Here we have Sideways in his motorcycle mode. It's a very faithful recreation of the original design his old toy had, though it uses the Takara scheme where the purple is above what was once yellow and now replaced with gold. I honestly like the gold paint on this since it at least makes the toy feel slightly more premium then it'd otherwise be. It captures the chunky yet robust proportions, even having the pipes in the bottom. A stand is molded though it isn't as helpful with keeping it standing upright. Riding on the bike is Mirror, the combined form of Rook (the black Minicon) and Crosswise (the grey Minicon). It can hold the handlebars decently well without struggle, and it can sit down fine just about.
The arms of Crosswise and the legs of Rook can peg on the back of the altmode as part of normal storage, but they can combine into a weapon for Mirror to use. While his articulation consists of ball joints for the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, the ankles are on hinges. Keep in mind that if you want the elbows to bend normally, he will have his hands look like they're permanently waiting to hold those handles.
Both of them can still be displayed as individual Minicons with a bit of partsforming. Sucks that Crosswise has no arm-ticulation while Rook's legs are static, but considering that the regular retail Armada characters have no Minicons, not even the Leader Megalvatron duo, Commander Class Prime, or Titan Wave, something's better than nothing. Do keep in mind that the eyes on Crosswise are inaccurately yellow instead of pink.
For an alt mode comparison, we can see how crazy it is that a dude who turns into a bike ends up becoming into a dude who turns into an alien jet. Still nice to see them together without the feeling of an Energon figure missing between them (since Sideways was never in Energon to begin with). Though me saying that makes me wish we can get this figure repainted as Rapid Run, even if we get another repaint before we get a larger scale mold for an Energon-original design.
Transformation is fairly close to the old toy, though with a few modern engineering elements added to make this feel slightly more involved. Just keep in mind that the wheels are on 5mm ports for the sake of making it easier to store him in box, a usual thing Hasbro does sometimes. However, I wish the chest would stay in place better with a pin going through the hinge, especially with how easy it is to detach when you're trying to store the head inside. Oh, and be sure to fold the tab away on one of the feet. The robot mode is once again accurate to the cartoon series, especially with the Armada cast not being affected by the Generationization seen on the Animated and TFP characters. After all, nobody can have a design that's normally seen as stumpy or insignificant on smaller bikeformers and make it work on a larger character like Sideways. Even the handlebar horns on him are a signature design trait that works better on him than anyone else, other than maybe one of the Junkions. The colors remain accurate to the series, but I need to point out that the chest is normally blank without one of the Minicon heads, meaning that a faction symbol should not be present here yet the panel only has enough room for the dual side without making the normal head hard to tuck away. And for a minor nitpick, I wish the missiles had the orange fade, though even at a price hike, Hasbro cant afford an eighth of a cent to use a color not part of their paint apps selection.
His head sculpt is nondescript yet it fits the vague allegiance this character has among the cast members of the Unicron Trilogy, at least when we first meet him. It's the Minicons that do the lifting for his. When he wants to serve as a double agent while working for Unicron, though maybe he's a triple agent? Articulation consists of ball joints at the neck and wrists, swivels for the shoulders, biceps, waist, thighs, and feet, hinges for the outward arm movement, elbows, knees, and pivots, and universal hip joints. Oh, and with the missiles being on 5mm ports, you can use them as clubs if you want, but I like them better as blasters.
As one should expect, the RookWise duo can turn into alternate heads for Sideways, with Room serving as the Autobot option while Crosswise serves as the Decepticon option. Did you know that the original Sideways toy, at least the Hasbro version, had the heads' factions swapped? That meant Rook was a Decepticon and Crosswise was an Autobot. The manual gimmick means you can recreate the error without modifying your toy.
For another Sideways comparison, we now have the ROTF version of the character. No connection to the other two given he is in a different universe but it's crazy to see how much he changes designs more than anyone else. Also getting Ask Vector Prime vibes from when Sideways was a known liar and changed between designs.
And here he is with Megatron and Starscream, and while I wish we got Cyclonus and Demolisher, at least Sideways is still a good character to add, no doubt thanks to his role in Armada as well as being a complete set unlike his fellow bots and cons. Honestly, while he isn't 100% perfect, I can always appreciate that the overall set feels complete. If he was released by himself and the Minicons were only available in some other set, let alone a retail exclusive, I would have been greatly pissed at the dumbass idea. Some can argue that the Minicons individually do less than their original counterparts, especially with the faction reveal gimmick now working manually, yet I would rather have a figure that does better in other areas than either remain half-baked or cheapened out. Not as worth the price hike as Amalgamous Prime, but still good overall.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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