Sideways (ROTF)

This article is about the live-action Decepticon. For the Unicron-serving backstabber from every other continuity, see Sideways (RID).

Sideways is a Decepticon from the Revenge of the Fallen franchise in the live-action film continuity family.

Guess what? I'm not Barricade! Had you all fooled, didn't I?

Before the war, Sideways was a simple courier, not exactly a career demanding massive levels of courage. This means that in the battle against the Autobots, Sideways prefers to team up with larger Decepticons. This way, his target-friendly companion takes all the heat! In fact, he generally shuns combat entirely. He's not a courageous fellow. But when he absolutely must face the enemy, he eagerly deploys the spinning saw blades on his arms.

Since he's arrived on Earth, Sideways has started hanging out with the mountainous Demolishor. There are few larger Decepticons to lurk in the shadow of!

“	Just 'cause I'd always rather flee than fight, don't mean I can't!	”
—Sideways to Arcee, Transformers Comic issue 2.5

Fiction

Titan Magazines

Sideways made an early landing in Australia, with Optimus Prime and Arcee pursuing him through its northern territories. With his souped-up sports car alt mode, Sideways had them outclassed on the roads and was able to both outpace the Autobots and batter them about. Eventually, Optimus decided to change the terrain by blasting the Decepticon off the road. While willing to fight, the Decepticon gave up when human reinforcements arrived.

However, it became clear (to us, anyway) that he was meant to get captured as part of a plan to frame Skids and Mudflap: as soon as he was taken to Diego Garcia, Scorponok arrived to free him. Knocking Arcee aside and using debris as a weapon against humans, Sideways made good his escape. Reversal of Fortune

There is nowhere to run THIS time...

Unfortunately for Sideways, the other part of Soundwave's plan was to get Skids and Mudflap into the Decepticons, and there was no escape from the twins talking all the time and dissing him as an "average, creativity-stifled grunt". When the twins were sent to bring in Ransack, he protested that they were halfwits, and was relieved to find out they were just bait and he'd get to kill 'em afterwards.

Trailing the twins with Grindor, he discovered to his disgust that the twins had talked to Ransack instead of fighting. That was "the sort of example that so needs nipping in the bud", so he and Grindor attacked! Unfortunately for Sideways, the twins were only pretending to defect so they could capture a Decepticon; Mudflap engaged Sideways in a game of chicken, forcing the 'con off the road and straight into a tree. Turnabout

Revenge of the Fallen film

Sideways desperately tries to flee from a rabid fangirl.

Sideways was hiding out in Shanghai with Demolishor when NEST came to investigate a possible Decepticon insurgence. At first, the two Decepticons remained concealed, but Demolishor soon transformed and attacked. While the soldiers and their Autobot allies were busy fighting off Demolishor, Sideways took advantage of the chaos and attempted to make his getaway. He was not entirely undetected, however, as Major Lennox sent out Arcee and the twins in pursuit.

Ouchies.

With Arcee and the Twins on his tail, Sideways turned a corner to an apartment complex in his way. Rather than turn and lose momentum, Sideways chucked caution to the wind and transformed, jumping through the apartment building and out the other side. The Twins were unable to keep up with the chase, and Sideways was soon able to fight off Arcee. Sideways didn't get far, and eventually met his end when Sideswipe engaged in pursuit, transformed, and bisected Sideways as he attempted to flee to get his revenge... Revenge of the Fallen

Toy bios

Sideways and Rampage burst from their cover when they found Breakaway and Longarm hunting them. While Rampage confronted Breakaway, Sideways battled Longarm through the streets. The final result of this battle is unknown. Autobot Strike Mission toy bio

Long reliant on his high speed to make his getaways, Sideways found himself in shock when the body-modifying Blowpipe was easily able to keep up with him. Super Tuner Throwdown toy bio

Besides his speed, Sideways enjoys using deception to get himself out of trouble. This doesn't work very well on Rollbar, who plans to make the lying Sideways an acquaintance of his fists. Why Sideways decided to change his paintjob for this meeting is anyone's guess. Rollbar VS Sideways

Games

Revenge of the Fallen - The Game

Voice actor: John DiMaggio

Revenge of the Fallen- The Game (Xbox 360/Sony PS3/PC)

Decepticon campaign

Bite my shiny metal ass!

Sideways operated as a high-speed reconnaissance operative with the ability to snipe at Autobot opponents from afar with his plasma sniper rifle, engage them up-close with his rapid-firing slag repeater, and slow enemies to a crawl with his graviton mine when he needed to get away. He uses a pair of saws in melee combat.

Sideways was deployed to Shanghai after the Autobots and their NEST allies were detected interfering with an important operation in the area. Upon arrival, various Protectobot drones were sent to stop him, but failed. Later, Sideways was sent to the Shanghai waterfront to retrieve Grindor, who had been damaged and captured by the Autobots. The nimble Decepticon sports car used a combination of speed and guile to fight his way through the numerically superior Autobot forces, freed Grindor and escorted his bigger buddy back to the extraction point. He was sent back to the waterfront again find a cloaked Autobot probe that threatened the Decepticon operations in China. Following the probe's wake, Sideways raced through the waterfront past startled human dockworkers and the Protectobot units assigned to the area, destroying the probe as it revealed itself. Revenge of the Fallen (Xbox 360/PS3/PC)

Autobot campaign

The Autobots were deployed to China when NEST forces detected the presence of Decepticons in Shanghai. Sideways secreted himself within the urban jungle and sent waves of Stunticon drones against Ironhide. After the last batch of Stunticons had been defeated, Sideways revealed himself, taking pot shots at the powerful Autobot with his slag repeater, after which he would cheese it flee through the narrow alleyways where Ironhide had difficulty following. While the Autobot struggled to pass the cramped causeways, Sideways set himself up on the roof of the tallest residential block and fired his plasma sniper rifle. Ironhide shrugged off the blasts, clambered up the building, and with a mighty punch, sent Sideways plummeting to the ground, reducing him to scrap. Revenge of the Fallen (Xbox 360/PS3/PC)

Toys

Revenge of the Fallen

Legends Class toys

• Sideways (Legends, 2009)
  • Japanese ID number:
• A smaller-scale Sideways with an extremely Barricade-like transformation. He features ball joint hips, backwards knee things, and ball joint arms for articulation.

Deluxe Class toys

Seriously, how could you mistake me for Barricade?

• Sideways (Deluxe, 2009)
  • Japanese ID number: RD-05

Deluxe-Class Sideways features Automorph action during the conversion from car to robot mode. When the front bumper is pressed, his front pair of wheels automatically flip underneath the hood, and his robot abs flip down. There is also some Mech Alive: you can see internal gears moving in his fore-arms when moving his arms, as well as a turning disk on each of his elbows. On his right arm is a spinning "saw" blade. He is probably the least film-accurate toy to date (that doesn't fall in a lesser size-class or different toy-line), but that doesn't make him any less awesome.

Unlike the other on-screen characters in Revenge of the Fallen who turn into consumer vehicles, Sideways' vehicle mode is merely an approximation of an Audi R8 and is not an accurate replica. This is because the toy vehicle, lacking Audi signage, is unlicensed. Deluxe class Sideways is missing the black front lid, roof and rear hood seen on Sideways toys of other price points, and the real car. However, all of the toys are missing the unique silver stripes on top of the black areas seen on the APR-tuned Audi R8, which was the car used in the movie.

Yet another victim of late mold changes rampant among the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Sideways appears to have had a hinged thumb on his left hand in Hasbro stock photos whereas this is a solid section molded on to the arm on the final toy. Although not indicated on any early photos nor instructions, Sideways' windshield underside has two notches that connect to Sideways' hood on small square pegs immediately behind the front wheels. This requires folding up the two small triangular pieces on top of the hood. Also it seems as if the spinning saw blade was originally powered by gears, the gearbox and shaft for the lever can still be seen on his right forearm but are molded just like his thumb onto the arm.

Along with Breakaway, Sideways was initially released in two color schemes, a light silver version and a less common very dark silver version. If you move the headlights, doors and legs of the lighter Sideways to the darker one, allowing for a dark hood and roof, and silver everywhere else, it helps to make for a slightly more movie-accurate Sideways. However, the stripes will still be missing.

This mold was retooled into the Deluxe class version of Revenge of the Fallen Dead End.

• More information on Sideways at TFU.info

• Autobot Strike Mission (Deluxe class figure multipack, 2009)
  • Accessories: Missile

Available as a Sam's Club-exclusive, this "battle damaged" version of Sideways was packed with Movie Longarm, Rampage and Breakaway.

• Super Tuner Throwdown (Deluxe class figure two-pack, 2009)
  • Accessories: Missile

Another release of Sideways was available with Blowpipe, a Pipes homage, as a Walmart exclusive.

Fast Action Battlers

"Do your arms hang low...?"

• Magna Missile Sideways (Fast Action Battlers, 2009)
  • Accessories:

Magna Missile Sideways' robot mode has the entire sides of the car becoming his arms, making this toy even more similar to Barricade than Sideways' movie CG and Deluxe class toy robot design. Like most of the Sideways toys and merchandise (bar the Deluxe & Legends class figures), he features screen-accurate black paint on his vehicle front lid, roof and rear hood.

Merchandise

R.P.M.s - Robot Powered Machines

Speed Series

Sideways? More like UNDERside! OH!

• Sideways (R.P.M. Mini-Vehicle, 2009)
  • Number: 01 of 04

Number one in a series of four Robot Powered Machines Mini-Vehicle single packs, Sideways is an untransformable Hot Wheels-like car, unless you count his robot mode being sculpted and painted onto the underside of him.

Battle Series

• Rollbar vs Sideways (R.P.M. Mini-Vehicle, 2009)
  • Number: 08

The second release of Sideways comes packaged with Rollbar. Sideways' new colours resembles the Deluxe class version of Dead End.

Robot Heroes

My shiny metal saw will bite you!

• Sideswipe and Sideways (2009)

Sideways is part of the first wave of Revenge of the Fallen Robot Heroes figures and is packaged versus Sideswipe. He has rotational articulation at both shoulders and extremely limited neck articulation. Curiously, he holds a chainsaw-like blade in his hand, rather than it being integrated into wheel-kibble on his wrist. However, this is pretty close to how his weapon actually works in the official video game; when Sideways fights in melee, his wheel-blades spread out to form razor-edged ovals, presumably for added reach.

The Twins aren't the only vehicle that splits in two in this scene.

• Shanghai Shootout (Multi-pack, 2009)

Shanghai Shootout replicates the opening action scene from Revenge of the Fallen, featuring figurines of Mudflap/Skids (ice cream truck), Sideways (vehicle mode), Optimus Prime, Demolishor, and Sideswipe (vehicle mode). Demolishor is a slightly-oversized figure and the centerpiece of the box set.

Notes

• When Audi was looking to win screen time for one of its cars in the summer films during 2009, Ruben Igielko-Herrlich, a marketing consultant from Propaganda Global Entertainment Marketing, helped the company to find an opportunity in the film Revenge of the Fallen. Ruben talked the staff from the film into finding a role for the Audi R8. Ultimately, an Audi R8 appears in the film as Sideways. Thus, Sideways became the only car Transformer in the movie whose alternate mode is not manufactured by General Motors.

• According to the pre-visualization animation from the movie DVD's bonus material, Sideways was originally supposed to have a Lamborghini alternate mode as compared to the Audi R8 seen in the film.

• Sideways's toys and merchandise are not licensed by Audi, and are thus merely approximations of the R8. However, Sideways' appearance in the Revenge of the Fallen video games is fully licensed, so he is accurate to the car used in the film and has Audi's logos and signage.

• According to designer Hisashi Yuki, the wheels on the hands were a rushed late addition due to a design change in the movie character model. This is why the hand tires are not integrated more properly into the toy.

• When images of his concept design and toy were first leaked onto the internet, many thought this was going to be a new body for Barricade.

• He almost was Barricade! Chris Mowry had planned for Barricade to appear and be turned into Sideways in Transformers: Alliance, but Hasbro rejected the idea.