Law enforcement has, indeed, reached new extremes. Ours is a world in which the police re-commission military armoured personnel carriers for their own means, badging them up as “Special Weapons and Tactics Team” vehicles, without much consternation from the law-abiding public. But imagine a world in which evil, war-mongering alien robots assume the form of said vehicles, lulling us into a false sense of security as they prepare their plans against us. With that in mind, Onslaught becomes the plastic incarnation of totalitarianism. But never mind that; is it any fun to play with?

Following the theme of Barricade from 2007’s “Transformers” film, Onslaught assumes the form of a law enforcement vehicle, except in this case it packs a lot more brute force. As far as realism goes, Onslaught’s vehicle mode—as with most of the rest of the “Classics/Universe” line—is loosely based on a real-world vehicle but with enough liberties taken by the designers to avoid any licensing fees. In vehicle mode, Onslaught is robust, resiliant and downright rock-steady.

In vehicle mode, Onslaught features three distinct electronic sounds: sirens (warning off any potential rioters), machine gun fire (dispersing rioters), and a kind of revving/piston sound (possibly the sound the truck makes when a rioter becomes caught under the wheels). The first two sounds are activated by a button on the roof (press once for a short burst of noise, or hold down for continuous gunfire or sirens). The third sound is activated by pressing the vehicle down on the carpet and rolling it forwards.

To accompany the sounds, the light bar on the roof flashes as do two panels behind the machine guns. Cleverly, only the light bar flashes when the sirens wail, and gun ports only when machine fire sounds.

Onslaught’s colours (for this, the Japanese “USA Edition” release) are reminiscent of those used on the first, 1986, Onslaught. The primary colour is a metallic jewel green with metallic olive painted highlights. There is, of course, “SWAT” screen-printed on the sides as well.

For its size, Onslaught features a transformation that’s reasonably complex. Just be sure to get the legs the right way around when returning to vehicle mode.

Standing roughly 200 mm tall, Onslaught is an imposing and burly robot; a real nasty clenched-fisted thug of a Decepticon. One nostalgic touch is that the robot wears the vehicle’s weapons on its back just like the original Onslaught.

The electronics still work in robot mode: same buttons, same sounds. But here, the entire translucent orange visor lights up a menacing red!

There’s a small laser cannon that flips out under the right forearm, and a “SWAT” shield can be mounted on the left arm. Best to be prepared for any riotous Autobots that may come near. The shield can be mounted atop the roof of the vehicle mode as well, but that does tend to spoil the realism.

The robot mode features a lot of detail including a screen-printed Decepticon badge on the left shoulder and a very well sculpted head/helmet.

Articulation is excellent, with jointed shoulders, elbows, wrists hips, knees and neck. The main joints are ratcheted as well, providing an extra level of solidness to the robot and any action poses one might enjoy indulging in.

Onslaught, on the whole, is just about everything one could ask from a ground-based Decepticon and not only that, but a first-rate modernisation of an original Transformer.

This is one form of crowd control that’s also a crowd pleaser.

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Category: Universe/Henkei
Tags: Blue | Onslaught | Tank

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