Transformers Powercore Combiner Smolder

I'd been meaning to write this review sooner, but I contracted bronchitis and had been bed bound with a high fever and coughing and spluttering out gobs of phlegm for a whole week. Worse still, even after I'd recovered, I still wasn't feeling 100% for the next few weeks after that - so while I was able to maintain some semblance of normalcy, it wasn't quite normal. Amazing how debilitating a simple cold can be. All that while worrying about the work piling up on my desk at the office. Then I got nearly 30 Transformer toys appear on my doorstep over those 2 weeks (including the Wave 2 PCC commanders) - and not being able to get round to testing them out. Quite a miserable fortnight indeed. But enough excuses aside, on with the show.

A small change in the review format - rather than a thoughts/summary section, I thought I'd sum it up succinctly with answering whether I liked it enough that I'd definitely buy a double or repaint. To me, that's a good indicator of how much I enjoy the toy.

Powercore Smolder

Vehicle Mode

Powercore smolder's alt-mode is a fireman's utility pickup. Rather than putting out fires, he sets fires. It's fairly decent but is ruined somewhat if you look at the back, where Smolder's head is exposed.

Robot Mode

Smolder's robot mode, thanks to his head, reminds me a lot of Inferno. This is because the helmet resembles Inferno's, but with a bit of a WW1/2 German soldier's helmet styling to it as well. Of course he's a Decepticon, so Smolder's only a Smoulder - not an Inferno. Another way of describing his head (and G1 Inferno) is that it looks Mickey-Mouse-ish. Not saying it doesn't.

Overall, robot mode is what I'd probably call average-good. Not bad, but not outstanding either. His shoulders are rather huge, and the extended roof plates on the back  restricts some shoulder articulation. Despite this, it still has some very good shoulder and elbow articulation thanks to the double-jointed with ball joint elbows. Legs are fairly basic.

Not a lot of vehicle kibble unless you count the shoulder pylons, the grill kneecap guards and the combiner pegs.

Smolder has standard 6mm pegholes in his fists holding weapons - which is noteworthy because standard weapon pegs in the fists for holding weapons appear to be declining in scout class figures.

The minicon peg in the middle of the chest is quite nicely detailed too, so you can pretend it's a chest cannon. There is an additional minicon peg on his right shoulder plating at the back, which is used for his alt-mode weapon interface. Might seem useless, but attached a rocket launcher or gun type minicon or Energon weapon to it, flip shoulder forward and raise forearm to look like he's supporting it, and bam, a big shoulder weapon.

I also feel he looks too much like a good guy to be a Decepticon - but then again a lot of the cooler or more heroic looking bots are Decepticons, while some evil looking bots turn out to be Autobots. The alignment generally sorts itself out with future repaints, of course!

Gestalt mode

Shown here with a combination of the Aerialbot and Combaticon drones.

It's not terribly bad, but one thing that I think may put some folks off is the fact he's so wide in respect with his shoulders. Hardly any vehicle kibble on it though except for the grills at the knees.

Now, to break away from the official mode, you can instead pretend his gestalt modes' shoulders start at his original shoulders. It does mean his elbows are always akimbo, but it does provide for some dramatic fighting stances, especially with the Combaticon tank drones as arms. Or to be more precise - forearms.

My main complaint about gestalt mode however is the fact that when you are using the the gestalt mode head, there's nothing left inside the chest cavity to prevent it from moving backwards. This makes the chest cover looser than it should be, so the whould head and chest section aren't secure as when in standard robot mode.

Transformation

Not overly complex, and easy enough to do without the instructions. There is one little bit when transforming to and from alt-mode when transformign the arms and the siding to make it easier. Releasing the arms or storing them away is a two step process. Either way you are going, first bend the arms at the elbow to 90 degrees. Then either close or open the vehicle side panels.

Combiner pegs

They stick out like a sore thumb by clashing against his red, but you could imagine them being water tanks even though water isn't naturally baby blue. His blue Protectobot repaint however will blend well with the blue.

Summary : Will I buy a double/repaint?

On a scale from No! to Yes!, he resides at a "yeah maybe". If he's cheap and/or has extras or a better minicon to make it worthwhile.