Death's Head
24-08-11, 01:13 PM
I like SIlverstreak. Not really anyone’s first thought when asked for a dynamic or cool Transformer, there’s something of the everyman about him. A jovial, incessantly chatty robot with the function of Gunner, Silverstreak is just, well, normal.
Originally one of the 1984 line up of Transformers, Bluestreak (as he was known then, before his name was lost to dull trademark reasons), was quickly lost amongst a sea of more appealing characters. Let’s face it, grey (even when a bit sparkly and called ‘silver’) is no one’s idea of a sexy or appealing colour. One of those toys I never saw anyone with, and whose mould was outshone by his more interesting mould-sharing retools, Smokescreen and Prowl. Amusingly, the same fate which bestows his Alternators toy, with the more interesting rally decorated Smokescreen having more impact.
Silverstreak is a Subaru Impreza WRX. It’s a nice looking car, but one of those vehicles that’s appropriated by boy racers up and down the land and one you can frequently see festooned with ugly custom designs and ridiculous wheel trims. This version is what I like to refer to as the ‘family saloon’ version of the car. It’s got four doors (all of which open), a traditional design (i.e. it looks like a car, rather than a bubble) and looks very sturdy and practical. It’s not particularly exciting, despite the presence of some gold wheel trims and a spoiler. It’s just a good, solid little car. On the toy, the bonnet and boot both open and there’s functional steering too. The Alternators version of this toy uses a slightly flatter silver colour in comparison to the Japanese Binaltech forebear, which also features die cast metal in addition to rubber tyres.
Designed with adult collectors in mind, the Alternators line is big on detail and complexity. In some of the designs, this would result in some frustrating messes, but in Silverstreak here, you’ve got the benchmark for the line. Ostensibly borrowing its transformation sequence from the 1980s toy, it makes good on the advances in engineering to deliver a very impressive series of twists and turns. The arms forming out of the engine block and the legs forming out of the boot are lifted straight from the character’s original toy, but given a few tweaks. The back half of the car breaks up a little more to give the robot mode some proper feet, with the rear bumper pushing forward to form ‘toes’ and a couple of black tabs flipping out to form heels. It’s the clever way that the chasis and seats fold up to form the torso that I’m particularly impressed with, though – it folds together to give the robot mode some solid structure. The gun which forms out of the engine block is a good size too.
The robot mode is superb, retaining the look of the character, but giving it a thoroughly modern makeover. The ball and axle joints give the toy a fantastic range of motion so he can strike all sorts of poses and matches the smaller deluxe toys of this period in terms of playability. There are some nice touches, with the head and crotch having some daubs of gold paint to add a frisson of interest to the sea of silver that informs the majority of the character, plus there are some nice flashes of black and red to stop it looking too monotonous.
If there is one fault I can find with the Alternators version of the toy over the Japanese Binaltech is that it feels a bit flimsy and fragile. Whilst the Binaltech version has metal to make the figure feel fairly durable, the Alternators version just feels like a stiff breeze could take him out. He lacks any weight, and the plastics at various points feel quite thin – particularly the roof and windows. I doubt in car mode you could put any weight on the roof without it collapsing. There’s also the slight frustration of the vehicle mode not clipping back together as well as it did when you got him out of the box. Still, despite these flaws the toy does a phenomenal job of matching the detail and styling of the likes of Burago’s similar scaled toy cars and incorporating a great robot mode and clever transformation.
391392
Originally one of the 1984 line up of Transformers, Bluestreak (as he was known then, before his name was lost to dull trademark reasons), was quickly lost amongst a sea of more appealing characters. Let’s face it, grey (even when a bit sparkly and called ‘silver’) is no one’s idea of a sexy or appealing colour. One of those toys I never saw anyone with, and whose mould was outshone by his more interesting mould-sharing retools, Smokescreen and Prowl. Amusingly, the same fate which bestows his Alternators toy, with the more interesting rally decorated Smokescreen having more impact.
Silverstreak is a Subaru Impreza WRX. It’s a nice looking car, but one of those vehicles that’s appropriated by boy racers up and down the land and one you can frequently see festooned with ugly custom designs and ridiculous wheel trims. This version is what I like to refer to as the ‘family saloon’ version of the car. It’s got four doors (all of which open), a traditional design (i.e. it looks like a car, rather than a bubble) and looks very sturdy and practical. It’s not particularly exciting, despite the presence of some gold wheel trims and a spoiler. It’s just a good, solid little car. On the toy, the bonnet and boot both open and there’s functional steering too. The Alternators version of this toy uses a slightly flatter silver colour in comparison to the Japanese Binaltech forebear, which also features die cast metal in addition to rubber tyres.
Designed with adult collectors in mind, the Alternators line is big on detail and complexity. In some of the designs, this would result in some frustrating messes, but in Silverstreak here, you’ve got the benchmark for the line. Ostensibly borrowing its transformation sequence from the 1980s toy, it makes good on the advances in engineering to deliver a very impressive series of twists and turns. The arms forming out of the engine block and the legs forming out of the boot are lifted straight from the character’s original toy, but given a few tweaks. The back half of the car breaks up a little more to give the robot mode some proper feet, with the rear bumper pushing forward to form ‘toes’ and a couple of black tabs flipping out to form heels. It’s the clever way that the chasis and seats fold up to form the torso that I’m particularly impressed with, though – it folds together to give the robot mode some solid structure. The gun which forms out of the engine block is a good size too.
The robot mode is superb, retaining the look of the character, but giving it a thoroughly modern makeover. The ball and axle joints give the toy a fantastic range of motion so he can strike all sorts of poses and matches the smaller deluxe toys of this period in terms of playability. There are some nice touches, with the head and crotch having some daubs of gold paint to add a frisson of interest to the sea of silver that informs the majority of the character, plus there are some nice flashes of black and red to stop it looking too monotonous.
If there is one fault I can find with the Alternators version of the toy over the Japanese Binaltech is that it feels a bit flimsy and fragile. Whilst the Binaltech version has metal to make the figure feel fairly durable, the Alternators version just feels like a stiff breeze could take him out. He lacks any weight, and the plastics at various points feel quite thin – particularly the roof and windows. I doubt in car mode you could put any weight on the roof without it collapsing. There’s also the slight frustration of the vehicle mode not clipping back together as well as it did when you got him out of the box. Still, despite these flaws the toy does a phenomenal job of matching the detail and styling of the likes of Burago’s similar scaled toy cars and incorporating a great robot mode and clever transformation.
391392