Crosshairs (Deluxe) [AoE]
Vehicle ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Autobot
Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation: Medium
Color Scheme: Black, moderately glittery green, clear plastic, and some silver and transparent dark blue
Rating: 8.2

    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.



Crosshairs Bio:
This Autobot paratrooper has a knack for catching his enemies by surprise, either by dropping in from above, or with a lightning-fast draw of his Sidearm Blasters.

Review by Beastbot

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