What’s the best thing to do with an already unnecessary G2 variant of a MP figure? Accessorize it!
Dr. Wu is quickly becoming the go-to third party source for when you just plain didn’t spend enough on your Masterpiece figures. I picked up their Spike and Sparkplug set for MP-10, and found them to be much improved over the Hasbro Spike. But in this case, this is more than just an improvement, this is completing a look that the factory figure started and maybe stopped a little short on.
In his pure 1990s glory, G2 Sideswipe was the spittin’ image of over-doing. Although really only shining in the first couple issues, the dude had a splash page, showing off his bandoliered badness in the first two pages.
So, Dr. Wu took on the task of getting ‘Swipe a little closer to that spittin’ image. Included in the set are two rubbery plastic bands with notches and cutouts, an assortment of rifle rounds and some 40mm-style grenade shells, pouches, pouches, pouches!, some rockets and some traditional pineapple grenades. There is also a big honkin’ RPG and some mounting clips.
Well, the good Dr. forgot one thing in this box, and that’s the damn instructions. I figured it out eventually, but good hell, a little help would’ve gone a long way.
Basically, you arrange the pouches and ammo as you please, with the exception of the pineapples, there’s notches for those on the thigh belt. Then, you use the small black slotted clips to “tie” the bands together, and the bands’ notches will hold the desired tightness.
There’s also a sword mount that can be added to the back of the bandolier, which holds ‘Swipe’s machette much better than just stuffing it into the car roof, and there’s a mounting clip for the rocket launcher the plugs into the roof’s “weapon port.” It’s also possible to string all this crap together and mount it on the roof in vehicle mode, but I’m not going to do that.
The bandolier’s material is good and flexible, which it needs to be, and I’m much happier with the neutral grey it ended up being than the clear we saw on the test shots. The plastic pieces are very high quality, in fact better than some of the other Dr. Wu stuff I’ve picked up, so no complaints there.
Overall, while the quality is sharp, and it absolutely nails the look of this figure, I do feel like it was a lot more frustration and cost than I would normally associate with a product like this. At the $27 I paid, it was more money than Springer’s chain gun, and while there’s certainly more little parts, it doesn’t come off as quite as substantial as that kit did. Ultimately, I think it depends on how much you need a complete G2 Sideswipe, and that can be a kinda damning question. But if the answer is “hells yeah,” you will be pleased.
