Transformers War for Cybertron: Siege Springer

I hope you all enjoyed last week's review, it was a bit of a departure for me in all honesty but I thought it turned out rather well. Enough about that, let’s move onto this week's subject matter, which was decided with the help of some friends, Transformers War for Cybertron: Siege WFC-S38 Springer. Don’t forget to check out the full gallery afterwards for 126 pictures of Springer in all his glory.

For as much of a prominent character Springer was in the 1986 movie and third season of the G1 cartoon he hasn’t really gotten as many toys as one might expect and when he did reappear in the late 2000’s he was stripped of his main gimmick, which was triple changing, and he was relegated to be just a green repaint of existing figures that had similar alt-modes to one of his. Of course that all changed in 2013 with the Thrilling 30 figure, and as good as that toy looks, it is not the one I am covering today, even though I am sure I will eventually.

Siege Springer here is a one of a kind figure in multiple ways, he is the first G1 cartoon accurate Springer figure we have ever had and he is the only use of this mold, which seems very rare for Transformers figures nowadays, with most figures getting at least one repaint at some point. With that being said though, his design is pretty unique and doesn’t really share a lot of traits with other characters and his colors haven’t really changed all that drastically either so I can understand why the mold hasn’t been used again. 

On the topic of unique, Springer’s head sculpt is one of the most unique parts of his design and this toy absolutely NAILS IT. From the head crest that continues back to form the sides, to the thin mohawk-like section on top, to the cheek vents being a darker green than the rest of the head (plus the insides are even painted yellow). The face is done up in a very nice pale green that really separates it from the rest of the head. The sculpting here is very nice as well but I find that the mouth gets lost in the paint a bit and the eyebrows get lost underneath the helmet, at least it is not the eyes getting lost this time as they are done up in a nice royal blue, making them really standout from the rest of the head. The head is on a ball joint but because of the head shape and the length and size of the neck plate you don’t get a lot of back and forth or side to side movement.

His chest is technically the standard hood chest, but his is much more compact and angular looking than most, thanks to his very mid 80’s space age-esque alt-modes. It obviously has some of the almost universally disliked “ Siege battle damage” and you guys can have your own opinions about it, but I personally really enjoy it as I think it gives some character to the figures without going too overboard. Springer here is no exception and I think he is one of the better examples of it as it is in places that makes sense for the figure. Moving to the back which has one of my bigger issues with the figure, and that is the backpack. It doesn’t really like to sit still, the main section just kinda flops around as it doesn’t tab in anywhere and it can cause the hinge that is keeping it upright to untab. Other than that though it looks very nice and has storage for all of his weapons/accessories. Not much in the way of articulation here other than the waist swivel but even that is limited from going a full 360 by a transformation hinge, although it is enough to get some decent poses with. Before moving onto the arms I would like to mention that you should be weary attaching the arm struts to the back, as the panel they attach to is made entirely of translucent plastic and one of my tabs has sheared off. Luckily this doesn’t affect stability, as the arms also clip in at the top but figured it was something worth mentioning.

The arms don’t have a lot going on other than some rather good articulation including full wrist and bicep swivels and elbows that go slightly over 90 degrees. The shoulders are where they get a bit limited, the shoulder rotation is hindered by the arms transformation struts, but they can rotate 90 degrees in either direction which is good enough in my opinion and his signature shoulder pads stop the shoulders outward movement just shy of 90 degrees. While we are on the topic of the shoulder pads I know some people take issue with them as they can not rotate outwards to be fully cartoon accurate, and while I understand that complaint I don’t think it could have been done justice without sacrificing stability or some of the more necessary engineering already in the shoulders. 

The legs don’t feel quite as hindered as the arms in terms of articulation. He has full hip articulation and the engineering used for the hips is the best they have ever done, and I am very happy they carried it over through both the Earthrise and Kingdom lines. There is a full thigh rotation and I do believe the thighs are cast in green plastic entirely painted in the same pale green as the face but it is quite hard to tell, they may very well be cast in a pale green plastic. The knees bend just over 90 but are stopped due to the molding on both the thighs and lower legs. This is where another one of my bigger issues lie, which is that the shins like to untab from the strut the knee joint is on, while not the biggest deal it can get pretty annoying when trying to pose the figure. The shins themselves look very nice in the sand blue plastic with a couple of silver paint apps and battle damage, as well as the black from the wheels to help break it up. Now here is where we get to a section of the figure a lot of people seem to have issues with which is the ankles. Now supposedly Springer here can have loose ankle joints, which I can see why that might take away some enjoyment, but I guess I got lucky cause I don’t have those issues at all and he is extremely stable. He has incredible ankle tilt both forwards and to the side and it is a shame that some people can’t really experience that.

Last thing I am going to cover before transformation to the car mode is the weapons and accessories. He comes with two identical swords, two distinct looking guns and the rotor blade housing for helicopter mode. Now all the weapons have INCREDIBLY dumb yet great names, cause that was a thing they decided to do during Siege I guess. You have the “W-10 Airslice Chopper Blades” which are obviously the swords, the “JF-10 Warp Blaster” which is the more greebly looking gun with the tabs and 5mm port on the back, and the “C-10 EM Void Blast Capacitor” which is the other smoother looking gun. You can put any of these weapons wherever there are 5mm ports and like I said before you can plug everything on the back for storage, the swords even tab into the sides but it isn’t the greatest connection. The weapons can also plug together in all sorts of ways for a variety of larger rifles or swords. 

Transformation to car mode from robot mode isn’t too tricky. Your main issues are going to be flipping the chest piece up over the head especially since that entire apparatus is attached to clear plastic and that joint seems unnecessarily stiff, at least on my copy, and then getting the entire waist assembly shifted forward. This step is necessary to get arms and legs in the right positions otherwise you will end up with a lackluster and unsecure car. Oh and don’t forget to take the back fins out of the legs, while not necessary it is important for the accuracy and aesthetic. If you have gotten all those steps down, you should end up with a very solid, hefty and relatively accurate car mode. This car mode looks like one hell of a bruiser but also looks like it could break the sound barrier if needed. All of the newly revealed details are what really sell that look with the armoured plating around the cockpit area and the thrusters and fins at the back, not to mention the blast effect ports on the back to really help sell the illusion that this thing can cruise. As for functionality, it rolls well enough and it has all the same ports from robot mode so you can equip the weapons however you like.

Onto the final mode, the helicopter mode. Getting to this mode from car mode isn’t too hard and mainly involves extending the legs out to create the tail section, which is one of my favorite parts of Springer’s engineering, and of course creating the rotor using the swords and the housing. There isn’t a lot of visual difference between this mode and the car mode seeing as the main section doesn’t really move. The legs extend and the arms move back slightly, you do get some sort of wings/stabilizers from the forearm panels and obviously the main rotor section. Despite that you end up with is another solid mode, although there are quite a few small gaps especially in the back. This mode does have a free spinning main rotor which is EXTREMELY nice and the back rotor spins pretty well too, but then again they are just the back wheels, so that is kind of expected. You can also plug the guns in in almost all the same spots as car mode, the exception to that being the ones under the rotor as they can stop the rotor from spinning. To counteract this, you can now use the ones from the robot mode forearms, and attach the guns to the side of the helicopter, and while this is the official way to display them in this mode I prefer them on the front beside the cockpit. I totally didn’t forget they were supposed to go there for helicopter mode till after I took all the pictures. 

I think that is it, I think I covered everything, Springer has a quite lot more going on than Deep Cover so apologies if I missed anything, not to mention I feel like I went much more in depth on him but at the same time this will probably be my only time looking at the mold so i guess it makes sense. He is a really good figure and a great representation of the G1 character if that is what you're looking for. Speaking of looking, have a look through the gallery if you have the time, you might find a picture you really like.

Now for something new, well new for this place. If you know me, you will know I love to rank things so i figure I would give each figure a rating out of 10, and maybe rank each figure in a given toy line against one another, not sold on that one yet though, plus I should probably wait till I review more than one figure per line to start that. Getting back on track I give Springer here a solid 7.5/10, he is a very fun figure with some great engineering and play value, he just has a couple things that bring him down. I guess I should retroactively give Deep Cover a ranking too, so I will update his post to give him his, so check it out if you're curious. Anyways, that is all for now, see you all next week.