I was really hoping to have access to my Giant Wall Of Toy Bins before getting to talking about Timelines Side Burn, but our basement is still a mess from the move. It’s still the place where we shove everything that we don’t know yet what to do with. So no photos of Side Burn with Timelines Sky-Byte. Or with Classics Prowl! D’oh.
Man, getting this guy was an adventure. Fun Publications sends their Collectors’ Club incentive toys via third-class mail. Third class mail doesn’t care about your fancy mail forwarding! You can forward your mail all you want, and watch how many f***s third class mail does not give. I found this out a few weeks ago when I called FP to give them my new address. It was also too late, I found out, to get the mailing label altered! So, great. Long story short, two days after we were officially out of our old house, I was reaching my arm down into the mailbox that deposits inside the building. I was stealing my own mail! (The landlord lives in San Diego, so she wouldn’t be of any particular, immediate help.) But hooray! Side Burn get. Well, Side Burns. Grabbed my roommate’s, too.
Side Burn is intended to be a Generation 1 version of the Robots in Disguise character. In RiD, Side Burn was a fun guy, but his toy was horrible. It was a mess. Side Burn is one of the reasons why the fandom has the term “shellformer” in their vocabulary arsenal. And so years and years ago, when I was thinning out my collection to pay some bills, he was one of the first to go. Easy decision.
And here he is, back again! And in a more tolerable form! Classics Rodimus, the toy he’s redecoed from, isn’t really a terrific mold or anything — he’s got some articulation annoyances, for example — but he’s leagues beyond RID Side Burn. And so I heartily welcome my newer, better Side Burn. The translation of Side Burn’s deco to Rodimus’s toy is near flawless. It’s amazing. The particular shade of desaturated blue (bordering on indigo) is very striking, and all the tiny little dabs of paint here and there really sell him as Side Burn. He’s even got his larger targeting monocle painted over one of his eyes, and elements of his deco are asymmetrical. It’s a commendable job.
His profile card, on the other hand, is a relentless siege on the English language. It embarrasses me as a literate fan of Transformers, and we shall not speak more of it.
If the Side Burn toy has a downside, it’s the age of the mold. Side Burn isn’t as solid as previous iterations of the toy, and when you go to pull his shoulders out during transformation, his ball-jointed arms are likely to remove themselves instead. I choose to interpret this as an homage to the original Side Burn, who had similar cohesion problems.
Here's Side Burn impersonating a war hero to get into these ladies' robopants. Classy.
One more thing. The original Side Burn’s “thing” was that he hit on red cars. He was on Earth during Robots in Disguise, and so his running gag was he’d go ga-ga over the dumb (and red) unsentient vehicles driven by the humans around him. It was kind of weird, and it didn’t speak much for Side Burn’s intelligence, but it was cute. Timelines Side Burn, however, is still on Cybertron. He has to hit on red cars, as per his M.O., and so the red cars he hits on are sentient females. Somehow this is creepier. I can’t explain why. I can’t even really defend why. Finding your own species attractive should be more normal, versus hitting on inanimate objects. Maybe it’s because directing his traditional behavior towards beings with minds makes adorable ol’ Side Burn into a womanizer, which is generally less endearing.
Anyway. Idle thoughts.
It’s the difference between a red car fetish and a redhead fetish. And I do mean fetish, not just preference.
I think the loose joints are a YMMV kinda thing–mine were nice and tight. My Rodimus from the two-pack with Cyclonus, though, looses an arm if you look at him funny.
I really wish I had gotten this guy. I’d like to consider him the deluxe version of the Spychanger Side Burn. Ah well, I’ll just love him vicariously through the rest of y’all.
Is it me or is that Fembot with the trey in that panel an hommage to RiD T-Ai? She’s got the weird helmet and a skirt.
She’s an homage to TAI, yes.
Awesomesauce! I liked TAI!
Y’know, I gotta disagree with all of the Side Burn hatred going on here. I loved all three of the RID car-brothers, shell-formers or no. I still think those toys hold up to the test of time, and are certainly better than 90% of the movie toys to date. They were well articulated, they had unique designs, oh, and THEY WERE THE FIRST CARS WE GOT IN LIKE 5 YEARS! (Ignoring machine wars, because god was that terrible) Not that I didn’t love me some Beast Wars (’cause, boy did I!), but RID took all the articulation of BW and combined ‘em with CARS! in scale with the originals! I loved these so hard when they came out.
But toy complaints aside, I feel the character is getting a bum rap here. Womanizer? That’s a bit strong. He knows what he’s attracted to, and that happens to be red cars. It’s like some dude who likes redheads. Not that weird. Not like he’s all, “Let me use ‘em and lose ‘em as fast as I can. There’ll be another one like this tomorrow.”
Although, it has been like 10 years since I’ve seen any of the accompanying fiction. So maybe I’m forgetting.
I do agree, however, with your assessment of the new toy. It’s awesome. Not better than the original, IMHO, but definitely earns a place on my classics shelf with the updated G1 cast.
I can’t help but be bothered at the fact those leg panels aren’t pushed in all the way.
I actually really wanted this toy, since I like the mold unlike many others, and the colors look awesome on it. But I had no money for the subscription, and the other reason I wanted to get one was Cheetor who ended up not looking that great.
I’m not sure ‘skeezy womanizer’ is really more disturbing than ‘zoophile’, which is basically what chasing non-sapient cars romantically amounts to for a Cybertronian.
Don’t worry, RiD Sideburn, I still think your toy is better.
Samurai with a riot-shield > generic blocky mecha.
Damn I wish I had this. I’m not even huge on Side Burn, but this toy is beautiful. I wish they made stuff like this for the Cyberverse line (that being all I can really afford to collect these days)
As much as I like the work on the deco, this mold is just too Hot Rod-ish for me to work as Sideburn. Even the flames on the front make this seem like ‘ol Roddy is just going through a blue period. I wonder if the Universe Hot Shot mold they used last year for Dion would’ve been a better fit.
Wouldn’t Side Burn then be too Hot Shot-y?
I’m thinking that their cars are closer together in asthetic for the switch to work.
Maybe someone like Generations Drift or RTS Tracks could work too though their robot mode might be too far removed, what with the car hoods being their chests, which is why I went with Hot Shot
Sideburn’s waitress is another RID homage. TAI.
Read up a page, friend!
(Though the official answer to “Is that TAI?” is “NO YOU ARE BEING STUPID THINKING SHE IS TAI EVEN THOUGH SHE LOOKS JUST LIKE TAI.”)
The original Side Burn was my very first Transformers toy as a kid. Bought him with my own money and everything. Even if his original toy doesn’t have the best mold, he’ll always be my favorite. For nostalgic reasons of course.
I’d like to note that at the young age of six, having spent my previous six years watching G1 VHS, I was a firm believer in trukk not munky. Proof that a stubborn fan can come in all ages.
Though I love Beast Wars now. I feel dumb for telling people not to buy me Beast Wars toys as a kid…