Mini-reviews: Crossovers

This page reviews toys released in the Star Wars Transformers (2005 - 2008), Crossovers (Star Wars, 2008 - ) and Crossovers (Marvel, 2008 - ) toylines.

-Yoda/Nu-class Attack Shuttle
Faction: Republic
Toyline: SW Crossovers
Class: Mega? (~$15)
Release: Summer 2010
Acquired: TRU
Accessories: 1 green lightsaber.
Strongest mode: Tie? 
- Ok, I'm starting this page off strong - Yoda is probably the best normal-sized Star Wars Transformer yet made. Which is impressive, considering how ridiculous his bot mode is. I never really expected a Yoda SWTF, and I even if I had, I might have thought he would have turned into his ROTS Degoba escape pod or something. Instead, we get one of the most awesome of the new, Clone Wars-spawned vehicles, the Attack Shuttle. Basically an earlier, more militarized version of the Imperial Shuttle, it lacks the high vertical stabilizer and adds a below-cockpit loading bay and some big guns up front. It's certainly an aggressive, heavy-looking aircraft, and looks good with the wings either deployed or folded up. My only real complaint with the shuttle mode is that the lightsaber storage simply consists of some tabs at the wing roots, and they don't hold the sword too well. The robot mode is pretty awesome, despite its weird proportions. It's well articulated (even the wings have a variety of configurations) and the joints all work very well, a bit of a rarity for a SWTF. I don't like how the lower torso is formed, but flattening out the cockpit to make the chest is pretty neat, and I was kind of amazed by how completely the head disappears in transformation. If you get any SWTFs, get this one. It's an iconic character with a great-looking alt mode, and he lacks a lot of the drawbacks that plague most of the line.

-Spider-Man (Car mold, black Symbiote repaint)
Faction: Hero?
Toyline: Marvel Crossovers
Class: Mega? (~$15)
Release: Late Spring/Summer 2010
Acquired: Walmart
Accessories: None.
Strongest mode: Car. 
- Spider-Man (I'm going to hate typing that hyphen) now has three transformers molds to his name, each released at least two times. I avoided the first, a Movie Arcee-like motorcycle-former (I couldn't quite buy into Parker fitting inside a mech the size of a bike) which got repainted twice (in the black symbiote colors, and then darker red/blue comic-accurate colors). We then got the Spider-Copter, part of a 2-pack combiner (the other part being Iron Man as a sci-fi jet). Now we come to the Spider-Car, which was originally released in normal Spider-Man colors, but also got a Symbiote-style repaint. However, that wave of Marvel Crossovers has had very sparse distribution. I've only seen this repaint once, and I bought it. I'm glad I did; I held out on the mold for this version, and it's definitely superior to the helicopter mold. The car itself is pretty awesome; it's loosely based on a LeMans-style racer, but it looks more like Spider-Man got hold of the Batmobile and customized the hell out of it - it's got spider web rims and everything. The only real weak point is the middle section, where elbows and knees are painfully obvious. It's not as bad on this black version, though, where everything's the same color. The back end of the car is pretty neat, too, with a central "fuselage" (to borrow DVD's phrasing) flanked by the rear wheels & tail lights. Another "weak" point, I guess, is that the windshield is completely black, except for the painted white spider. Extreme tinting, this. The tires are grey, and the tailpipes are silver plastic. Transformation isn't bad, except that you have to transform the waist backwards to get he legs to work right (the wheels should be on the inside of his legs, not the outside, otherwise the side kibble prevents him from standing up straight). The torso sequence is pretty much the same as the Iron Man car mold, which is neat, since I've not really seen it on any other transformers except these two. The robot mode is pretty nice, backwards crotch aside. Very posable, he's only really missing ankle articulation, which is not standard and kind of mitigated by the movable exhaust pipes/heels, anyway; he's even got double-jointed knees, something even Animated Blurr didn't have without modification. About the only unstable part is where the front of the fenders are supposed to reconnect to the front spoiler, now flipped backwards. It can be done, though. While he lacks any removable weapons, his arms are molded with some silver-painted details that, with a bit of imagination, serve well as either blasters or web shooters. In summation, this is one of the better Marvel Crossover molds. Not as good as, say, Tank Hulk or maybe even Wolverine or Captain America, but he's up there. Get the mold, and get this black repaint if you can find it (it's pretty rare!).

-Venom
Faction: Villain?
Toyline: Marvel Crossovers
Class: Mega? (~$15)
Release: Summer 2008
Acquired: Walmart
Accessories: 2 missiles.
Strongest mode: Car.
- Venom is Spider-Man's counterpoint, and his Crossover toy really couldn't be more different than the Spider-Man car mold. Instead of a sleek, futuristic racer, Venom turns into a powerful-looking muscle car. It's quite sizable; a good half-inch longer than Spider-Man, it fits in well with the more expensive Alternators toys. It also, excepting the painted windows, feels a bit more realistic than Spider-Man. Not straight black-and-white like SM, Venom's windows are metallic blue, and his hood, fenders and doors have metallic purple flame outlines, which looks really nice. His hood air scoop has his spider logo painted on it, with the legs fading out at their extremities. The car also has character-appropriate details, like the teeth over the grille and the bladed rims, not to mention the molded license plate (most TFs with LPs have them as paint apps) with his name. Also notable is how well hidden the under-car robot kibble is, thanks to a large folding panel that stretches down the middle. His "missiles" (really symbiote webbing) also store on the underside, on clips that end up on the arms. The robot mode is suitably beastly, with clawed hands, many sharp teeth, a robotic tongue, and even an hunchback stance. Mechanical tubes everywhere magically lend an organic look, and there's a lot more purple, sort of evoking the Ultimate version of Venom. Articulation is ok; the hands can move at the wrist and also the pointer fingers can move independently from the other three. The forearms can't more all the way forward, thanks to the door kibble meeting the shoulder wheel kibble; however, the shoulders can be mistransformed to put the wheels on the back of the shoulders and allow full movement. The "calves" are big with trunk/bumper kibble, but that manages not to impede leg movement. The blocky-looking feet move fairly well, with some side-to-side movement and moving heels spurs. The transformation, particularly for the torso, is a bit complicated and leaves the bot mode with a bit of a movie Barricade resemblance, although the car mode makes things veer a bit toward Lockdown. One of the better Marvel Crossovers, Venom is not without problems. However, he looks much better than his Carnage repaint and is a bit of a must-have if you have any of the myriad Spider-Man releases, particularly the car mold.

-Y-Wing Pilot/Y-Wing
Faction: Republic
Toyline: SW Crossovers
Class: Class I
Release: Late fall 2011
Acquired: Walmart
Accessories: 1 blaster rifle
Strongest mode: Robot (relative to the robot mode of the larger Y-Wing mold)
- The Star Wars Crossovers line has largely been restricted to one size class - the larger-than-a-deluxe ~$15 price point that most of the figures have been made in. There have been a few larger figures here and there, but only recently has the line begun to make smaller toys. Similar to the recent Cyberverse Commander size class, these "Class I" Star Wars Crossovers have, so far, only included toys that are smaller redesigns of previously existing larger "Class II" toys. This remains true for the first Clone Pilot/Trooper mold of this size class, as it transforms into a Y-Wing, much like the larger Clone Pilot/Y-Wing toy from 2010. However, what really stands out about this little transformers is how much better it is compared to the larger version, and, really, most SWTFs in general. To begin with, the alt mode looks great. Now, this is pretty common for SWTFs, as they have to start with an accurate vehicle mode base and squeeze whatever kind of bot mode they can from it. Even so, the larger Y-Wing has a very noticeable section of robot kibble on the underside, something they managed to avoid on the Class I version. Perhaps the only downside to the vehicle mode is that the rifle, being as large as it is, looks a bit awkward when it's stowed underneath one of the two engines (but, at least it has storage available!). The robot mode is where things really shine. To get to it, you go through a fun, interesting, and intuitive transformation, which can also get you a VTOL mode for the Y-Wing. Once you're at the robot, you notice how relatively "normal" he is as a TF compared to most SWTFs. All the joints are pretty normal, and the kibble is minimized and stable, unlike the kibble backpack of the Class II version. The rifle really looks good here, despite not meshing well with the alt mode, and you can even get a good two-handed pose out of the mold, which looks best considering how long the rifle is. He's also pretty tall for his size, mostly due to how lanky the toy is (is that Abe Lincoln under that armor?). In summary, if you're at all looking to get into the new Star Wars Class I, this is where to start. Hopefully there will be more clones coming at the same level of quality.

-Darth Maul/Sith Infiltrator (Scimitar)
Faction: Sith
Toyline: SW Crossovers
Class: Mega? (~$15)
Release: Original: early spring 2006. 2nd issue: early spring 2012
Acquired: Walmart
Accessories: 2 red lightsabers
Strongest mode: Spacecraft 
 - So, I never got Darth Maul back half a decade ago when he originally came out. Part of the 2nd wave of Star Wars TFs, the line was still very new then and I wasn't sold on everything. I had gotten TIE Advanced Vader and the original Obi Wan, but I was kind of wait-and-see on a lot of the other early toys, especially since they were the first toys to come out since I started collecting at the $15 price point, where you were (as you might guess) basically paying for a deluxe +. Anyhow, the "normal"/Class II SWTFs recently got another packaging redesign, and the only wave to show up as such so far includes the original Vader, the Droid tank in brown, and the first reissue of Darth Maul. I was interested when he first showed up on the local WM shelves, but I also remembered that he has a Class I (read: cheaper) mold that was supposed to be coming, but I also remembered that we hadn't heard anything about it since last year's Toyfair. Long story short, all the larger SWTFs ended up on clearance at the local WM, so Darth Maul was only $11 instead of the normal...what do they cost now, 17 dollars? Anyway, he was at normal deluxe prices. I decided to go ahead and get him while I could, and I'm glad I did. Turns out, he's one of the better SWTFs (Class IIs, anyway), especially for one of the early molds. I mean, the first Vader mold is pretty strong, but most of the early ones aren't. So, why is Darth Maul worth a second look? Well, I have to admit that a lot of it is the alt mode. I'd always liked the Scimitar since I first saw Episode I, as it was the first of the pseudo-TIE designs and I've always had an inclination toward those. However, the Sith Infiltrator is also very sleek and powerful looking, unlike most of the TIE vehicles. I love that the "wings"/panels can fold just like on the movie. It has an opening cockpit, but since this is a latter-day SWTF, no pilot was included (which is fine). The lightsabers look decent when loaded as missiles, though if you're wanting a 100% accurate look, you'll leave them off. I don't like that the landing gear can't stow, but they easily disconnect; I haven't put them back on since.