The Battlechargers are an interesting set of Transformers, with their old toys being old One-Steppers, then they had toys that would attempt to be similar to the character models. They both had reuses of the 2011 Wheeljack mold, then there was a Combiner Wars Blackjack that was made to be new versions of them, but the trademark loss resulted in the toy only having such characters in the Takara Transformers Adventure line (their version of the RID15 line). So we have the two in Deluxe form. The inclusion's neat, and they wouldn't clash with the use of Blackjack if you want him to be with the Stunticons. So let's see how this mold turned out!
Here we have the two Battlechargers in their vehicle modes. These two look pretty good in terms of mimicking the car they're representing, which is essentially a Lotus Espirit or Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. Whatever it is, the vehicle looks pretty good and also stands out from most of the Decepticons we've gotten. The panel-lining done from the transformation cracks does get a little distracting, but it's slightly better on Runabout, the black Battlecharger with red accents, while Runamuck, the white Battlecharger, doesn't look as good. He also suffers a bit from paint discrepancies but is once again nowhere near as bad as Sunstreaker. Both of their rims are the same deco, and while it's accurate to G1, I do wish their rims would be colored differently.
I think I like Runabout better than Runamuck, what with the slick combination of black and red, though the white rims do make it look like a man in a suit missing the shoes and has his socks exposed.
Both of them have weapons of their own, with Runamuck having an unpainted black gun while Runabout has not just an additional weapon that can combine with it but is also painted red, which is pretty cool if you ask me. On the plus, the tip of the gun is not painted and it makes it look less like a safety gun.
Transformation for the figure design is the same on both fronts, and while you may think that it'd once again mimic Wheeljack and Sunstreaker's transformation yet again, I can happily say that these two deviate things when it comes to their engineering; their legs extend by having the struts connected to the knees rather than have them use the tab from the sides of the legs. The chests are fake, meaning the real one is put in the back and covered up by the rear windshield. I'll admit that while the faux chests are somewhat anti-climactic they at least make the figures feel a little more slender than they otherwise would be. The robot modes for the two look quite good, I must say, and while they've got the same hood feet, roof chest we've seen before, their designs at least spice things up a bit by making them less bland than they otherwise would be. Also nice is that they aren't retooled from Wheeljack, which could have easily happened.
The side of the figure design is kind of funny regarding their secondary tires. While they are accurate to the G1 toys, they look pretty much like training wheels...or in this case, training heels. They have 5mm holes, but they could go for some additional paint.
The head sculpts for both figures are thankfully distinct from one another, which is cool though it makes Runabout's head look a little hard to tell about the facial features on him. Runamuck's face is kind of bland but at least the purple eyes make it stand out.
Articulation for the two is consistent with the rest of the Siege Deluxes, though in their cases, they have no wrist swivels. Their guns look pretty cool on their hands, but then again, I'm kind of surprised that the training heels make them a bit more stable. On a side note, Runamuck's hand is kind of hard for him to grip properly.
Here's something interesting about these two: they made me want to watch a TV show, but not Earthrise...it's actually Mike Judge's/MTV's Beavis and Butthead! Because Decepticon Grafitti made use out of the personalities that would pop up from the BB duo, and the fact that I've seen King of the Hill before makes me interested in seeing what makes this show great. And hey, if the Earthrise season of WFC sucks, I'd binge-watch Season 1 of Beavis and Butthead instead! On a side note, you should get these two if you can find them easily, though Runabout's kind of hard to get yet somehow easier to obtain than the red conehead named Thrust.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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