Differences between United Windcharger, Warpath, & Thunderwing, Besides the obvious ones - now with THUNDERWING! Options

[Powered Convoy]

Look for galleries to come sometimes Sunday, but I got mine in today (as well as Megatron, and Rodimus a couple days ago).

I figured I'd go over the differences in these figures as some are hard to tell and may not be picked up in photos.

Windcharger
Windcharger obviously has the painted Autobot symbol versus the rub symbol on the RtS version. The light gray plastic on RtS Windcharger is significantly darker on the United version. It's a warm medium-light gray. The darker gray is also a bit darker on the United one. Also quite noticeable is the red plastic, while pretty much the same color as the RtS, while the RtS one had a swirl plastic the United one has a sparkle fleck plastic. It's quite nice looking. The gray paint on the United one is a bit darker too to go along with the darker gray plastics.

Warpath
Generations Warpath's brown/red is changed to a brick red almost identical to the original toy's red. The gray on his waist and portions of the tank are now darker (think the Legends Universe figure to the Henkei version). The United figure's hands are almost black compared to the dark gray of the Generations figure. The Z0W-333 and K4-90W are not present on the United one, it also has a silver outline Autobot symbol (with no color in it) instead of a black Autobot symbol. A nice surprise, unlike the Generations figure, is that United Warpath's head is actually cast in the same red as the rest of his body and not gray plastic painted over - not sure if TakaraTomy changed the molding for this to be possible or Hasbro just molded it in gray for some strange reason (it's akin to the whole Jazz with the painted forearms thing). Also Warpath's shoulder emplacements are still gray and not red like in some pictures.

Thunderwing
Thunderwing has more differences than I was expecting. The obvious changes are the arms are now a dark gray instead of green, the thighs and side waist panels are black instead of green, the purple is now a very light purple (lilac), and the clear orange is now a clear cherry color (different than Sky Shadow's clear red). The Decepticon symbols on are lighter on the United figure and the blue a bit darker. The lime green paint and grayish green paint is now a high gloss forest green (quite striking). The main white/light gray color of Generations Thunderwing is more of an off-white - definitely lighter than the Generations figure, less of a very light tan and more of an off-white. Despite the white color being lighter and the purple being lighter, the figure seems a lot darker than the Generations figure due to almost all the other colors getting darker. He looks very nice and overs a bit more color diversity to the other version.

As for the other figures (Wipeout, Rodimus, and Megatron) they are all very striking in their own rights. Megatron in particular really stands out, and thankfully his mouth looks quite definied with the light purple paint. I went over Rodimus in the other thread, Wipeout on the other hand uses the same light gray as United Windcharger and swaps the sparkle red for black and the dark gray for blue (plus different paint colors).

While I thought this was a weak wave overall (mainly due to the lack of changes that appeared in the figures) each figure ended up being nicer than I had expected due to the changes. I'm happy to add them to my collection.

Randy

[Powered Convoy]

One other thing, United Thunderwing's shoulder cannon/spike things are way more rubber than the Generations one or the Sky Shadow's. I imagine we'll be seeing someting similar on BotCon Metalhawk. Though you'd think a change like this wouldn't happen at TakaraTomy's level, I'm don't know if it was something that ever showed up on Sky Shadow's. But this isn't the first time a seemingly safety change showed up on a TakaraTomy figure rather than on a Hasbro one.

Randy

[Megatoron]

Yeah we all know the drill, all Takara Tomy versions are bling bling beauties, aren't they? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-waspy.gif)

I hope Hasbro releases this G2 Megs soon so I don't have to pay the import markup to have him lead my Classics G2 squad. And hopefully this Windcharger mold gets released as Decepticharge with better distribution.

[mx-01 archon]

Yeah we all know the drill, all Takara Tomy versions are bling bling beauties, aren't they? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-waspy.gif)

As far as I understand, these ones aren't blinged out like the previous United releases. Maybe a tad more paint apps than standard, but that's about it. Just straight-up deco changes.

[DINOBOT SLUDGE]

Thanks for the rundown Randy. Still wish they had done more with Windcharger and Wipe Out, but at least the tiny tweaks were to the positive.

[SwiftEagle]

The gray on his waist and portions of the tank are now darker (think the Legends Universe figure to the Henkei version). The United figure's hands are almost black compared to the dark gray of the Generations figure.

On mine, the silver plastic, gunmetal plastic and gunmetal paint on the hands are identical between the two versions. Are you sure it's not the contrast with the lighter red tricking your eye?

His left foot also doesn't lock into place nearly as well/easily as the Generations one's, but that may be an issue with the pin placement rather than the tooling or plastic.

[Walky]

Look for galleries to come sometimes Sunday, but I got mine in today (as well as Megatron, and Rodimus a couple days ago).

I figured I'd go over the differences in these figures as some are hard to tell and may not be picked up in photos.

Windcharger
Windcharger obviously has the painted Autobot symbol versus the rub symbol on the RtS version. The light gray plastic on RtS Windcharger is significantly darker on the United version. It's a warm medium-light gray. The darker gray is also a bit darker on the United one. Also quite noticeable is the red plastic, while pretty much the same color as the RtS, while the RtS one had a swirl plastic the United one has a sparkle fleck plastic. It's quite nice looking. The gray paint on the United one is a bit darker too to go along with the darker gray plastics.

Um.

Mine are absolutely identical, minus the rub sign.

No plastic color differences whatsoever.

[Benbot]

I'm kind of glad Takara went plain jane on these so I don't feel compelled to get the significantly more expensive Japanese versions.

[Powered Convoy]

I hope Hasbro releases this G2 Megs soon so I don't have to pay the import markup to have him lead my Classics G2 squad. And hopefully this Windcharger mold gets released as Decepticharge with better distribution.

That's not going to happen. Well the G2 Megs thing, and since Scouts don't exist any more I wouldn't count on a Decepticharge.

Thanks for the rundown Randy. Still wish they had done more with Windcharger and Wipe Out, but at least the tiny tweaks were to the positive.

Yeah I was happy to see they were differences.

The gray on his waist and portions of the tank are now darker (think the Legends Universe figure to the Henkei version). The United figure's hands are almost black compared to the dark gray of the Generations figure.

On mine, the silver plastic, gunmetal plastic and gunmetal paint on the hands are identical between the two versions. Are you sure it's not the contrast with the lighter red tricking your eye?

His left foot also doesn't lock into place nearly as well/easily as the Generations one's, but that may be an issue with the pin placement rather than the tooling or plastic.

The gun metal plastic looks the same but the gray/silver plastic appears a tint darker, but it may be the surrounding colors playing tricks on my eyes or just normal batch variation changes. I'm figuring the hands may look like that due to the underlying color underneath (I took the appearance of the silver looking different, which I didn't mention, owing to that).

Randy

[Walky]

Re: Your ridiculous Windcharger claims

I demand satisfaction!

[Powered Convoy]

Re: Your ridiculous Windcharger claims

I demand satisfaction!

Hmm? I see you have the United one based on the Wiki page, I take it you have the RtS one too? Take a close look at them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)

Randy

[Walky]

I did. I've been taking a close look at them since Friday. When I am not typing this, I have one of them in each hand.

They are perfectly identical.

[MrBlud]

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

[Powered Convoy]

I did. I've been taking a close look at them since Friday. When I am not typing this, I have one of them in each hand.

They are perfectly identical.

The two different shades of light gray.

[Powered Convoy]

The two reds, one with sparkles (United on the right) one without (RtS on the left). The color red is identical, it's the flecks that are not.


Randy

[Powered Convoy]

You can see the painted gray is different in this picture, as well as the darker gray a hair darker on the United one (the paint was obvious in the Alfes' Blog images too).


Randy

[Walky]

And that's what you mean by "the gray on the United version is significantly darker"?

The differences are negligible, to the point where it's impossible to say if the slight blueisher tint in one photograph is due to the camera's attitude at that hour of the day or we're just looking at something well within the margin of batch variation.

If by some miracle of something you're actually right, I wonder which guy at Tomy was sitting down and wondering how much time he could waste by imperceptibly changing the color breakdowns .0001% bluer.

This post has been edited by Code of Walky: Feb 5 2012, 05:24 PM

[Powered Convoy]

And that's what you mean by "the gray on the United version is significantly darker"?

It was late. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif) I will also concede that the dark gray plastic is the same, but the red and the light gray (and the gray paint) are not. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)

Here are a couple more pics. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-ironhide.gif)

United is on the right in both pictures.

Randy

This post has been edited by Powered Convoy: Feb 5 2012, 05:24 PM

[Naas]

Randy, you have like, super-vision, or something.

[Powered Convoy]

Randy, you have like, super-vision, or something.

I guess, some things stand out to be obvious to me, other times the surrounding colors will play tricks on me.

Randy