Grand Slam and Raindance are mini-cassettes, and they're very colorful. Unlike Squawktalk and Beastbox, though, the colors aren't outlandish: one is red and gold, the former is dark and silver. Sure, that's unusual, but it's not away the land of possibility. These two actually appeared in the comics, but simply in one issue, and exclusively in tape mode: they never transformed.
Weird! Also weird? The distance between the spools on Grand Slam is fully sculpted.
Long ago, Grand Slam supported neither side in the war that divided Cybertron between Autobots and Decepticons. He was a news correspondent from the old school, devoted to maintaining his journalistic integrity and impartiality. Grand Slam had covered conflicts on over a hundred worlds, always sending his message back to Cybertron in a just and unbiased fashion. When the Autobot/Decepticon conflict began warming up, he returned to Cybertron to continue the story. He was offered unprecedented access by the Decepticon army, who hoped to use Grand Slam's respected media status to pad their range through propaganda. When the stoic and honorable Grand Slam insisted on revealing the whole story, including tales of Decepticon atrocities and war crimes, the Decepticons resorted to torture and imprisoning him. Grand Slam was reclaimed by an Autobot commando squad, and was finally won over to the drive because of their true fear for the free and helpless. He has since dedicated himself to recording the black reality of war, from the eerie stillness before a struggle to the horrifying screams of the wounded afterward, hoping that it will do as a warning to succeeding generations across the galaxy about the true price of war.
Wow, that's an incredibly long bio, isn't it? Intensely interesting, sure, but also near a yard more speech than you'd expect. It's a nice switch from all the "he's a skilful leader and a courageous warrior" stuff everybody else seems to have. Which is really kind of ironic, since he's a cooler and thus you'd expect him to be skilful at war.
There's a lot of cassette tape still visible in this mode, but you also notice tank-y details you didn't before, such as the wheels sculpted on the sides (there are even treads underneath, but you won't be seeing them often). Two guns fold out of the tape, and there are three more chromed weapons to add to the top. Amusingly, none of the weapons have offensive capabilities: the big one is a smoking gun, while the two smaller ones are repulsors, to push threats away.
Raindance is a cheap and talkative Autobot who wants to use his stance as a television reporter to get himself an intergalactic star of the Autobot/Decepticon war. He's constantly irritated that he can't be in the shots he takes of any story he's covering. His partner Grand Slam is greatly agitated by Raindance's lack of objectivity and by his willingness to intervene in conflict when covering stories, while Raindance is defeated by the elder reporter's strict code of journalistic ethics. Despite his thrill-seeking and self-glorifying tendencies, Raindance is a dedicated documenter who will have any chance to show the best images of an event. He's glib, funny, and popular, with thousands of stories to say about all the exciting battles he has covered. Grand Slam just wishes Raindance would stop sounding at war as a vehicle for stardom and start treating it with more dignity.
Another really long bio. Grand Slam and Raindance are singular among Transformers, in that neither of them have humanoid (or even remotely biological) robot modes, yet they're treated like autonomous characters with distinct personalities. A Transformer's "altmode" refers to whatsoever they disguise themselves as, so Raindance's altmode is a cassette tape - his main mode is this jet. He's a great little piece, armed with two chrome missiles (supposedly for self-defense, but get on).
Despite their unusual status as the line's only robot-mode-less characters, Grand Slam and Raindance are limited for an altogether different reason: they're one of just two teams of Cassetticon combiners.
The unified form of Grand Slam and Raindance was designed to build up for the gracelessness of the duo's individual robot forms. Slamdance's personality is a combination of the two's traits; he is both stuffy and vainglorious, but he's an adept at gathering and coordinating news and data. Slamdance takes great pride in his work, but his self-importance makes him wish to announce everything personally; he'll stand up in the eye of his commander's briefings in place to make sure his substance is relayed "correctly," meaning by him. Despite his quirks, Slamdance is absolutely dedicated to the Autobot cause and works hard to make certain their data is correct and unbiased.
Just for the show? People in positions of power hate that. You ever correct one of your teachers? It doesn't go over very well. Doesn't think you shouldn't do it, because what's more important: being nice or being right?
Combined, Slamdance has had more appearances in new comics than his components ever did in the classical books. He only reaches the 4" mark, and has no articulation - this is a robot atht will just stand still. They could have stated this a fembot judging by the proportion of hips-to-waist, but it's a cool design no matter what. The cannons plug into his arms, and you can punch the tank's guns into the game of his head, but it's not like he can aim them.
Grand Slam/Raindance/Slamdance is rather disappointing as a toy, but the fact that he's a combiner adds to his coolness factor. Both Cassetticons are unique offerings, and there's nothing really bad about any of them, just "not as well as it could have bee." Let's see Hasbro do a new update of this match and release them into something cool.
-- 02/15/11
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