Caliburst WFC-S30 Transformers Generations War for Cybertron Siege Battle Masters Item No.: Asst. E3431 No. E4494 Manufacturer: Hasbro Includes: blast effect Action Feature: Transforms from Robot to Blaster Retail: $5.99 Availability: October 2019 Other: For Slugslinger, I guess
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The Targetmaster buddy to Slugslinger - albeit in the wrong colors - Caliburst came out in 2019 at about six bucks, and fans didn't much care for what you got for the price. There's nothing bad about the product itself as an accessory, because it's a fun little robot, and a nice little blaster with a clear gummy blast piece. You might have fun with it, assuming you own other bigger robots.

The size class was not terribly exciting compared to the 2-pack Micromasters assortments for $10, and they were all a little samey. In hindsight I think a 2- or 3-piece blaster with less articulation at $2 or $3 would be better, but Hasbro has been pushing for more of a "premium" product in recent years. There are no more $5.99 toys in the collector lines. Heck, there are no more $9.99 figures, either. The general distaste for this particular price case remains to this day, as leftover Battle Masters may be at a Five Below store near you for somewhere just barely under their original price - which is still too high. If Hasbro were still making these guys they'd probably be $8 or more, so I am grateful this assortment died out by 2021.

As a a robot you get four ball-jointed limbs with a backpack that's removable and can sort of be held as a too-heavy blaster for the little robot. It's a clever design, but one that was repeated several times over. The detailing is nice, but neither the colors nor sculpt are a good match for the blue and gray G1 Slugslinger. The purple and black robot is sort of his own thing, which kind of makes sense in the index of perpetual dissatisfaction that has been most collector lines. It's new - it's fun - and allegedly, it's what you wanted for your 2017 Slugslinger who was missing his gun buddy. But it's also not, meaning that Hasbro has both supplied the missing part of a good figure while creating demand for a more accurate version later. They're very good at their jobs.

The transformation to blaster is the same for most of these guys - the legs are the top of the gun, the arms swing back a bit, the backpack covers the head like a hood, and your other, better, bigger robots hold the 5mm peg on the chest. It's a fun play pattern but it's arguably too fancy to justify. The original 1980s gun buddies were two parts, with a "bend in half" transformation for most and a "bend in half and also there's a gun hat" for the really fancy ones. I think that would have been better to use here, to either keep costs down or two allow two on a single cardback for a similar price. By itself, it's not much of a toy - it demand your participation in a bigger ecosystem while also assuming you have his big Deluxe buddy on hand, otherwise you may have no reason to care to buy Caliburst.

Of course, what I think doesn't matter. The free market says this guy is around $15-$20 these days, which seems ridiculous. Looking back, I feel kind of silly that four of these little blaster bots cost more than a Deluxe in that era - and I bought 'em all. They're not un-fun, but it just goes to show that sometimes we don't give a lot of thought to "value." It would make a great accessory to a bigger figure, but once it's sold separately with the added costs of its own separate manual, packaging, and freight, you can see why it took me a few years to review it. It just didn't make an impact to me, but clearly, lots of us bought these things at the time.

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