Today I finish off my Combiner Wars reviews with a look at the Voyager scale Combaticon leader Onslaught as well as the whole combined form of Bruticus!
Combiner Wars continues to roll full steam ahead, check out my Transformers review page, or click the links directly below.
This review brought to you by the fine folks at Entertainment Earth!
It’s amazing what some minor changes can do to change one character into another, and those minor changes work wonders for Onslaught.
Obviously based on the Hot Spot tooling, Onslaught has just the right changes to completely redefine the figure into a different, more effective character. The elaborate hook and ladder system on his back in vehicle mode is now a triangular mount for his two cannons, and not only does it look more potent and deadly in vehicle mode, but the it converts nicely into an effective chestplate for Bruticus.
The vehicle itself is narrow and sloped, like the fire truck, but still makes for an excellent military type vehicle, although not especially vintage accurate. Like Hot Spot, transformation is relatively intuitive and easily accomplished, and as cool as the vehicle is, the robot mode is even better. Articulation is spectacular, with great movement at all necessary joints. I love how imposing the armored shoulder pads look, and the intricate lined sculpting in robot mode is seriously impressive.
Sculpting in the new head is nearly flawless, and it’s amazing to me how a featureless robot can express such emotion with the different positions of his head and body.
The twin cannons can stay attached to the back like you might expect, but are also removable and can be held as robotic guns, too.
Like the rest of the Combaticons, Onslaught’s colors are based more strongly on the classic toy than the animation, but work well in that regard, and as a lifelong G.I. Joe fan, I’m extremely attached to the military angle of all these Combaticon toys. Onslaught is a great vintage update and makes for a fantastic centerpiece to the Bruticus combiner.
Summary
A healthy retooling of the Combiner Wars Hot Spot, this Combaticons leader looks and feels great. Sturdy and well articulated in both modes, and with a fantastic vintage inspired color scheme, this version of Onslaught is everything that has made Combiner Wars fun. The fact that they can take an existing toy and tool it just enough to feel fresh and exciting is a great surprise and helps them get more mileage out of their production budget. His new head sculpt is great, and the retooled gun mounts (instead of the ladder) does exactly what it needs to do. Great update.
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