Originally written January 2020.
Let’s start 2020 with an unexpected surprise (2021 note: Hahaha. Hahah. Hah. Oof.) To catch you up, the Powerdashers were a trio of mail-away figures from the early years of the original Transformers toyline, who, by their nature as mail-aways, never appeared on the show or in the comics, and remain fairly obscure. The Transformers: Siege line has decided to give the three characters updates in the form of exclusive retooling of the Weaponizers, a group of figures that can break apart into weapons and armor and upgrade other figures in the line. Released as part of the online-exclusive Generations Selects line in the US, Zetar (reviewed here) and Cromar saw retail release in Canada, with Cromar as a Toys R Us exclusive (Aragon was in that multipack I looked at more recently). I picked Cromar up at the end of 2019 on a whim, since I liked Zetar so much, and the unexpected surprise is how much I find myself liking this guy, too. He’s the body of the Weaponizer Six-Gun, with a new head, and a new, more interesting identity.
Robot Mode
Right off the top, I absolutely love the colors Cromar’s in. He’s black, grey and red, with silver painted highlights. It’s just really sleek-looking, and is, in general, one of my favorite color schemes. The second thing I love is his odd-looking headsculpt.
Like Zetar, it’s not what you’d expect from a Transformer, and doesn’t seem to fit the general Transformers aesthetic. Whereas Zetar felt more like a GoBot, Cromar’s a different kind of retro, like some kind of 70’s space hero. He definitely looks like the mech at the center of a really old outer-space anime, or something a team of Power Rangers would pilot.
Outside of his sharp looks, Cromar’s got that impressive Siege poseability, complete with ankle tilts, which is doubly impressive, considering that he breaks apart into a pile of guns. He comes packaged with his elbows locked in place thanks to his underslung arm guns being plugged into his fists, but you can easily pop them out for the full range of motion. Speaking of that, he holds together really well, and doesn’t have the same problems with limbs coming out that Zetar did.
A good aspect of him being modular is that if something bugs you, you can change it. For example, I think his underslung arm guns look a bit odd, but there’s nothing stopping me from removing them and putting them in his hands like traditional weapons.
I’d say his one design flaw is that none of his Siege weapon ports are in any kind of convenient place for mounting weapons. He’s got ports on the front of his upper arms and inside his legs, neither of which are good angles. Still, since he turns into something to mount on other figures, it’s forgivable. Oh, and one odd thing about this tooling: It actually re-uses a tiny part from Siege Sideswipe, in the form of the little detachable red missiles on his back, though they’re now two shades of red, thanks to a bit of paint.
Transformation
Like Zetar and Cog, Cromar is a pure partsformer, coming apart and re-assembling into something else. That being said, there’s one tiny bit of the transformation I really dig: His head and upper torso does this thing where it comes off, and various panels rise up to enclose the head, and form a spaceship cockpit shape. When you do the transformation in reverse, it feels like the kind of head reveal/crowning touch that would feature in one of those old anime or Tokusatsu shows, where the mech transforms in a flourish of stock footage, complete with flashing lights and explosions.
Vehicle Mode
The whole 70’s super robot motif continues into Cromar’s altmode, which looks like an era-appropriate spaceship, or even the kind of ship you’d see at the bottom of the arcade screen in some kind of Space Shooter video game.
Like his other form, once you get him clipped together, he’s nice and stable. It’s a shame that his feet and legs are blatantly visible on his back, otherwise it would be a smooth silhouette, but on the other hand, having his robot parts blatantly visible is sort of on-brand for the whole homage they have going on. At least the grey robot fists on the backs of his wing-gun-thingies kind of blend in. Also, I wish those legs pegged in or something, but the joints are tight enough that he’s not going to come apart or anything.
Again, he doesn’t really have any weapon mounting points on him save for those beneath the turbines, or poseability unless you rotate said turbines. It’s just a cool-looking retro spaceship.
Transformation to Various Loadouts
Unlike Zetar, Cromar’s instructions start from the robot mode, meaning you have to change him back before you take him down to his component parts. Aside from that, though, it’s a pretty straightforward series of configurations to get each loadout. As with the other two Weaponizer figures I’ve reviewed, Sideswipe is again the suggested model in the instructions, but most Siege figures have pegholes in the right places to wear his parts in these configurations. For this photo shoot, I opted for the Generation 2-colored Sideswipe repaint from the Alphastrike boxset (reviewed here) since he actually color-matches Cromar really well.
Defensive Loadout
This configuration’s kind of silly, in that it’s just a really really big backpack. Still, it fits the Retro Super Robot motif, even if it’s not the best idea in practice. To no one’s surprise, it’s really back-heavy, and if the base robot can stay standing, it looks like they’re about to launch anti-air strikes.
Most of the time, it just wants to flop over, though.
Offensive Loadout
This configuration is more traditional, along the same lines as the other two Weaponizer molds. It consists of big boots, a big shield/missile launcher thing on the arm, and a pair of big shoulder cannons. Still, it’s not without flaws: The robot mode’s hands are really visible on the shoulders, and the giant device on the arm blocks Sideswipe’s articulation.
Still, the guns can swivel around, and that’s cool.
High-Precision Launcher Gauntlet
Ok, this one is fun. It’s basically just a giant four-fingered hand that clamps over Sideswipe’s arm, the better to deliver giant punches and/or slaps. It’s ridiculous, and I love it. The only downside is it doesn’t use all of his parts, but hey, the point of this is to customize, so you can come up with something on your own.
In fact, much as I grouse about the strengths and weaknesses of each of these forms, it’s hard to complain when you can literally just make better versions yourself.
Overall
I didn’t think I was going to like this guy as much as I do, but I think I like him better than Zetar, at least as a solo robot. He holds together well, has great colors, a unique aesthetic I really vibe with, and killer colors. Zetar had the better crazy combined modes, but those are just suggestions, and one of those suggestions is a giant fist. So, yeah, he’s more fun than I thought, and if you’re only going to get one Weaponizer or Powerdasher, this is the one!
