Thursday, 13 April 2017

UW-EX Unite Warriors Baldigus


Unite Warriors Greejeeber

I'm finding it rather hard to get excited about Greejeeber. As it's a Japanese toy they've used the original darker Greejeeber colours, as opposed to Rollbar's more olive green: TFU has a good comparison between the two. The shade coupled with the US army star on the bonnet makes him a dead ringer for Combiner Wars Hound in vehicle mode. The robot mode is slightly better but still looks like a slightly darker Hound with a Swindle head and an orange chest.

All the deluxe toys in the Unite Warriors Baldigus Boxset have lost their Hand/Foot/Gun and in it's place Greejeeber gains Long Haul's gun from the Unite Warriors Devastator Boxset. This improves both modes considerably closer emulating the big and small guns the original Swindle and Greejeeber toys had.

This toy was always going to struggle alongside Hound and they've done the best they could but it's easily the least exciting thing in the Baldigus boxset.


Unite Warriors Hepter

There's not a lot of difference between Car Robots Hepter and it's American counterpart Robots in Disguise, as TFU's comparison shows. The blue helicopter with an orange chest and red legs & weapons translates well to the Unite Warriors Vortex mould whose rotor assembly holds together much better than the one I got in the Unite Warriors Bruticus Boxset. As with the other deluxe toys in the Unite Warriors Baldigus Boxset he's lost his hand foot gun but instead has Mixmaster's gun from the Unite Warriors Devastator Boxset. A slight complaint here is it's gun metal grey, matching the other imported UW Constructicon weapons, which I assume are gang moulded, and not red like his other weapon and the weapons on the original Hepter. Even though it's a little off model, I think I'd have been tempted to paint the missiles on he helicopter/arms red too.

Otherwise a decent job done.


Unite Warriors Shuttler

There's a little bit of excitement about Shuttler in this set: For a start it's only the third use of the mould, after Unite Warriors Blast Off and Unite Warriors Strafe. It's only the second use of the space shuttle version after Blast Off and this time it's in more authentic black & white shuttle colours, like the original Car Robot Shuttler and Robots in Disguise Movor, which are very similar as TFU's comparison shows.

The alternative assembly & transformation has used here which means the arms fit onto the wings better in vehicle mode and in robot mode the unsightly shuttle nose chest is relegated to his back with a more traditional Combiner Wars chest, painted in orange. It had been used previously on the remoulded Strafe but this is it's first official use on the shuttle version of the toy and it's a BIG improvement. I hope that WHEN a Combiner Wars Deluxe Shuttle Blast Off comes out it will use this configuration!

As with the other deluxe toys in the Unite Warriors Baldigus Boxset Shuttler has traded his Hand Foot Gun for a weapon from the Unite Warriors Devastator Boxset, in his case now possessing Scrapper's gun.

I personally had no problem with the assembly of my Blast Off but I'm aware others have had difficulty in arm mode. No problems of that nature have yet been reported with this toy. The pins on Shuttler's neck joint have been enlarged to stop the head falling out when it's transformed this tweet shows.

Great repaint, a vast improvement on UW Blast off in colour and robot form.


Unite Warriors Dangar

Definitely Car Robots Dangar, who is a brown camouflaged sandy colour, and not Robots in Disguise Armorhide, who is a dark blue camouflage on light blue body. The difference is obvious and unlike the rest of the limb characters in this set you don't need to see them bellow each other in their TU entry to tell the difference!

Of all the former Combaticon deluxes in the Unite Warriors Baldigus, Dangar misses his Hand Foot Gun the most in vehicle mode as it provided the tank mode's dual cannon: I'd have given some serious though to including it for that reason alone. In it's place we get Scavenger's gun, from the Unite Warriors Devastator Boxset. It's a decent substitute for Dangar's previously missing small gun but lacks the presence of the larger cannon.

Transforming to robot mode reveals a brown plastic head with similarly coloured limb pieces and, thank the lord, a decent waist.

Looks good but I'm missing that dual cannon!


Unite Warriors Dolrailer

The main difference between Car Robots Dolrailer Robots in Disguise Mega Octane - I still think Mega Octane should have been called Scourge and the petrol tanker Scourge Mega Octane - is in the combiner accessories. But look closer at the comparison pictures in TFU's Mega-Octane page and you'll see that there's a chest panel that changes from gold to grey, as do the cannons on the robot's back, and the green of the vehicle turns from olive to a darker shade as the toy moved west. The Unite Warriors toy reflects the original Japanese version, lots of olive green, lots of gold. Oddly the guns originally included with Combiner Wars Hotspot are black on this toy not gold, albeit with gold painted tips. They have changed colour before without seemingly affecting the rest of the toy, notably on Combiner Wars Onslaught & Transformer Subscription Service 4.0 Bludgeon, so why not here? Odd. Even odder is that Dolrailer has all but lost his camouflage pattern, he's now a plain olive drab EXCEPT for the top of the rear of the vehicle. A camouflage paint mask exists for this toy and was used on Combiner Wars Generation 2 Onslaught, why not use that? Despite hthese slight oddities the vehicle mode looks good and the robot mode looks even better, with just the gold tops of his guns peaking over his shoulders.

One of the problems with Combiner Wars Onslaught and Bruticus is thathe could either have hand guns or the cannons on his back. Unite Warriors Dorailler solves this by giving him some more guns! Whereas the deluxe members of the Unite Warriors Baldigus Boxset got their new guns from the Unite Warriors Devastator Boxset Dorailler's come from Unite Warriors Scattershot. Like Onslaught's guns these can peg together front to back via 5mm peg hole in the barrel and a corresponding peg on the rear. In vehicle mode we find them pegged into the front of the existing guns to form much larger vehicle cannons, more reminiscent of the original toy. I wish the pegs fully recessed, they can't because of the fin moulding on the back of the gun, but the clutch between the two pieces is easily enough to hold them in place.

So, a nice loking toy, and the addition of the gun probably makes this the best version of the Onslaught toys. But, and for a repaint it's a big but, they could have got closer to the original than they did by colouring the back cannons better and incluing the camouflage pattern all over the vehicle.


Unite Warriors Baldigus

Unite Warriors Baldigus was teased in silhouette on 20th October 2016, with a filename for the picture which rather gave the game away, and fully revealed on 25th October 2016.

Car Robots Baldigus is a Japanese repaint of Bruticus sold during 2001. It was subsequently imported into the west by Hasbro as Robots in Disguise Ruination where the colour of one of the limbs and the combiner hands, feet, chest armour & helmet were changed: The two toys are definitely different and I much prefer the original Japanese version with the gold armour.

But in my collection I already have Combiner Wars Bruticus, Unite Warriors Bruticus & Combiner Wars Generation 2 Bruticus. What does the Unite Warriors Bruticus Boxset have to offer me, apart from new colours? Quite a bit actually.

Gone are the Hand Foot Guns for the deluxes in this set, replaced with weapons from the Unite Warriors Devastator Boxset. Replacing them in combined mode are the hands & feet from the Combiner Wars Computron Boxset, which haven't seen release in Japan before. The ankle joints in the feet, like those used with Combiner Wars Victorion & Unite Warriors Megatronia, offer sideways movement and provide a more masculine look to the toy that the pointy shoes used on it's female variants.

As I said the individual toys in the set all have new weapons too. Here's a quick guide to who has what, together with what their RID and original Combaticon names are

CR/UW RiD Combaticon Weapons
Dangar Armorhide Brawl Scavenger
Shuttler Movor Blast-off Scrapper
Greejeeber Rollbar Swindle Long Haul
Hepter Ro-tor Vortex Mixmaster
Dolrailer Mega-octane Onslaught Scattershot
Baldigus Ruination Bruticus Computron

The additional weapons, like the Original Baldigus Weapons, can combine into super weapons for the combined robot to hold.

The smaller weapon is formed from Shuttler (Scrapper's) long gun with Hepter's red gun and Greejeeber Jeep cannon pegged into the sides.

The larger weapon uses the two new guns with Dolrailer (Scattorshot's) pegged together with the handle on the rear gun facing down and the handle on the front gun facing up. Onto the front handle/peg attach the new long gun from Greejeeber (Long Haul's) which has a 5mm peg hole on it's underside. On the peg sticking out of our right of the front gun attach the new gun from Hepter (Mixmaster) and into the right of that peg in Shuttler's own white gun. Onto the rear left peg attach the new gun from Dangar (Scrapper's) The big gun goes in Baldigus' right hand, on our left, with the smaller one in his opposite hand.

When combining the toys you'll find that Dolrailer has the same alteration to the leg moulding that Unite Warriors Megaempress does, as shown in this tweet, which helps secure the upper legs better in combined mode.

The assembled combined robot looks exactly as it should: Unite Warriors Bruticus in the Baldigus colours. Like all the toys in the set a top job has been doe with the repainting. Alas he suffers from leaning forward syndrome, but all the Defensor/Bruticus variants do so that's to be expected. The addition of the different hands, feet and weapons sets him aside from being a straight Bruticus repaint and really adds something to the set. I'll be sad if this turns out to be the last Unite Warriors release but if it is, then they've gone out on a good set that's given us a Combiner Wars combiner we didn't have in the western line.

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