Someone mentioned that this set is an exclusive. If so, then it must be a K-Mart one and thank the Matrix for this. Quite frankly, I was growing tired of the Wal-Mart exclusives because there are so many of them. There’s Universe Ruination, Sunstorm, Prowl, Sideburn, and the two Spychanger sets. I haven’t been able to get them since the nearest one is 500 miles away. It feels good at last to have a real “K-Mart exclusive� unlike that Optimus Prime, Jetfire, and Adventure Team gift set which wasn’t special in any way. But let’s get on with the review!
Removing the toys feels exactly like taking out the toys from the movie, Small Soldiers. Everything comes out smoothly. Now a lot of fans complain about all the twist-ties that have to be unwrapped. Here’s an idea: Take a small scissors or a nail clipper, cut one side of each twist-tie, and there you go! Since Crystal Widow and Oil Slick are both in robot mode, I’ll start the review from there.
In robot mode, Crystal Widow maintains that same color charm as Blackarachnia. Crystal Widow’s paintjob consists mainly of bright red and violet-blue. In her upper and lower torsos, you can find some silver which compliments the fusion of her two primary colors. Crystal Widow’s shoulder, elbow, and leg joints are painted gray and that works out well too. Her back which is composed of her spider’s abdomen shouts vitality. There you can find neon green (not too neon but just the right amount), silver fused with pinkish-purple, and more bright red combined with violet-blue. On one side of her abdomen, an Autobot insignia is visible. It’s a nice touch and doesn’t need tangible visibility to be appreciated. Just like Blackarachnia, Crystal Widow features superior poseability. She can move her head, shoulders, elbows, arms, claws, legs, feet, and knees. Crystal Widow’s head in my opinion foreshadows the future of transformers. Her face looks so humanoid, a characteristic that intrigued me about Beast Machines. So what good is Crystal Widow without a tech spec? Well, in my Transformers Universe story, she is a clone of Blackarachnia. Basically, Tarantulas (right-hand man of Unicron) captured Blackarachnia, turned her evil, and then cloned her so as to expand their kind. Recall that in Beast Wars, when Tarantulas found the stasis pod, he scanned a spider beast form for Blackarachnia. Megatron reacted with irritation when he discovered that she transformed into an organism similar to that of Tarantulas. Megatron treated this as an act of conspiracy and was reminded of Tarantulas’ treacherous behavior; Similarly, in my Transformers Universe story, Tarantulas is secretly planning to betray Unicron and claim Unicron’s power for himself.
Oil Slick is a repaint of Sideswipe and a rather nice one. His chief colors are purple, yellowish-orange, and gray. Oil Slick has only one mold alteration and that is his allegiance insignia. Since he’s a Decepticon, the Autobot insignia has totally been removed and a Decepticon one has been sculpted in its place. As for weapons, Oil Slick’s are the same color as those of Sideswipe. I would have liked to see a different color but that would have interfered with the car’s windows. Oil Slick may lack in poseability but nevertheless, he is a fun toy with an excellent paint application. So what good is he without a tech spec? Well, in my Transformers Universe story, he’ll be a clone of Sideswipe. Basically, after the Unicron Battles, the Autobots return to Cybertron only to learn of a new threat. In an attempt to bolster Cyberton resistance forces, Optimus Prime, Hot Shot, Red Alert, and the rest of the Autobots undergo a cloning process. However, Tarantulas (reincarnated by Unicron) sneaks into Cybertron and tampers with the cloning procedure. He succeeds in altering some of the clones and among them is Sideswipe. Hence, you get Oil Slick and Treadshot who are both clones of Sideswipe.
Crystal Widow’s transformation to beast mode is simple. Once transformed, you can see that the colors stay the same. She appears to be more imposing than Blackarachnia but that’s just my opinion. Her attack mode works well and even without it, she is a very intimidating spider. She’s pretty huge with those long legs. I think I transformed her incorrectly but I prefer it like that more.
Now as for Oil Slick’s vehicle mode, the purple paintjob makes him look like one of those mob cars and also a love fist limousine. Oil Slick retains the same transparent orange windows like Sideswipe. His headlights are painted pale yellow while his rear lights are a vibrant red. Like Sideswipe, part of the rear section flips out. Oil Slick’s Mini-Con has the same name as Sideswipe’s Mini-Con. As for his paintjob, Oil Slick’s Mini-Con has a tanner orange which virtually makes no difference.
Whoah! Now I understand how hard it is to write a full-length review!!!! Those guys who dedicate their time to this such as Benson Yee and the guys at this website sure deserve lots of credit.
Is Crystal Widow vs. Oil Slick worth getting? Of course it is. They’re both really cool repaints and yes even though Transformers Universe consists of pure repaints, that doesn’t mean it lacks potential. All it needs is a good story and you Transformers fans can find an awesome one by Dreamwave!
| Reviewer | Alan Apestegui |
| Date | July 25th 2004 |
| Score |  (9 out of 10) |
| Reads | 21436 |
