Review: Transformers AM Wildrider

In another of what may or may not (depending on how I feel) be a glut of reviews that come under the heading 'stuff I bought from Auto Assembly', here's the Takara release of Wildrider from Transformers Prime.

Wildrider is a slight remould of Wheeljack and looks very similar to his G1 counterpart. He looks really nice as both robot and vehicle. Like Wheeljack, Wildrider comes with two long swords, which are a lot more flexible than those which came with his mould-mate. Wheeljack's were pretty darn rigid, but these are crazily gummy in nature. The swords can be held in his hands or stored in sort of holsters on his back/shoulders. Presumably (I haven't checked - bad reviewer!) you can store them in exactly the same way on Wheeljack, but I didn't know this before which likely means I never read the instruction sheet for him. In vehicle mode they store either underneath, sticking out the front or even at the sides if you wish.

Transformation is easy and fairly quick. Pull him apart at the arms and legs, straighten up him and flip his head and chest round. The plastic is nice and thick and strong. To my eyes, Wheeljack's head looks like it's sunk into his chest and I constantly want to pull it up a bit and give him a neck. Wildrider doesn't make me want to tug at his head, which may be due to the new head sculpt or simply that I've gotten used to that sunken look.

Wildrider is light on paint apps, but comes with a sticker sheet. Amazingly, I was able to apply all these near-enough perfectly. Once on, they look good, however, as anyone with any old toys will know, stickers have a tendency to wear and fall off over time. I don't know why Takara went with stickers over paint. I guess they do like shiny things and stickers are a lot cheaper than chroming parts.

Being a Takara release, he comes with a little Arms Micron partner, Ozu. This comes in kit form, but once off the plastic frame is easy to snap together. There are stickers, some of which, stupidly, have to be placed across uneven sculpted areas. These are going to wear and fall off first. Once built, Ozu is a cute one-eyed elephant who turns into a giant cannon. Unfortunately the cannon is so large that it's slightly too heavy for Wildrider's arm to hold up. He can, hold it up but poses are limited. Ozu can also clip onto Wildrider in car mode, which looks ridiculous, but this adds to the charm.

While Wildrider is a great toy, the real star here is Ozu. He's an elephant! An elephant that turns into a giant cannon! Buy him! Buy him now!