Cybertron Defence Red Alert is a large 8 wheeled armoured personnel carrier with a *HUGE* missile on top of him. Think Euro Stalker or MW/TFU Soundwave here. His vehicle form very closely resembles the minicon Knockout. Colour is mainly an off white - Armada Galvatron - with some deep blue which you'll recognise from the deluxe Red Alert. The missile launcher is mounted on a launcher arm that pivots upwards at the back of the vehicle. Mounted at the rear of this arm is a gantry that a minicon with thin legs - Cybertron Jolt for example - can stand in. This is great - minicon robot involvement in vehicle mode is far too rare - Armada Cyclonus' gunner chair, Rollbar driving Scavenger, and the Sea team sat in Tidal Wave are the only obvious examples I can think of. More of this please - in fact a vehicle/base toy for Minicons wouldn't go amiss. Micromasters came 17 years too early for me ! ;-)
Moving the missile up the launcher arm - yes it's completely detachable like Stalker's - engages a launching sound. When the missile is resting on the launching arm recessed to the very back his Autobot Cybertron planet key (Cybertron #up0t) can be inserted to sound an electronic noise and split the nose of the rocket in 2 to reveal a missile launcher. The crane arm can be slid to one side - mainly as part of the TF but that also helps reveal the cannon on the right side of the vehicle mode, which can pivot upwards. 2 of his minicon hardpoints are visible in this mode about halfway along the vehicle. There's a cannon that can be popped out from under front of the vehicle, but this really aught to be set this way from robot mode rather than triggered using a finger nail in this one. So big, chunky and nice in this mode.
To TF: Slide the missile launcher to one side, and fold down the side panels above the rear wheels - they'll only move slightly. Then fold the panels containing the 2 rear wheels over the 2 front wheels - this will reveal 2 more minicon ports. Open the top of the front of the vehicle out to the sides, and then part the front halves of the vehicle from the blue strip running down the centre and open the legs out about 30 degrees. You can then fold the front half of the vehicle down under the back to form the legs. The tips of the front form feet by folding them forwards which in the process reveals 2 heel spurs to be folded back. You're left with 2 arms pointing forward attached to the central strip from earlier. Detach one arm from this strip - both are pegged and it doesn't really matter which - and fold the arms back along the sides of the rear of the vehicle - loosing the 2 vehicle mode minicon ports. Fold the arms down beneath the shoulders - there's a joint within the shoulders for this, the barrel moulding should be on top of the shoulders, and fold the bit of blue plastic between the shoulders down to reveal the head.
The first thing that strikes me about the robot mode is the HUGE missile launcher acting as a cannon on his shoulder, It's UK Stalker again ! But actually the cannon is a homage back to the original Armada Red Alert toy that had a flip out cannon fold over his shoulder. The robot head sits very low in the body barely rising above the tops of the shoulders. That, and the way the arms folded back earlier put me in mind of a favourite toy of mine: Armada Overload. The head is a stylised version of Red Alert's with a red lightpipe visor. The head turns from side to side, the shoulders move up and down, he has bicep, elbow and wrist joints in his arms, universal hips, a swivel joint above the knees and the knees themselves. If you like your large robots articulated then this is for you. He'll happily kneel on one knee as if to aim the missile ! Standard size fist holes so have your minicon and energon weapons ready. No hand gun as such but if you remember the lump of plastic now attached to one arm ? Well insert a planet key in the rear of it and out springs a gun barrel. This weapon can only be pegged on the side of the arms though, and not held. But there's more to it - under the fold out panels on the legs there are 2 attachments for this weapon which match those for Cybertron Red Alert - one is a claw and the other is a hammer head. The hammer head compresses at one end and springs out again. Nice - another TF wielding De Happy Shtick !
So it's a nice big and good upgrade on First Aid. Of all the Cybertron Defence/Vanguard team I feel Hot Shot does most for his size class but Cybertron Defence Red Alert's an excellent buy !
Cybertron Defence Red Alert was sold in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GC21 First Gunner - Red Alert was First Air in Japan and the name was developed from there. He came with a cardboard Rumble drone target.
Somehow not quite as inspired as some of the Botcon exclusives this year, it's almost as if the mould doesn't really fit Megatron.
Decent exclusive for TRU in 2009.