Buzzsaw's alternate mode this time around is a more modern version of a cassette, at least in terms of shape-- it's a miniature smartphone. It's a bit overly chunky, with the sides a bit wider/longer (however you want to look at it), but otherwise this is a very solid mode. From the backside you can see the top of Buzzsaw's head, but otherwise there's no extras in this mode. The mold detailing is fairly minimal, what with smartphones not having a whole lot of detail to them, but there are a few minor details on the sides that look like buttons, as well as a silver-painted button on the bottom center and some black little vents. The buffed-up corners look like some sort of added-on "screen protector", which is a nice little touch. The overall color scheme is close to Buzzsaw's traditional color scheme, being mostly black and yellow-- colors that contrast against each other quite well. Yellow has never been my favorite color by a long shot, but the pale version of it used on the plastic here is more pallatable to me than than a more vibrant "normal" yellow. The bit of silver serves as a nice accent color, but the light milky gray plastic (more evident in other modes) is that same boring shade I wish Hasbro would do away with already and replace with a more metallic shade. For Buzzsaw's "screen" a combination of three stickers are used, which together form a rather nice image of a large Decepticon symbol on the center of the "screen" with circuitry designs around it, fake buttons on the bottom, and the usual smartphone symbols in the corners like battery life and signal strength. They're nice details, but the fact that this area has to split into three means that there's always a little bit of yellow showing through the screen in this mode, and this will unfortunately get worse over repeated transformations as the stickers start to peel slightly from the edges. Buzzsaw is a bit of a "preview" toy for the "Titans Return" subline, as it's compatible with Titans Return Soundwave (and Blaster) in this mode, and also has a little peg in vehicle mode for Titan Masters to sit on. It's still a perfectly "complete" toy by itself, though.
    Buzzsaw's vehicle mode is... weird. Basically you rotate the sides and flip out wheels, while folding over the front corners to form... I don't know what they form. It looks like a very square four-wheeled vehicle with... spiky things? Bumpers?.... in the front. It's generally just a poor afterthought of a mode that seems to have been made solely so that Buzzsaw had some way to interact with the Titan Masters in the "Titans Return" line, with a single port for one of their little feet in the center of this mode. It's best just ignored, really.
    Buzzsaw's beast mode is a mechanical condor, as it's traditionally been. Here the sides of the smartphone become the wings, and are unfortunately the weakest part of this mode-- the wings just look WAY too thick from a front angle, and the small gray "rear wing" pieces that slide out behind these pieces are slim, don't lock into place anywhere, and just not really convincing. The rear end flips up and forms the "missile launchers" like on the G1 character, with this time the shape and holes in the center of these rear pieces making it fairly obvious they're missile pods. The main body is rather undersized and skinny, consisting of just the center portion of the smartphone mode, and Buzzsaw's gray bird legs are embarrassingly small-- just long enough to keep him off the ground, really. Buzzsaw's bird head looks pretty good, however, even if the details are rather basic-- it's rather angular like the rest of the toy, and the silver headcrest and metallic pumpkin orange eyes and beak look great against the black, to the point where I wish the paint was used a bit more on the toy. For a bird alt mode, Buzzsaw also has pretty nice articulation-- he can move up-and-down at the neck (at two points); side-to-side slightly at the hips; up-and-down at the point where the rear missile pods meet the body; up-and-down where each individual missile pod connects to the "tail" portion"; at two points at each shoulder; and the little grey wing pieces can move in-and-out slightly.
    Combiner Wars Buzzsaw has an excellent, solid smartphone mode, but his other modes suffer substantially from the fact that he's a triple changer and they had to shoehorn in a "vehicle mode" so he could interact with Titan Master figures. His vehicle mode is best ignored, and his bird mode-- though well-articulated-- unfortunately has some major proportional issues. If you want a lighter-colored minion for Titans Return Soundwave you might want to consider him, but otherwise there's a LOT of Legends figures that are more deserving of your money.

Review by Beastbot

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