Review – Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Class Sideways

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“Back on Cybertron, Sideways was a simple courier who avoided combat at all costs. He tried to always remain in the shadow of larger Decepticons, where the Autobots might not notice him. On Earth, he’s keeping much the same practice. He teamed up with Demolisher early on, and hopes that if the Autobots find them, the big constructicon can keep him safe.”

There are a lot of questionable glances from Transformers fans regarding most of the Michael Bay-style Transformers character designs showcased in the new Revenge of the Fallen movie. I’m a bit more open to these designs than others seem to be, but figures like this Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Class Sideways really push me to the limit of that tolerance. This toy is not only my least favorite movie figure yet, but in robot form, is one of the worst figures I’ve purchased this year.

Vehicle Mode

Sideways’ car mode resembles an Audi R8, but doesn’t appear to be officially licensed like many of the GM vehicles released, so there are probably some subtle differences from what you might spot on the road. It’s nice to see Transformers brought into the real world this way, but unfortunately the basic car chosen for Sideways is nothing like any of his past vehicle incarnations, which are mostly motorcycles. The seemingly random naming schemes for these characters in the movie-world is a bit off-putting for long time fans I’m sure.

Fortunately, the vehicle itself is a strong effort from Hasbro. It has a sleek sculpt befitting the car it’s intended to look like. There are some visible gaps where pieces meet up, but they could have been much worse, and only a couple are bothersome at all. The rear of the car is my favorite part, the dark Decepticon emblem looks great with the black paint detailing on the side. The shimmering silver/gray color works well with this car, and the windows, which are cast translucent Decepticon-purple, look perfect alongside the color of the vehicle itself.

As a functioning car, this guy was a bit disappointing, as I can’t seem to get one of the wheels to spin, possibly because of some transformation issue. It’s not a difficult transformation, but a finicky one when trying to line up all of the car panels at once.

It’s a real shame that once you’ve transformed it out of this decent car mode, you end up with the terrible…

Robot Mode

If I didn’t know that Sideways was a humanoid robot ahead of time, I wouldn’t have been able to identify this figure as anything more than a pile of random plastic pieces. He’s without a doubt my least favorite Transformers robot form yet because of his chaotic design. He has spindly little limbs, and a huge torso loaded with kibble all over his back. The sleek car mode leaves him with a lot of large car panels left over in robot mode, and they have to be put somewhere. Sideways sticks them on his back, so he has a huge hump just dangling back there, very poorly attached. This is along with doors and windows shooting off from his shoulders too, so I think Quasimodo might have been a better random-name choice than what they went with.

His coloring goes from the clean gray of car-mode into a random combination of black and red that looks nothing like the concept art for his movie appearance, and doesn’t seem to fit with the car’s color scheme either. There are very few actual painted areas in his robot form, and more beautiful work like that of the silver paint on his car’s exterior would be welcome to cover the ugly red and black plastic he has been cast in. This would also bring him closer to his look in the movie, a win-win situation. Many of the sculpt details are lost in the black areas, but then again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because most of the detail just seem like strange technological patterns to take up space, as opposed to well-thought-out additions.

His articulation is okay, with some ball joints and a number of hinges and swivels, but it’s still very hard to pose him because of balance issues. He’s quite top heavy and has an absurdly tiny footprint. His legs are also bent like an animal’s hind legs, with what is essentially two knees. This adds to the balance problems even more, and just pushes him even further into ugly territory. It’s hard to move his shoulders because of the restrictive doors, and his hips are quite loose too.

It’s Aliiiiiive!

Hasbro has been labeling many of these ROTF figures as “Mech Alive”, in reference to moving parts or push-activated features. Sideways has a few of these elements: a button you can push on his grill to unlock his transformation, as well as some moving gears within his arms. There are just gimmicks and really don’t add anything to the figure, except maybe a smidgen of fun for a child. He also has a spinning saw blade, but because of his perpetually opened hands, it would be difficult for him to actually make use of this weapon.

Closing Thoughts

This character has a pretty cool looking movie design that’s sleek, silver, and slim. This toy is sadly none of the three, and a big disappointment because of it. As a robot, he’s loaded with terrible kibble, limited by unbalanced articulation, and colored inappropriately across the board. The car mode is definitely a step up, but not amazing enough to outweigh the terrible alternative.

Corey Tincher thinks that this guy was a big waste of $13 that could have been better spent on …well, just about anything else in the toy aisle.