Which Side is This?

Sidewipe!


Ok, ok. He's not a side at all. He's an Autobot. One of the original, from the G1 cartoons.


He's supposed to be red. And he's also supposed to be a rather prominent character. Ok maybe not as prominent as Prime or Bumblebee or Ironhide. But at least you'd consider him to star in the live action movie first before Sideways. (Side who?) Yes, Sideways. Not front-ways, nor back-ways. Not right-side up nor upside down. Side. Ways. ...who gets more screen time than Sideswipe (If what the internet says is true. But then again the internet ALWAYS tells the truth.) ...Who also transforms into a silver sports car. (Ok so he's a Decepticon. But blargh all the same. We want Sideswipe!!!)

Yes, we sure do. Especially if he looks as good as his toy.




And what about those tech specs, eh? Solid all around stats, except he got gyped in the firearms department.


He's supposed to be built for fighting. But just NOT with guns. Just these nifty retractable swords:

And ya know, since he won't survive too long in battle (against all the movie Decepticons with their countless missiles, machine guns, and sharp teeth), we'll just give him like a 5 in rank. Not too high so we can prmote him to 6 if he survives, but not too low that he can't be replaced in the next movie if he dies. (Oh, by like say, Sunstreaker. Then they could just use the same mold and repaint him gold or something. CHA CHING! Just like Jazz and Smokescreen.)

I have to be honest. Though I'm not a big fan of the robots in the TF movies, I'm pretty impressed with the toys produced for the second live action movie. While most of the first movie toys really looked like, well, NOT Transformers, this time round Hasbro seem to have fine tuned the look of their robots. So while they STILL don't look like Transformers, at least they look cool. Well sorta. In their alt modes at least. Which is why I ended up snagging this much sought after figure. (That and Toys R Us giving away $20 vouchers for members. Lol.)

Check out the silver paint apps and the cool blue plastic for his windows and windshields.



No two ways about it. (And definitely not Sideways) This toy/Autobot is half cool alien robot and half shagadelic sports car, but all awesome detail.













Pity, but though it looks like it, his hand can't close. But still, what detail to make it look like it can!














His face, too, though nothing like his G1 face, is still well molded. He's got light piping for his eyes, but pity that the screw which holds his head together blocks most of the light from coming through. :/










Check out the detailing of the arm, as well as his torso/upper thigh area.






















And this is what his undercarriage looks like in vehicle mode:













His Ratings!

Show accuracy: 9.0 Pretty close, from what footage/photos we've seen. Alt mode is slick and well, looks like a fast car. :P

Poseability: 8.0 He's my first ever movie TF toy, so I can't compare with the others. His head is ball-jointed, which is remarkable since it pops in an out during transformation. His shoulders can only go half way up due to his chest getting in the way. He loses points mostly for me at his feet, where he can barly balance because of the wheel in the middle of each foot. And his feet are too small to compensate for this. Gimme a bigfoot TF anytime! Balance is the key to all poses. ;) Oh and he doesn't have much of a knee bend either.

Aesthetic: 9.o - Great car mode, sleek looking in robot mode. He may be mainly silver, but they added just the right amount of red paint and blue windshield to make Sideswipe pleasing to look at. Would be almost perfect if light piping worked better.

Overall: 8.7 - I'm gonna enjoy this toy. Heck, I'm enjoying it already. Until I open Sideways. Then I'll enjoy having both silver sports cars. Haha. Sideswipe's lack of poseability kinda hurts initially, but not enough to take away from his "Wow" factors in detailing and transformation.

If you can only get your hands on one movie toy only, and you want one with a not-so-alien-looking robot mode and a brilliant vehicle mode, Sidewipe is the one to get. Plus, he's also one of the more popular G1 characters, and is not named Sideways.

Oh, and did I mention? This is how Sideways Got a bigger movie role than Sideswipe.