I've found Combiner Wars a couple of times at Target this week, so maybe they're finally getting distributed again. Target has decent prices, too, with Voyagers at 22.99 and Deluxes at 13.50.
Voyager/Ultra Prime
In short: Nice vehicle, great robot, disappointing combiner mode
Perhaps the nicest thing I can say about this Prime is that it is still worth picking up after the army of Primes that have come before it. Just when you think you have seen it all, there's a new spin on it. The vehicle is beyond decent -- a step up from some recent Primes we have gotten -- and the robot mode is really nice. Very low kibble, very Prime-y. This is all the more remarkable when it's really Motormaster, repurposed as Prime to sell more toys. Still, whatever the reason, it's actually a good Prime.
However, the downside is pretty severe. The falldown for this is the combined mode, which is the major reason you're getting this toy.
The worst offender is the hips/legs. They just don't work too well and they are misproportioned. While Silverbolt is pretty stable, Prime has wobbly hips that look ridiculous. They are way too high, even when you fudge them by jamming the legs up behind the torso shield. Silverbolt looks properly proportioned and "Ultra Prime" looks weird.
Issues appear with Ultra Prime that didn't occur with Silverbolt. The limbs seem to want to disconnect more. The poses don't feel as natural. Worst of all is that the ratchets and joints just aren't strong enough to hold the weight of the legs. Ultra Prime doesn't fall over, but the legs flop and the joints don't stay in the positions you put them in.
I really hope they fix these issues on Motormaster, because right now Menasor is looking pretty disappointing.
In some ways, it is awfully close to greatness. I like the way they dealt with the multiple heads -- it's clever and it works well. The combined mode has a lot of nifty features, with it hiding the Fatimus chest details, the Ultra head, and the torso plate way better than Energon Prime ever did. That said, the chest details are disappointingly unpainted, as are the wheel rims. C'mon guys -- you can spare the few cents for a little paint. It just looks bad without it.
Windcharger
In short: Thoroughly unnecessary and inferior in every way to RtS Windcharger; a waste of $10 were it not for Combiner Wars
I am not a big fan of the Legends class size. I liked Skrapnel and Cosmos is fantastic, but for the most part, I find them to be limited, overpriced figures. Windcharger takes that idea and runs away with it.
Windcharger is a repaint of Tailgate. Windcharger costs the same and doesn't come with the minicon that Tailgate did. This alone is pretty bad.
Windcharger's car mode looks decent, with two exceptions. The first is that the wheel rims are unpainted and very toy-like. The second is that the doors are a completely different kind of plastic. Most of Windcharger is flat brick red, and the door pieces are swirly, shiny red. It is the oddest thing and I have no idea why they did it this way. It's really noticeable in a WTF way.
Robot mode is a mixed bag. The shoulders and arms are huge, which are not characteristics I associate with Windcharger. The legs are very thin. It's a top-heavy figure, which makes for a mini-bruiser kind of character that I also don't associate with Windcharger. It's better than the unfortunate G1 toy, but it's not great.
The arms are terrible. Blocky and crude and the kind of design that I thought we had left behind, but still shows up, unfortunately. Reminds me of Strongarm, and it wasn't good there, either.
Reveal the Shield Windcharger was awesome. Bigger, well proportioned, and an improvement in every way on the G1 figure. RtS Windcharger is also an improvement in every way on this figure, which is pretty sad, given that RtS Windcharger, if you found him at retail, cost less.
That makes Combiner Wars Windcharger a kind of oddity. Expensive, small, and not as good as the toy that came before it, the only real reason to buy it is for Combiner Wars. Which is the only reason I bought it. I still haven't quite figured out how to attach it to Ultra Prime, but even just jamming it in there looks better than not having it.
Conclusion: Buy it to make your Ultra Prime look better, but even still, it's an uninspired $10. Or skip it completely and go with Blackjack, which will work better with Menasor anyway.
Thundercracker
In short: Nicer than Windchager, but still overpriced for what you get.
Thundercracker is a repaint of Acid Storm and Starscream and is, by that definition, unnecessary. I didn't pick up either of those and I'm certainly not going to buy all the seekers at every class size.
That said, Thundercracker is nice. He looks good and is a better-than-decent Legends sized toy. Nice articulation, great robot mode, an almost-great plane mode kind of sabotaged by robot arms, and a nice Combiner Wars breastplate.
Thundercracker looks better than Windcharger on Ultra Prime. Maybe because it's more than a car stuck to the chest. I was able to figure this one out and it looks pretty good. Not really worth $10, but it at least looks and feels better than Windcharger.
