Siege Storm Cloud & Visper

Working area for reviews.

Moderators: Skyquake87, ganon578

Post Reply
User avatar
Skyquake87
Protoform
Posts: 3983
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2010 9:34 am

Siege Storm Cloud & Visper

Post by Skyquake87 »

Name: Storm Cloud & Vipser
Allegiance: Decepticon
Size Class: Micromasters

The Decepticon Air Strike Patrol were an awesome group of bully boys. They had sleek jet forms (er, well expect for Tailwind) and cool robot modes. So it is actually quite nice to see the team revisited for Siege. They're most memorable to me for being Megatron's wind up merchants in Simon Furman's debut on the American Transformers comic. A storyline which I thought was pretty tightly plotted and written, but opened a can of continuity worms for UK readers that resulted in Two Megatrons. Which amuses me now, as thanks to The Transformers Collection and Encore, I now have two Megatrons. And thanks to Siege, now two Storm Clouds and Vispers. Actually three Storm Clouds. I've got that honking great Universe figure no-one likes.

Storm Cloud and Vipser (or Whisper) were the coolest looking designs out of the original team, all decked out in Skywarpy colours, so lets see what some spit and polish from the twenty-first century gives these two punks.


Robot Mode: Storm Cloud is pretty nice, all black body and purple arms and legs, with that glorious radioactive face. The silver daubs make him pop, as does the crisp and well defined sculpt. He does look like an empurata victim, having his hands now replaced by two odd looking engine stumps (I think), but at least they're painted up nicely. The use of heel spurs is much appreciated as he's incredibly back heavy, as his entire alt-mode is scrunched up on his back.

Alternate Mode: Continuing the trend of not very Cybertronian Cybertronian alt modes, Storm Cloud transforms into a riff on the Dassault Rafale military jet, only in fabulous lilac. It's a pretty nice looking thing and sleek and swooshy. I'm particularly fond of the black decorations around the cockpit and nose of the thing, which nicely break up the lighter tones.


Robot Mode: Visper's an awesome looking guy. He's stocky and mean looking and has no neck. He's got a less fancy looking version of his old helmet. This one's more early pudding bowl motorcycle helmet than fancy crown, but it suits him better I think. Beacuse he's a bit more bulk to him, he doesn't feel as swamped by his alt mode as Storm Cloud does. Paint is minimal, but well used, picking out his face, robo-kidneys and shins. He also has very long feet to stop him falling over, which should look silly, but somehow don't.

Alternate Mode: He's a slightly more blocky take on his old F19 design, looking a bit more space craft than Earthern jet. Works for me, anyway. Black jets look cool.

Alternate Mode: The pair of them can jam together, Mini-Con style to form a big sword called the, ahem, Circuitstream Spyblade. As with the old Armada Mini-Con teams, it looks like two Aeroplanes jammed together.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation Design: Not that far removed from the originals, but with some of the ball joint problems that buggered up the Siege Race Car Patrol; their legs fall off repeatedly with each transformation. 5/10

Articulation: Very poseable legs. I'm not sure why that's necessary, but hey-ho. Storm Cloud throws in some elbows, the saucy fellow. 6/10

Durability: If their legs didn't keep dropping off every time you play with them, they'd be pretty solid. 4/10

Fun: Spolit by the legs dropping off and they're best left standing around in robot mode or as cool little jet buddies. 5/10

Price: Another second hand buy for me at £8.00. Feels a good price to have paid for them for me. The RRP of £9.99 isn't so bad, but anything above that and you're being ripped off. 6/10

Overall: Despite their legs falling off, these are easily my favourites of the Siege Micromasters. They're really sharp looking figures, sport and excellent set of colours and are a decent update of the originals. They're just not much fun to play with. Collectors sticking them on a shelf will get the most out of them. 5/10
Attachments
Siege SCV 0004 (480x640).jpg
Siege SCV 0004 (480x640).jpg (200.53 KiB) Viewed 7144 times
Siege SCV 0003 (640x480).jpg
Siege SCV 0003 (640x480).jpg (188.31 KiB) Viewed 7144 times
Siege SCV 0002 (640x480).jpg
Siege SCV 0002 (640x480).jpg (193.63 KiB) Viewed 7144 times
Siege SCV 0001 (640x480).jpg
Siege SCV 0001 (640x480).jpg (196.84 KiB) Viewed 7144 times
Post Reply