It shouldn’t be news to any fans of the Transformers brand that combiners are all the rage right now, with Hasbro and Takara unleashing combiner team after combiner team this year in conjunction with IDW’s “Combiner Wars” narrative in the comics. In addition to the official combiner teams we’ve seen so far, the third-party world has been pumping out combiner teams as fast as they possible could for years now, so there is no shortage of hulking robotic goliaths on our shelves. In answer to these giants, Hasbro has released the “Combiner Hunters” as one of this year’s SDCC Transformers exclusives. This trio is tasked with the job of taking down the combiners, and from the looks of it, they have the perfect tools for the job.
So let’s take a closer look at the Combiner Hunters!
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The packaging design itself is nothing special, and is reminiscent of what we’ve seen from the Platinum series from the past couple years. There’s a sheath that can be removed to unveil a large window that showcases the three girls and their gigantic weapons. It’s nothing particularly fancy, but it does a good job of showing off the goods, and the underside of the box provides a bit of information to clarify the purpose of this team, in terms of the narrative, and what their weapons are all about — this is all important and necessary information, particularly for anyone not reading “Combiner Wars.”
When the set was first announced, my interest wasn’t exactly piqued because all it really is is three repaints of figures we’ve already seen released at retail. There’s no new tooling, but there are new weapons. Now, superfluous weapons often get tossed in a box, but once I got a look at the weapons, the set became just that much more alluring, but I still wasn’t sure that was enough to justify the effort required to get this set at or after the Con. But I’ll tell you — having this set in hand has assuaged all my doubts. It’s a knockout and I’m thrilled to be able to display these three ladies along with my new combiners.
Arcee
Arcee is the one who caught my eye the most. This new deco is gorgeous, and I really think this is going to be my new default Arcee. When the retail figure came out, I wasn’t all that pleased with it, but somehow a new color deco has smoothed out many of my complaints — I’m not sure how that works, but here we are. The black base with the metallic blue, pink, and sliver highlights is really doing it for me, and I’m in love with the Autobot “tattoo” on her cheek. The G1 character, upon which this mold was originally based, was always rather unassuming and easy to ignore, but this repaint brings her more in line with her IDW characterization — one tough bot not to be messed with.
Arcee’s weapon, the “Combiner Slayer,” is aptly named and is surprisingly light and easy for Arcee to hold. Well, it can be a challenge to get her to hold it with bold hands, which is my preference, but I thought for sure it would be a nightmare to keep her standing with it, but it totally isn’t. I’m shocked, to tell you the truth. The pink gradient on the blade makes it look like a piece of candy and it matches Arcee’s deco perfectly. Of all the weapons, this is my favorite due to the sheer absurdity of it and the awesome sculpt and paint job.
Chromia
Chromia is the figure I felt the most lukewarm about initially, and that really hasn’t changed. Of the three, she is the only figure where I think I prefer the original retail release. This one is cool and all, but I don’t like the paint apps on her face, and there is just too much white and grey — it just doesn’t catch my eye the way Arcee does. But like Arcee, her weapon is also completely absurd, and it’s just interesting enough to redeem the figure.
The “Primeon Blade,” as it’s called, looks to be capable of delivering some real damage to an unsuspecting combiner. And it looks like this is where the girls keep track of their conquests — there are five “Devastator chest plates” that seem to indicate combiners this sword has dispatched. Chromia has never been a slouch of a character, so this gigantic sword would seem to be a nice complement to her character.
Windblade
Windblade’s mold has always seemed to be something of a mess to me — soft plastic, awkward alt mode due to a janky transformation, and the odd Kubuki styling to her face — but this version of the figure is much more visually interesting to me than the retail figure was. Once again, a simple deco change has made a so-so figure much more awesome, and her new weapon has upped her play value drastically. The combination of the blood red, the metallic blue, and the gold is beautiful, and it adds so much to the figure. Again, there’s nothing new here aside from the paint job, but it feels like a new figure in hand. Like Arcee, I much prefer this version of the character to what we got at retail.
Windblade’s weapon is called the “Spectrospear,” and, like her companions, she can hold this absurdly large weapon with no difficulty whatsoever. The gold and silver deco complements her own deco quite well, and she looks like such a badass holding it.
Now, I know this set isn’t going to be for everyone because they are “just” repaints at the end of the day, so the crazy new weapons may not be enough to “sell” the set, but I do honestly think this set is worth tracking down. I mean, you need someone to handle your new combiners, right? Well, these three ladies are the ones for the job, and from the looks of it, they’ll be able to take down Menasor, Devastator, Bruticus, etc. with little trouble — that alone makes this set so much fun and worth getting.
Again, this set is an SDCC ’15 exclusive, so it will be available at Hasbro’s booth at the Con, and it should be available on www.hasbrotoyshop.com after the Con, so get your f5 fingers ready!
Thanks to Hasbro for providing this sample for review. Keep an eye on The Fwoosh for lots more SDCC goodness this week!