Phil's
Cybertron Crosswise & Smokescreen,
Galaxy Force Autovolt,
Movie Jolt
and
Botcon Jazz & Ricochet
Review
Crosswise is a black car. At the time I wrote that "I've no idea if he resembles any real car or not, either way he looks quite stylish - almost Stepper like - though the radiator grill puts me in the mind of the Batmobille for some reason !" Although he's not an exact replica the Crosswise vehicle mode is modelled on the Bugatti Veyron, the most expensive production car ever (see Top Gear: The Challenges on DVD) The majority of the car is moulded in black with pale green front & side windows. Beneath the spoiler at the back there's a socket for a blast of green flame - this acts as a missile launcher. Beneath that is his key socket - he has an Earth Planet key #d9f2 - and that flips 2 banks of 4 missiles up onto the cab. Careful when locking them down - they both need to be locked in at once or you'll find the other popping up again !
The TF is a nightmare - I've seen him described as "the lost car brother" and "the closest thing to a deluxe Alternator". Both are true. It's easy enough to fold the legs down from under the front of the car but then it turns into a nightmare of subtly moving panels at the side so they'll pass through each other to form the arms. Bonnet folds back to become the chest and the head pops up.
The resulting robot is again reminiscent of Stepper - the revealed upper arms and legs are grey in contrast to the black. He's nicely detailed and highly articulated. There's 2 kibblicous black bits of plastic protruding from the back pointing upwards in a stab your eyes out type way ! Key hole is now on his bottom and the missiles flip up over each shoulder. He's got knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and neck. No waist due to the TF. He's got a gun - formed from the spoiler assembly - and the roof has become a shield attached to his left arm.
Overall - nice looking but and irritating TF.
Incidentally while I'm here I'm finding that the Earth vehicles are a high point of the Cybertron range - both Crosswise & his case sister Thunderblast were been very good.
Crosswise was released in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GC-17 Autovolt. He was not released in the UK.
Smokescreen was in the last wave of Transformers Cybertron Deluxe toys to be sold and as such was not released in the UK. Someone at Hasbro loves Smokescreen with him getting repaints in Armada, Cybertron, Movie & Universe as well as a new version in Alternators. This takes the black of Crosswise and swaps it for red. Over the sides we get a blue painted panel with a white stripe along the top and Smokescreen's trademark #38 on the doors. Transformation reveals the silver grey has been swapped for white. His Earth Key Code is d4v6. If they'd been thinking clearer they'd have got the number 38 in there too.
It's a little too red for Smokescreen for my tastes but an OK repaint.
Jolt is a wave 1 Movie Deluxe toy exclusive to Wal*Mart in the US. He wasn't sold through ASDA in the UK due to them importing the Wave 2 case which he wasn't carried over into. So three appearances for this mould, zero UK appearances.
Jolt swaps the black for purple - as per the 1994 Laser Rod of the same name - with a silver stripe taking up the area occupied by the blue on the Smokescreen repaint. The clear plastic becomes clear purple, while transforming the toy reveals a different shade of grey used for the upper arms & legs. He comes with a clear purple version of the Sideways/Unicron chip with a silver decepticon symbol on it.
Another decent repaint and G1 homage. Hmm - does this mean you could do a repaint of Universe Prowl (repainted as Smokescreen) in purple and call it Jolt ? Or in black and call it Crosswise ?
Ricochet was a Botcon 2008 exclusive giving Crosswiwse a new head to resemble G1 Jazz/Richochet. The black becomes white, the grey becomes black and the clear pieces become a smoked colour.
VERY Nice repaint - good marriage of mould, name & coloiurs produces a toy I'd be happy to have in the Universe range. The door bits pushing up behind the back are reminiscent of those on the Universe Legends Jazz.
Ricochet was a Botcon 2008 exclusive using the Jazz head from above. The black becomes red, the grey becomes white and the clear pieces become a smoked colour. Nice repaint - red robot theory strikes again - but the colours aren't traditional Ricochet ones who's quite similar to the original Crosswise colours.
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