The final figure in 2014’s Transformers Collector’s Club Subscription Series is the Autobot Rewind, partially based on his appearance in IDW’s More Than Meets the Eye series. Included as a special bonus is Eject, Rewind’s teammate from back in the days when they both served under Blaster as two of his cassette warriors. I say that in the past tense because in the current comics, Rewind’s primary role has been as both a member of the Lost Light crew and as Chromedome’s partner, so his characterization has evolved far beyond being just one of Blaster’s cassettes. Eject, well, he hasn’t been fleshed out as much, if at all, so the real draw here is Rewind.
Now, I didn’t subscribe since the only figures that interested me were Chromedome and Rewind, so I preordered both pretty early on with Big Bad Toy Store. When it was announced that Eject was going to be offered as a bonus with Rewind, fans wondered just how Big Bad Toy Store would handle this. Well, being the class act that they are, they included Eject as a freebie for anyone who had preordered Rewind — how awesome is that? They are in my cool book forever.
So let’s take a look at this pair and see what they have to offer.
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Their packaging is as bare-bones as it gets and I love it. It’s just a brick-shaped brown cardbard box with a foam insert to keep the figures safe. The only indicator as to what’s inside is a series of stickers used to keep the package sealed — it was this “sealed package” aspect that ultimately led Big Bad Toy Store to include Eject as a bonus since they promise “new, unopened” products. The figures sit snugly in the foam inserts in their alt modes, and the entire package just looks really clean and classy. I’m a fan for sure.
Also included in the set are two tech-spec cards that give us some background about the two characters. Since these figures aren’t strictly “More Than Meets the Eye” versions of the characters, this does help flesh them out a bit.
Rewind and Eject are repaints of Takara’s Transformers United Rumble and Frenzy. The only aspects that are new or different are their head sculpts and their paint schemes, so their heads are really the only parts that could be considered “IDW-influenced.” Both figures actually look pretty darn good despite being on bodies that are a bit questionable for the characters. Viewed straight on, they look pretty clean, even though the sculpt is a bit busy. When viewed from the side or from the back, however, some pretty obtrusive kibble becomes evident.
Rewind’s head sculpt is simply awesome. It’s a solid representation of the character from the IDW comics, and I love how striking the red used on his faceplate is. It pops like crazy. Eject fares just as well, I’m pleased to say. The orange bounces off the blue used for his body wonderfully, making for one darn attractive figure.
Now, the figures’ kibble does actually serve a purpose, but that purpose made way more sense for Rumble and Frenzy than it does here. Their arms can transform into spring-loaded “pile drivers,” but, in this case, it ends up being a rather unnecessary action feature. It’s still kinda neat, but I do wish the arm transformation was more fluid and streamlined when the pile drivers aren’t being used.
As far as articulation goes, they have a good range of motion in their arms and legs, despite the arm kibble. They’ve got:
- Ball-jointed shoulders, knees, and hips
- Swivel head and elbows
- Hinged elbows and feet
If you can find a good balance point, they can achieve a nice array of action poses, but getting them to balance is definitely the challenge.
They’re scout class figures, so they’re much smaller than a deluxe class, which works well enough for Rewind and Chromedome, and they’re a good deal larger than a Masterpiece cassette. The Masterpiece scale would probably work better for these two, so hopefully a Blaster is on the way from Takara soon. Until then, these two will do nicely.
The alt mode is the only thing that doesn’t really work for me. Knowing what we do about Rewind in the comic, a tank just doesn’t fit his personality and is just downright incongruous. But, since they are repaints and I do get why this mold was chosen for the two of them, I guess it is what it is. I keep them both in ‘bot mode in my display, so they will likely never be transformed into their tank modes ever again after this review.
That said, the tank modes don’t look bad at all. They’re both fairly clean and all the robot bits integrate well.
I’m really happy to have both of these guys in my display since I do carry such a fondness for Rewind. Eject is an awesome bonus I’m very pleased with as well, so even though Collector’s Club figures come at a premium, I have no regrets in purchasing the pair.
Big Bad Toy Store still has the set in stock, but Eject is no longer included as a free bonus since that was only made available for preorders. It’s still a nice set, though, and one worth picking up, especially if you’re a fan of Rewind from the IDW comics.
