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Tidal Wave - Transformers; Armada Meat and Potatoes; 5.0 Perks; 5.0 Homer Factor; 5.0
				Description; ah, the first combiner comes to Armada! Tidal Wave is approximately 12" tall and seperates into an aircraft carrier, a battleship, and a submarine/transport... thing.  All three merge into a giant mega-battleship.  They also form a giant robot; the carrier splits down the middle to form 'Wave's arms, the battleship is the torso, and the submarine splits in half to form the legs. The figure features solid articulation in the hips, shoulders, and elbows.
Combiners.  Gestalts.  Mergers.  Nothing brings tears to my eyes  like having a bunch of smaller vehicles fold, contort, and merge into a giant engine of destruction that will lay waste to a legion of enemies!!!!!  Bwahahahahahahaha... sorry, got a little caught-up in the moment.  Anyway, you get the idea; combiner Transfomers are sooooooooooooo coooooooooooooooooool.  Now that 'Armada' is over a year strong and we've gotten accustomed to the new look of these 'bots, what could Hasbro have in mind for the first combiner?  Whispers of Tidal Wave rippled (pun intended) through b-boards since the spring, and images of a large, powerful 'bot with a ton o' extra abilities came out.  Now that it's here, time to see if the early hype was worth the wait.  The piece does have a few short-comings, but over-all, this is one biiiiiiiiiiiig, baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad robot. Meat and potatoes, like most of 'Armada' pieces, rock.  Hasbro has taken three naval vessels and given each one some very cool details.  On the battleship, the turrets move up and down as well as rotate, for example.  This goes along with a generally snazzy sculpt and nice paint job on all three vehicles.  And the giant robot mode is pretty impressive as well.  In terms of height, it's one of the taller Transformers.  In addition, it has a surprising amount of articulation; shoulders, elbows, hips all move pretty well.  The Mini-Con Ramjet is also a well-sculpted piece on it's own. Perks?  Oh, you're gonna love this part.  First, naturally, is the merging, and it has TWO modes.  One is the giant battleship mode, with the aircraft carrier as the bow, battleship amidships, and submarine as the stern.(and thank you 'Trek' for helping me remember those naval terms.)  Then there's the giant 'bot mode, with the aircraft carrier splitting in half to become Tidal Wave's arms, the battleship is the torso, and the submarine folds out to become the 'bot's legs. And since it's an 'Armada' piece, there are a ton o' power-links to attach a fleet of Mini-Cons. in ship and merged-bot mode.  And the other key perk?  Each vehicle can attach to Megatron/Galvatron like battle armor!  The battleship and aircraft carrier become giant gauntlets/cannons on Megatron's arms and the submarine attaches to Megatron's back like giant boosters.  Sure, this makes Megatron a bit bulky, but it gives the figure a VERY intimidating, well-armed appearance.  Take THAT Prime. Homer factor?  How can you not like a Transformers combiner?  Ok, ok, so 'Armada' has been a rather 'eh' toy line so far.  Just the same, combiners bring out the best in toy designers, and being able to take a bunch o' robots/vehicles and make them into something BIGGER tends to lead to something baaaaaaaaaaaaad as all heck. And such is the case here.  Tidal Wave isn't just another incarnation of Devastator or a rip-off of Superion.  The alternate transformations PLUS the ability to merge with Megatron make this merger one heck of a toy to have on your shelf.  And just think, 'Energon' is just around the corner...