds together well on this figure. His drill attaches just fine too.
Limb Modes:
For reference I am including the limb transformation instructions below. I will cover the functionality of the limbs in my Computron review where I review all the members of the team fully assembled.
Transformation to Arm Mode (Starting in robot mode):
- Swing the forearms against the upper arms.
- Push the head back.
- Pull the turret back.
- Swing the robot chest up.
- Swing the Combiner connector piece out.
- Push the turret piece in.
- Press the robot arms in.
- Swing the central hinge up.
- Press the lower legs together.
- Rotate the lower body around.
- Attach one of the fist pieces.
Transformation to Leg mode (Starting in robot mode):
- Swing the forearms against the upper arms.
- Push the head back.
- Pull the turret back.
- Swing the robot chest up.
- Push the robot arms against the chest piece.
- Rotate the waist piece around.
- Swing each lower leg up over the thighs.
- Swing the robot feet down and back.
- Push the turret piece in.
- Attach the drill to the turret.
- Attach the foot piece to the bottom of the leg.
Final Thoughts:
Nosecone is not one of the highlights of the set but he's not a failure either. He's a good toy, just not the best the designers could have done to represent Nosecone.
