...And yet, instead of a bright yellow Viper, we got a black Viper with silver stripes, and the Binaltech line's first Decepticon: the former Stunticon, Dead End. Deprived (for a time, at least) of Sunstreaker and instead lumbered with a Decepticon who wasn't even released in the right colourscheme, the only ray of hope seemed to be that the line had already repainted molds, so a later repaint of this figure as Sunstreaker was surely inevitable (and arrived about a year later).
So let's take a look at this bonkers entry in the series...
Vehicle Mode:
Well, it certainly can't be denied that the Dodge Viper Competition Coupé looks great in black. I'm not sure precisely what the silver stripes add, but there's a pair of them and they run the full length of the vehicle, from the front grille (though they start above the very bottom of the bumper) to the exhaust slots at the back, running over the large spoiler and behind the numberplate along the way. All of the translucent plastic has a pinkish tinge that's not quite red enough to appear menacing, or even to make the tail lights look convincing, which is a bit of a shame. The front and rear windscreens look particularly odd, since the Binaltech line was supposed to reflect 'real world' cars, and I suspect these would not be street legal (in the UK, at least).
I still think it looks fantastic, to be honest. The colourscheme is more 'Nemesis Sunstreaker' than Dead End - the original having been a metallic burgundy with yellow and silver stripes running down one side of the bonnet, roof and boot. I'm assuming this colourscheme was down to the licensing deal made with Dodge over the use of their vehicle, and that this is more or less one of the paint jobs they offer on the stock vehicle because, otherwise, it's pretty poor going from Takara. Then again, the SRT-10 version used for Sideswipe looks more like the original toy's Porsche 928 vehicle mode anyway...
The front two thirds of this vehicle are identical to BT Sideswipe, with the major changes being an entirely new rear section - squarer, and with a large spoiler - and a solid roof with rear windscreen. The former initially raised my hopes that the boot would actually open on this mold but, sadly, this was not to be. Curiously, the boot door is actually a separate piece of plastic from the rest of the rear end shell piece and, if you look inside, it's even hinged as if it should open... but it's fixed in place at the back and is just as immobile as if it were a single piece like Sideswipe's rear. The roof and rear windscreen are a single piece, with the sculpted petrol cap painted silver against the surrounding glossy black, and little rivet details lining the rear windscreen. The roof also features a raised scoop detail, like the one at the front of the bonnet on both cars. Like Sideswipe, he also has a personalised number plate, reading simply "Dead End" with the two words separated by a Decepticon insignia. This feature was applied pretty inconsistently in the Binaltech line, but the majority do seem to have vanity plates with something approaching their name displayed.
Smaller changes between the first two Vipers, though no less significant, are the enlarged exhaust pipes in front of the rear wheels, and their riveted surrounds, as well as the entirely redesigned hubcaps on all the wheels. Even the interior has been changed, with additional detail along the dashboard, some of which has been picked out with silver paint.
The engine/weapon, meanwhile, is identical to that packaged with Sideswipe - fully chromed, with red paint down the sides of the main bulk featuring the 'VIPER' logotype.
Robot Mode:
There are some immediately visible problems with the alterations made to this mold for the new vehicle shell. First and foremost, the chest looks as though there's a part missing - largely because there is, since the soft-top section on Sideswipe no longer exists on this version - and the backpack now sticks out even further on his back due to its extra bulk and the spoiler running its full width. There's also the matter of the rear windscreen - folded up into the boot of the car, but still very much visible behind Dead End's head.
The mismatched paint job carries on in robot mode, with the vast majority of his body ending up black, and barely a hint toward G1 Dead End's die-cast chest or tech detail stickers. Also, where Sideswipe's chest tabs neatly onto his windscreen belly, creating a cohesive torso, Dead End's chest slots in behind the windscreen belly, but remains loose. There's a large silver panel in the middle of it, which features his Decepticon insignia, and extends in strips toward his shoulders. The upper strips also feature a peculiar purple stripe - a colour that is otherwise only used on his kneecaps. The legs and feet are molded in black plastic, but embellished with gold, silver and red paint applied to various panels and details, while the arms are mainly red from the bicep section down, with only the elbow joints and hands molded in black. At the elbow, the forearms have a line of gold paint applied around their circumference... and it looks like a mistake - it would have made more sense applied to his cuffs. Mostly obscured by the windscreen, the groin area features applications of gold paint linking with the gold on his upper thighs, and silver for the central bulk.
My biggest complain about this version of the mold is the fact that the chest looks unfinished. Even with the paintwork, it looks like there's a piece missing, and the two exposed screws end up looking like robo-nipples. It might have worked better had there been some sort of tech detailing sculpted into the backs of the seats, around the screws, rather than just that bare silver panel in the middle of a largely featureless block but, frankly, the best solution would have been an additional part that covered the screws with the necessary tech detailing and pegged into the windscreen.
Unsurprisingly, the weapon packaged with this figure is identical to Sideswipe's - the same chrome, the same labelling on the sides, and the same fit in the hands. This is probably the most unfortunate element of the Binaltech series, since repaints in the mainline would sometimes (not often, maybe) have unique weapons... but, due to the fact that the weapons on these figures are almost always a component of the vehicle, and usually its engine, these gorgeous chrome relics end up looking even more samey.
The head sculpt is, for me, one of the worst the Binaltech line had to offer. It's just the wrong side of the fine line Binaltech ran between looking robotic and looking like the G1 cartoon, only chubbier. The helmet in particular reflects everything I loathe about the G1 animation models, in the way they misinterpreted details present on the toys. Rather than being mounted within a frame (which, admittedly, may not have been possible given his transformation) the helmet has unsightly, angular 'ears' attached and, while there are hints of a samurai helmet to the overall silhouette of the head, it looks ugly and silly to my eyes, where G1 Sunstreaker's head looked simplistic but cool. Add to that, the face is simultaneously chubby and flat, with huge bags under the eyes which, though fairly appropriate to a Decepticon, just wouldn't look right on Sunstreaker. About the only thing here that resembles G1 Dead End is the use of gold paint on the face.
Transformation is broadly identical to Sideswipe except that, as mentioned above, the chest doesn't peg together - it's held in place mostly by gravity - and there's a rather more bulky backpack which the rear windscreen doesn't quite fold into... There's actually no practical reason for that part to even be hinged, considering how little difference it makes to fold the windscreen into the backpack. Given that the mold was clearly intended to be for Sunstreaker, it's disappointing that there's no real reference to the backpack the G1 character had, with the souped-up engine parts sticking up and the spoiler hanging off behind... All it needed was a bit more effort - and a bit more actual transformation - put into the backpack.
Originally, I'd planned not to bother with any of the Binaltech Decepticons... It seemed daft to me that a line seemingly tailor-made for rebooting the G1 Autobots should include any Decepticons in the first place and, if Dead End was anything to go by, they were all going to be 'mispaints' of Autobots that we were then going to lose out on (at least until Hasbro repainted them in the Alternators line). In retrospect, I'm not entirely sure why I ended up buying Dead End, and it may have been the result of some kind of OCD after picking up another Binaltech Decepticon (Swindle, for example, made some sense... and Shockwave just looked awesome). The Viper wasn't one of the better molds in the line, and this is a hugely disappointing repaint/remold.
No comments:
Post a Comment