The Mayhem Attack Squad, a group of psychotic Decepticons grouped together to follow their leaders evil whims in the old G1 comic (and to give a reason to put new toys coming out into print).  Now decades later we see the group revitalized by the latest Transformers Collectors Club subscription service toys and with a new gimmick – they combine!  Lets have a look at this pack of alien-mechanoid rouges as well as their combined form – THUNDER MAYHEM!

Grabuge
Nicely proportioned, nice colours and they didn’t even need to bother with a new headsculpt since Off-Road was originally going to be Ruckus. I think the axe is a good choice for Ruckus – sorry – Grabuge. You can sorta balance his cannon in his backpack as a reminder of his Triggercon heritage but it doesn’t really work.

Windsweeper

The wings can fold back but I prefer to leave them out, the silver on the wing missiles really pop and also this configuration makes the figure look a bit more G1-Windsweeper-ish. The head is really good on him and the colours overall work quite well.

Spinister
The head is a little squarish and the optics a tad big but otherwise pretty good. Nothing new otherwise physically with the mold. Certainly a lot less stocky than G1 Spinister and the colour scheme is dead on.  The two targetmaster partners work well both as guns or as sidekicks.

Needlenose

A very nicely proportioned robot and while they got the face just right I would have liked to see more work on his helmet.  The colours are pretty good and his Targemaster partners sit snugly in his grip as well as looking good as little sidekicks.  I’d say this is probably the best Needlenose figure we have ever had so kudos to Funpub for coming through.

Bludgeon

By far his strongest mode.  Bludgeon is a character that is strongly associated with his Pretender Shell and it’s not been often he has been depicted just as the robot beneath (the G2 and DW comics do spring to mind however).  I found this to be a most excellent representation of how Bludgeon would look without his shell if he just concentrated on beefing up his robot mode.  The proportions are really good, the colour scheme works a lot better and they did the headsculpt very well.  Add in a couple of giant swords and the robot mode is a real winner overall!  However it is really hard to beat ROTF Bludgeon for a look that encapsulates both the inner robot and outer shell look combined.

Grabuge – Off-Road Truck

A shame that Beachcomber did not crop up in Combiner Wars as it would have nice to see Ruckus – sorry – Grabuge – done as a Dune Buggy rather than a ute, however it’s still a good choice for the character. The colour scheme is nice, though they have what were relatively small stickers on the original Ruckus into a major part of the colour scheme of the back of the ute here. Still, the paintjobt is pretty good considering that many the G1 Decepticons from 87 onwards had pretty awful colour schemes and the original Ruckus is part of that era. Attaching the cannons in the tray of the ute somewhat gives a shout out to his Triggercon origins.

Windsweeper –  Attack Jet
A shame there wasn’t a deluxe CW mold that was a bit more like his G1 incarnation, they would have had to go with Silverbolt to get something more indicativie. But it’s a pretty cool looking jet and the colour scheme not only is fairly character accurate but makes the colours work a bit better than the original toy did.

Spinister – Attack Chopper
I’m not a great fan of how slim this mold is, it didn’t quite work for me as Blades and Vortex and I get the same feeling with Spinister. Still, they got that garish 1988 colour scheme just right! One thing – do NOT try to put the Targetmaster partners into the little black exhaust hubs on the sides of Spinisters vehicle mode. I tried and not only are they that mill too thick but trying to push them in will wear the black paint off very easily and show the pink underneath. You have to attach them via turning his arms around so the fist is up which puts his missiles in an awkward position.

Needlenose – Fighter Jet

They really did a nice job of homaging the original figure here and I really like that unlike Spinister you can connect his Targetmaster partners under the wings.  They have done their best with the G1 colour scheme they had to use and made it look a lot more stylish than it used to.  As ever the letdown is those damn arms sitting out at the sides of the jet, I wish they had fixed that.

Bludgeon – Anti-Aircraft Truck

Whilst not a tank which most Bludgeons over the years have turned into, this feels like a tank on steroids that mutated into a anti-aircraft truck.  Whilst the green is a bit strong and garish, the browns help even the colour out somewhat, though then you deal with the two purple cannons on top.  It’s pretty cool overall but there is one significant drawback – the dome of Thunder Mayhems head is very noticeable sticking out of the top.  Really looks like he is about to pop up at any moment like a freaky jack-in-the-box.

Thunder Mayhem

Thunder Mayhem is made up of the 5 members of the Mayhem Attack Squad.  The reasoning behind the combined mode is that Thunderwing, not Bludgeon, was the leader of the Mayhem Attack Squad so their combined mode becomes an homage to him.  The Thunderwing head is very good, perhaps with more expression than any of the Gestalts from both the CW and UW lines – got a real psychotic sneer to him!

The colour scheme however is a real hodge-podge.  It’s pretty unavoidable considering the different characters that make up this Combiner but when compared to the likes of Superion, Defensor and Devastator you see why having team-mates with similar colour schemes is a good move for Combiner groups to have.  Bright greens, dull reds, purples, yellows, greys, blues etc etc – it looks like Primus swallowed a kids paint palette then threw up on the poor guy.  But he is supposed to be a monstrosity powered by a corrupted matrix so monster-wise it works.

The dimensions are like all the other recent combiners, the legs are a bit stubby and the feet too small whilst the arms are almost orangutan like in their length.  But Thunder Mayhem in the end is no worse for wear than any of the others and considering he is made up of 2 jets, a helicopter, a ute and an anti-aircraft truck you can forgive these imperfections.

Weapons-wise Bludgeons twin-swords match his stature quite well and of course you can take the cannons off the back for him to use as pistols.  It’s a shame there is no clear place for the four Targemaster partners to go – plenty of places to connect them but none really seem to fit and they look ludicrously small in his hands.

So overall a freaky-yet-fun Gestalt and a pretty cool combiner group.  For the most part I will be keeping the Mayhem Attack Squad separate so I can finally have the likes of Windsweeper and Ruckus sitting in my Generations Display.