Generations Power of the Primes Battleslash
When Battleslash was first leaked to Transformers fans he appeared to be called Battleclash. Somewhere along the line that's become Battleslash which looks a little odd when there's already a Dinobot Slash in the previous wave of Legends toys.Battleslash is a new character appearing for the first time in Power of the Primes. He's mainly white robot with a slightly odd looking stance thanks to his wide waist and legs. The chest is pushing big buttons for me reminding me of SOMETHING, with a Decepticon symbol in the middle and two barrel ends set into purple panels to the sides. His right arm has a helicopter blade on it, reminding me a little of Power Core Searchlight. He's got 5mm Fists but no weapon, a rotating head and ball joint knees, hips, elbows & shoulders. The shoulders are very odd: the base of the ball joint points back rather than into the body so you'll be pushed to get a full range of movement from them: they'll raise from by the side to pointing forward but no further, bu swing them out to the sides and he can raise his arms above his head.
Transformation: fold the chest forward, fold the head into it and fold the chest back up. Fold the back down, releasing the tabs into the shoulder hinges, and fold each shoulder hinge 90° out to the sides. Fold the sides of the lower leg down under the feet and rotate each lower leg 180° at the knee. Separate the waist and fold each waist half up through where the arms were so the legs meets and tab together above the robot's neck, where the head was. Swing each arm round on the shoulder hinge so they're pointing out to the sides. Fold the arms down so they point the same way as the legs.Swing each lower arm in 90° at the elbow. Bend the elbow 180°, a motion it couldn't manage in robot mode, so the front of the lower arm lies along the inner face of the upper arm and tabs into place. Fold the arm halves up over the robot's thighs and tab together, then tab into the robot's knees. Close the back of the chest, the helicopter's cockpit and fold the helicopter's nose into place.
Yes.... those arms weren't fun to Transform. You can see what's meant to happen but the series of steps you need to go through is somewhat complicated.
As helicopters go Battleslash feels quite chunky. It's also got a massive square hole in the front of the nose which looks rather unsightly. A weapon that fitted into the gap might have been nice. There's accommodation for a Titanmaster on the tail against the tail fin but, like Slash, he needs to bet sat with the knees bent the wrong way. He looks like he'll be decapitated but incredibly he blades will spin and miss him ..... but it's close.
Compared to recent vehicle Legends Battleslash feels a little sub par: the vehicle isn't quite right and there's nowhere to sit the Titanmaster inside him. However Battleslash has one more role to play .....
Generations Power of the Primes Roadtrap
Roadtrap is a squat chunky blue robot with some yellow, pink and silver detailing. Like Roadtrap his chest design, panels on the upper chest slanted in towards each other reminds me of someone but I'm not sure who. He's got ball joints at the knees, hips, elbows and shoulders.Transformation: Pull the black struts the wheels are attached to down under his feet. Fold the pink painted upper portion of the lower leg back 90°, taking the upper leg with it, and fold the pink bits forward again so they're sitting further back than they were previously. Fold the chest down so it covers the lower legs. Fold the shoulders out to the sides and back so the arms are under the vehicle and tab the arms into the top of the vehicle. Fold the wheel struts back so they rest against the hands. Fold the robot head & neck down under the rear of the vehicle.
The slightly odd shaped chest now produces a slightly odd shaped load on the back of the van/pickup (I'm pretty sure it should be a van but I'm being generous here) which tries to help disguise what a mess the rear of the vehicle is. It fails completely, it is a huge mess and not helped by being one of those Transformer modes that wants to undo itself and needs regular massaging back together.
Once again, like Battleslash, there's nowhere for a Titanmaster to sit inside the vehicle so he's perched on the back, either with his knees bent the wrong way, or hanging off the back of the load, or awkwardly sloped backwards.
The robot is OK, the transformation is novel and clever but the alternate mode looks a load of rubbish. Fortunately there's a bit more too it.
Generations Power of the Primes Battletrap
A long long time ago there was a Transformers Van and Helicopter who had no alternate modes but combined to form the robot Battletrap. Personally I think Battletrap had the wrong name and that name should have gone to the tank & fighter jet combination known as Flywheels whose name I think is more appropriate to the car & van. Your mileage may vary on this theory. In both cases the air vehicle was placed onto the land vehicle and they would autotransform into the robot.The general thought on how to update these characters was to turn them into Triplechangers as was done with Botcon Battletrap & Titans Return Skytread (Flywheels). However when two toys named BATTLEclash and RoadTRAP were leaked, emphasis intentional, fans mediately spotted what the names were suggesting that each individual mode had been given a robot and they combined, a bit like Multiforce or Energon Powerlinx toys.
So to combine the toys start from robot modes:
Fold Roadtrap's chest down over his upper legs, folding the arms back behind the legs and tabbing in place: simple.
Battleslash on the other hand.... fold Battleslash's chest forward, fold his robot head into his chest and fold he chest back into place. Straighten the arms to the sides, pull the back down releasing the shoulder hinges and fold the arms across the chest. Separate the hips and fold them up onto the sides of the body to form Battletrap's shoulders with Battleslash's legs as Battletrap's arms. Fold Battletrap's head out of Battleslash's back and fold Battleslash's back closed to form Battletrap's chest. Fold the helicopter nose down under Battletrap's chest and put Roadtrap's head into the hole in the helicopter nose.
The combined robot is around deluxe size: Titans Return Perceptor is on my desk and they're a very similar height. The connection between the two halves is surprisingly good, pick him up by the upper body and there's no hint of he legs wanting to come away. The connection is so good that you're happy using his waist, formed from Roadtrap's neck, to turn the upper body to the sides. He looks very similar to the original Battletrap, blue legs & head and white body, just the arms have changed colour now being white.
Articulation: head turns as does the waist, which we've already said. Ball joints at the shoulders, elbows and hips. All of Roadtrap's leg articulation is within Battletrap's legs but effectively it's all been immobilised by the small robot's arms. Folding the small arms out would give you more place the legs could bend but I imagine without the they WOULD bend and it's better to settle for less articulation but a robot that will stand straight and stably.
Battletrap has 5mm peg holes in his hands but these are obscured by Battleslash's heel spurs sticking out the front of the hand: you'll have trouble getting a lot of weapons into those holes in a way the Battletrap will be able to hold them pointing straight in front of him. The point is rather moot in that neither he or his components have any weapons for you to use.
Both components have their downsides, especially in vehicle mode, but I rather like Battletrap himself. My enjoyment will be improved later on if they do Flywheels using the same combination system allowing you to connect Battletrap's top half to Flywheel's lower half and vice versa.
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