Rewind

Well, this takes us back! Rewind was created by the Autobots to counter the Decepticon spy Soundwave and his team. His vast databanks allow him to capture almost any datapoint his sensors pick up. He stores seemingly endless amounts of information, which makes him perfect for surveillance operations. Rewind is, like Swerve and Tailgate, a character who's only getting a modern toy because of his appearances in the IDW comics. He never really did anything of note in the '80s, but he's a major part of the current continuity. His G1 gimmick of being a trivia fan has been toned down, and instead he has things like "a personality" and "a husband." Rewind takes his design cues from the comics, so he's basically a bigger, fancier version of the old toy. He has wide shoulders and a blocky chest with colorful yellow panels on either side of his Autobot symbol. His arms are gray, and surprisingly big for an archivist - you don't think of librarians as being totally buff, right? The right arm is solid but the left is hollow, thanks to a quirk of the design. The silver elements on his shins kind of look like speakers, suggesting the character's origins as a mini cassette. The figure moves at the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, hips, thighs and knees. He's armed with a black rifle that can be held in either hand or plugged into the side of his right arm. While the majority of the mold is shared with Rumble, Rewind does get a new head that's all his own. The classic design involved a rounded helmet with a winged crest on the forehead, large squares over the cheeks, and a red faceplate. This toy has all the same things, but also gets an addition from the comics: a small round camera mounted next to his blue visor. Since Cybertron doesn't have mini cassettes, Rewind's natural altmode is a "data slug," basically an outerspace USB thumb drive. Since a toy that turns into a non-descript rectangle isn't very interesting, this non-descript rectangle is a "spy tablet," something akin to an iPad. It's sized to fit inside the new Leader Class Blaster, which is nice and all, but it would have been better if it was the same size as the old cassettes and could thus fit into the old toys as well. The instructions tell you how to apply the stickers that create the tablet's wallpaper (designed to look like a cassette, appropriately enough), but it's pointless because the stickers are already applied when you buy him. The robot's gun doubles as a stylus for the tablet, and can be stored in the side. A hole on the bottom is sized to serve as a (non-functional) headphone jack. Surprisingly for such a small figure, Rewind is a triple-changer. For times when you don't want a brick sitting around, he can also turn into a little tank. There are three wheels on the bottom, so it can roll, and the gun plugs into the front to become the turret. It can even raise and lower! It's not a great mode, but when you insist on forcing a third mode out of a block, you take what you can get. Rewind may not be a great Transformer toy, but neither is he really bad. "Middle of the road." But if you're a fan of the comics, it's great to get a modern take on the character. -- 11/22/16

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