Autobot Moonracer The Search for Alpha Trion! Transformers Generations Power of the Primes Deluxe Item No.: Asst. E0595 No. E1130 Manufacturer: Hasbro Includes: Blaster, combiner hand, 1 of 12 random cards Action Feature: Transforms from Car to Robot to leg/hand Retail: $17.99 Availability: February 2018 Other: First G1 Toy with G1 Name
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1980s toy properties are an almost bottomless well of nostalgia and never-before-made toys. Autobot Moonracer is part of a team of Autobot warriors from the episode "The Search for Alpha Trion," in which a squad of Autobot women on Cybertron were introduced - and quickly forgotten. This group predates Arcee, who herself had under a dozen appearances in the third season of The Transformers but left a much more significant impact.

The toy mold is used (with a few changes) for Firestar Novastar, so if you miss her here don't worry. You can also miss Novastar when she's the only new figure in Wave 4. A buddy of mine wrote in when he got his to say that he felt Moonracer was a little off... he's not wrong. This toy feels different from the other Combiner Wars-style limbs, but she's not as weird as Jazz [FOTD #1,883] - but without Jazz, she'd be the weirdo.

The robot mode of Moonracer is a decent robot figure based on the Sunbow animation model, as there was no 1980s toy from which to draw inspiration. It's notable that the toy's helmet doesn't quite match the one on her card art, and it's colored differently than it was on the show - the yellow forehead dot is new. With a purple face and big blue eyes, she is colored to look like the show. Unlike the show, she has car kibble hanging off of her and wrists than bend in, in addition to her double-jointed knees. You can see where the Sunbow is on this one, but you can also see where the toy elements creep in - after all, she has to turn into a space car, an arm, and a leg. I wouldn't say she does all of these particularly well, but it's certainly a decent thing to futz with.

With her blaster modeled as a larger version of the animation weapon, this is going to be a good robot to pose on your shelf with other toys. It might even be good enough that you won't demand a redo on her - but there's still room to do one with a better alt mode.

Transformation is easy, but you might want to look at instructions just to make sure. The final car mode is sort of jumbled robot bits so it's neat but not necessarily intuitive. The robot is the main mode here, so her fists just sort of hang off the back and her chest makes up the back fraction of the car. You can fold and flip a lot of bits in interesting ways, making it a radical departure from the usual fold-in-the-arms and thighs-are-consumed-by-shins transformation of most combining toys.

The alt mode is weird. Any way you slice it, this space car is going to look strange. This is sort of boxy and a little messy, while the sleek model on the TV show looked pretty awesome with wheel covers and strange parts hanging off the sides. As a big fan of those fanciful car modes, I find this one disappointing - it's not exactly great as it is, so losing the animation model is a bit disappointing. I don't assume Hasbro will do another one any time soon, but I do like it. I appreciate the weird design of the 2018 toy car, but the proportions are strange and I don't really feel that I believe it as a car. Hasbro's change of how it packages its toys - from alt modes, to robot modes around the late 200Xs - the emphasis has been generally given to the robot. Moonracer's robot mode is definitely the one with the most paint and best detailing, with the car being something of an afterthought. Given the current market for these toys as adult fans, that makes a lot of sense - I just wish we got a slightly better car out of it.

I like the combiner limbs, more or less. As an arm, she may well have some of the least kibble of any combiner limb since Combiner Wars began. Everything integrates nicely and she has fairly clean lines - her robot arms hang off the shoulder a bit, but compared to her peers? This is clean. There's no wing, no jet nose, no car doors acting as an ornament. It's just an arm - a boring ol' arm. That's what it should be. Articulation is pretty good here, especially with the double-jointed elbow courtesy of the robot mode's knees. If you want, you could also just stick the car on a torso and have that be the arm mode.

The legs tend to be boring, and this one is a little dull too. The leg has her robot fists out in front, and that's kind of ridiculous. You might want to look at the instructions for inspiration, but then just put the arms back instead. You can still see bits of the arms, but the shape of the leg is pretty great.

I love that this toy exists, and three of the four modes are pretty great. I'm a little disappointed that Hasbro didn't complete the lady Autobot combiner team with two more figures. I'm also a little miffed we got 3 "spare" Autobots so we don't have enough to complete another team - the same happened with just 2 Decepticons. But none of that matters - what you want to know is if you should buy this shortpacked Autobot. I'd say yes - it's not perfection, but it's fun and I like it enough that I'd buy the mold a few more times to complete a combiner. Please help make that happen, Hasbro.

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