Crosshairs' vehicle mode
is a Chevrolet Corvette C7 Stingray, and looks pretty darned awesome in
his vehicle mode, all things considered; for one, the proportions are spot-on
(as you'd expect from a 'bot with a licensed alt mode). Other than the
robot bits just barely visible inside the clear plastic windows, he doesn't
have any robot extras in this mode, either-- a big plus. His color scheme
of green and black looks pretty good, with both colors contrasting against
each other pretty well, with a bit of silver (like on the wheel hubs) serving
as a nice accent color. The green paint and plastic also match up very
closely, so no issues there. That said, Crosshairs' big problem in this
mode is paint. On the one hand, on his left side he's got some pretty spiffy
(and movie-accurate) paint detailing, like some diagonal black stripes
along the back half and some green stripes on the rear end that are decorated
in a similar manner. His canopy is also painted black (though so is the
rear window), and there's a bit of the center of his hood painted black,
as well. However, in a really odd move, Hasbro did NOT replicate all these
paint details to the left side of this mode, making Crosshairs look asymmetrical.
I suppose this works for his character, but knowing how inaccurate it is
gets my goat and makes him look plain from the right side. I would've preferred
fewer stripes on each side that were mirrored on both than just a bunch
of stripes on one side, if I had to choose. Additionally, his rather important
Corvette symbol on the front of the hood is completley unpainted, and although
the clear plastic works for his windows, they don't for his headlights
when there's green plastic right behind them. The taillights aren't painted,
either.
Crosshairs' vehicle
mode acts as a sort of "trenchcoat" in his movie model in a rather nifty
manner, so it makes sense that his deluxe toy would be very close to a
literal shellformer, with the shoulders being the only parts really "shared"
for the core body of both modes. For the most part, though, Crosshairs
wears this surprisingly well, with the car doors and sides splitting off
to form the sides of the coat while his hood and roof form the back of
the coat. Of course, these pieces are hard plastic so they don't actually
behave like a coat, but it's not too hard to make him pull off the "look",
and it's such a creative use of vehicle kibble I'm surprised it hasn't
been used before. The only actual vehicle "extras" in this mode are the
slivers of car along the sides of his lower arms, the rear end right behind
his head, and the wheels on his shoulders, though at least the latter are
folded back so that his shoulders aren't too restricted in their movement.
There are fold-out rubbery black pieces that connect the sides of his coat
pieces to his main body, but unfortunately due the rubbery-ness of them,
they can be a bit annoying to tab in securely, and if you move the sides
of his "coat" too much they can come undone. That said, I'm glad they're
there, as they help make it look more like the coat is "billowing out"
behind him. The mold detailing in this mode is quite well-done, with ridges
and pistons pretty much everywhere they're approporiate-- the faux hood-chest
looks pretty darned good, and his headsculpt is pretty spot-on, looking
like a complex robotic replica of a human face with goggles on his forehead.
(Unfortunately, the goggles can't fold down over his eyes.) The light piping
on the back of his head works wonderfully, lighting up his baby blues pretty
well. The paint is pretty well-done on his chest and head, but his legs
and arms could use a bit more-- particularly another accent color, like
gold or something, to give him a bit more variety. Crosshairs' articulation
is pretty decent, with movement at the neck, shoulders (at two points),
elbows (at three points), rotation at the wrists, and movement at the hips
(at two points), knees (at two points), and at the ankles. Thus he's got
most articulation you can reasonably expect from a deluxe, though the way
things come together at his shoulders restricts their articulation a little,
and the coat flap pieces restrict movement at the hips a bit, as well,
though I don't see how this could be avoided given his look. For weapons,
Crosshairs has one larger, movie-accurate blaster (hidden on the underside
of his car mode; not storable except in his hands in this mode) and two
small pistols (storeable inside the sides of his "coat"). It's nice to
see him get a good amount of firepower, though I wish he had two of his
movie-accurate blasters so he could dual-wield like he often did in the
movie.
AoE deluxe Crosshairs
is the best mold of the character you're going to find with a fantastic
vehicle mode, some neat accessories, and a pretty cool way of turning his
alt mode into a "coat" for his robot mode, even if it does restrict his
articulation some. That said, given how his rubbery coat bits are stored
in vehicle mode they can get warped over time, and the one-sidedness of
his paint apps in vehicle mode is a turn-off. If you can spring for the
whole set, I'd recommend the more accurate "Autobots United" version over
this mass release, but this is still a pretty decent, mildly recommended
toy.
Review by Beastbot