Originally written August 2019.
Introduced in the second year of the original Transformers cartoon and line of figures, Red Alert served as the Autobot security chief, and was known for being overzealous to the point of paranoia, sometimes jumping at shadows. He was also often paired with Inferno, an equally zealous warrior who often encouraged him to loosen up. Like many characters introduced in the second season of the show, Red Alert had a spotlight episode, Auto Berserk, where an accident left him even more irrationally paranoid, and Inferno had to rescue him. Since then, his only other major appearance of note has been a recurring role in IDW’s More than Meets the Eye comics, still with the same twitchy personality. So, while Red Alert is a bit obscure, he’s always had a strong sense of character, unlike the character his figure was a redeco of.
His original G1 figure was a redeco and retooling of Sideswipe (whom, as I discussed previously, never had any real personality), which meant that Red Alert changed into a fire chief’s car…which was also a Lamborghini, an unlikely vehicle to have that role. Naturally, with Sideswipe getting a new figure in the Transformers: Siege line, Red Alert followed. I’ve looked at Siege Sideswipe before, and you can read that review here for the nitty gritty on the base figure. In short, he’s a bit simplistic, but a really strong figure. This’ll mostly be a look at what’s different between the two, and how I feel about the figure this time around.
Robot Mode
Red Alert’s mostly the same core figure in this form, with the only major change to the mold being a very slight tweak to his head. Specifically, the “horns” on his helmet are a little bit different. The figure was designed to faithfully replicate Sidewipe’s cartoon design, and Red Alert’s character model tweaked more details than just the head, but the two were still close enough that the body being the same on this figure can pass (and that’s pretty much what their Masterpiece figure did, anyway.) Regardless, Red Alert has a very traditional Car Transformer design, with his hood on his chest, roof on his back, and wheels on his legs. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
The good news with this mold is that he hasn’t suffered any degradation from being re-used. His joints still feel nice and tight, and he’s still incredibly poseable and stable. The downside is that he still has a torso that doesn’t really lock down, despite being designed to, but once again, the joints are tight enough that it’s still stable.
In terms of colors, he’s still shades of white, red and black, like Sideswipe was, just with the levels changed a lot. He’s now mostly white (and a lighter shade of it), with bits of red, black and silver for highlights. There’s also a random bit of blue on his legs, and that trademark Siege wear and tear on his shins in the form of silver splotches. Amusingly, he’s got a red Fire Department logo on his chest, but the conceit that Siege takes place before anyone came to Earth means that the words “Fire Chief” have been replaced with Cybertronian glyphs.
While he looks pretty good, he does feel a bit off for Red Alert, a bit too plain, and it took me awhile to put my finger on why: He’s got too much white on him, specifically, on his arms. His original cartoon model (and many toys based on it) break his arms up with bits of red and black, but here, they’re solid white, aside from his fists, which makes him look just a little bit incomplete to me. Also making him incomplete: His missing shoulder launcher, but I’ll get to that in a second.
Red Alert comes with a different set of accessories. First, he’s got a large black handgun, sculpted after his original toy’s. Secondly, he’s got the same police lightbar that came with Siege Prowl, still cast in clear red, but with a bit of white paint. It can be left on his back (where his roof is,) or, amusingly, he can make a combined weapon with it, where it pegs onto the end of his gun, which he holds by the barrel, to form a weird little beating-axe weapon. It’s not based on anything Red Alert ever used, but the image of him frantically smacking someone with a club made from his sirens amuses me. I also like plugging the police light into the weapons ports on his forearms. I’m not sure why, or what it’s supposed to be, I just think it looks neat.
What he’s missing is the missile launcher that plugged into Sideswipe’s shoulder, which was a permanent part of his character model, making him look incomplete (and he can’t mount his gun there, because the port’s a different shape). He can steal Sideswipe’s just fine, but that leaves his mold-made without his own. He does feel a bit under-equipped, like Sideswipe did, and part of me still thinks this is to promote the various weapon upgrades available in Siege, to better equip the core figures.
Transformation
Red Alert’s still nice and easy to shift into his car mode, simple enough that I was able to go off of memory, without consulting the instructions. One thing to beware of on my copy: The joint his feet fold away on is really stiff, and kind of difficult to use. Luckily, the plastic it’s attached to is flexible, so I don’t think it’s in danger of breakage.
Vehicle Mode
This sleek-looking car is identical to Sideswipe’s in sculpting, with the added lightbar on top being, of course, an accessory instead of a new part. I really dig his colors in this form. He’s still mostly white, and the red and black colors on him include different kinds of swooshy stripes on his sides that look really slick, as well as wheel rims painted red, of all things.
Whereas Sideswipe looked like a fancy concept car, the colors and how they’re distributed on this version make him look like some kind of futuristic space-force vehicle. The only color change I’m not fond of: His windows are solid black instead of slightly transparent like Sideswipes, and I’m only not fond of it because there’s a lot of tech detailing inside of them that’s now hidden from view.
For gimmickery, his weapon mounting port at the top is taken up by the lightbar, and unlike Prowl, you can’t have the gun and siren on him at the same time, so he has to be de-emergencied to peg his gun on top, or you can just peg it on his sides, where its black colors blend in nicely with the car’s overall colorscheme. Oh, and this version of the car still rolls just fine.
Overall
Sideswipe was a pretty good figure, if a bit simple and straightforward, and to be honest, I almost like Red Alert better. He’s more interesting in color, concept and character. I still wish he had more accessories, and a couple more color accents in robot mode (as well as some kind of shoulder-mounted accessory). Still, I recommend him as a part of the Siege line, and I’d actually put him slightly above Sideswipe in terms of fun and interest, moreso if you have an Inferno to pair him up with (which I actually don’t! )
(2021 notes: Aaaaaaand they’d outdo him with his Kingdom do-over, which repaints and retools him into a regular Earth car, as well as giving him his shoulder launcher back, and fixing his color-blocking in robot mode. That being said, that version was an exclusive to either Walgreens or Gamestop, depending on the region, so this version still has the advantage of a) being easier to obtain, especially on the aftermarket, and b) still being a good figure in its own right.)
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