Combiner Wars Dead End & Streetwise

Dead End

Dead End is one of the Stunticons. Of the original four, 3 are street cars with Dragstrip being more confined to the track. Breakdown's More angular vehicle mode sets him apart from the other three leaving Deadend and Wildrider as the sort of cars you'd be more likely to see on the street. Of these two Wildrider has been eliminated from the initial release of Combiner Wars Stunticons. He comes in robot mode but lets look at the vehicle mode first.

Turn the waist 180 degrees. Straighten the arms & fold the hands into the wrists. Fold diown atthe shoulders to the sides of the body. Fold the front and outer side of each leg out to the sides. Bring the legs together with the combiner connector pointing towards the waist. Fold the lower legs up at the knees so they contain the lower legs then close the sides of the legs to form the rear of the car. Fold the back pack down to form the nose of thecar and fold the windscreen down. Fold the chest plate up to cover the face. Peg the weapon into the side of the car as an exhaust pipe.

Dead End's car mode is a solid chunky car, cast in a lovely burgundywith silver highlights and a yellow stripe running just off center. It's a pretty good reinterpretation of his original vehicle mode. His purple hand/foot forms a weapon that pegs onto the top of the vehicle in a hole that's a tad too shallow for the pegs.

To transform back to robot mode start by folding the chest plate down from under the bonnet to reveal his face. Fold the windscreen back and then fold the bonnet back onto the space occupied by the windscreen. Raise the arms out to the sides, bend down at the shoulders and fold the hands out. Rotate at the waist and seperate the legs, folding diown the combiner connector.

In addition to the Burgundy of the car body two different shades of grey are revealed here: a pale grey forming the combiner connector, knees, waist, link between body and bonnet, combiner connector and weapon. Meanwhile a dark grey is used for the upper legs, hands, the lower half of the upper arms, neck and head. There's plenty of moulded detail here with a head closely resembling the comic version of his original head. He can use his vehicle weapon as his hand gun while his exhaust pipe forms a stave like hand weapon. Either can be hand held or pegged into his shoulders.

Articulation is good: bending knees, ball jointed hips, turning waist, ball jointed head, shoulders that raise at the body and are ball jointed at the arms, bicep swivels and bending elbows.

Dead End can also form the limb of a Combiner Wars robot:

Arm mode: from robot mode peg the legs together. Fold the hands into the wrists, straightenthe arms and bend the arms in at the shoulders so the wrists tuck into the waist. Fold the head back into the car bonnet back pack. Fold out the combiner mode connector.

You've probably got a good idea what to expect from a Combiner Wars arm: it turns at the shoulder and can be raised out to the side. The robot waist becomes a bicep swivel while the legs give it a double elbow and the peg for the hand wrist rotation. The hand has the peg hole between thumb and fingers to enable the arm to hold 5mm weapon. The car arms down't work so well for me as the Aerialbot arms because to have the elbow bending you need the wide underside of the car facing towards you on the lower arms which look a tad too wide.

Leg mode: From car mode fold the windscreen back and fold the bonnet, containing the head, onto the roof od the car. Fold out the combiner mode connector. The connector form the thigh swivel and bending knee for the combined robot while the ankle turns from side to side. It's a good solid leg, like most of the combiner wars legs which is what you want: a component that won't collapse holding the robot up.

I've handled a lot of Generations style cars and Dead End is a pretty good example without having any feature that sets it aside. Well worth owning, high quality.

A Japanese version of Dead End is cominginthe Unite Warriors Menasor set eliminatingthe distinguishing orange stripe which is also missing from the animated model.

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Steetwise

Looking at Streetwise in vehicle mode there is little to indicate that he and Dead End are different versions of the same mode. Yes they're a similar shape but the only identical parts are the wheels and vehicle mode weapon. The detailing is completely different, save for the positioning of the 5mm holes in the lower door sides and on the roof. Streetwise's vehicle mode is cast in off white platic with painted blue police detailing on the doors & bonnet.

The transformastion to robot mode is identical between the two versions of the toy!

Streetwise's original robot mode is pretty distinctive with his vehicle mode windscreen looking down from the chest at the rear of the car forming the legs. Black paint on a remoulded chest piece and the front of the legs help to simulate that. The waist, combiner connector and peg hole connector between the legs look like they are the same but almost every other part has been changed with a slightly different shape or detail. The appearance is completed with a fab new head sculpt, looking very like the original, and a triple barreled shotgun for him to hold.