Today it’s a quick gallery looking at another aftermarket add-on kit from Nonnef Productions that gears up Siege Sideswipe a little better. And it can help your Red Alert, too!
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Included in this set is a rifle, a shoulder launcher, and “rocket” that fits in the launcher. For $6.99, that’s not bad at all. The rifle and rocket piece only come in white, but shoulder cannon comes in either white or black. As you can see, I chose the black launcher.
The shoulder cannon has a hinged tab to attach to the robot’s shoulder, so the launcher can pivot up a lot, and also down a little bit. It almost makes me wish that it could also swivel, but since I’d have been totally happy with a launcher that didn’t articulate at all, it’s not something I’m actively feeling is missing. The fit in the shoulder slot is perfectly snug, leaving it remaining securely in place for as long as you like. For vehicle mode, the new weapons can fit the existing accessory ports. In my case, the rifle was a little bit of a tight fit on the roof, which is just as well since the rocket launcher looks better up there and settles in that port very smoothly. Or both weapons can attach along the side body panels.
The white plastic parts are a very good color match for Sideswipe’s slightly off-white parts. But the rifle and rocket do seem slightly “milky” or translucent. If not for that they’d blend in beautifully with Sideswipe. As it is, the translucence makes the parts stand out just a bit, as well as making the details a bit hard to see. Giving these a coat of paint would likely fix that problem, though mixing just the right off-white to match Sideswipe would probably be a pain.
Sad to say, this set was my first experience with having a Nonnef piece break – and it was my own fault. I was trying to adjust the rocket while it was in the launcher to get the molded details in a particular position, and there turned out to be a little mold flash on the stem of the rocket. This gave just enough width variance to make a plastic ring around the barrel of the launcher crack. Loudly. This piece also seemed to be largely responsible for holding the rest of the launcher together. Thankfully, a tiny bit of glue in some strategic locations was plenty to fix my mistake. The only remaining sign is a narrow split on the barrel ring, which I was able to hide along the bottom of the launcher. Anyway, this was my error, and is just presented here as a cautionary tale.
So while the purpose of this set is to improve Sideswipe with a better and more complete accessory selection, you can kind of get a two for one here if you have Red Alert. Nonnef does sell a version of this kit with red parts intended for Red Alert, and if you want the chunkier launcher without the extraneous pegs, that’s certainly a worthwhile purchase. But at the same time you can easily transfer Sideswipe’s original accessories to Red Alert to go along with the rifle he already comes with. For me, having the two not perfectly identically match is a feature, not a bug, and being able to equip two figures for the cost of one upgrade kit is a happy bonus.
This is definitely not the last Nonnef upgrade I’ll be picking up. There’s already two more Sideswipe-related purchases I’m planning – I just have to wait for the kits to be made and stocked. If you’re interested in this or other upgrade kit options, visit Nonnef Productions to check for availability.