I love Transformers and a couple of my favorite Autobot’s have always been the heroic duo Red Alert and Sideswipe. (Alert & Lambor in Japan.) The only one I have in my collection is actually the Henkei Sideswipe and a Kre-o Red Alert, pretty pathetic I know! Will these heroic Masterpiece Autobot’s blow me away or end up on the Junkion planet. Let’s find out!
Articulation
The articulation in these figures is great and I am very happy with the pose ability. The only downfall on this toy are basically it’s legs. They do not bend backwards at the hip/thigh joint. The legs do bend forward on a heavy ratchet joint that scares the heck out of me every time I bend it. It’s so unbelievably tight, it will surely brake if you apply to much pressure. Soundwave’s arms are great and finally let him press his own eject button to launch up to 3 little Decepticon cassette warriors.
If you like changing your Transformers poses on a frequent basis you will not be disappointed with this gorgeous Masterpiece Transformer.
HEAD: 360 degrees
SHOULDERS: 360 degrees, in and out
ARMS: double jointed elbow, 360 degrees movement in upper arm, 360 degrees movement in wrists
TORSO: 360 degrees movement
LEGS: ratchet joint in knee, ankle joint that moves in and out
FEET: ankle joint for in and out movement
Transformation
Red Alert and Sideswipe’s transformations are identical and not hard at all. It’s lovely to see how Takara manages to turn a convincing model of the Lamborghini Countach into a Heroic Autobot with ease. The parts line up nicely and give the toy a very sleek look. It is very well engineered too and surely one of my favorite MP transformations to date.
Paint Application
Here comes the great Takara fail. Sideswipe’s paintjob is really terrible. On my toy the roof and right doorpanel are a whole different shade of red compared to the rest of the car. I find this really unexeptable for a toy in this price range. It also comes across as cheap or knockoff. I’m not sure why this hasn’t been fixed by know, because fans have been complaining for months. Takara’s solution: let’s just release a yellow version and hope no one will notice that the paintjob on Lambor sucks.
Red Alert’s paintjob is lightyears ahead of Sideswipe’s. The red and white colorscheme really pop out and stays true to his G1 granddad. With the use of some third party stickers you can even recreate the fire chief look from the original toy. But to be honest, this toy does not need any additional stickers, it looks great straight out of the box! It also pretty awesome that Red Alert has his red head design, never really liked the black version.
Accessoires and Gimmicks
Both Autobots are packed with a rocketlauncher and lasergun, but both also come with an additional unique accessoire. Red Alert has this clear blue electrical malfunction spark that can be connected to his head. Sideswipe has two pile drivers that can be attached to his wrists. Pretty cool if you ask me.
Red Alert and Sideswipe arent exactly the same mold. Red Alert has some more hood detail, a different head sculpt, a siren and different looking shoulders. Many fans don’t even realize this, but it’s true.
Verdict
Out of the two heroic Autobots I like Red Alert the most. Both figures have the same poseability and transformation, but huge differences in their paint applications. Sideswipe’s paint application is a disaster! It’s actually so bad that I really don’t want to display it in it’s alt mode. That’s why Sideswipe’s probably staying in robot mode forever.
If you don’t have the cash for both and need to pick one? Go for Red Alert, this is surely the better figure out of the too. But if you’re a crazy collector and life long Transformers fan like me, go pick them up both! They will look great in your Masterpiece collection, you will not be disappointed.