Transformers Artifact of Week: Transformers Armada Deluxe Sideswipe Rare Variation

For the past twelve years, I have been searching for a rare variant of Transformers: Armada Deluxe Sideswipe.  I’ve finally found it.  (I would have actually done a Toyota leap, but I would have probably broken both legs in the attempt.  I settled for some extreme fist pumping…and hurt my shoulder.  Note to self: No celebrations when you find things, you stupid idiot.)

The pictures show the bottom of the back end of Sideswipe’s car mode.  It looks like one is blue and one purple, but they are both the same color, it’s just the flash.  If you look at the bottom of Sideswipe’s rear fender inside of his right rear wheel (left side in the picture). The one on the right has a screw, while the one on the left does not.  The one on the left was the original design, a simple peg to hold the back end of the vehicle together.  The problem is that the simple peg does not completely hold the back of the car together.  The yellow button deploys Sideswipe’s Mini-Con.  The center panel on the rear of the car top is spring loaded and flips over.  If the back end is not held together solidly, the tab that holds the top in place can’t hold it and deploys without pressing the button.  This change was made very early in the production process.  It took me even longer to find this one that it took to track down the Beast Wars Deluxe Transmetal Rattrap No Tab Neck variation.  The only parts changed are the panels that make up the bottom of the back of the car on each side (the front of his lower legs in robot mode).  The one I found was pretty beat up, so I took a mint Sideswipe and swapped those parts.  You can see that some of the silver paint is worn.  The rest of it was in much worse shape.  It’s close enough to mint for me, especially for being so rare.

As always, you can find over 9000 Transformers merchandise items and collectibles at TFMuseum.com.  I have not done an update to the site in a while.  Hopefully I will be doing a major update this winter with more than 1200 more items including a huge number of Age of Extinction items.

Thanks for reading!