Unite Warriors Wild Rider!

This review is all about Wild Rider, the one who is missing from HB’s line up for Menasor.  Sure he came back as Brake-neck, pfft, meh.  Who cares about that guy?  Is he actually worth all the anger?


Wild Ridin’

Originally a Ferrari, he is now a generic sleek race car of no particular distinction.  Unlike his buddy Breakdown, he’s very much lost the delicious 80s inspired sharp lines, but I suppose since he is just a re-colour of Deadend with a new head  I guess that is a bit expected, a shame, but there you go and on top of that, his original toy was less angled.  He comes with the new looks LED lights(no lighting though) and door mirrors.  Really there isn’t much to say about his vehicle mode sculpting, it is a low, fast looking sports car, which rolls well and can provide fun as a model car.

Wild Riding colours

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The vehicle colours are basic with much dark grey of the plastic, and red.  The red comes from the painted windows and a strip along the side and the tail lights.  The only other colour is silver, which has been done on the wheels, and head lights and a bit of black on the front grill.  It’s basic, but manages to do the job.  The most glaring issue with the vehicle colours is the door section where the red just skips a panel.  Apparently this is due to the type of plastic used being unable to hold paint too well.  I guess it doesn’t look too bad, but it’s a shame.  I’m undecided as to which looks better, the Hasbro version, or Takaratomy’s version.  They are both slightly a bit odd.

The Decepticon insignia on the bonnet is definitely easily seen and nicely printed too.  That’s about it.  

Wildly G1-esque Transformation.

Luckily for HB/TT, Wildrider and Deadend shared a similar transformation schematic on their G1 toys, so this guy has a nice transformation that tickles the nostalgia emotions, it can be done quickly and is still interesting and clever.  I’ll admit that I think despite the repetitive nature of my experience with transforming Unite Warrior / Combiner Wars toys, they have struck a nice balance between complexity and fun.

One section to be wary of is the flipping over the windscreen and roof section. 
Mine has developed some rather concerning stress marks around the joint, I have a feeling it has something to do with the plastic, as Deadend doesn't suffer the same issue and the tolerances feel about the same.




I also rather like that with the flipping of the boot over, you can make a rather stupid flying mode too.  Doing so also exposes a hole for the placing of stand plugs, so you can actually make him look like he’s flying!

 

Wild Robot Body!!

Articulation on this body is just delightful, many, many joints in all the right places and most of them have no trouble turning!  YAY.

• Ball neck, hindered by the shape of the square head, no up looking for this guy.
  
• Ball and transformation based hinge jointed shoulders.
  
• Bicep swivel.
  
• Hinged wrists and elbows.
  
• Swivel waist
  
• Hinged hips
  
• Thigh swivel
  
• Hinged knees.

My one gripe would be that his wrists have the cheap ribbed “ratcheting” on them and ever since my FOC Grimlock ended up with useless floppy shoulders, I am extremely sceptical as to how long these will last.
 
Naturally he looks pretty nice when standing next to his fellow Stunticons in both vehicle and robot mode.

 

Wild(ish) colours!

Wildrider’s robot mode is a very nicely done homage to the original toy.  The colours are very well done with the red down the arms, blue and grey chest and dark grey everything else.  It’s simple, but manages to look all right.  He even has silver on his toes, reflecting the look of the stickers of the original toy.

Wild details!

Ambient sculpting on this guy isn’t bad at all.  He’s not excessively detailed, but he is in no ways plain.  From the back though, he is very car like, but that’s fine with me as that is what makes Transformers different to other robots.
 

 
He has a new head sculpt, which bypasses the blocky G1 toy and has a bang on cartoon look to it.  The ear bolts and sharply sculpted cheeks are very nice.  The red face adds to his anger (although it should add to his embarrassment) and he has a nice scowl on his face.  Although I feel that since he is crazy, like really, really, crazy, a laugh face might have been crazier.  Still, he does look violently angry.  ALL THE TIME.  There are also a couple of beautiful blue eyes peeping out from the angry face too.  But don’t tell him I said that ok?

Not so wild Weapons...

Wildrider comes with his hand/foot gun and a



Pipe.

Now, if her were in Final Fight, or Streets of Rage (or even Silent Hill), I’d be excessively happy....

Buut he isn’t.  Although in a way, it’s kind of OK, as he’s crazy enough...

“Sure, I don’t have a gun, but then, you should ask yourself...  Do you think I need one?  Heee heee hee,ha ha ha!”

The pipe can be held two ways, one as a club and the other with a gun style grip, but it looks nothing like a gun in the slightest.

It is in a way strangely fitting.  Still, I will say that I dislike these generic weapons we’ve been getting with Transformers lately.  

Once again, the hand footgun can be wielded in his hand, or mounted on his shoulder.  In his hand it looks only juts acceptable probably due to the bulk of his vehicle parts on his body.  I think this is why I don’t like the handfoot gun for Dragstrip.

They can both be mounted on vehicle mode as well, while the pipe makes sense, it looks out of place on such a sleek, modern machine and the handfoot gun is bang in the middle of the roof, making it look kind of large and once again, I wish it could be mounted more towards the rear of the vehicle.

 

Wild Summary

While there was much anger about Off-Road replacing Wildrider, I feel the end result, while nice with his new head, is just okay.  Personally I would have liked a more distinct vehicle mode.  Sure it’s nice having him, but as he currently stands, all he is, is a re-colour of Deadend, with a new head and that seems to take quite a bit of his bluster away.  A bit of a shame really.