Phil's
Cybertron Evac,
Galaxy Force Live Convoy,
and
Universe Blades & Springer
Review


Evac

Evac is the European release of Galaxy Force toyu GC-18 Live Convoy - the Transformer leader on Earth and the keeper of the Earth leader planet key - a standard Earth key with gold edging Cybertron #v49u. The other Planet Leader keys are in the hands of Override (Nitro Convoy, Speed Planet), Scourge (Flame Convoy, Jungle Planet) and Metroplex (Megalo Convoy, Giant Planet). You'll note that there's one planet leader toy for every size between Deluxe & Leader !

Evac's a mainly yellow rescue helicopter with a light blue top half. He's got retractable dark blue landing gear at the front. The main rotor - again dark blue - has a spin mechanism (with a trigger moulded in red) similar to Bulkhead's last year. There's a winch on one side of the helicopter with an extending line that retracts at a button press. However since the thread is just 3 inches long and retracts instantly you press the button it isn't a lot of use. Inserting the key behind the rotor blades causes his 2 jet boosters to swing forward as missile launchers (red triggers again). So not bad for a vehicle mode at all - and it looks realistic which is what we're asking of the Earth vehicles and is generally what has been delivered.

Transformation: Remove the blades so they're out of the way. Fold up the front landing gear, and fold the rear landing gear to the sides. Pull up on the winch to separate the undercarriage from the rest of the body, and fold the undercarriage back under the tail locking it in place at the base of the tail. Fold the undercarriage back under this locking point by it's robot hips, and then rotate 90 degrees so the cockpit is pointing rear and the landing gear forwards. Split the undercarriage to form the legs and fold the cockpit halves to the side. Fold out the feet & heel spurs, and fold down the landing gear to the sides of the hips. Pull down slightly on the winch mechanism to separate the piece it's mounted on from the rotor. Fold both rotor mechanism and winch to the sides and back - a little twisting will move them out the way so the pieces they're attach to lock into place to form the shoulders - excessive force will be required. A little twisting will get the red plates on the shoulders facing forward and allow the arms to fold down. Then flip up the panel at the end of each arm to swing the fists out. The tail then separates in 2 and folds out so it's flat on his back - like an Acroyear's wings - and then can be folded downwards. Pull the missile unit up 90 degrees onto his back, pull up on it revealing his head, and then fold flat onto the back. Reattach rotors to form blade spinning attack weapon.

The finished robot in an odd way reminds me of the design aesthetic of Energon Mirage. Fortunately Evac want to stay together. He's a dark blue robot mainly covered in yellow/orange armour with some grey/blue armour on the head. There's a blue lightpipe - hurrah, we love lightpipes ! His legs look hugely out of proportion with the armour stretching up to only reveal a small amount of blue hip, but the knee is much lower down and there's a significant amount of armour rising up from the lower leg to cover the upper leg. He's got knees that bend in the direction knees should, a swivel above them, universal joint hips, a waist, neck, shoulders that go back & forth and to the sides, a low bicep and an elbow. The winch is slung under his right arm and can be used as a grappling hook. The rotor is mounted on the right arm and when the tail halves are folded down the mechanism can spin it as a blade attack. By default his boosters point down as a rocket pack, but inserting the force key causes them to spring upwards. Sadly you can't get them from there to shoulder cannons :-(. As I mentioned before the tail halves can be swung up to form an Acroyear type flight pack and this looks rather good.

So overall: V good vehicle, nice robot, just minor quibbles about the gimmick. Another good Voyager (Mega) They're doing well this year, 5 good megas and one not so bad.


Blades

The Evac mould slept for a few years without a recolour - though it's Legends version had one, see bellow. In late 2008 it was returned in the Universe toyline as Blades. At roughly the same time a Legends Blades was done using the Legends version of the mould - the two versions are slightly different. The yellow and light blue both become red on this version, with the dark blue as black and the red as white with some white paint highlighting details. The Legends version *essentially* swaps the black for white. The Voyager looks great - big red robot theory, but the Legend is closer the red & white colour balance of the Protectorbot.

Blades comes with a Cybertron Autobot planet key.


Springer

When I talked about Cybertron Defence Red Alert I mentioned the recolour that he got to produce Botcon Springer - a solely land based Springer. Well this is it's counterpart - a Springer with only a sky mode. The recolour helps us with identifying moulding sprues - most of the yellow & light blue becomes green and most of the dark blue becomes grey. The robot legs/helicopter under carriage (were yellow) are now grey too The rotor's centre and the upper limbs become a lighter grey. He comes with a clear red version of th Cybertron Autobot planet key with a silver Autobot symbol on it, the same as was used on the Target Movie Deluxe repaints.

The colours are right, the basic form is good and even the head is a good match. But somehow it lacks something Springer like - his wide helicopter form is pretty distinctive (Energon Bulkhead did that better) and I always picture Springer with a sword - which this mould lacks.

Springer comes in Standoff Beneath the Streets: a Target exclusive VS Pack with Universe Ratbat (a Cybertron Sideways repaint)


Legends Versions

In addition to the Blades Legends repaint mentioned above Whirl has been made using the smaller Legends version of this mould with light blue for the yellow. This version is yet to be used on the full size toy.

Future Repaints

Evac's got no Autobot symbol moulded in so a Decepticon repaint would be easy as Vortex or Spinister *especially* if they exchanging the winch for a missile launcher powered by a key or even just for a Minicon port on the arm. A version in Black & White as an Airwolf homage would be nice ! If you're sticking with an Autobot version how about the white & dark blue colours found on the repaint of Blades, Fly-Up, that is part of Guard City ? Sandstorm's original colour scheme is a little too close to that used for Evac to make a viable repaint - just as Machine Wars Sandstorm is close to Springer's colours.


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