Dreadwing is probably one of the more interesting figures in his respective Generations “Thrilling 30” wave despite his being burdened with the distinction of “just a repaint.” He serves two purposes in representing a modern take on the G2 figure from 1994 and by representing the character as he appears in the current IDW Robots in Disguise series. And I’m not going to lie — I get a huge kick out of seeing those G2 Decepticon sigils on his chest. G2 is something I’ve only recently come to terms with (I all but denied its existence for many years), so I’m actually pleased to add another G2 design to the collection.
The “Thrilling 30” line seems to be pulling elements from many corners of Transformers history, from G1 to Beast Wars to IDW, so it’s possible the G2 designation is there to add diversity to the lineup rather than sticking to just a straight IDW representation of the character. Regardless, he’s a nice representation of both source characters and a figure that shouldn’t be overlooked while Skids and Waspinator are being tossed in the ol’ shopping basket … but he probably will be ignored by many fans, sadly.
What Dreadwing has going for him, in terms of “shelf presence,” is his color scheme — it pops like crazy in the packaging. When I took the corner at my local Target and found this wave, Dreadwing was the first one my eyes locked onto because the color scheme commands attention, especially among his more neutral-toned wavemates (he’s even more eye-grabbing than Waspinator). Like many others, I had seriously considered passing him up in favor of just snagging “the big guns” from the wave, but when I saw him hanging on the pegs, I had to have him. The overall presentation absolutely sold me.
There isn’t much here that’s new if you already have Megatron from the first IDW wave. His crazy, vibrant color scheme does a lot to make it feel fresh, however. Many fans will skip Dreadwing due to repaint redundancy, but I think this mold works much better for Dreadwing than it does for Megatron — at least in this scale. I have little use for a tiny, deluxe-class Megatron, so if I were to keep just one representation of this mold, this would be it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the design of the IDW Megatron, but he really should be a voyager, and since he isn’t, Dreadwing is a better fit for my collection.
The only downside to Dreadwing’s color scheme is … his head. It’s a cool new sculpt, but the black gets lost in the sea of bright blues that make up his body. The red in his weapon don’t help matters much either because the eye is drawn there as well. Basically, you want to look at and admire everything but his head. It kind of becomes this black lump on his shoulders. His light-piping should help, but it gets obscured by the panel behind his head, so even that isn’t enough to make it more commanding.
The good thing is Dreadwing is every bit as poseable as Megatron, and action poses are a breeze to pull off with him. This is easily one of my favorite deluxe molds to come out in some time, so he’s pure hand-candy to pick up and play around with. Also — just to be clear — I chose to not extend his weapon fully just to distinguish it from Megatron’s cannon. By brain simply won’t allow them to be the same. It does extend just like Megatron’s if you’re wondering.
Now, looking at the two side by side, I do have to admit that Megatron is the nicer-looking figure of the two. His detailing pops more and the colors make him look more formidable, which is key for a Decepticon. But it’s Megatron and he’s a (relatively) tiny deluxe here, so he’s got that going against him — in a big way (no pun intended). Dreadwing works better in this scale and he’s a decent update of the G2 figure, so he has some degree of character/toy accuracy working in his favor. Sure, I probably would have preferred a G1 update, but that was a Botcon exclusive several years ago built on the Classics Jetfire mold, so our getting another G1 update probably ain’t happening anytime soon, but I am cool with this one.
Even though the above pic is a G2/G1 mishmash, it’s nice to be able to pose these two together finally. Darkwind has been awfully lonely all by himself all these years, so I’m happy to finally have some version of Dreadwing to pose next to him. The pairing here may look odd, but I think they fit together well enough for my purposes. It’s too bad they can’t combine, however. Or can they? (If you’ve tried this, sound off below!)
Dreadwing is on the smaller side of the deluxe scale; even Goldfire looks imposing when posed next to him.
His alt mode is quite the handsome stealth bomber based on Don Figueroa’s design for Megatron. It makes no sense to have a “stealth” bomber decked-out in these colors, but that was what G2 was all about — insanely bright colors that would hopefully grab a kid’s attention in the toy aisle. It’s garish as all heck, but that’s one of the things that I now see as ultimately charming about the G2 years. I once absolutely hated all the crazy colors, but now I find myself beginning to appreciate them — 20 years later, naturally.
I know Dreadwing has the most “peg-warming potential” of this wave, but he really is worth taking a second look at, especially if you’ve already made up your mind to skip him. He’s a repaint, yes, but the mold absolutely does makes sense for him, and since we’re probably not going to see another Dreadwing, G1 or otherwise, any time soon, this may be your only chance to snag one for the foreseeable future.
If you’re only going to add one version of this mold to your collection, I really have to recommend Dreadwing over Megatron because, frankly, Megatron just doesn’t work because of his size, as nice a figure as he may be. Dreadwing looks cool, is fun to play around with, and fills a vacancy that’s been sitting there for way too long. Give him a chance.