With the new "Screen Battles" assortments starting to hit the shelves, we thought we'd share our thoughts of one I picked up this weekend.  A more organized character page will be put together once our 2008 section exists.  In the meantime, we thought you might like to see some pix and read a more extended review than usual.

From the publicity pix we've seen thus far, it appears there is no difference between the standard movie deluxe Barricade toy and the one included with the new 'screen battles' version.  Not true!  However, the difference is much more subtle, unlike Scorponok w/ an obviously more movie accurate paint application or Longarm with Mikela in the driver's seat and "Mike's Towing" and Bumblebee with improved silver/grey accents rather than black...  To my eyes, the car and the robot look nearly identical.  There is however 1, ever so slight difference!  Can you tell? 

The difference is in the grill.  Notice how it is all black?  On the original deluxe version the chest has some grey plastic which is part of the small Frenzy toy that comes out of his chest.  This Barricade toy includes a new molded part!  THIS new molded part.  What is its purpose?  Here's the scoop, the Frenzy that normally comes out Barricade's chest is intentionally designed to NOT come out of his chest.  The entire Frenzy toy is made of all black plastic and as you can see is unpainted.  The plastic piece fits inside the collapsed Frenzy toy as seen here and here.  In order to figure out what was going on, I had to take the toy apart.  The piece fits inside Frenzy once collapsed and it's sole purpose is to prevent you from taking the Frenzy component out of Barricade.

The idea, of course is that this toy comes with another Frenzy toy.  A smaller, more detailed, more movie accurate, but unposable version.  Pictures from every angle can be seen here, here, here, and at these links: barricade4d, barricade4e, barricade4f, barricade4g

Here are some picture-links to the Sam and Mikela figures:  Sam1, Sam2, Sam3, Sam4, Sam5,  Mikela1,  Mikela2,  Mikela3, Mikela4, Mikela5, Mikela6, Mikela7. 

The Sam and Mikela figures are quite a nice addition to a set-up.  It's really awesome to have accurately scaled versions of these characters.  However, you do lose the functionality of having Frenzy be able to eject from Barricade's chest as he does in the movie.  Thought you would want to know what you're in for before you put down $20 for another Barricade figure.  Have a great weekend all!