From Newsgroup: alt.toys.transformers

Dave's Transformers X Stranger Things Collaborative wave 2

Freakwency with 8-Trax (radio station van and 8-track tape/bird)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Collab/Freakwency

Yeah, Code Red was a big disappointment and I have zero show-based interest in this since I never watched Stranger Things, but I had an expiring Target Circle deal when this went up for pre-order, so I figured getting it about a third off was worth risking it.


CAPSULE

$57.99 list price, I paid about $40.

Freakwency with 8-Trax: A good solid Voyager main figure and a decent partner figure. Still suffers a bit from license tax, but definitely worth what I paid for it. They seem to be hitting Target shelves in decent
numbers, so they might last long enough to go on clearance, at which point they'll definitely be back to being worth it. Ignoring price (hard to do
these days), Recommended.


RANT

Packaging: The box is designed to look (from the front) like a small
town downtown storefront radio station studio with a big picture window that lets you see inside...with the van being inside the building rather than
parked out front. The closed off studio itself is in the deep background,
with the midground being reception desk and other support stuff on a tile floor. There's a TV (possibly TV/VCR combo) on a cart, a copier, a landline phone...and then there's Blaster in boombox mode sitting on a desk. Looking more closely reveals more easter eggs, including framed headshots of various Transformers (they're a little hard to make out through the "window pane,"
I'll go into more detail in a bit once I finish describing the outside). In addition to the hole in the backdrop showing the van there's smaller holes abvoe it showing the rubber chicken weapon and 8-Trax in 8-track mode.
The border on the front and sides is a gray/beige brick wall, with a
neon sign across the top of WSQK in big red logo letters, and smaller blue letters proclaiming "50,000" on the left and "WATTS" on the right. One of
the bricks under WATTS has "KAZOO" written on it. A very dark brown-gray rectangle along the bottom has the Transformers logo (in a red outline_ and
the names Freakwency and 8-Trax below it. The front curves around to the sides, with the left side having a render of robot mode holding the chicken gun, plus the rubber chicken at the bottom. The right side has the Collaborative logo with Demogorgon on the left, both modes of 8-Trax, and
then a "hole in the brick wall" inset showing Freakwency having his belly
panel open to show 8-Trax inside. (I am reallllly getting tired of the
cutesy spelling of Freakwency, BTW.)
The top of the box is patterned as a tar rooftop with HVAC units, a duct grating with an Autobot symbol molded into it, and a basic reception
antenna. On the back the wall pattern is all covered in black and gray vines and gunk (monster goo, I expect) with another window so you can see the other sides of the toys inside. There's a little bit of legal IP ownership stuff
at the bottom on back, and the usual other legalese on the bottom side.
Oddly, there's no mention of the number of transformation steps.
Inside, the inner cardboard tray sandwiches around a snap-together
plastic clamshell that's held partly shut by a single plastic tie acting as a sort of staple, but you can open it enough to remove everything without
cutting the tie. There's cardboard spacers above and below the clamshell,
and the lower one has the instructions folded up inside.
The sandwich has the street view of the studio on front, and the
darkened inside the break room (behind the broadcast booth) view on back.
Some of the framed photos on the front are too washed out for me to decipher, mostly the ones near the top of the wall. On the left side, the leftmost top picture I think is Unicron's brain chamber, but I can't make out the rest of the top row...the printing resolution is too low for a magnifying glass to help. The portraits on the left are Optimus Prime, Metroplex (not sure on
this one, it's too zoomed in on the face to see any helmet details), Jazz, Arcee, Ultra Magnus, and Rodimus Prime or maybe Hot Rod. These pictures are 5mm tall and the CMYK dots are big enough to be clearly visible when I pull
out a strong enough magnifier to have a chance of seeing face detail.
Anyway, on the right side the pictures are Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, Quintesson (death face), one I can't make out, and Shockwave. Non-Easter Egg details include magazines, ashtrays, various dials and displays. On the back there's fewer easter eggs, including a poster of the van, which is called the Hawkins Hitmaker (something also printed on the windshield of the van
itself), "The ride that can survive the Upside-Down!" So, one Stranger
Things easter egg, I guess.

So I don't have to keep saying it, they seem to be shooting for "radio station in the 1980s which hasn't really had the budget to update everything and is run by packrats." Hence the 8-track tape (radio stations were moving
to CDs during the time of Stranger Things and had mostly abandoned 8-track by several years before that), a van that screams 1970s conversion van, but also an 80s style Morning Zoo sort of DJ. Making the updates that don't really
cost any money, because they ain't got any money to spare. Maybe they only still use the 8-track to play station IDs and other bespoke stuff since
having them on regular cassette would be less convenient in terms of cueing things up (and they haven't upgraded to having the stuff on CD, not that
they'd want to use a mid-80s CD player in a moving van...what skip protection?). The fact that 8-Trax is all station-branded would support the idea that he only plays The Squawk stuff. (Heh, 8-Trax is literally
Generation Minus One Squawktalk.)


AUTOBOT: FREAKWENCY
Crossover: Stranger Things
Altmode: The Hawkins Hitmaker WSQK station can
Transformation Difficulty: 16 steps
Previous Name Use: None
Previous Mold Use: None

Vehicle Mode: So, as mentioned above, this is a conversion van, the sort of no-frills van people would get in the 70s (and 80s) then get commercially available modification kits and perform their own "upgrades" of dubious
taste. The porthole bubble windows in the back on either side were, IIRC, a relatively popular aftermarket add-on to let some more light in than just the rear windows, as these vans did not come with any side windows in back. In fact, the rear windows were often painted over or otherwise rendered opaque, and the lack of paint on the rear windows of this toy would be consistent
with that.
5" (13cm) long and mostly a slightly desaturated metalswirl medium blue with colorless clear windshield and windows, black and light gray tires. The piece that is the windshield and front side windows is clear very light blue plastic. The tires are black plastic with light gray plastic hubcaps, and
some light gray plastic hinges are visible in back. Otherwise, the shell is all metalswirl medium blue.
Silver is the main paint color, being used on the front bumper and
grille, windshield wipers, side mirrors, exhaust pipes along the bottoms of
the van sides, rear bumper, and rear license plate (the front one is part of the bumper paint, the rear is up on the door). The borders of the clear windshield piece are painted blue that's a so-so match and more glossy than metallic. The headlights are painted light blue, the porthole windows in
back on each side are painted gloss black, and the rest of the deco is
printing rather than painting. There's a white "lightning into eagle"
pattern across the hood and the front fenders, with the eagles on the sides pointing backwards (maybe they're supposed to be hawks, they're pretty abstract). A red Autobot symbol is printed on the molded raised shape for it on the center of the grille. The WSQK logo in red with white outlines is printed on the hood and either side of the van (the Q has a lightning bolt as it's little tail). Across the top of the windshield is printed "HAWKINS' HITMAKER" in white. Under the logo on either side is "94.5 FM" while further down and a little ahead of that is "the SQUAWK" in red with no outline so
it's a little hard to read. The mouth of each squawking bird shoots out four thin colored lines (technicolor yawn) in green, bright blue, red, and golden yellow from top to bottom. Near the back they all turn into Z or mirrored Z shapes with green on top, then yellow, red, and blue. So, your basic late 70s/early 80s van pinstriping.
There's a single 5mm socket on the roof along the centerline a little ahead of the center, that's it for connectors. The rubber chicken goes on
the roof in this mode. The wheels roll well, none of the doors can open, and the chest 8-track door can be opened on the underside. Note, while you can insert 8-Trax in 8-track mode by opening up the panel on the underside of the van, getting it back out is nearly impossible without first transforming to robot mode (or at least most of the way). The design calls for it being
pushed out from behind, and "behind" is covered up by the roof of the van.

Transformation: Lift up the front half of the roof to unlock the rest.
The rear half splits in two and the thighs unfold from inside it. The rear shell folds up to make the boots, and you need to fold down small panels on
the sides before closing the boots. The rear window chunks fold up to become the heels, and toes fold down from under the rear bumper. The shin "bones"
tab into place inside the boots. The front halves on the sides and grille separate and the shoulder struts hinge down to lock down horizontally, while the fan side panel bits on the arms fold up to become solid forearms after
you fold the fists out. Finally, pull the cab roof down until the hinge
snaps into place and rotate the shoulderpads so that the headlights face forwards.
Going back to van mode requires some serious panel massaging, and while things are solid once everything is in place, having only some things tabbed
in place doesn't help much at all. It's all or nothing, and the back of knee panels fold inwards really easily when you don't want them to.

Robot Mode: A pretty solid and blocky neo-G1-style design, although from behind you can see that the shoulders are a bit spindly inside the big fender shoulderpads. The head has stereo headphone molding on the helmet, with a visible face rather than a faceplate and a visor that resembles goggles or sunglasses. There's even lightpiping built into the helmet crest, but they ended up painting over the visor so it doesn't really work. The chest is
clear plastic backed by a printed pattern meant to make it look like glass
with a repeating pattern molded into it, while the belly is basically a car stereo control panel with buttons and dials and an 8-track tape inserted in
the middle. Because the forearm panels and boot panels folded to wrap
around, there's rather less hollowness than found in the typical 2020s Transformers robot mode, but there's a big gap between the van roof backpack and the rest of the torso to accomodate 8-Trax's insertion in the abdomen.
6.25" (16cm) tall, a pretty standard Voyager size these days, and the
van colors are joined by a lot more light gray and some gloss red. The van shell blue ends up on the shoulderpads, forearms, backpack, and boots, plus
the chest front is also that blue plastic color. The fake glass in the chest is clear very light blue plastic with a printed backside. The head (except
for the lightpiping), torso core, belly panel, biceps, fists, pelvis and
pelvis skirt, thihgs, knees, shin bones, and hinges in the heels are light
gray plastic.
Most of the helmet is painted gloss red with most of the molded
headphones left unpainted and a slot on the crest left unpainted clear blue plastic (or clear very light blue painted darker clear blue), while the visor is the same bright blue as the headlights. The buttons and dials on the abdomen are painted black, while the 8-track in the slot is painted gloss red with the WSQK Hits logo printed on it in white. The kneecaps have more gloss red, while the shins are mostly silver. There isn't a separate Autobot
symbol in this mode, but the front grille one is not split in two so it ends
up on the left shoulderpad.
The neck is a ball joint with the socket in the head and it can wiggle a bit, the waist does not turn even though there's nothing about the transformation that would forbid it...cost-saving, I guess. The shoulders
are ball and socket joints with long thin struts that can shrug upwards on transformation joints (these hinges are stiff and soft-ratcheting, though). There's a transformation hinge between the shoulderpad and upper arm, but it doesn't add useful articulation in robot mode. There's a swivel above each hinge elbow, and while the fists are on ball joints they're completely restricted to just acting as swivels in robot mode. Pinned universal joint hips with the front of the pelvis hinged to get out of the way when lifting either leg (it's just one piece, though, not two skirt pieces). Upper thigh swivels, hinge knees, but be careful because the shin bones don't tab into place all that solidly and you're likely to bend a transformation joint
farther down. The ankles have instep stay-flat hinges, but while the heels
and toes have transformation hinges, they're not really useful for supporting too many poses. The belly panel has a hinge along the bottom so you can
swing it down and insert 8-Trax in 8-track mode. There's gaps in the back to let you push 8-Trax back out.
The fists can hold 5mm pegs, the rooftop 5mm socket is now on the back, and there's a raised-collar 5mm socket on the torso top behind and to Freakwency's right. The top back ends of the shoulderpads have stepped pegs that are 5mm (well, a little less) on the bottom and then 3mm on the top,
meant for perching 8-Trax's bird mode. There's a 3mm socket in the back of
the pelvis, although the backpack is in front of it with only about a centimeter of room in between.
The rubber chicken gun does not have a name listed, but it does have a 6-step transformation in the instructions. Mostly a peg folds out of the
belly if you didn't already have it out for van mounting, the body cracks
open to let you swap the head/neck for a gun barrel, and then position the
legs to taste. I prefer going against the instructions and tucking them against the body for gun mode.
As a rubber chicken, it's 2.5" (6.5cm) long and mostly bright yellow plastic except for the light gray fold-out 5mm peg, the hip struts, and the hinge used for transformation. The only paint is red, for the comb, beak,
and eyes, which is true to the standard cheap rubber chicken prop. I'm
tempted to paint the beak orange to stand out a bit better (and match
8-Trax), classics notwithstanding. The legs are mounted on ball joints, but the wings are molded into the body. No, you can't squeeze it to make a
sound. It can sit up stably if you want, though.
In gun mode, the head and neck are replaced by a silver-painted gun
barrel that ends in a 3mm stud tip, the total length is about the same in official mode, or 2.25" (5.5cm) long if you fold the legs against the body.
An undocumented feature is that the gun mode can go into the 5mm socket atop the right torso as a shoulder cannon.

Overall: While not flawless, it's a pretty good design without just
being a tweak of an existing van Transformer. Definitely redemption for the license after the disappointing Code Red (which went back in its box after I finished the review).


AUTOBOT: 8-TRAX
Crossover: Stranger Things
Altmode: 8-Track Tape/Bird
Transformation Difficulty: 8 steps
Previous Name Use: None
Previous Mold Use: None

8-Track Mode: Okay, it's been a long time since I last handled a real 8-track tape, and my family never owned any so I didn't deal with the format much at all, but this is definitely a "chibi" version, almost twice as thick
as a real one, proportionally speaking. The molded rectangle on Freakwency's belly is a lot closer to the proper aspect ratio. Otherwise, aside from
seams and a tab that helps bird mode hold together, the shape is pretty much spot on. It's not quite a rectangular solid, the end you insert into the player tapers slightly near the end.
1.5" (4cm) long, 1.25" (a little over 3cm) wide, and a little more than half an inch (1.4cm) thick. It's mostly yellow and black with a little light gray visible due to beast mode hinges. The end that is pointed out of the player (I'll call that the front) has two light gray hinges visible, all the rest of the plastic visible in this mode is bright yellow. The front has a black label with the WSQK Hits logo in white, with the lightning eagle screaming off the left side of the logo. The top has a big black label
shaped vaguely like a blocky thick comma, and on that are a red Autobot
symbol and "ROCKIN' HAWKINS" also in red, a bit hard to read against the
black. The bottom has a black label that mirrors the one on top, with the no-bird WSQK logo in red with a white border over 94.5 FM in white.

Transformation: Grab the halves at the back end with thumbs on the front end and pull them apart. The remaining edges unfold into the tail plus the head and a spine bit that covers the front panel of the 8-track mode. The little tab sticking out from the 8-track mode goes into a slot at the front
of the tail. The feet are on the undersides of the wings and need to be rotated 90 degrees, they have notches they settle in for both stored and deployed positions.
Going back to tape mode is a little easier than going to bird mode, because getting things started can be a little tough given the shallow grip points.

Beast Mode: A somewhat blocky robot bird with the tail raised up above
the plane of the wings in a way that vaugely reminds me of an A-10. The tops of the wings have the top and bottom labels from tape mode, while the front label is mostly covered up.
A little over 3" (7.5cm) long with a wingspan just a few millimeters
wider than the length. Mostly the same colors as tape mode, plus orange beak and eyes. In addition to the light gray transformation hinges, the talons
are also light gray plastic, with the rest being bright yellow. The only new paint in this mode is in the form of the orange beak and eyes.
The head can tilt side to side on its transformation swivel and the
wings can sort of flap down, that's it for articulation. There's a 3mm
socket on the underside of each talon, so it can sit on 3mm studs like the
ones on Freakwency's shoulderpads.

Overall: I'd be interested in seeing other attempts to make minions compatible with Freakwency, but even if we DO get a redeco/retool of that
mold (unlikely) it'd probably be just a redeco of this. It's a decent enough partner figure for what's probably a one-off, though.

Set Overall: Is it worth Leader price for a good Voyager, a Battlemaster-ish partner, and a sorta-transforming gun? Well, given how much
a Voyager costs these days, the license tax isn't too big all things considered. And it's a solid toy.


Dave Van Domelen, now to review Swindle, who really puts the new Voyager price point to the test.

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