Having been grossly disappointed by Hasbro's version of Sideswipe, and being curious to own at least one version of Stepper/Ricochet, I dug this set up on eBay more or less on a whim... But was it a good move..?
Packaging:
As I mentioned previously, I'm baffled by Hasbro's reluctance to release two-packs like this... They used to do a similar thing as recently as the Cybertron/Galaxy Force line though, to be honest, none of them particularly caught my interest as they tended to only include molds I didn't really want, and later sets tended to be carded rather than boxed.
Naturally, this box follows the same pattern as the others - cartoon imagery and product shots on the front and side, and a neat photographic action shot on the back. It's clean and simple, yet very eye-catching, and shows off the contents of the box very well. It is interesting that the main Hasbro TransFormers branding banner ends up behind both characters, and only on the sides of the box, but Takara Tomy typically have their own idea of priorities in these matters.
Sideswipe
Vehicle Mode:
Wow... The difference between this and Hasbro's version is clearly apparent from almost every angle. More red plastic has been used for the car shell, and the red paintwork is a much better match to the plastic, despite a sparkly, not-quite-metallic component. Coverage is that little bit more generous, disguising the trasnformation seams around the car doors, more clearly defining the canopy and the frames of the windows. All four headlights are painted in (though the smaller lights on the sides, just ahead of the front wheel wells were omitted), there's clearer - painted - definition between the bumper/side trim and the car body (both painted in a super-dark, sparkly charcoal paint), and the wide, red chevron on the front grill actually shows up on this version. Additionally, the wheels all have their 'Energon glow' rings, and the odd Chinese characters are more clearly defined due to a better choice of paint colour - a bold, slightly metallic pink, rather than a barely distinguishable red. Oddly, there's quite a significant mismatch between the position of the characters on the door section and their position on the rear wings. On one side, it seems only to be the angle that's wrong, but the other is well and truly out, to the extent that the very top of the character on the door lines up with its own crossbar on the rear wing. They've also included the character on the bonnet, just in front of the windscreen and before the code wheel sticker, though it's been shrunk considerably versus it's appearance on the TV show, just so it's not interrupted by the code wheel.
Sadly, like the Hasbro version, there's absolutely no painted detail on the rear end. It's a huge shame, because there's so much sculpted detail back there, and it really could have looked fantastic with just a touch of paint - even if only to the extent of the front, since that's fairly minimal, yet very effective.
Robot Mode:
Robot mode appears little different to Hasbro's version at first glance, but a closer inspection reveals a lot of additional - if minor - paint applications. The body looks far more accurate, broken up between the red chest, black/charcoal around the waist, along with the black/charcoal 'outlining' of his crotch, as well as having the additional gold/copper blocks poking out from the top of his hip skirts. The Chinese character is, again, far more defined on his chest than it was on Hasbro's version, and is complemented by a small Autobot insignia, as per the animation model. Similarly, the full kneecaps are painted black/charcoal, where Hasbro's version featured only strips of paint down the front face of each kneecap.
It could be argued that there's still quite a bit of paint missing - the chest should feature a representation of the smaller headlights from vehicle mode, but the detail isn't actually sculpted in, so it's no great loss. The hip skirts are still missing their cyan glow lines, there should be additional applications of the gold/copper paint on his biceps and inner thighs, the feet have only been painted on the top surface, so his heels are bare red plastic, and the cyan glow panel on the tarsal plates isn't painted in... but most of the omissions amount to pretty minor detailing, easily overlooked considering the improvements elsewhere.
Strangely, one of the biggest improvements to the paint job is on the head. While it also suffers from the nonsensical decision to mold the light piping in translucent smoky grey plastic, but then paint over the eyes with the usual Autobot cyan, and while the silver paint over the face is only a little bit neater, Takara Tomy went the extra mile and painted his eyebrows black and, unless I'm very much mistaken, there's also a touch of black paint in his mouth to inprove its definition. The only things they didn't do were painting in the two cyan glow lines toward the base of his quiff and adding some silver paint to his 'ears'.
The weapon, sadly, is idential to Hasbro's version - a crummy, unpainted black plastic katana with barely any sculpted detail... Given that Takara Tomy put a bit more effort into their Windblade, it's a shame to see Sideswipe lumbered with such a dull weapon but, admittedly, painting it silver probably would have been a bit too much... What's most puzzling about this weapon is that it's missing a lot of detail at the base of the blade, where it meets the hilt. According to the animation model, there should be an intricate, spiky, gold-ish section that's been omitted from the sculpt of this weapon.
Transformation and articulation are essentially unchanged from the Hasbro version. I'd hoped perhaps for a more secure transformation, particularly with the chest pegging onto the shoulders/front wings, but it's just as flimsy and prone to popping apart as the RID2015 version, tending to suggest it's a design flaw in the toy rather than just an issue with cheap materials. I do find getting this version back into vehicle mode is slightly easier - the front wings clip into place with far less awkwardness and resistance - though I can't see any obvious reason why that might be.
Stepper
Vehicle Mode:
As is traditional, TF Adventure Stepper - aka Ricochet - is a black repaint of Jazz with red, gold and cream-ish trim. Even with the greater contrast between the body of the vehicle and its headlights, the massive red and gold flame decal on the bonnet, the gold section of bumper and the gold and red lines down the sides... this vehicle mode still looks like a bulky training shoe to me... Only now, rather than looking like a bog-standard trainer, it looks like the bling-ed out sort worn by the more ostentatious rappers out there. The massive Autobot insignia on the middle of the bonnet then ends up looking like part of a marketing deal rather than a statement of allegiance for the character.
The paintwork on this thing is nothing short of beautiful - the flame decal on the front is huge, a far cry from the sticker on the G1 toy. It's cleanly painted and quite stunning to behold, and with all the paintwork on the front bumper, Stepper almost looks like a completely different car rather than being a simple repaint of an existing mold.. However, much like Sideswipe, above, and the TF Adventure version of Jazz, the back end is entirely unpainted - no indicator lights, no metallic paint for the protruding exhaust pipes, not even an Autobot insignia in the raised panel that's clearly intended to accommodate it. That just seems to be par for the course with this toyline, regardless of whether you're looking it Hasbro or Takara Tomy's output. It's also worthy of note that, where the G1 and TF United versions had the fireball/comet decals on the doors, this version simply continues the gold/red stripes from the rear wheel wells and spoiler. Given the proportions of the vehicle, I'm not surprised that the fireballs/comets were left off... but the striping didn't need to be extended over the doors.
I do have one gripe, in that the rear windscreen hasn't been painted silver to match the other windows. Considering it's painted on Jazz, and that the rear windscreen is actually a slightly recessed panel on the back of the canopy, it's surprising and extremely disappointing that it wasn't painted, though I suspect the overall paint coverage on this figure is higher than it was on Jazz, and I'm sure even Takara Tomy have their paint budgets...
As with Jazz, Stepper comes with the curious lance/sword weapon - apparently named a 'Nebulon Lancer' in reference to the G1 version's TargetMaster partner - this one molded in black plastic, with the bulk painted the same creamy white as the outer sections of his bumper. No surprise, it doesn't look any better mounted on his roof.
Robot Mode:
Stepper is never a simple inversion of Jazz's pattern of black and white parts, and there always seems to be a certain level of leeway in how it's all broken up so, while TF Adventure Stepper doesn't quite duplicate the look of G1 or TF United Stepper, he's just as instantly recognisable as Jazz. I think, on balance, Stepper comes out on top in terms of overall look - even with the Takara Tomy paint job, Jazz ends up fairly predominantly white, while Stepper looks a lot more varied.
Naturally, the flame decal ends up on his chest, bringing a dramatic burst of both colour and contrast. Much of his upper body below that is cast in the creamy-white plastic. The torso features a wide stripe of gold paintwork all the way down the centre of the belly (though much of this is covered over by the code wheel sticker or simply disguised by the overhanging chest) and he has a couple of red panels running down either side of this. The groin area is unpainted, but the predominant colour switches to black at the hips, while the shins and feet are covered with gold paint, and have blocks of red just below the kneecaps. It's a much more G1-faithful adaptation than RID2015/TF Adventure Jazz, who lost all the silver/chrome of the G1 figure.
As with Jazz, the weapon is ridiculous and awkward, never looking entirely like a melée weapon nor a rifle, but the change in colour between the grip and the business end at least makes it appear slightly closer to being the former. It's a shame TF Adventure Stepper doesn't include some sort of Mini-Con/Arms Micron, just for more of a reference to his G1 TargetMaster origins, but those RID2015 Mini-Cons that actually had weapon modes tended to be melée weapons rather than guns, so they'd have had to raid the Arms Microns from TF Prime to find a decent fit... and even then, this version of Stepper has to remolded parts, so he wouldn't have been able to mount a gun on his shoulder anyway...
Stepper features the same head sculpt as Jazz Battle Mode from the other two-pack, with the only changes being cosmetic - gold paint rather than blue on his helmet trim, and a metallic cyan visor - making it the most significant departure from the norm for this character. Traditionally, he'd have a white/off-white helmet and a gold face, so the way Takara Tomy have done the head makes him appear more like a variant of Jazz than a different character created from the same mold. Still, it's a great head sculpt even if the colours are objectively wrong...
Again, transformation and articulation are unchanged either from Hasbro's Jazz or even the TFAdventure version - all the changes to Stepper are entirely cosmetic, though it's based on the 'Battle Mode' version of Jazz with his traditional visor, the only reason I bought either version of this toy. With Stepper in hand, I almost wish I hadn't bothered with the TF Adventure version of Jazz, but the only way to get Drift Origin Mode was in the fifth (and, so far, final) TF Adventure two-pack.
As with VS05, the paint jobs on these two figures are vastly better than anything one could hope for from Hasbro, and both of them look great on display. They're also nice and simple to transform, making them ideal figures for younger collectors. I managed to pick this set up on eBay from a seller in Spain, for about £45 - strangely, that's about what you could expect to pay for an individual Takara Tomy figure at the moment - making it an absolute bargain, though I can't remember if that's more or less than I paid for VS05 at TFNation.
As with a lot of my RID/TF Adventure purchases, this one was a whim based mainly on sort-of liking the Hasbro figures, just being hugely disappointed with their paint jobs. Stepper is probably my favourite of the pair as he's an improvement even on TF Adventure Jazz, let alone Hasbro's lacklustre version. Sideswipe, even with a better paint job, is still a deeply flawed toy, but ends up being a better representation of the animation model nonetheless.
One can only hope that, in future, Hasbro/Takara Tomy will aim to design their toys first, rather than giving the concept artists and animators free reign, and then struggling to come up with workable toys based on CGI that doesn't even try to be physically possible in its transformation.
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