Get him? No, he is just a repaint. Get him, yeah, he is such an interesting paranoid character in G1 cartoon. Get him? No, he is in the damn Japanese Henkei line which is so expensibe. Get him? Yeah, he is now in Generation line. Always between these Yes and no, I couldn't decide whether to get him or not. But when I saw him, I grabbed him......................

 

Red Alert is strickly a repaint of Sideswipe in Universe line. His alternate mode is same as beauty as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. He has the same turbo engine as the brothers plus the light bar which is different than his Henkei copy (lazy Hasbro?). Anyway, it's just hard to say no to Lambo. His paint job is good enough and he now alters from "Fire Cheif" to "Fire Rescue" and somehow I like the latter more.

 

The transformation is identical. This time Hasbro uses the correct left shoulder panel which on my Sideswipe is using the right one instead. Red head or black head? I will leave this debate to other people but I think I like the blck one better. Again lazy Hasbro, they are not even trying to give him a new head. His head and expression are just exactly the same which just makes these two robots idental besides the color difference. At least Hasbro is doing a little bit better coloring than Takara this time by adding the gray on arms, thighs, and chest. That makes the figure looks better than Takara's and Takara's chrome paint is absolutely unnecessary. Since him and Sideswipe are just too identical, I made some minor changes to give Red Alert a little different look. One is flipping the knee pads up and other one is rotating the door to back of the arms. His weapons is the same pathetic tiny pistol but actually works on him since he serves as a security director, not a soldier. Okay, now after all the goodies, here is the notorious issue that Hasbro has, quality control. Most of his joints are right but somehow he has a big connecting gap on his head that I can use his head as a business card stand. Also the whirling joint on his left knee is pretty loose but won't affect the balance. Then a questionable issue, unlike Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, his turbo engine part is designed to put on the pathetic gun. But there is no place to latch it tight. Many times I just want to take it out or put on his back as on Sideswipe.

 

Custom paint: Painted his unpainted gun and turbo booster to red and silver. Added a red dot on his forehead. Added some details on the chest, lower legs, and knee pads.

 

Transformation: 10 - Just identical to Sideswipe.

Fun: 8 - This is a fantastic mold to play with, only fear is his paint could be scratched off.

Display: 8 - Too identical but still looks good if I can ignore the gap on his head. His color scheme won't make your eyes hurt like Heikei version does. Any objection about the fire rescue Lambo?

Value: 8 - $11.88 from Walmart. If I have time, I will look and wait for Target when they have $9.99. Edit: actually got one from Walmart at

$9. Value remains because of the quality issue.

Overall: 8 - Sideswipe has one point down from 10 because of the pathetic gun. He has two points down because of the too identical look and the bad quality control and it all happens on his head. Give him a new head, Hasbro. Now he lets me want to get Inferno.