Repaint

From Roulette...

...to a completely different character!

What do you say? A Cliffjumper redeco? BLASPHEMY!

The term repaint is often used as a synonym for a redeco by fans, but that usage is technically incorrect. A repaint is a toy where only the paint applications have been changed while still using the same base plastic colors from a previous incarnation of the sculpt.

Repaints are in fact a rarity among Transformers toys since almost all instances of extensive color changes involve a change in the base plastic colors, but they do actually exist. Interestingly enough, the most noteworthy examples of repaints in the Transformers toy line are all store or event exclusives. The live-action film series increased the number of genuine repaints considerably, because Hasbro wanted to keep redecos as the same characters, and keep deco changes to a minimum to keep the characters easily recognizable for kids.

• Nightracer, the BotCon 1995 exclusive Go-Bot, was a repaint of Generation 2 Go-Bot Bumblebee.

• Roulette and Shadow Striker from the OTFCC 2003 set were repaints of each other.

• The Walmart-exclusive Universe versions of Side Burn and Prowl were repaints of the original Robots in Disguise releases.

• The Walmart exclusive Universe Spy Changer Prowl, himself a redeco of Robots in Disguise Spy Changer Prowl 2, had his car shell (originally based on Generation 1 Red Alert's deco) repainted into Generation 1 Prowl for a KB Toys exclusive wave of Generation 1-themed Spy Changers in packaging simply branded "Transformers" with no additional title. A year later, those six Spy Changers, including Prowl, were re-released in rebranded Universe packaging.

• The original Movie toyline had Target exclusive AllSpark Power-themed versions of Deluxe Class Bumblebee, Autobot Jazz, Decepticon Brawl and Barricade which simply add extra "AllSpark Power" paint operations to the existing decos (although the Decepticon Frenzy figure included with Barricade was a redeco with different plastic colors).

• Legends Class Battle Jazz and Bumblebee from the "AllSpark Battles" two-packs with Ice Megatron and Scorponok were essentially repaints of the Jazz figure from the AllSpark Battles two-pack with Bonecrusher and the original single packed release of Bumblebee, respectively. The Jazz figure from the two-pack with Scorponok sported a considerably different shade of gray plastic compared to the sculpt's original single release in addition to the deco changes, thus arguably making him an outright redeco (although still a minor one).

• The Legends Class toy of Animated Bumblebee was originally released as part of the 2008 Universe toyline, but a minor repaint was later released as part of the Animated toyline, included with the Target exclusive clear redeco of Deluxe Class Lockdown, Stealth Lockdown. (The Legends versions of other Animated characters either also had differences with their plastic colors between their Universe and Animated releases, or no differences at all.)

• Revenge of the Fallen Legends Class Bumblebee saw several redecos that were limited to minor changes to his deco while keeping the basic plastic colors the same, namely Recon Bumblebee, the version available as part of the Target exclusive two-pack with Shadow Striker and 2010 Transformers Cyberfire Bumblebee.

See also

• Black repaint

• Redeco

• Retool