Prime Spotlight: TFCToys RedCross (Prometheus Combiner)

Prime Spotlight presents: 

KFCToys E.A.V.I. Metal Phase 4 Transistor

Red Cross- Prometheus (TFC)

Bottom Line (*** stars- <out of 5>)

by Stygian360


Introduction:
First Aid is a member of the Protectobots who is always going to suffer due to his somewhat underwhelming alt mode.  In the action-packed world of robots transforming into sweet vehicles what 80’s kid really cared about owning an ambulance?  By himself he was forgettable.  Ah, but as the tagline goes, with these bots things are often more than meets the eye.  For this robot wasn’t merely an ambulance, but was instead part of a gestalt (Defensor) and also a vital part of the Protectobot team.  Thanks to the cartoon he was invested with a personality, which gave him a further chance to shine, but is any of that enough to convince you the potential buyer and reader of this article to care?  Wait you say, we’re here to talk about Red Cross not First Aid.  Or are we?  Actually Red Cross is an analog for First Aid and TFC’s fourth and latest member of their Prometheus team.  It’s been a fun ride accumulating the various members of this combiner with only one member left to go.  So, does Red Cross deliver?  Let’s find out.



Articulation:
Red Cross isn’t going to win any awards for articulation as everything seen here is fairly standard, but fortunately it all works just fine.  Starting at the top; his neck is on a ball joint with up and down as well as side to side.  His shoulders have decent up down and thanks to the transformation he even has a ‘flexing’ in/out movement that unfortunately looks pretty awkward, but still works to a certain extent.  Unfortunately his wrists are not on a swivel, which I will admit was a tad disappointing as most third party companies these days are including it.  But fortunately his arms are flexible enough to get decent poses even lacking this swivel.  His knees provide a decent bend with lots of clearance in back and he does have an ankle rocker, but unfortunately- as with Gumball- his heel spur isn’t very tight, which means he may fall backwards if not balanced properly.  This is especially problematic due to his rather heavy backpack.  But once you put a gun in his hands and get the feet and legs positioned properly its rock n roll time!



Paint:
Nothing of extreme note good or bad here as Red Cross is molded in white and that’s the color he most clearly and obviously represents.  The judiciously applied tampos and bits of red are blue are done properly and overall thankfully I didn’t have much splotching or paint concern.  Just a few ticks of black where they didn’t belong, but mostly I was properly satisfied with the end result.



Transformation:
Red Cross is panel and tab happy for sure, but fortunately it all works once you get it dialed in and I had very little issue.  I did have a concern with the two thigh panels which eventually slide in to form the rear portions of his alt mode roof.  I neglected to swing in his hands going into alt mode which provided clearance concerns and those aforementioned panels kept popping off.  But after I got the wrists figured out it was pretty much smooth sailing.  Fortunately due to his very recognizable alt mode as you begin the transformation it’s almost paint by numbers in determining what goes where.  I’d call this a strength and one of TFC’s hallmarks- intuitive transformations which allow the modes themselves to shine rather than mire the owner in hours of vexing and head scratching transformation.



Bottom Line:
I’m not going to lie.  Red Cross did not blow me away out of the box, hence his lower score.  He looks awesome in robot mode and will shine on any collector’s shelf, but his humdrum alt mode (not his fault, just comes with the territory) and lack of exciting innovations- either from an engineering perspective or otherwise- left me wanting.  Also, his weak heel spur design feels like TFC really needed to get a handle on this ‘feature’ after it didn’t work out on Gumball.  The fact that this has made it through at least two more releases and is still here concerns me.  That said, overall I stand by my belief that he’s a more than worthy addition to the Prometheus team.  Overall I would still recommend him to fellow collectors, especially if you need him to complete your Prometheus combiner.  After all why stop now?