Combiner Wars Groove

Robot Mode: Let’s start once again with resemblance to the G1 predecessor of this figure. Generations Groove and G1 Groove share certain similarities, such as a similar head and having the motorcycle wheels in their legs, but overall they don’t look all that much alike. You can sort of guess they’re supposed to the be the same guy, but Generations Groove got a serious face lift. Which includes, by the way, being almost twice as tall, despite transforming into a smaller vehicle.

Similarities aside, Groove is a decent little Legends class figure. His colors are a bit boring, but dictated by his police bike alternate mode. Ball joints give him a nice range of movement, including knees and elbows, and while his overly long legs make some poses a bit awkward, he can still bend nicely. He comes without a weapon, sadly, but I’ve been told he looks pretty nice with Fall of Cybertron Jazz’s gun (now if only I knew where I put that guy…).

Bottom line, Groove is a nice little robot and definitely much better looking that the blocky G1 Defensor limb. Certainly far from the best of the current Generations Legends figures, but far from the worst, either.

Alternate Mode: Groove transforms into a motorcycle that is more or less to scale with the other Protectobot vehicles (very much unlike his G1 counterpart). Despite being rather small, the motorcycle does feature some nice detailing such as tachometers, exhaust ports, a stand, and fully sculpted handles with brake handles. Very nicely done. The color scheme remains black and white, naturally, as Groove is a police bike. No visible robot bits, either. Resemblance to the vehicle mode of his G1 predecessor is present in that they’re both clearly police bikes, but Generations Groove is definitely a newer, sleeker, more streamlined model. So bottom line: a fully satisfying vehicle mode for this size class. No complaints.

Combiner Mode: Goove converts into a groove-y (sorry, had to do that joke at least once) chest plate for the Protectobot combiner Defensor. I'll do a separate review for Defensor once I'm done with the team members.

Remarks: Like most of the Protectobots, Groove never got much in the way of character depth beyond what could be read in his tech spec profile. It described him as a pacifist, more interested in exploring the open roads of Earth than fight in a war. Doesn’t quite jive with his current profile text, does it? Anyway, the current IDW comics didn’t really feature Groove much, either. He was in some crowd scenes before being merged with the other Protectobots into Defensor, though the comics don’t feature Defensor sporting him as a chest plate, so it’s anyone’s guess where he ended up.

Anyway, Groove being relegated to the smaller Legends class instead of being a Deluxe-sized limb did piss a few people off, apparently (to the point where Takara will bring out a Deluxe-sized Groove for their version of Defensor), but I like it. Not so much because of the scale (when has scale ever been accurate in Transformers?), but simply because he is awesome as a chest plate for Defensor. As a stand-along toy he is good, nothing more than that. Probably wouldn’t have bought him if not for Defensor, but that goes for quite a few of the Combiner Wars figures. So bottom line: a good toy by itself, and a must-have if you want to assemble Defensor.

Rating: B