Sideways' vehicle mode is an almost-Audi-R8. It very closely resembles the vehicle, but is just different enough to avoid licensing issues, since Audi is owned by Volkswagen and they continue to be stupid in not allowing their cars to be turned into "war robots". Overall, this mode is pretty darn cool, with pretty much spot-on proportions and no robot mode extras-- well, unless you count the parts you can see through his transparent windows. I always hate it when they both keep the windows easy to see through and then don't try to give it a believable interior, one or the other should always be avoid in my opinion. There's also some quite nice details in the lights, with the front being clear while the rear are light pinkish red, which looks surprisingly fitting given that Sideways seems to be a "pimped-out night ride" type of car. The front grill also looks pretty well-detailed as well, and there's some excellent engine (?) detailing visible through the rear window. Sideways also has a fairly cool "angled race line" on the side of his vehicle mode to give him a bit more of a unique color scheme besides just "silver/gunmetal gray", but unfortunately, it's accurate to how he looks in the movie. Granted, Hasbro was probably creating this toy's paint scheme using early concept art, but in actuality it's a dark gray color "line" (more or less) that goes fron the front grill, over to the roof, and then onto the sides of the rear window before ending-- and in my opinion, this looks way more eye-catchy than what the toy got.
    Sideways' robot mode is resembles Barricade a fair amount... but is worse in pretty much every way, unfortunately. Let's get the positive things out of the way first, though. For one, he has an EXCELLENT head sculpt, with a nice silver paint wash that brings out all the eeevil detailing in it. He's also got oodles of mold detailing on his robot parts, particularly in his stomach and waist, which is brimming with mechanical bits. I like how Sideways' chest-headlights can be angled a bit to give him that more "fragmented" look Movie TFs tend to have, and the window-wings above his shoulders and the car door bits hanging off his shoulders, when positioned correctly, actually add to the overall look of the mode and make him look more insect like. He also has great articulation-- he can move at the head, shoulders (at three points), elbows, waist, hips (at two points), knees (at two points), and at the ankles. And finally, the "automorph" feature to jumpstart his transformation-- pressing in on his front grill causes his stomach piece to flip out from under the car as the two front wheels fold up inside it to form the chest-- is pretty darn awesome. Unfortunately, Sideways' proportions are all out of whack. His legs are REALLY skinny, and his feet are so tiny to the point where it's almost impossible to get him to stand up. The chunks of the rear sides of the car hanging off form his lower legs look rather bad and are pretty obvious kibble to boot. Really, just anything about those legs... ugh. Besides the head, he also suffers from a severe lack of detailing on his robot parts, with the claws-- and only the claws on his LEFT hand-- being the only other paint app reserved specifically for his robot parts. The light red is also not a great color choice, as without paint to help it "blend in" with the black it seems to just come out of nowhere and doesn't look all that great. His head is also on a piece of plastic that actually elevates it a bit above the chest, which looks kinda weird. Also, although I like the window-wings, the backpack made of the rear of his car mode sticks out from behind his head a bit too much and doesn't peg into anything, making it a rather annoying piece of kibble if it gets even a little loose. And finally, his arms' gimmicks are really lame-- the "Mech Alive" gimmick is supposed to involve interior motors moving about as you move his elbows, but it's such a tiny piece of plastic inside ANOTHER piece of plastic, so you can barely see it, and even then it's hardly impressive. Also, his wrist-wheel-sawblade thingies are supposed to spin automatically-- at least on his right arm-- but due to budget issues, neither of them do. His hands are also too small proportionally, and should be more Barricade-like and huge.
    RotF deluxe Sideways has an excellent vehicle mode, but a very disappointing robot mode with rather bad proportions, some obvious pieces of kibble, generally lame gimmicks, and a bad lack of paint. Not recommended unless you're a completist; the RotF line has done waaay better.

Review by Beastbot
 

Second Opinion by VBBN

Difficulty of Transformation: Medium
Rating: 6.9 (gunmetal gray variant); 6.9 (silver variant); 7.0 (battle-damaged variant)*

    Sideways' vehicle mode is an Audi R8/Audi LeMans Quattro in ROTF, as clearly shown by his 4-ring audi symbol getting sliced in half by our fellow pizza cutting chef, Sideswipe. In toy form however, he is a more simplified version of the car to avoid licensing issues. This is the same as with other Volkswagen models such as the Beetle, making Classics Bumblebee look like a very strange minivan of sorts. In any case, this car mode is still a fantastic vehicle, with excellent proportions. Main differences from its real life counterpart are the lack of Audi symbols, and a lack of carbon fiber under the headlights and taillights. Paint is quite bland. In the movie, Sideways was very silver and had black going on his hood, roof, and trunk with 4 or so silver lines running through the center of it. Why this wasn't done on one of the many versions of Sideways I haven't the foggiest, but if you would like that flare then you may want to look for the Reprolabels upgrades for this guy which include those details.
    In his robot mode, Sideways falls apart. First I want to explain a couple things about his Automorph that begins his transformation. When you are turning him back to vehicle mode,this is the last thing you want to do. Make sure to put the wheels back first, then the red chest piece. I noticed some gearing issues with my Sideways-- I have 3 of them for various displays, and some have tighter springs that pull the wheels in really tight, others are so loose they won't stay in place. Anyways, his transformation is very involved and very fun turning him to robot mode, but the lining up of panels back to his audi mode is...well, lets just say it can be more or less frusturating depending on the QC of your figure. Now then, let's start off with the positives. As Beastbot said, his head sculpt is really well done, though I would have liked if it were a tad larger. Next, his mold detailing is excellent, though with barely any paint apps it's a waste (more on that later). I actually like his faked-wheel to give him a movie-accurate appearance so he has his buzzsaw. What's nice about it is that it doesn't look out of place, because two of the normal wheels become invisible as they fold into his chest thanks to that nifty automorph feature. I normally don't like faked-out parts such as chests, but in this case, it's a good thing. Unfortunately, that's where the positives stop. First, getting this guy into a decent pose is almost as hard as getting your 90 year old grandma to run a marathon. His tiny feet, aided by skinny toothpick-like legs, really messes up his stance. This isn't helped at all by his massive upper body with large backpack. There is one thing about the backpack that I want to point out, one of the main reasons I am doing these "second opinion reviews" is to point out things Beasty missed. There are actually two little panels, near his neck on the hood, that fold upwards. This allows the backpack to sit lower and tab into his back without issues. As for his arms, well, the "Mech alive" gimmick was a waste and in some cases can damage your figure, as I will explain in this mold's later repaint.
    Overall I think Sideways is one of the weaker molds of the ROTF line. This isn't a bad thing per se, but he could have been better. If you want a version of this mold, I'd go with his repaint as Dead End instead.

Review by VBBN

*Initial releases of Sideways in the U.S., as well as the version in the Wal-Mart exclusive "Super Tuner Throwdown" 2-pack, had a darker gunmetal gray as the main color in vehicle mode (pictured above). Later releases replaced the gunmetal with a lighter silver. Personally, I prefer the gunmetal gray as it looks metallic. Also, in the Sam's Club exclusive "Autobot Strike Mission" 2-pack, Sideways has the gunmetal gray paint as well as some additional "burnt" and "bullet hole" paint apps on his car mode. Otherwise, there are no changes to that version.

Back to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Index