General Information: The third wave of Power Core Combiners is made up exclusively of redecos, taking Commander figures and mixing them up with either different Drones or Mini-Con partners than they had been teamed with previously. Steelshot is a redeco of Bombshock from the Combaticon combiner set. His partner is Beacon, a Mini-Con using the sculpt first used for Backwind from the Searchlight and Backwind set. This review will focus on the changes made to these figures for this release. For a closer look at the Steelshot and Beacon molds, check out the reviews of Bombshock and Searchlight.
When the first two waves of Power Core Combiners were released it seemed the idea was to primarily utilize translucent colored plastic for the Mini-Cons, perhaps as an expression of the power they add to the Transformer they combine with. With this wave however, Beacon shows up in solid colors instead. This expression of the mold shows off a classic color palette: black, red and silver. The figure is now mostly red plastic, including the arms, torso and lower legs. Black plastic is used for other sections such as the upper legs and shoulder ball joints. I've always loved the black and red combination of Transformers (and robots in general). While I do love seeing translucent plastic on Transformers, this is a cool choice for a solid color combination. Paint applications are done up in two colors: gunmetal grey and silver. The gunmetal is used on his face and the cannon arm. The silver paint is found on his knees, where the lights for his alternate modes are located. The red and black plastic combination of colors lends themselves to the use of these colors for paint applications, and I think they look great. They offer a bright contrast to the darker red and black plastic. All of Beacon's joints are nice and tight, which is quite important as he is a bit unusual in structure with his ape like arms. Relatively speaking, a lot of the balance depends on the joints being tight, otherwise the ball joints would cause him to flop all over the place. I was happy to see this was not the case with Beacon. Since there were no mold changes, I won't go into each and every mode, but suffice it to say with his tight joints, each mold is perfectly functional. For the sake of completeness however, I have provided the instructions for his various modes below. Note: All transformation instructions below begin with Beacon in robot mode. Transformation to Power-Up Armor:
Transformation to Robot Weapon Mode:
Transformation to Vehicle Weapon Mode:
Steelshot is cast in five primary plastic colors. Brown and beige are the primary colors, making up the "desert camo" look. The brown is focused on the torso, feet, the panel that covers his waist, lower arms and part of the cannon on the back. Beige is used for the main turret section on his back and his lower legs. Other parts are cast in black and dark grey including the upper arms and head respectively. The fifth color is, you guessed it, the light blue that is found on all the Drone connection points on the Power Core Combiner Commander figures. The blue aside, the colors work perfectly together to distinguish Steelshot from Bombshock. Considering Steelshot's status as both a redeco and a Scout Class sized figure, I was a bit surprised when I counted just how many different colors were used on this figure for this new iteration. Altogether there are seven different paint colors used on Steelshot. The most obvious ones are silver and beige. Silver is used on the robot face and the edges of his chest and waist plate. You'll also find silver on an Autobot symbol located on the left forearm. Beige forms camo patterns on his chest and waist plate. In a bit of an inverse play on colors, the back section is beige plastic with brown camo patterns painted onto it. Gunmetal grey is used to paint the cannon barrels mounted on his back, and they look fantastic. The dark color looks appropriately metallic and ominous at the same time. A couple of tinier paint details come into play in the robot mode as well. The circles on the sides of his head have been painted gold and there are two circular details on his torso that are painted orange. I expected a different color pattern from Bombshock, but I had not thought they would be so detailed about it, and for that I applaud the designers. Steelshot looks great and despite the lack of retooling, stands on his own as a new character very well. All of Steelshot's joints are nice and tight. I had no problem using the Mini-Con peg on his back either. Functionally this mold appears to still be in good shape! Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
Vehicle Mode: The paint applications in this form are mostly visible in robot mode, but a few will catch your eye. The first are the brown camo patterns on the base of the turret, along with silver paint filling in the missile/rocket launcher holes. A really nice design are beige camo lines on the top of the driver's section at the front of the vehicle. That particular detail is notable as in robot mode that detail actually winds up being the bottom of Steelshot's foot! I like the idea of "hiding" a paint detail like that and then revealing it in vehicle mode. Very nicely done. Functionally, Steelshot's wheels roll find and the turret turns while still having a nice and tight rotating joint. You can still attach Mini-Cons onto the pegs and they'll fit nice and snug. This is one of my paramount worries with redecos of anything with Mini-Con pegs as any shrinkage or over-expanding of the plastic will lead to unusable pegs. Fortunately Steelshot does not have this problem. I have to comment that the choice of Beacon's sculpt for this form makes perfect sense since he acts as a spotter for Steelshot. His "headlight" details could easily be interpreted as long range scanners of some sort, helping Steelshot target enemies from far away. Transformation to Power-Up Combiner Mode (starting from robot mode):
Power-Up Combiner Mode: The most crucial bits of functionality for this mode are the Drone connection points and the tabs that hold his arms and legs in place. I am happy to report that both still work very well. The clips on his leg/hip section work perfectly and the tabs on his robot arms connect nice and tight to the rest of the torso. This is definitely one of the more solid Power Core Combiner base sculpts. All this and he has waist articulation too!
Final Thoughts:
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Robot Mode:
The Power-Up Combiner mode does not feature many parts that were not revealed in previous forms, and there was no retooling of the Combiner head. That said, it's still a very neat looking figure. As I harped on before, it is pretty cool how different this figure looks from its predecessor, and this mode is no exception. With the turret base now forming the chest, the beige and brown colors take center stage again. The camo pattern is in full force on the chest and surprisingly, on the Combiner head! The mouth plate is colored with brown and beige camo patterns while the eyes are blue. Even as I'm typing this I confess this sounds terrible, yet somehow it works. It looks almost like Steelshot is a desert warrior wearing some type of cloth over his face to protect it while matching his "uniform" at the same time. Very well done. The final bit of color is found on the legs, which would be Steelshot's inner legs in his robot mode. There you'll see a small section painted gunmetal grey, emphasizing the sculpting of the machinery in that section.
