Bot Reviews: Transformers: Shattered Glass Deluxe Flamewar, with Fireglide

Flamewar was a super-obscure D-lister of a Decepticon, until she got what used to be called the “Furman bump” (back when Simon Furman was the only writer that did it), where a Transformers writer cherry-picks a random, under-used character to feature in their stories, and suddenly makes them really famous, sparking demand for both their old figures, and a new update. In this case, it was Brian Ruckley, and the 2019 IDW Comics Transformers reboot that caused the bump, and seemingly caused this version of her to exist.

But let’s back up. Flamewar was a Botcon-original character, a repaint of the Transformers: Energon version of Arcee, available at their 2005 convention, portrayed in the convention-exclusive story materials as a hardline Decepticon loyalist, keeping the flame alive in a time period when the war had ended. She didn’t make much of a splash, but as a potential repaint of a motorcycle-former version of Arcee, this led her to get a random Transformers: Prime minifigure in 2011….

….and then a second Botcon exclusive figure in 2014, both Prime Arcee repaints.

That last figure earned her another appearance in another Botcon comic, as part of a gang of pirates, but again, she didn’t really take off until Ruckley got ahold of her.

The 2019 Transformers comic already had a habit of making use of obscure characters, and under Ruckley’s pen, Flamewar was rewritten as a chaotic, loudmouthed, enthusiastic-but-self-centered troublemaker with a short attention span, as much of an issue to her own team as the enemy, and a source of a lot of funny moments in the comic.

This version of her was a hit with comic-readers, and led to demands that she get a (full-sized) figure that wasn’t a ludicrously expensive Botcon release, especially when Prime Arcee got a new figure in Legacy. And so, we got our new Flamewar…..in Shattered Glass? Ain’t nobody buying this because it says Shattered Glass on the box. Well, okay, a few people, probably, somewhere. But not a lot.

Here’s why it’s weird: Shattered Glass is a sub-franchise about a version of Transformers that’s a classic Star Trek-esque Mirror Universe: The Autobots are all evil, and the Decepticons are all heroes. It also used to be a Botcon thing, but it’s got a new, rebooted IDW comic (currently on its second miniseries), and a Hasbro Pulse-exclusive toyline to go with it. But typically, Shattered Glass versions of characters come in remixed, alternate color schemes, like Purple Optimus, or Starscream in Jetfire Colors. This is just normal-colors Flamewar being sold as one of the heroic Decepticons. I think this was just the only place they had room to release her, and as an amusing consequence, she comes with an issue of the Shattered Glass comic featuring her Heroic Decepticon self (to make the figure make sense), though, as of this writing, I haven’t read it yet (it’s issue 4 of the second miniseries, and issue 3 is still in the comic shop pipeline, so I didn’t want to spoil myself).

Most of this doesn’t matter, it’s just Flamewar in an odd box, until the price tag comes into play. See, Shattered Glass is an *expensive* Transformers line, between the figures having higher-budget-than-standard paint jobs, and shipping with comic books, and it’s worse for a Canadian like me, thanks to shipping and exchange rate that comes with buying them off Hasbro Pulse, an American site. Canadian Gamestops did carry Shattered Glass Megatron and Starscream (without the comics), and then seemingly gave up on the line, so I’m priced right out of it. But, I decided to pony up the dough for Flamewar, out of love for the character, and the Ruckley-formers comic, so the onus is on her to be worth the hefty price tag, especially considering she’s a repaint of a tooling I already have (and reviewed) as Legacy Road Rocket (see here for my thoughts on her).

Robot Mode

The reason for the removable backpack on this tooling becomes clear with this release, since she’s packaged in robot mode, and the backpack comes off in order to help her fit in the box. You need to install it when you open her up, and it’s an unfortunately loose connection. It works well enough to generally stay  on when handling her, but immediately pops off if you transform her, or rotate the backpack into another configuration. I’m thinking of possibly gluing it onto her, at this point.

I said back in Road Rocket’s review that a big knock against the intended use of this tooling as Transformers: Prime Arcee was simply that it didn’t really look very much like her, thanks to Legacy’s baffling decision to filter their Prime characters (and only their Prime characters) through a somewhat dull-looking “Generation One-style” lens. But in this case, I really wonder if Flamewar was the intended use of this tooling, because this sculpt really, really fits her design from Ruckley’s comics.

Granted, it’s not a literal copy of the Ruckley version, too many little details are different, but a lot of specifics, like the shape of her helmet, the panels on her chest, and other little bits all really specifically evoke her. Doubly so, if you go with the backpack configuration where you split her front wheel, and mount it on her shoulders like a pair of fans, which is exactly how the comic design drew them (and also loosely evokes the original BotCon figure).

Technically, she still has the other two backpack configurations as well, the sauceless version with her backpack compressed and her wheel hanging down (above), or the unofficial one where you flip it upside down, and give her “wings” like Prime Arcee (below).

No matter what way you arrange her details, it’s a good-looking sculpt, with my only aesthetic quibble being her split rear wheel just hanging off of each ankle, instead of, like, folding inside her feet or something.

Her new (well, new to me) headsculpt continues the homage, with the crest outside of her helmet feeling pretty directly based on her recent design. On one hand, I wish she didn’t have such a neutral expression, and had some kind of fiendish, cocky grin, as befits the character. On the other hand, the head has purple lightpiping that they managed to avoid painting over!

But enough about the sculpt. The deco is the big story here.

It definitely feels like a chunk of the inflated price tag went towards it. She comes cast in black, with silver bits, and translucent purple for the eyes (and windshield around back), with seemingly every other bit of color done via paint. This means loads of red, additional silver, yellow, some purple, basically everywhere on her, including bits like on her wrists and ankles, and multiple apps on her wheels, that feel particularly extra. The funny thing about all this detail is that, were they specifically aiming to imitate the Ruckleyformers version, they didn’t really even need all of this paint, and the general layout, combined with the flame patterns on her chest, seems to be specifically evoking that second, 2014 BotCon exclusive instead. Oh, and at her collarbone, there’s a red Decepticon symbol, its color being the one and only sign that she’s supposed to be a Shattered Glass character (they swapped insignia colors in that ‘verse), but Flamewar wearing a red symbol doesn’t feel out of character, since it matches the rest of her.

In terms of build quality, Flamewar feels the same as Road Rage, which is to say, a mixed bag. On one hand, she’s impressively stable on her clampy feet, even with her backpack. On the other hand, her lower legs like to come to pieces on the struts they use for their transformation whenever you pose them.

She’s got that loose backpack, and whether her rear wheel is mounted on it, or behind her head in shoulder-fan-mode, it also feels like it comes off way too easily. It all comes together to make her feel fiddlier and less solid than she ought to be.

This is a shame, because she’s still extremely poseable, and includes nice bonuses like ankle tilts and wrist swivels, with the whole package coming together to make her very good at assuming crouching, looming, gremlin-like poses, though they again have the effect of making me wish she had a more expressive face to go along with them.

The only strange limit is, again, her waist, which only has a small amount of side-to-side articulation thanks to the transformation, though it also gets a very rare kinda-sorta-ab crunch as a tradeoff.

For features, aside from the new lightpiping, Flamewar comes with all of the same accessories as Road Rocket, principally, a transparent purple disc, with pegs on it to mount on her forearm like a shield, or split into two oval “blades,” also for her forearms.

On top of that, you can remove her split, back-mounted wheels, and have her hold them in what’s theoretically a gun (there’s really tiny sculpted barrels), but in practice, makes her look like she’s holding onto a flying drone.

Meanwhile, she has weapons ports on her arms, backpack, and beneath her feet.

But the real story, and another reason for the increased price, is she comes with a Battle Master partner, a small red and black bird named Fireglide.

They’re seemingly a brand-new character, but a repaint of a Battlemaster tooling that’s seen a few uses, including the Autobot Eneraxe, who came with my Netflix Optimus Prime.

Like all Battlemasters, they’re a fairly simple thing, cast in the two plastic colors, with a smidgen of yellow paint for the eyes. But for a simple figure, Fireglide’s deceptively poseable. They’ve got a head that swivels up and down, wings that can spread out, and legs that are poseable at the hips, meaning this bird can roost, or go into flight mode.

Fold in the legs and head, fold out a handle, and they’re in their weapon mode, an axe for Flamewar.

It’s a weapon she’s never used before, but it really feels in-character for the goblin-like destructive troublemaker in Ruckley’s comics, and she looks great swinging it around.

And there’s an extra part to it, a piece left out of the Netflix version, a rubbery yellow explosion effect with an orange gradient, that can plug into the side of it to simulate an impact hit, making it feel especially premium.

It’s a unique, three-peghole connection, that means it’s not quite as universally compatible as most blast effects, but you can attach it to Siege Megatron’s sword, if you’ve got a version of him, plus it’s got a tiny hole on the impact end for attaching to any figure with a miniscule effect peg.

Fireglide has a peg underneath their head that isn’t really used in either mode, and is seemingly there to encourage fanmoding and customization, which there’s definitely room for. I’ve seen them configured as a gun (they even have a blast peg on the bottom of their handle)…

…an electric guitar…

and even a bow, which makes sense, as Firedrive’s colors seem to be based off of the bow and arrow that came with the 2014 Flamewar.

Adding this one extra thing adds the customizability factor to Flamewar, making her fun to fiddle with. It’s kind of funny how Battle Masters feel like bad value when packaged solo (unless it’s Rung), but feel like good added value when included as a pack-in, like in this case (which is probably why they don’t sell them solo anymore).

Transformation

Go ahead and just pop the backpack off, it’s going to come off anyway, same with her front wheel. At least they’re both easy to pop back on. This is still a transformation I find deceptively complex, pretty much entirely due to a) always forgetting I need to twist her waist around, and b) figuring out exactly how her legs and lower torso explode, and reform around the rest of her to make their chunk of the bike’s body. I’m not ashamed to admit I still glance at the instructions, if only to verify I got it all correct.

Even beyond that, getting everything into place for the bike mode can be a bit of a chore. The last step involves closing up the “wings” attached to the front of the bike, and the specific, bespoke slots on her sides that they peg into tend to never be exactly where they need to be, and require massaging to get everything where it should be. Still, once you lock everything up, it stays in place (this isn’t a Studio Series Bumblebee situation), it’s just getting there that’s a bit of a journey. While we’re on it, make sure you line up the pegs and holes exactly right when snapping her wheel halves together, once you get them in place, they close up and spin nicely.

Oh, when going back to robot mode, remember to snap her waist in, to make the whole thing stable!

Vehicle Mode

Like Road Rocket, Flamewar changes into a semi-realistic motorcycle that doesn’t seem to reference any particular previous design.

Sadly, it’s not Ruckley Flamewar’s bike mode, which had a front that resembled her face (though, since it’s a removable piece, a good Third Party kit *could* make it happen….).

Regardless, it’s still a good-looking hog, albeit a bit on the bulky side, and with a lot of folded-up robot bits trying to pretend they’re not there.

Having details nicely-sculpted wheels, and various tiny gauges behind the windshield certainly helps distract the eye, too.

In terms of colors, it’s kind of funny how similar this is to Road Rocket now, in a way the robot form wasn’t. They’re both red, black and silver bikes, Flamewar just has a bit less red, a lot more black, and a bit more silver (plus, her windscreen and headlights are purple now). But she makes up for it with more of that fancy, premium deco, including both yellow and red on the wheels, and small flame patterns along her sides. The only downside to this deco, to me, is the specific red and black color blocking really highlights how her….pelvic plate?….is just out there on top of the bike.

For features, there’s one thing on her that’s looser than on Road Rocket, which is actually a plus: Her wheels, which, when snapped together properly, spin and roll very well. Meanwhile, she has an all-important, workable flip-down kickstand.

For accessory action, you can plug the halves of her oval blades into the sides of her bike, to cause trouble for other riders, or at the back of it, to cause trouble for those that would ride her.

Speaking of that, this bike was specifically scaled to 3-and-a-quarter inch action figures, like G.I. Joes, and Star Wars figures, so anyone with enough articulation can go for a ride, just like with Road Rocket, but more dangerously.

Core-class Transformers kinda-sorta work, too.

Meanwhile, there’s, sadly, less for Fireglide to really do in this mode, unless you want to just stand them on her in bird mode.

There’s a probably-unintended little port on Flamewar’s seat that lets you kind of mount the axe facing towards the sky, and you can try coming up with something that fits in the weapons ports on the bike’s side, too.

Overall

This tooling’s still a bit too messy to be perfect. The dicey backpack and unstable legs, the slightly-too-complex transformation that requires parts-massaging, it’s a little annoying. There’s fiddliness and instability, but it doesn’t kill my enjoyment, and it’s still a fun figure, albeit one that’s not as solid as the other Legacy Deluxes I’ve handled.

But as a character, she’s excellent. This works way better as Flamewar than it did as Road Rocket, and really feels like the intended use of the tooling. I don’t really collect Shattered Glass, but this is plainly, transparently just Normal Universe Flamewar, and she does it beautifully, especially considering the elaborate-feeling deco.

Between that, and her bonus Battle Master partner (plus the air of customizability that partner brings), there’s enough added value to push this over the edge, and make it feel like a premium release, though, that price tag *is* really hard to swallow if you’re importing it, like I had to. Still, this is the easiest Flamewar to obtain (unless you get the Prime minifigure), so it’s really your only option outside of triple-digit Botcon releases, if that helps with the price. But the lack of any domestic Canadian release (same for most of Shattered Glass) does stink, and it’s tough to recommend this to anyone from my country unless you really, really like the character, like I do. But if you have a domestic venue of release, she’s a lot more worth it, there’s enough extra stuff here to justify the extra price tag. Even I’m not too bitter about what I paid, really, because I’m having enough fun to forget about the sticker shock.

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