Comic Book Resources has revealed images from the upcoming variant covers for IDW Publishing’s “Revolution” series. There are five variants to the first issue, and the article also includes an amazing piece of art by John Byrne, Something about seeing Byrne draw a handful of G.I. Joe characters just gives me a warm feeling, and I gotta admit, I’m quickly warming up to seeing MASK and the Joes running alongside each other. I may be slowly getting on board this whole shared universe train.
Check out the full details at Comic Book Resources, and the mirrored images below.
Big kudos to Adam Riches for his contribution – the cover with a toy homage to Optimus Prime and Scarlett. Looks pretty boss, Adam!
An exciting announcement from the folks at Roll Out Roll Call! Attendees of the show in London Heathrow will get a special opportunity to own Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #13 with a special exclusive cover by Robert Atkins and Joana LaFuente.
There will be a run of only 250 of these exclusive covers featuring a number of characters played by convention guests Morgan Lofting and Neil Ross. Your best chance to get this exclusive comic is at Roll Out Roll Call! Along with this, they’ve already announced exclusive availability of previously sold out Botcon exclusives!
The show is July 8th – 9th at London Heathrow and is a favorite show for many fans. Boss Fight Studio will be there, likely with a bunch of product in hand to sell!
There’s going to be lots to love about this year’s Roll Out Roll Call, and you can find all of the great details over on their Facebook page. Tickets are on sale now, so don’t wait!
The Combiner Wars theme, I’m happy to say, has had far more “hits” than misses, and I feel comfortable saying that Bruticus is another solid home run. Using the same connection template as the previous combiners, the limbs all say firmly secure, yet offer very nice poseability, as the other combiners do.
Perhaps what puts Bruticus over the edge is that he is a combiner team I actually owned part of when I was younger (as a G.I. Joe fan back then, I naturally gravitated towards the military theme) along with the Stunticons and Aerialbots. Unlike the Stunticons and Aerialbots, however, I don’t believe I ever owned the entire set of Combaticons, so this is like a new world for me, and it’s one that I like.
Britucus’ very distinctive head sculpt is translated perfectly with this combined figure, and I love the broad, triangular chest plate. He looks imposing and powerful, and unlike Menasor, he doesn’t feel like he exists just to topple over. The wide stance of his legs (like Defensor) holds him in poses really nicely, and even though the individual Combaticons have some pretty different, distinctive colors, he still makes for an awesome combined character.
Bruticus is great, all things considered. I think I may still like Superion the most (well, unless you count Devastator), but Bruticus is a close second, followed by Defensor. Menasor needs to rethink his outlook on life.
Combiner Wars Bruticus
Character
Articulation
Robot Mode
Transformation
3.9
Summary
Beware the military machine! The Combaticons combine to form Bruticus, one of the most feared and sinister combiners ever. The Combiner Wars version takes his unique look and translates it perfectly to the Combiner Wars formula, recreating everyone’s favorite bad ass Decepticon military weapon. The color scheme is great, and very vintage inspired, and even if some of the components aren’t the best (Blast Off and Brawl I’m lookin’ at you) the end result is another great gestalt from the Combiner Wars. As cool as Titans Returns looks, I’m not sure I’m ready for the Combiner Wars to be over.
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.
Combiner Wars Onslaught
Character
Articulation
Vehicle
Robot Mode
Transformation
3.8
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.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve always understood Swindle to be probably the most famous of the Combaticons, and one of the characters that has somewhat transcended his role as merely one part of the larger whole. That might be just because of my fascination with Transformers: Animated and the fact that he had such a distinct role there, but that’s the impression that I get.
Hasbro does a good job of taking the classic elements of Swindle and integrating them a bit more into an effective “combat” vehicle, using a healthy helping of Rook, but adding some very nice tweaks with some rollbars and more identifiable “Jeep” parts. The result is a bulky, armored combat jeep that manages to maintain all the hallmarks of the vintage original, yet plenty of more modern power while they’re at it.
One of the best parts of the figure is the new head sculpt, which is chock full of that Swindle arms dealer character. With his trademark purple “sunglasses” and grimace, the head and face definitely resemble the Swindle that we know and love. He’s got a very unique head that is translated quite nicely to plastic form here, and I love it.
With a nice mixture of orangish/brown, Hasbro takes some queues from the vintage version and both the vehicle and robot look the part. It certainly helps that Rook is one of my favorite base figures, too, and I’m really glad they’re leveraging him for both Swindle and Hound. It makes for a great base, and with just the right tooling tweaks, they look separate enough to work nicely.
Swindle is pretty great. I daresay he’s the highlight of this wave of Deluxes for me, easily pushing aside Brawl, who I just assumed would be my odds on favorite.
Combiner Wars Swindle
Character
Articulation
Vehicle
Robot Mode
Transformation
4.2
Summary
One of my favorite Combaticons, mostly due to his portrayal in the Transformers: Animated series, I was really looking forward to this version of Swindle, especially because it uses the excellent Rook template figure, and with creative retooling, turns him into more of a jeep than an armored transport. The removal of the top and integration of a new rollcage system does a great job changing up this figure (and looks awesome on the upcoming Hound as well) and the end result is a very nice update to the original (somewhat dated) army Jeep. The new head sculpt is a great look as well.
