Here are all of the figures in their alt modes. They generally resemble how they'll appear in the movie, even if Cheetor looks inaccurate due to using outdated concept art. His beast mode generally looks good apart from the mismatched shades of yellow as well as his mostly brown hind legs. It feels like how I'd imagine a more mechanical Season 1 design, with this guy resembling his old self the closest. I also like the Maximal insignia on his forehead, though the yellow eyes blend in with his head somewhat. Nightbird is an unlicensed approximation of the Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R, and while it gets the design mostly right, I'm not a fan of all that caramel brown breaking up the charcoal gray. If it was repurposed as bronze highlighting, that'd be one thing, but looks unfinished in this mode. I do like how it uses the weapons to make a spoiler of some kind, though. And as for Wheeljack, the Volkswagen Minibus is loosely represented here, with the front section being genericized and the Autobot insignia not being exactly like how it'll look in the movie. He does have some decent sculpted details applied like with Nightbird to help him fit in with the licensed Studio Series guys, including the TV Pablo decals on the rear sides. He can store the gun on the top as usual with Transformers toys.
Cheetor's articulation is comparable to the Kingdom release, with a jaw that opens, ball joints for the upper front legs as well as hinges for the lower legs, though the hind legs are a little more limited due to them tabbing in place while the Kingdom version kept them free. Next to his Studio Series counterpart, it feels like, once again, comparing Season 1 to Beast Machines due to the design differences and slight size bump for the Voyager. To the credit of the Voyager, its color scheme is more unified, though.
Transformation is similar to that of the Kingdom Deluxe, which I feel makes sense given that they have the same design template. Cat head chest, foreleg back kibble, hind-legs folding away into the shins, and the lower stomach of the beast mode becoming the arms. The robot mode we end up with is undoubtedly a mechanical Season 1 Cheetor but with more brown to break up the coloring. It does look a little better in this mode, though the different shades of yellow kind of make the figure s little less consistent. It's a your-mileage-may-vary thing, but the steel blue paint apps look nice on him.
Head sculpt reminds me of the more stylized Universe 2008 Deluxe toy's noggin, but it is a good look for the character that does almost make me wish this is what the design would be like. His eyes are still yellow but the blue face helps break up the same color. His articulation features ball.joints for the neck, shoulders, wrists, and hips; the biceps, thighs, and waist are swivels while the elbows, knees, and ankles are on hinges (the latter having pivots). He comes with the typical tail whip that does at least have a convincing blade compared to the Kingdom release as well as a gun that the same figure lacked.
For a robot mode size comparison, here he is next to his SS and Kingdom counterparts. See what I mean with how one could work as a Beast Machines-inspired design and the other being Season 1 influenced? I can headcanon that Deluxe Cheetor represented his old look before he received the design he has in 1994. And it's no secret that this Deluxe figure is basically a Moviefied Kingdom Cheetor figure, though I feel in some ways, the proportions and kibble management of the Movie guy is done better than on the Kingdom release.
Up next, we have Nightbird in her altmode along with the other Terrorcons, seen here recreating that one promo shot of their alt modes together. You can better see the hot pink rims and the rest of the altmode, but you can unfortunately notice how bad the caramel patchwork looks on the car while the bottom region looks mostly fine. The scale also works well in my opinion for their alt modes.
Transformation is pretty kibbly for a figure in this scale, with the side panels and almost the entire top of the car becoming hip and back pieces that don't contribute that much to the design. The former does but not that helpfully. I do like that the legs transform in a sort of untraditional way while the hood chest is front and center for the robot mode, and the proportions mostly work for the design, but the kibble makes her comparable to an ROTF Scout Class toy. It's also reminiscent of the first Studio Series Shatter, the one that turned into a car and looked mostly bad in robot mode. It's amusing how we get another female villain in Transformers after Shatter that has a similar design. I feel the hip kibble is mostly fitting for the design while the backpack looks terrible by comparison, especially with the lack of an arching flow. Luckily, she isn't too back heavy for her small feet.
Head sculpt is the strongest aspect of the toy, having been given a more metallic shade of gray for the helmet as well as some silver and purple accents that contrast her piercing yellow eyes. I hope the Studio Series version looks this good. Her articulation is mostly the same as Cheetor's, but she has no wrist articulation, and her hips have swivels and hinges rather than ball joints. I feel the limited hip articulation and awkward knee movement makes her hard to pose right if you ask me, but she at least can use her sword and the two combined spikes to make a claw weapon.
For a robot mode size comparison with some Studio Series Terrorcons, she is obviously shorter than both Scourge and Battletrap but taller than Freezer nonetheless. I do hope that the Studio Series version ends up looking more proportionate than refined than this figure.
And finally, we have Wheeljack, lovingly nicknamed Pablo. In his van mode, he is grossly undersized in-between Bumblebee and Arcee, but that is how he appears in the movie if we look at the sizes of the actual models in the movie.
Transformation is pretty comparable to both G1 and Movie Skids, with the front being the torso and the back becoming the legs. You also have the wheel arches on the shoulders and the winglets from the doors. The resulting robot mode is undoubtedly going to trigger purists who loved the Bumblebee movie design and hated this guy immensely. Remember when people made false rumors saying he'd be redesigned a la Sonic? Tough shit because the loom remains in the movie, albeit much leaner by comparison. I like the design fine enough, as it gives him a bit of an identity like with his Armada self and his final look as Que in Dark of the Moon. The white and brown color combo is uncommon for Transformers but it works well to me, and it weirdly reminds me of the civilian attire Makoto/Lita Kino from Sailor Moon would have when she isn't Sailor Jupiter. The mostly brown legs and the brown on the pecs do represent overalls, which is pushed even further with the plastic suspenders tabbed in place. One big annoyance I have is that the hands are painted black from the forward facing spot only and NOT the entirety of the hand. At least either paint the hand entirely or don't!
Head sculpt is what made fans get so triggered over this new look because its too nerdy or it isn't Geewun blah blah blah-look, Transformers fans, just because I like the franchise doesn't mean I like you that much. I think the face adds some character to the otherwise been-there-done-thatish design. And hey, if we should bash the movies for making stereotypes, surely we can do the same to other iterations for the same thing, right? I won't go any further because we got his articulation to cover with a stiffer than normal ball jointed neck, shoulders with good tolerances, and very loose hips. The biceps, waist, and thighs are all swivels, and the elbows, knees, and part of the ankles are hinges on one part of the joint and ball pegs on the other. He has a normal pistol but as it turns out, his hands will become cannons in the movie.
For a robot mode size comparison, here he is next to the design that fans threatened Paramount to restore for the movie. I do find it funny that Wheeljack went from being a super Geewun-looking guy to having an entirely unique appearance for himself, but how they'll explain this look we can't say for certain, as it'll be 7 years after the events of Bumblebee and 18 years before the events of Dark of the Moon for him to be Que.
I tried to remove the heads of both figures to showcase the frequently done head swaps that fans made to give him the trafitional head design, but my copy seems to rather keep the neck stuck on rather than let it go for the proper head swap. So that's why the ROTB head is resting on the BB body. It'd be great if Hasbro and Paramount went UP YOURS at the entitled fans and edited the head in Bumblebee.
For a robot mode size comparison with the Studio Series figures we got for the Autobots so far, here is Wheeljack sandwiched in-between Bumblebee and Arcee once again, towering over both of them to make up gor being an undersized van. As mentioned before, the proportions in the movie will be nealer by comparison, and his door wings more prominent.
And that wraps things up for this 3-pack. Overall, it's an imperfect but neat set if you want versions of these characters as appetizers before we get Studio Series releases (at least for Nightbird and Wheeljack since Cheetor already popped up in the line). I'd say Cheetor is my favorite while Wheeljack is a close second (he needs better joint tolerances) and Nightbird ends up the weakest link. The set is pretty cheap at Target compared to getting 3 Studio Series Deluxes and possibly the regular retail versions of the individual releases so I recommend the 3-pack way.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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