Transformers Construct Bots Elite Wave 3 Smokescreen, Dragstrip, and Shockwave

This is the first wave of Construct Bots that have really excited me.  These are three great toys.  It is unfortunate that we have seen the last of the toys before the start of the Construct Bots Beast Hunters series, but if the Predaking is any indication, the beasts could be really great.

I am still very unhappy with the overall quality of the line.  The instructions are a joke, often not showing the same transformation to vehicle mode as the toy is pictured on the cover, often leaving the weapons off the vehicle mode entirely, and sometimes showing parts moved in ways that it is not possible to move them on the toy.  If Hasbro really wants to challenge Lego (and this is true for Kre-O as well) they need to stop looking like a Lego knockoff (which is what they essentially are).

Smokescreen

Smokescreen is pretty great.  While I love the whole wave, he is the weakest of the three, though that’s still high praise.  He is done in traditional Smokescreen red, white, and blue.  He has the G1 style shoulder cannons, and a really great head sculpt, though it would be nice if he had the gold horns.  His vehicle mode is nice, but I hate the way the feet become front or rear bumpers.  The combination of ball and socket joints at the foot, and pivots at the ankle make it damn near impossible to get them positioned level to the surface under the vehicle.  I suppose it shouldn’t matter since many of the toys wheels rarely all touch the surface at the same time anyway.  Most of the Elite class toys are better at that though, as they have something in the rear of the vehicle that connects the two wheels and helps to keep them straight and level.

Dragstrip

Dragstrip is probably the best wheeled vehicle mode yet.  Not only does he have the connection between the back wheels to keep them level, but the classic Formula One car front, connects the body to his feet forcing them in place.  He looks great, and if you buy only one vehicle Construct Bot, make it this one.  He also has an amazing G1 head sculpt.  It’s really fantastic.  His colors are classic G1 Drag Strip.  Very nice, one of my favorites in the line.

Shockwave

Shockwave is hands down the best Construct Bots toy yet.  He has one of the best head sculpt of 2013 and is perfectly done in gray and G1 purple.  While he has two hands, they gave him a hand weapon that looks like his G1 gun hand.  However, you can remove the gray pieces that hang on his back and plug them on the sides of his gun to make it look like his G1 gun barrel.  Full points to Hasbro for this one.  In vehicle mode, the two gray pieces are weapons, but they can be removed to put the gun barrel on top of the jet mode.  I think the reason they didn’t just make the gun barrel weapon the default weapon is that they need to be taken off and put back on in different places.  They wanted the usual Construct Bots design for Scouts and Elites where you don’t have to take them apart at all to transform them.  (The exception to that was the Triple Changers.)

Thanks for reading!