General Information:
Release Date: February 2010
Price Point: $16.00
Retailer: Wal-Mart Exclusive
Accessories: None
*Images and text from Hasbrotoyshop.com:
Everything SLAP DASH does, he does in a hurry. Not because he’s fast — though he is — but more because he’s lazy. Careful planning just isn’t his thing. Unfortunately, TRENCHMOUTH is not the sort of DECEPTICON you want to fight without some foresight. He may be a filthy, poorly tuned road hog, but he’s also a smart, canny fighter.
This dueling twosome is ready to fight it out in all-out robot-on-robot battle action! Start the combat with these warriors in robot mode, and then convert your SLAP DASH figure to sports car vehicle mode and your TRENCHMOUTH figure to motorcycle vehicle mode so they can spar on the streets, too. The struggle rages on, but these two have the “drive” to keep fighting, no matter what!
Two-pack includes SLAP DASH and TRENCHMOUTH figures. Ages 5 and up.
The beginning of 2010 saw the release of a new wave of exclusive figures at stores such as Toys R Us and Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart received two double packs of Scout Class figures, each set up as a "versus" set with one Autobot and one Decepticon character. The "Windy City" two pack features a redeco of Dead End (who was later redone as Nightbeat) and Knock out (who himself was later redone as Reverb. This review will cover the changes made to these figures for this release. I recommend checking out the previous reviews for more details on the sculpts and mechanics of the figures.
Slap Dash Review
Robot Mode:
So here's the funny part about me reviewing this figure. When I first got it, I thought "Huh, it's a Wheelie homage." Then I saw it's name as "Slap Dash" and thought "Okay, not a Wheelie homage, maybe Slap Dash from G1". Then I looked at my G1 Slapdash, which is mostly blue, yellow and grey and scratched my head. Taking a look at G1 Slap Dash's partner, Lube, I noticed the Powermaster was mostly orange and dark grey. Still however, that didn't quite match up to this figures' colors. Then I looked at Legends Class Wheelie and I had to relent. For whatever reason, Revenge of the Fallen Slap Dash is a homage to G1 Wheelie. It does make sense that they wouldn't name him Wheele since that name is currently being used by the small Decepticon turned Autobot who appeared in the movie. I was a bit disappointed in this, not because Slap Dash is a homage to Wheelie, but because Slap Dash is a fairly obscure character in Transformers history and it would've been nice to see an updated homage to him (just as Nightbeat was a color appropriate homage to his G1 counterpart). Call him what you will, the toy is still quite distinctive.
Slap Dash is made up of four distinct plastic colors. The most obvious is orange, but there are two shades of orange at work here. A lighter shade makes up most of the panels that show in vehicle mode including the doors on his arms and the chest plate. A darker orange is used on parts such as his robot head and lower legs. Mixed in with the orange robot parts are light grey bits such as his feet and forearms. Black plastic is used for the wheels, which are visible in robot and vehicle modes. Each of these colors are direct callbacks to colors used on G1 and Universe Wheelie, making the homage very obvious and distinctive from first sight.
Paint applications are done up in dark orange, black, red and silver. The colors are used sparingly, but effectively. Dark orange covers the top of his shoulder armor, matching up with the darker orange plastic on his head and lower legs. Silver is found on the chest, where the engine parts stick out in the middle. A tiny bit of black is used for the pupils of his eyes and lastly red is used for a medium sized Autobot symbol right on the center of his chest. It's a distinctive color scheme that is immediately identifiable as based on a previous character, and it looks good to boot, with the grey contrasting nicely against the orange - and that is the strength of this redeco. It is both a homage and very far removed from its predecessors.
Slap Dash's joints are just as tight as those on my Nightbeat or Dead End figures. Indeed, I'd say his ankle joints are tighter. I also don't see any signs of mold degradation as the detail lines on the figure are still crisp and sharp.
Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
- Swing the chest panel forward and down.
- Swing each heel piece forward and snap the hood pieces of the car shut.
- Connect the two lower legs together.
- Rotate the arms so the panels align with the wheels on the shoulders.
- Swing the chest panel up to move the cabin section forward against the lower legs.
- Swing the arms down and connect the shoulder pieces on the back of the vehicle.
Vehicle Mode:
I think in vehicle mode the choice to make this sculpt a Wheelie homage suddenly becomes obvious. Much like G1 Wheelie's vehicle mode, this one is sleek, compact and has an oval shaped cabin section. The shape fits and it's really one of those things that struck me as so blindingly obvious in these colors that I could not believe I did not see it previously.
The primary plastic color you'll find in this form is the lighter orange. The sides, front and back end of the vehicle are painted the darker shade of orange mentioned in the robot mode review. The cabin windows are painted metallic light blue, which looks really nice against the orange. My favorite details are his yellow decos, offering up another color connection to G1 Wheelie. The headlights are yellow as well as lightning bolt details on the side. I dig the way the Autobot symbols connect to the lightning bolts and are half yellow and then inverted where they meet the lightning bolt, a simple but effective touch. The rear lights are painted red, matching up nicely with the red Autobot symbol on the back of the vehicle. Overall, it's a perfect color scheme to pay homage to Wheelie while also making this figure very visually distinct from both of its predecessors.
Trenchmouth Review
Robot Mode:
The first two decos of this sculpt were very different from each other. Knock Out was mostly black with colors like green and white. His redeco, Reverb was mostly red with some blue and white colors. This time out, the color range hasn't really gone as far away. Trenchmouth's primary colors are red, silver, black and a reddish-brown. Most of the upper body is red, including his forearms, torso and head. Other parts use the silver and brown in alternating patterns. You'll find this on his shoulders and upper arms (brown and silver respectively) and his legs where the thighs are silver and the lower legs and feet are brown. Trenchmouth's paint applications are done up in silver, white, black and brown. Silver is found on small details such as his mouth and the cannon on his right arm. brown paint is mostly used to detail red portions of the robot mode including the chest and head. On the chest he has a sharp pattern that points upwards. Black and white make up small details such as a Decepticon symbol on his chest and the strips that form his headlights respectively.
Truth be told, there's nothing inherently "wrong" with this color scheme. The brown and red colors work very well together and the silver is a nice contrast color that reminds us of this character's mechanical nature. However, the problem here is that it's not very different from Reverb, who used most of the same plastic colors with more elaborate paint decos. Whether the color scheme is good or bad, I generally expect that a redeco will use a different color scheme than a previous release (unless it's something more iconic like say, Bumblebee's yellow or Prime's red and blue). This isn't a weak figure by any means, and I guess if you don't own Reverb this particular concern is mitigated somewhat.
Trenchmouth's joints have the same level of tightness as those on my Reverb figure (though Knock Out's is probably the tightest set). The upper body joints are nice and stuff, but his leg joints are a bit more loose. They're not floppy by any means, they're just not super tight either.
Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
- Swing the heel piece on each foot into the front foot piece and swing them up.
- Move the wheels on his shoulders up.
- Rotate the forearms out to the sides.
- Swing the panels of the vehicle mode on the chest up and connect them together in the middle.
- Swing the wheel on the robot's back up.
- Swing the legs up against the back of the robot and connect the side panels to the clips towards the front of the vehicle.
- Swing each of the wheel halves/robot arm sections back and connect the two arms and the halves of the wheels together.
Vehicle Mode:
While his vehicle mode uses all the same colors as the robot mode, having less silver in this form makes Trenchmouth look much darker than he does in robot mode. Also, while the robot mode looks almost like Reverb with a different paint job, the vehicle mode is very distinctive from Reverb despite using the same base colors of red and black. This is partly due to the way the seat is colored black instead of reddish brown (as it is on Reverb). Also, the brown and black paint details are a bit less in your face than they are on Reverb, allowing Trenchmouth to look much more distinctive. Most of his details in this form are painted brown, including the windshield, lines on the sides and the top of the vehicle's rear section. The sides of the wheels are painted red, matching them up with the rest of the vehicle and a distinctive Cybertronian glyph is painted on both sides of the vehicle towards the front.
While Trenchmouth's color scheme may not be terribly exciting in this form, it is distinctive from his predecessor, Reverb and that is a positive in and of itself.
Final Thoughts:
The "Windy City Chase" is definitely a mixed bag for me. Since I already own all the previous incarnations of these sculpts, it really is a bit of a hard set for me to put down as "highly recommended", mostly due to Trenchmouth's color scheme being not very distinct from Reverb. However, Slap Dash is a very strong redeco of an excellent sculpt, and if you don't have Reverb, Trenchmouth won't seem like that much of a repeat buy. Recommended with reservations.
