78 Stone Wobble

This is likely to be one of the shortest reviews I'm ever likely to write, or you to read. Classics Ramjet was based on the Starscream mould, with a few changes. So pretty much anything I mentioned about Starscream is still applicable.

The plane mode does a good job of replicating G1 Ramjet, particularly those red delta wings and the extra jet engines. The colour scheme pretty much follows the G1 toy, with the addition of a dash of gold, and looks... reasonable. You're never going to see a military jet painted like this, but then it's a made up jet so who cares? I have two criticisms; I think the nose is too short and the wings too narrow. Hardly disasterous.

In robot mode, the toy replicates the 'conehead' look the character had in cartoon and comic. I like the understated colour scheme of white and grey, but I'm not so sure about the gold. Mind you, it's not terrible, Ramjet has been in ill served in the last few years (Universe Ramjet, I'm looking at you). Because the wings form part of Ramjet's legs rather than his back, Ramjet actually has a better range of movement than Starsream. I'll quickly mention the missile launchers. The missiles are obviously meant to evoke the bombs that came with the original Ramjet toy, and work reasonably well in jet mode. They look pretty awful in robot mode. It would have been nice if Hasbro could have supplied a pair of the cannons from Starscream (and vice versa), so that the missiles could be changes for each mode.

Is this an improvement on the 'standard' version of the mould? No.

The Locomotion

Trains and Transformers do not mix. Don't believe me? Count the number of Transformers you own that change into trains. Yep, that's right. Not very many. While the Japanese love the things, here in the west trains seem to get a rough ride. If you want to ride on one (in the UK), you have to pay a small fortune, so that you can stand for the majority of the journey, and the chances are that the rail network doesn't even go to the place you want to visit. Japan, of course, has the bullet train.

Given the popularity of trains in Japan, it's no surprise that they crop up every now and then, but as a rule train Transformers are a little disappointing. Japan got a whole special team that combined to form Raiden, but I'm not sure anyone but completists really missed out. There was a Japanese Micromaster combiner team that made it to the western world during the Unicron Trilogy years, and again, they weren't much kop. And then there's Rail Racer, from Robots In Disguise. Rail Racer, I must admit, is probably my favourite 'combiner,' but the three individual toys aren't the best. This leaves Astrotrain. The first Triple-Changer I ever owned, Astrotrain always had a special place in my heart. Unusually for a Triple-Changer, both shuttle and train modes were pretty convincing. So, when it was revealed that Astrotrain would appear in the Classics line, I was pleasantly surprised.

First of all; shuttle mode. The more successful of Astrotrain's alternate modes. First of all, it looks, generally speaking, like a space shuttle. Always a good start. On the plus side, there's a retractable nose wheel, and a place to store Astrotrain's rifle on the underside of the shuttle. On the downside... Well, where to start? There's the tiny tail (at least there's a logical reason for that), there's superfluous wheels everywhere, and there's two halves of a train whacked onto the side of the shuttle. If your feeling generous (and I am), you can imagine that these chunks of train are, in fact, fuel tanks. If you're feeling generous. Bare in mind that this is far better than the train mode.

I don't like to criticise unduly, after all, I'd be pretty damn hopeless at designing toys. But, is this a train? No. It's a random selection of bits of space shuttle, folded into a rectangle, with the front of a bullet train stuck on the front. This is, by far, the worst Transformers alt-mode in a very, very long time. In my opinion it's worse than Universe Octane (look out for that review...). Personally, I'd rather have had an 'Astro' without the 'Train.' but then, it'd have been Blast Off.

Last, but by no means least, the robot mode. Which is great. I really, really, like Astrotrain's robot mode. It moves the toy from being average to quite good. I like the way the train mode kibble becomes arm shields and shoulder pads. I like the nods to the old Astrotrain - wings where they should be, rocket boosters as a back pack and the chest shield (that stunted tail was worthwhile after all). Astrotrain has a great range of movement, with 13 points of articulation, allowing some fantastic poses. And, unlike a lot of Classics/Universe figures, Astrotrain is armed with a good-looking rifle. Not a pistol, a RIFLE!. Not enough Transformers come with a big gun. It's a fact.

I must close this review by admitting that, in spite of the drawbacks mentioned above, I like this toy. It is certainly my favourite Decepticon from the Classics line (mind you, there weren't many to choose from), and including Universe, gives Cyclonus a run for his money.