Hasbro Transformers Power Core Combiners Over-Run (Spastic) and Stunticons Hasbro, 2011
Day #453: July 30, 2012
Over-Run (Spastic) Stunticon Commander
Transformers Power Core Combiners 5-Packs
Item No.: Asst. 98461 No. 29158 Manufacturer:Hasbro Includes:Figure with 4 racecar drones Action Feature:Transforms from car to robot Retail:$19.99 Availability: Early 2011, no real retail distribution Other: Box is "Spastic," "Over-Run" name is a sticker
One of the odder things about the Internet is how drastically it has changed toy collecting. Beast Wars was one of the first lines of Transformers that felt born of the Internet's dawn, before that you had to trip over a magazine article letting you know something was made and then track it down at a Best or Service Merchandise or whatever grocery store still had toys. Part of the fun was a new toy could turn up at any time, but you could also miss a lot by virtue of having no idea it existed. In 2011, a large number of Transformers weren't given proper retail distribution and were de facto online exclusives for quite some time, so it's entirely possible Over-Run (or Spastic, as he was initially known) could have came and went and you'd never even know it was a thing, were it not for the massive upswell of screaming from British fans who found the name offensive. Collecting toys online is nothing if not eye-opening, because in the USA that's a word we use to describe Andy Dick on NewsRadio. But let's talk toys.
The toy is a repaint of Leadfoot, packaged with repaints of the drones from two other existing combiners. So what you have here is a fancy repaint, but it's a pretty good one given some of the nifty markings on the drones. I actually was pretty jazzed to get this one, because it reminded me of an odd cobbling-together of the original Stunticons mixed in with some Junkions. It's lop-sided and kind of ugly, but that's the charm.
The central core robot has a pair of heads, neither of which I would say are fantastic. One reminds me a little bit of Cobra's Vipers, while the other is just kind of wimpy. He has large ears, and a definite "helmet around a face" look, which looks different than the other "helmet with a face" looks out there. There's a lot of detail in the noggins, which makes this seem like an odd cross between the post-Cybertron lines and to some extent, the movies.
The transformation is pretty simple and the drones snapped into place nicely on my sample. With the orangey yellow and purple, it reminds me a little of one of the local colleges in color.
As Decepticons go, it's pretty neat. It's bright and colorful, which I love, and it really does seem like a futuristic version of the combiners we (I assume, I dunno how old you are) grew up with. The articulation isn't perfect, and you have to be careful with these sets to keep it together, but the older collector should get a kick out of it. The Power Core Combiners were great ideas which sadly burned out pretty fast. The entire line lasted about six or seven months, but in that time we got some pretty fascinating toys. Get it if you can-- and as I cranked this out, some online stores still had this one cheap.
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