There are a few moments in Transformers history where some characters feel like impulse purchases. I can see this with some of the novelties from Takara, most of the repaints you wouldn't really need, and a handful of G1 filler characters. The Autobot and Decepticon clones are no exception; their main purpose is to have a so-so gimmick and encourage people to buy their toys to make more money. Honestly, for all the crap people make about Armada being like Pokemon or the movies having "product placement", no one bats an eye with all of the stupid shit G1 made for overly-blown casts with half-assed toys, right? Anyways, let's take a look at two sets of figures that each cost 25 dollars when they shouldn't...oh and do excuse the Titans Return image...it's hard to not have an Autobot Clone and Decepticon Clone image using the Earthrise-themed packaging, but since they came from Titans Return, we'll use this instead.
Here are the Autobots Clones in-hand. These two are the typical small toy vehicle tropes one would expect kids with pocket money would buy in the past. Fastlane turns into a car, Cloudraker turns into a jet, and both toys look just about as successful with their designs and engineering as you'd expect. They don't have any definition from their appearances and result in pretty clunky vehicle modes. While Fastlane rolls very nicely with his wheels, his hips and arms tend to shift out of their positions rather frequently. Cloudraker, despite the small tabs not always keeping it in place, at least has the figure hold together better while also making use of the shifting hips. I guess the shifting hips remaining on Fastlane does help save money as their torsos have the same tooling, but it's kind of amusing how they both have it since it's useful on one of them.
They can flip-up seats to allow the Titan Masters to sit on their seats and make the most out of their vehicle modes. Ultimately speaking, it's going to require seat belts since they'd probably need more than the slots. Worth noting that they're kind of hard to access without dislodging the pieces, which is almost proof that these guys are both under-engineered and have late-decisions on them.
The transformations for them are almost identical, with feet that flip out, heads that swivel, and arms that shift in their proper positions. Cloudraker makes the most out of his transformation, with the front of the jet mode, wings, and shoulder movement do more than Fastlane. Their robot modes are nearly identical, but the main difference being the kibble placement from their alt modes and the chest emblems matching their alt modes. They have some of the more generic robot design traits to them, which almost makes them perfect for army-building if you didn't give a crap about their personalities (or lack thereof). Their articulation consists of heads that swivel (though Fastlane's spoiler and wheels mess things up), shoulders that move front and back as well as in and out on ball joints, elbows that are on ball joints, hips that move front and back as well as in and out, thigh swivels, and knee bends.
These two figures are the same as the Hasbro Titans return releases, but Takara Legends versions gave them more animation-accurate decos that are red faces and pink chests...yeah no.
And now we have the Decepticon Clones in-hand. These two are Pounce and Wingspan. These two are depicted as mini animals that might be the children of Six Shot given the similar color schemes, but I don't really think they're that good. Pounce has a bit of a charm to his chunkiness despite having limbs as thin as the ones from the Beast-X Racer Zord. As for Wingspan, his bird mode looks as effective as the one that Animorphs Tobias has. Oh and they can both carry Titan Masters.
Transformation for both of them remains the same as with the Autobot clones, but the main differences now involve Wingspan's, well, wings folding away, the legs on Pounce folding away, and the animal heads being uncloaked like hoods. Oh and Wingspan's eagle feet hinge back slightly. They have the same tropes that the Autoclones have, with similar proportions, design choices, etc, but they're now unique thanks to the colors, heads, and what-not. Their articulation is the same as with everyone else, but the biceps swivel despite the ball-joints allowing the forearms to move similarly.
For prior uses, these are the Hasbro ones, which have more toy-accurate decos and even have some different paint apps (the more noticeable thing being the wings on Wingspan being a hot pink). These two were in Titans Return while the Decepticlones we have here are the Legends versions.
And that sums up the pairs! These two figures are decent for what they are but aren't really worth getting at the prices they're at. For $50 combined to pay for both of them, you're not getting much out of 4 figures that are each engineered similarly and have less going on than the smallest Deluxe figures in the WFC line like Bumblebee or Warpath as well as the Legends figures released from Thrilling 30 to Power of the Primes. I don't remember how much the Titans Return 2-pack from Walgreens was worth, but I know that Pounce and Fastlane were both available with different multipacks from the line (the former was included with Titan Master Rodimus Prime, Nautica, Laser Optimus Prime, and Quickswitch while the latter was with Titan Master Thunderwing, Metalhawk, Tidal Wave, and Magnus Prime/Ginrai); these two-packs are a neat way for people to get these shelf-fillers without paying even more for the repaints if they don't want them, but the price they're going for is a big no-no.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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