Vehicle Mode:
I'm really not sure what the thinking was here... Movie Sideswipe was silver, but G1 Sideswipe was red... so this version has a completely random and incongruous red design on the front, and translucent red windows. The red on the front almost looks as though he's just ploughed through a group of innocent human bystanders and now considers their blood to be a 'tattoo', but it really doesn't fit... It doesn't follow the seams of the toy or the contours of the car, and it's clearly nothing like Optimus Prime's flame patterns, though I gather the stock photos on the packaging showed red paint on the side panels as well. I kind of wish they'd either kept him wholly silver or made him entirely red... but if they'd done that, he'd be too easily confused with RotF Swerve.
So, we have a second rendition of the Corvette Stingray concept car from 2009, painted (mostly) silver, and looking just as gorgeous as ever, with its sweeping curves and sharp angles. The split rear windscreen still makes me think the back end looks a bit like Slimer from The Real Ghostbusters cartoon, smiling contendedly. Where this version falls down for me (aside from the incongruous red paint on the front) is the translucent red plastic. It's fine for the windows, but looks wrong on the headlight strips at the front - they still stand out from the red paint surrounding them, but what sort of car has red headlights? Also, due to the changes made on this version, the tail lights are no longer separate pieces of plastic, and they haven't been painted separately from the rest of the car, so they're basically invisible in the angled detailing at the back. The hubcaps are unpainted on this version, but entirely black wheels here actually looks like a style choice rather than a shortfall in the paint budget. That excuse would definitely cover the absence of paint on the Chevrolet flags on the front and the unpainted numberplate - stamped with a black Autobot logo - on the back.
The increased number of seams on this version - particularly on the bonnet - is certainly noticeable but, given that means a more complex transformation, it's not something I'd complain about. Some of these seams even reveal the main gimmick of this figure, the reason behind the 'sidearm' prefix on his name: the back end of the car can open up to reveal Sideswipe's handguns, which are pegged onto a couple of small wings on the parts of the car frame between the wraparound front windscreen and the two rear windows. It's actually an excellent gimmick, works quite fluidly... but makes it all the more strange that this model of car was used for Sideswipe rather than Tracks, as this would be the perfect gimmick to reflect the deployed rocket launchers of the G1 toy... if only this toy had a full 'flight mode'...
Robot Mode:
The main problem with Sideswipe's CGI was that his 'feet' were wheels which he generally used to scoot or rollerskate around on. This is fine for a CGI giant alien robot movie character, with gyroscopic-controlled balance and the ability to lock the wheels in position and deflate the tyres as needed for stability... but in a small, plastic transforming toy, it's a huge problem. The original Deluxe Sideswipe and the Human Alliance versions each came up with reasonable, if ugly solutions, suited to their size class, but this Deluxe class remake comes up with whole new idea: toe and heel blades that fold out to act as stabilisers. It's by far the least intrusive solution, but that isn't saying much... and their presence is every bit as contrary to the appearance of the robot in the movie as the chunks of car were on the original version of Sideswipe.
In every other respect, this is a far more competent rendition of the CGI than any other version that had been released, even down to having the front of the car on his cuffs (the detail is difficult to make out on the CGI, but the angular recesses are definitely there... albeit much larger) though I don't think having the front wheels attached as well is quite so accuerate. The legs have been simplified and, while they still feature the groin pistons, the ankle-thigh pistons are handled in a far more intelligent way - properly connected and hinged at both ends. The only real downside to this version's overall appearance is that a section of the windscreen is visible in the chest, just in front of the head. Other than that, the sculpted detail is excellent throughout, and even appears on the insides of the panels hanging off his back and on some internal parts that aren't even visible from most angles.
With the rear windscreen compressed down on his back, his pistols are nicely concealed, but can be deployed easily, and fit his hands very well. Curiously, Sideswipe has pretty much the standard 5mm grip, but his hands are open, so the rectangular grips of his guns can be slid in between fingers and thumbs, then rotated forward to clip in place. The guns themselves are nicely detailed also feature a swing-out trigger guard which almost looks as though it's intended to be a weapon in and of itself. What's surprising about this figure - though perhaps not so much, in the context of its creation/release date - is that it features a c-clip bar on the outsides of each ankle. It's a shame he didn't also come with swords to plug into his cuffs, but there are fan-made, Shapeways solutions to that omission.
The head sculpt appears to still feature the battlemasked version of movie Sideswipe's face, but it's vastly more detailed than the version on the original toy. I believe it was intended to be light-piped, too, but the translucent red plastic has been covered over with a dark blue paint. That said, with the neck ball joint and a screw quite close together at the back of the head, there may not have been much by way of light piping even without the paint.
This version of Sideswipe does feature a more complex transformation than the original, with less wastage in terms of car parts remaining visible in robot mode. The backpack in particular is far more compact, and the way the windscreen and part of the bonnet are concealed within the torso is a bit of very clever design I wish they'd repurpose onto a few more car-based TransFormers toys. Without having to worry about Automorph or Mech Alive gimmicks, everything is more compact and tidy, and the only real problem, for me, is the way the head is concealed inside a rotating barrel section of plastic that makes up the car's roof. It never feels as though the head is fully in place for transformation - as evidenced by the paint scuffing on his forehead - and actually getting his head out again when returning to robot mode generally ends up requiring some sort of long, thin tool to lever it out, despite the neck featuring a spring-loaded joint.
Removing much of the gimmickry has also improved this toy's articulation. The groin pistons appear to be much the same as those on the original version, but they don't seem to reduce the range of his hips quite so significantly. He can't raise his legs out to the sides, but the toy hardly needs to be able to do the full splits. On the downside, even the fully-jointed digitigrade legs and stabiliser blades on his ankles aren't enough to allow him to easily adopt a dramatic 'rollerskating' pose without cheating, but at least the less bulky upper arms are mounted fully outside the car shell on his shoulders, giving them a fuller range of movement. Having the head mounted on a ball joint right at the back of his head, with no protruding details nearby to obstruct its movement also allows for an amazing range - Sidearm Sideswipe is one of the few movie 'bots who can look straight up, if you want... and he's easily able to look in precisely the direction he's pointing his guns.
Sidearm Sideswipe is, in my opinion, the best version of the character thusfar produced, in any size class. Of course, it remains to be seen if he will qualify for a Studio Series reimagining, but they'd have to work pretty hard to top this one. On balance, I think perhaps I should have waited to acquire the Takara Tomy version - which features none of the red paint on vehicle mode, instead having painted hubcaps giving him greater screen-accuracy - but even this Hasbro version is a great, fun toy... apart from the frustrations involved in transforming his head.
Hasbro also released a Walmart exclusive version (Sainsbury's in the UK, if I remember correctly), designed to look like a race car of some kind, in-joke sponsor logos and all. Weirdly, the choice of colours was quite close to Dark of the Moon Topspin's original blue and yellow colourscheme, so perhaps it was a conscious effort to induct Sideswipe into the ranks of the movie Wreckers..?
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