Pictorial Review: DotM Human Alliance - Spike Witwicky & Backfire

"That's right, I'm back on a tricycle built for someone twice my size."

Dark of the Moon has hit the shelves with a wide variety of new gimmicks and sub-lines. One of those new sub-lines is the Human Alliance scout class, which combines gimmicks introduced with Revenge of the Fallen and Power Core Combiners. Backfire and Spike are from the first wave and they may be the set I have the most mixed feelings about. Initially I was very excited to see Backfire and Spike on the pegs. They were the set I was looking forward to the most next to Icepick and Sergeant Chaos. However, that excitement lead to some disappointments. 

Spike Witwicky was a big part of why this set grabbed my interest. For such a well known name to Transformers fans, he has been given a faceless generic figure, but this actually beneficial. One of the downsides of the Human Alliance line has been the quality of the human companion figures. They're not exactly what you would call good, they are in fact crap. A big part of why they are crap is their faces, which never look anything like the characters they're suppose to represent. So I was relieved to see some of these human figures have no faces at all. Spike's helmeted noggin makes him one of the best looking human figures from the Human Alliance series.

"Go ahead, pretend my Bumblebee was less annoying than Sam's."

Besides the standard lack of articulation with human figures, the one complaint I have about Spike is his size. These scout class humans are much smaller than the normal Human Alliance figures. It is very noticeable once you try to pose them on their Transformer buddy in alt-mode. They look as though they should be twice as big.

Spike stole his dad's keys without realizing he cannot reach the pedals.

Backfire's alt-mode is an all-terrain tricycle. The army deco suits him quite nicely and matches well with the Spike. He comes with two 3mm clip system rifles, but the only clip points available in this mode are on the backseat and the front bumper. He has some orange translucent plastic for his headlights, which also comes in use in other modes.

Spike rolled into battle without realizing Backfire had it in for his forearms.

Robot mode is a bit of a mixed bag. His overall look is quite pleasant from far away, but once you start looking at him closer you start to see a few flaws. His head sculpt is brilliant, he looks like a classic block head Transformer and his light-piping shines brightly, but it might be a little too menacing for an Autobot. The silver engine block chest is a lovely touch and really gives him a unique look. His shoulders are a bit odd and look kind of awkward since they're a big chunk of the front section of his alt-mode. His feet are kind of skinny too for the same reason, they are a large chunk of his alt-mode.

"Get offa my lawn!"

The biggest problem I have with his robot mode is his lack of real hands. His hands are merely just sculpted detail hidden inside the pieces that connect together to form the alt-mode's bumper. Because of this, he cannot hold his guns and they are completely reliant on his clip points.

His robot mode and alt-mode weren't the reason why I was looking forward to Backfire though.

Whatcha got here is your standard Cybertronian multi-point plasma assault gun. Guaranteed to make a Con convert to Bot.

Backfire's weapon mode, which can be held by any figure with a 5mm peg hole or MechTech port, looks like it could melt Unicron's face. It even has lesser guns growing out of it. Spike can sit on this gun mode, but that just looks stupid. I got this so that my future leader class Ironhide will be packed with even more heat. 

Backfire may not be worth picking up for his alt-mode or robot mode, but the weapon mode and Spike make it a worthwhile set.