Typically, while the Omnibots appeared in the pack-in advertising leaflets in UK toys, they weren't actually available in Europe. I wasn't overly fussed at the time, as none of the Omnibots looked particularly special, but I have to admit I'd be quite keen to get my hands on them now, as an adult collector.
But here we have the Binaltech version... which is surely a vast upgrade on the original, even though it's not a Ferrari, right?
Vehicle Mode:
I have to admit, I don't really rate Honda as a manufacturer of cars. Motorbikes, sure. Even diminutive bipedal robots, but cars? And yet, for whatever reason, they graced the Binaltech/Alternators lines with two different cars: the Civic (a phenomenally dull choice for the Decepticon street punk Rumble), and this rather sportier little number. The S2000 is very definitely no Ferrari 512 Berlinetta Boxer, but it's actually one of the prettier cars in the Binaltech line, and far outshines the Civic. It really tries to be sporty, even seeming to emulate the serpent-like countenance of Lambor's Dodge Viper to an extent, but it just doesn't exude the same level of raw power, and looks comparatively compact.
Further similarities to Lambor are present in his overall look, in addition to his colourscheme and the fact that he's a convertable sports car. The front end is split down the middle of the bumper, but the bonnet remains a single piece, and one look under the bonnet reveals a very familiar arrangement of the robot's leg parts. However, where Lambor was permanently open-topped, Overdrive is packaged with an alternative part to plug in behind the seats, which gives him a plastic rendition of a soft-top, complete with a transparent rear 'window'. Meanwhile, the back end of the vehicle is perhaps more like Tracks, albeit with seams in the rear bumper indicating that his arms are right there, rather than concealed within the shell of the car. It's all tidily done, and there are very few visible seams... but it's immediately obvious that what we have in Overdrive is a refinement of previous Binaltech figures.
This model really excels in some of the finer details, but others are somewhat fudged. For example, the headlights are quite intricately sculpted and the indicator lights are painted in separately from the chromed backing within the colourless transparent plastic shell. Conversely, the tail lights are individually sculpted circular details, with the lamp areas painted red and orange within the overall silver-painted backing, which doesn't looks quite so convincing as neither paint colour seems dense enough. The additional brake light, mounted across the top edge of the boot lid, is molded in translucent red plastic and looks far better. The side indicator lights are separate pieces of translucent orange plastic protruding through the front wings of the car, just in front of the S2000 badge. However, they just look black from the side because light can't easily pass through them unless the bonnet is open. It doesn't get everything right, and some of the choices are downright goofy - such as the closed-off exhast pipes and the use of silver paint, rather than chrome, on the wheels. Also, the Honda logos on the front and rear are on raised 'badge' panels, but the logo itself is not raised... I have to assume that made it easier to stamp the silver H logo on there, but it does feel a little cheap or cheaty. Overdrive's numberplate follows the same pattern as Grimlock and Meister - Autobot insignia on the left half, truncated name - in this case 'OVRDRV' - on the right half.
The interior of the car is pretty well done, with red paint on the seats and on the interior door panels. The dashboard looks pretty minimal compared to some of the other Binaltech cars, and none of the details are picked out with paint apart from the tiny knob on the top of the gearstick. It's also worth noting that, unlike both Lambor and Tracks, Overdrive's seatbacks can fold forward independently of the car framework behind them, since that's actually a step in transformation, allowing the boot section to fold over the top of the car's interior. Probably the cutest feature of this entry into the Binaltech franchise is the little rubber nub sticking out on the rear wing, representing the car's aerial. I'm assuming all the other cars used in the line either have their aerials built into the shell of the car itself or that they're fully retractable, as this is the first time a significant protrusion has appeared, and certainly the first time it's been a separate, rubber part.
Overdrive's weapon follows the usual pattern of being disguised as the engine and stowed neatly under the bonnet, but with a strange new twist. There's a panel behind the engine that tucks down through a hole in the floor of the car, then the gun's super-long barrel folds back along the underside of the car as an approximation of the car's driveshaft. The fact that it stops dead about an inch short of where the driveshaft would connect to the rear axle isn't especially problematic as one wouldn't normally display a car with the underside on show... but it angles down very slightly, so Overdrive barely has any ground clearance at its tip. Part of the problem is that the engine block itself doesn't tab into anything in the front compartment and, since the whole unit ends up back-heavy, it tends to droop... but this could also have been corrected with a better clipping system on the underside of the car. The weird thing is that there are two slots on the underside, right where I'd have expected a second driveshaft clip to be, . Since I haven't found signs of another clip being present on any other iteration of this mold (either Hasbro's Alternators Windcharger or Decepticharge, or Takara Tomy's Binaltech Arcee) this suggests a part present during development of the model may have been removed from the final product.
The only thing that lets this vehicle mode down is the slight mismatch in colour between the red plastic parts and the painted die-cast metal parts... which immediately highlights one of the ways the Binaltech line was already changing just a year after its arrival: in any of the first year's vehicles, the plastic would have been painted to match the die-cast parts. No doubt a cost-cutting measure, but disappointing, whatever the reason.
Robot Mode:
Overdrive's debt to both Lambor and Tracks is no less apparent in robot mode, but sense of improvement is perhaps a little misleading. Everything here is far tidier than either of those predecessors, leading to a slimmer, cleaner-looking robot mode. Granted, he has the car's entire rear wings as his shoulders, an they're quite cumbersome... but they're very much slimmed-down versus Tracks. His arms, from the bicep down, are well handled, and his legs are surprisingly slender given that they transform in much the same way as Lambor's, and have the car doors hanging off them. It's certainly an improvement on Tracks, where the entire shell of the front of the car was hanging off his calves and the doors were attached to the windscreen hanging off his backside. In many ways, he almost looks like an upscaled Classics toy, perhaps derived from the Sunstreaker/Sideswipe mold.
While he looks remarkably clean from the back - except around the shoulders and upper arms - having the car's bonnet running up his back does leave the windscreen and dashboard as the robot's rather awkward derriere... which would surely make sitting down a bit of a problem for him. That said, given the bizarre proportions of his legs - the thighs being barely a third the length of his shins - that might be the least of his problems when it comes to sitting down.
There is a certain hollowness to Overdrive - move his arms out of the way, and you can see right through his torso. The exposed inner parts on the backs of the upper arms are basic structural plastic rather than mechanical detail, giving the impresstion that this model wasn't quite finished. Additionally, there's quite a void around the lower part of the knee joint, and the lower legs don't fasten into their robot mode configuration, so the inner calf panels rattle a little, both on their own hinges and due to the halves of the steering rack folded up within.
Considering most of the other Binaltech figures thusfar have kept the majority of their vehicle modes on show in robot mode, it's interesting to see the extent of added detail which is unique to robot mode... though it's actually still not much. The chest features a panel of simple detailing, painted silver and incorporating a large Autobot insignia in the middle, while the belly features even simpler detail, all tagged on to the insides of the vehicle shell. The shins feature sculpted and painted detailing which is designed to evoke the car's steering mechanism, but which works equally well as mechanical innards of the robot's legs. The arms and upper legs are more in keeping with the simplified, armour-panelled look of other Binaltech figures, and the only paintwork is a couple of touches of red paint just above the knee joints. The groin area features silver paint on the panels either side of the driveshaft slot (which, itself, is a strangely unsettling centrepiece for the robot's groin) with dots of red above the thighs to complement the red paint above the knee joints.
While my decision to collect Binaltech figures rather than their Alternators analogues is somewhat vindicated by the 'complete' weapon wielded by Overdrive, it's not without problems. The gun barrel is almost comically long, to the point where it feels as though it should have been able to split, or reconfigure somehow, not least because it's inclined to droop under its own weight due to the hinge at its base. Perhaps worse than that, the engine panel is marginally longer than Overdrive's forearm, so the elbow of whichever arm is wielding the weapon can no longer fully bend. Sure, the hinge at the back of the engine panel means it can bend upward, out of the way, to better accommodate the elbow, but then the gun starts to look even stranger. Still, it's better than the neutered Hasbro Alternators version, which was apparently referred to as a shield. That seems even more strange given that this mold was released as Windcharger in the Alternators line - the engine could have been something to do with his electromagnetic powers...
Along with his mighty handgun, Overdrive's plastic 'soft top' can be plugged into either forearm via a 5mm port and a peg on the underside of the roof. It seems a bit strange for a giant robot to be carrying a shield made out of flexible textiles supported by hinged metallic ribs, and with a clear PVC rear window... but it could be argued that it's a high-tech Kevlar-derivitive, or some flexible Cybertronian polymer that happens to deflect or absorb laser fire. Either way, the sculpting and texture are excellent, and it's not as if roof shields were anything new or horrifying, even back in 2005... In fact, given that Lambor was a convertible, it just makes it all the more disappointing that he didn't have a roof accessory, particularly considering how well integrated the two options are on this figure.
While the head sculpt on this figure is instantly recognisable as an adaptation of the G1 Omnibot, I'm not sure whether it's an improvement, exactly. The overall shape of it, particularly the way the sides taper inward toward the chin, doesn't look quite right, and it feels as though the armour plates around his jawline have been dialled back slightly. The red stripe down his forehead is certainly distinctive and adds colour that the original lacked, but the overall shape of the helmet ends up looking weirdly feline due to the shape of the angled crests running from his brow to his crown. The use of translucent blue plastic for the visor is at least on a par with the likes of Meister and Swindle, but the size and position of his eyes behind the visor ends up looking disproportionate (much like they do on Meister), and the exposed face below the visor, while sculpted quite accurately to the G1 original, looks squashed up toward his undersized nose. I also find the Seeker-style vents sticking out of the sides of his head a little distracting, even though they seem to correct the overall shape of his head. What bugs me the most, though, is the slim and overlong neck column that attaches his head to his shoulders, as there's a noticeable gap below his head. I don't mind model robots that have visible necks... I just prefer them to be proportional to the body and head.
Anyone with experiece of either Lambor or Tracks will certainly find familiar elements in Overdrive's transformation. The front end is functionally identical to Lambor up until the point where the bonnet and dashboard rotate 180° on the robot's backside so that the bonnet becomes an armour plate running up his back, rather than hanging off like a tail. The lower legs are handled almost identically, albeit with the front bumper folding out to the sides and the doors hanging off the knees rather than the arms. Meanwhile, bar a few minor differences, the back end functions just like Tracks, with the rear wings swinging out to the sides to become massive shoulder chunks, and the forearms folding out from behind them. The car interior compresses down in much the same was as on both Lambor and Tracks, but is here covered over by the boot lid and the section behind the seats which, respectively, conceal Overdrive's belly and chest details. It all works quite well, though there are sockets on the insides of the lower leg's inner panels which suggest they were supposed to peg onto the section just below the knee... but there are no corresponding pegs on that part, so they just hang loose. That wouldn't be too bad in and of itself, but the same panel accommodates the ankle joint, making it slightly less stable than it should have been. Additionally, the upper body doesn't actually peg together in robot mode - so, more like Dead End/Sunstreaker than Lambor on that point - but the tightness of the transformation joint seems to keep everything but the belly plate in place... and it feels as though that part should be able to lift up and slot in a little more flush with the body, but the L-shaped hinges don't allow that.
In terms of articulation, Binaltech Overdrive is another mixed bag - better overall than either Lambor or Tracks (to whom he is most similar in overall functionality), but only by a very narrow margin. The arms are probably among the better Binaltech limbs, since they can shrug/swing out slightly and rotate a full 360° at the shoulder, then swing out some more on a separate joint mounted behind the rear wheels and rotate a full 360° at the bicep. The elbows are the standard 90°, though this is reduced when wielding his handgun because the back end of it - the actual engine detail section - is a little longer than the pre-elbow part of the forearm. The wrists are on ball joints, but can only tilt in one direction for transformation, and the fingers are dealt with in exactly the same way as the other Binaltech figures. He has waist articulation thanks to transformation, but the car's bonnet is hinged from his buttock-dashboard, below the joint, and lays up against his back, while the boot lid making up his belly dips just below the waist joint, so it's not particularly effective. Due to the way his groin area is designed, he can't move his legs forward or back very much, but he does have rotation joints in his (disproportionately miniscule) thighs. The knees barely bend due to the front wings of the car protruding behind them and, while the ankles are ball joints, they're more useful for transformation than posing. That said, he can more-or-less adopt the pose from his collectors' card artwork, albeit not as extreme and dynamic as it's portrayed. The head is also on a ball joint, which allows him to look straight up due to the requirements of transformation. It does feel as though the neck is a little too long for the figure, though, as there's a larger than usual gap between the span of the shoulders and the bottom of the chin... and it's a little bit ugly, to be honest.
In a lot of ways, it feels as if Overdrive is the result of lessons learned through the - retrospectively - obvious mistakes in the designs of Lambor and Tracks. He has a far tidier transformation and less wastage of the car's available volume, particularly in terms of parts hanging off and getting in the way of the robot's movement. However, new problems have been introduced, like the droopy driveshaft/gun barrel, the floppy lower leg panels, and the free-hanging belly.
Still, the replaceable 'soft' top/shield is a nice extra feature, and the complete weapon, while a little unwieldy, does make vehicle mode look more complete. It's worth noting that I eventually bought an Alternators Decepticharge, with the intention of turning him into Nightbeat (a project I started by, as yet, have not finished), with its head - intended to be for Windcharger, coupled with the Grimlock/Ford Mustang mold instead of Wheeljack - donated to the red version of Binaltech Meister - nicknamed 'Zoom-Zoom' - to create a 'true' BT Windcharger from the sportier vehicle...
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