Better known as the Throttlebot Chase, Roadburn makes use of the Bumblebee mold that released first. Hasbro has been making it a normal business practice to get multiple uses out of their new molds. Sometimes this means we get a figure with a new deco and a new head sculpt, while other times we get some slight changes to the mold to create a new character. Roadburn belongs to the latter category.
Roadburn is a Legends scale figure, or what used to be called Basic scale. While the figure is small, it's a great figure in my opinion. The new headsculpt is what sold the figure for me. The blue helmet with the gold face screams Throttlebot to me. It's not a perfect reproduction of the Generation One characters head, but it's close enough for me.
Chase was always one of my favorite Throttlebots. Blame it on his red Ferrari alt mode. As you can see the shade of red on Roadburn is a darker red than that of Chase. While it's not bad, I would have preferred a more vibrant shade of red. Perhaps Hasbro was worried that if they used a brighter red people would have mistaken him for Cliffjumper. Afterall, Bumblebee has been painted red and passed off as Cliffjumper multiple times in previous Transformers series. The Throttlebots didn't have the best defined robot modes so it was fairly easy to give them an upgrade. I wonder if you could recreate the "hood" of the back car piece with Roadburn?
At the time I found Roadburn at my local retail, I had not opened the Bumblebee figure I had previously found. My first exposure to this mold in hand was with Roadburn. Doesn't really matter since it's the same toy, sans the color and new head sculpt. The figure has a good bit of poseability for a Legends scale figure. It features a easy, yet fun transformation. I did notice that both figures had problems with some of the panels lining up and staying in place.
Over all I found this toy/mold to be a lot of fun. I don't always buy the simple color swaps anymore, but I knew I had to have Roadburn when I first saw images appear online. It's sad to think that we probably won't get any other upgraded Throttlebots in the Titans Return series (although Goldbug seems like an obvious choice), but I'll guess I'll take what I can get at this point.
