C-003 MachAlert

TRANSFORMERS: CAR ROBOT
Deluxe Cars (C-002/C-003/C-004)

MACHALERT (C-003)
(Tinted Window Version located at bottom of page) The second vehicle in the Deluxe Car line-up is MachAlert. This is a Lamborghini Diablo police vehicle with the Japanese characters on each of the doors stating "Police Headquarters". Each of the cars have plastic packaging glued to a card backing. On the rear of each of the cards show the different modes and stances in color. You can also find a tech-spec card depicting MachAlert in robot mode on the front and data on the back. VEHICLE MODE: The color scheme isn’t too impressive; black & white with simulated red police lights. It is a sleek car with clear windows and taillights with painted turn signals. There are rubber tires with "TRANSFORMERS ™ 2000" printed on them and the only chrome colored parts are the rims. ROBOT MODE: Transforming this vehicle to robot mode is easy. Once you open the doors, flip the roof and front-end upward, the legs are visible and must be pulled out. Rotate the feet & legs then pull down the doors that form a "skirt" or protector for his thighs. The hood and roof fold down an become his back armor. The gas tank and exhaust pipes fold down that now becomes his torso revealing the Autobot symbol. The rear wheels and housing fold out to form his arms that have hinges at the shoulders and elbows. There are no wrist joints or thumb movements as with WildRide but rather a single molded forearm and hand. His left arm has a shield created by the tail end/tail fin of the vehicle. The JetPack with firing Flame missiles is connected to the outer portion of his right arm and can be secured to his back in JetPack mode depicted on the photo to the right. The shoulder armor is made up of clear plastic with silver painted parts. Beneath the clear plastic is gold and red (left shoulder) and gold and blue (right shoulder) revealing mechanical innards. The head is fairly simple with white, black, and silver paint. The eyes look like they are clear orange and not simply painted on. The torso is a smoke clear color with silver and dark gray. The pelvic region is dark blue as well as his shins. And finally his feet are light gray with ball-in-joints at the hips, knees, and ankles. This robot mode is very poseable and not junkyard looking as WildRide. This transformation reminds me of Rattrap or Rattle in the BeastWars line with the shoulder armor and "skirt-like" armor. MachAlert also comes with JetPacks and missiles. The missiles are in the form of a flame with red/yellow paint. Pushing them through the JetPack or launcher can fire the missiles. This missile firing mechanism is the same as in the Microman line. Thus far MachAlert has my vote in best transformation/appearance while in robot mode but last in appearance in vehicle mode.	The above photo shows all three Deluxe Cars and MachAlert in vehicle mode. The second is a photo with the doors open and tail fin ends in the "up" position. The third photo is with the Jets attached to the tail fins and flames on.

It's been awhile since I originally purchased this variant of Mach Alert and finally decided to add a couple of photos to this page. I believe the first time I found out about the variant was after I visited Snakas' website sometime in September 2000. As soon as I found out I rushed out to my local toy/department stores to find it. The first release of Mach Alert had clear windows and the second run (June/July 2000?) had tinted plastic windows/parts. I decided not to remove this variant from the cardboard backing, so you'll have to visit Snakas' site to see the noticeable differences between the two. In addition to the "smoke-clear" parts, there is an additional variation to the attachments. The missiles are painted with thicker and much brighter orange color. I prefer the first release with the lighter coat of red paint which produced a translucent color.	Tinted Window Version Mach Alert