Phil's
Car Robots Mach Alert,
Super Mach Alert & Clear Mach Alert,
Robots In Disguise Prowl & Super Prowl,
OTCC Sideswipe & Sunstreaker
and
Universe Inferno & Prowl
Review
Mach Alert is a Lamborghini Countach police car. What is it with Japanese
toylines and making fast cars into Police vehicles ? (G1 Prowl, G1 Red
Alert, Diaclone Police Car Countach / E-Hobby Clamp Down) The car is mainly
white with a black lower portion. There's three characters of Japanese
writing on both doors, but the order of characters is reversed so the same
character is at the front of the car back of the door and in between the
two. Hubcaps are chromed with the words Transformers TM 2000 on it. At the
time Car Robots came out it was referred to in some circles as Transformers
2000. The doors on the car open to the side. There's a pair of red
light bars on top of car's roof and a white rear spoiler, The ends of the
spoiler turn upwards revealing a stretched oval peg with exactly the same
size and shape as the light bars. These can be used to mount Mach Alert's
missile launchers on the car. The launchers have two fins sticking out at
right angles. They fire orange flame shaped missiles. Posing the launchers
forward make them look like traditional launchers but fixing them on with
the missiles pointing backwards makes them look like rocket boosters for the
car.
TF: remove the missiles. Turn the car over and fold the panel under the
back down so it covers the middle of the car. Open the doors and fold the
bonnet and windscreen upwards. Fold the grey seats forward - they're the
feet and are connected by the legs to the front of the car. Fold the legs
forward then twist at the knee & ankle so both lower leg & foot are facing
down. Slide the waist up into the car's body. Fold the doors down beside
the legs. Separate the back of the car by pulling on the inside of each
back wheel - one side will bring the top of the back with it. Fold the
sides of the back out to form the shoulders and straighten the arms up.
Fold the back of the car onto the outside of the arm it's attached to (his
left) Fold the exhaust pipes over the shoulders. Peg the missiles
launchers onto his right wrist.
Mach Alert's robot mode is still mainly white but some grey and painted
blue is also introduced. His chest is clear with a metallic red Autobot
symbol painted onto it. The head is white, with black side and a silver
face. The top of the head is sloped and looks a lot like a mini version of
the car mode. His head turns, his shoulders are on ball joints and the arms
bend bellow it. The arms bend to the sides at the elbow and have a ball
joint bellow it to allow the for the forearm to bend up correctly. No
waist, but ball joints at hip & knee and a double ball jointed ankle.
Overall: Decent car, decent robot. Another hit for Car Robots.
Mach Alert was issued carded as toy C-003.
Original 2000 Mach Alert review reads:
"MACH ALERT
White Lamborghini (I should know how to spell that - there was a dealership at the bottom of Egham Hill) Police Car. 2 Cyberjet style missile launchers that can be clipped on the spoiler - don't look too good there. Nice looking car though. The arms and shield are the back of the car - the sides of the back forming large shoulder pads, the windshield and bonnet become the back, and the legs fold out from underneath these - the lower sides of the feet are the cars chairs :-) The clear engine block beneath the back of the car recesses into the robots body to form a chest with a red AUTOBOT symbol on it, the doors hang by the hips.
Mainly white robot, with blue and transparent pieces. A shield on one arm, the aforementioned missiles mounted on the other. Nice"
Super Mach Alert alters the colour scheme somewhat by introducing dark blue on the front and back of the car. If you've got the car looking at you then the light bar on your left is now clear blue as well. The word Police appears on the front and both doors, and the doors also have Mach Alert written on them. The hubcaps are now chromed in gold. The robot mode is similar to before but much of the visible car shell is now blue.
Nice repaint.
Super Mach Alert is sold boxed as Car Robots toy C-025.
The clear car brothers are an exclusive for Osaka ToysLand Show and limited to 1500 pieces. They're labelled C-024-S to C-026-S corresponding to their original numbers. Although the set is labelled as Clear Car Brothers they are in fact Clear Super Car Brothers.
Clear Mach Alert renders all the body works in clear plastic and looks superb.
Prowl is identical to Mach Alert but for the addition of an Autobot symbol on the front of the car.
Super Prowl is identical to Super Mach Alert but for the addition of an Autobot symbol on the front of the car.
Inevitably Transformer fans wanted this mold as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker and in 2003 the Official Transformers Collectors Convention obliged by making them. Car mode is dead on with a red body shell and no light bars. The robot mode is more distant from Sideswipe - in particular no car bonnet on the chest - but has plenty of red & white visible.
The same toy is used to make Sunstreaker. Because Sunstreaker's G1 form had the air intakes mounted on the back of the car he looks less like his former self than Sideswipe does in vehicle mode. Robot mode again looks less like G1 Sunstreaker due to the lack of the car's roof on the chest. On reflection these two toys emphasise what a good job was done with the Universe Sideswipe & Sunstreaker in 2008.
Universe Inferno has a mainly white body, Super Prowl's differently coloured light bars and red edging round the bottom & on the front bonnet. A number of fire chief logos are added. To me it's obvious that they aught to have used the Red Alert name on this toy. Robot mode adds red to the lower legs, chest & head with black for the upper legs and forearms.
Not the worst repaint in the world.
This Prowl is a Universe exclusive for Wal-Mart. It's basically the standard Prowl with a large Autobot symbol on the bonnet, the number 105 on the windscreen, red square marks on the spoiler & doors and some red flame deco on the door.
Not really worth bothering about compared to the original Prowl
That makes Nine outings in total for this mold. A record ?
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