On Sunday, April 17, 2022 at 5:11:30 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> KICKBACK
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> Weirdly, both Kickbacks at the store today were already turning their heads to their left in the package. Not sure if they were like this on purpose or whether they settled somehow during shipping.
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> For some reason, it took Hasbro a really long time to give us a full set of all three Insecticons last time. We got Shrapnel for Generations in 2014, but we didn't get Bombshell until Combiner Wars in 2015 and Kickback until Titans Return in 2017. They were tiny Legends-class toys, though, and due to their releases being so widely staggered, each of them had a totally different gimmick (Shrapnel came with a Targetmaster version of Reflector; Bombshell himself turned into a gun; and Kickback had a cockpit for a Titan Master).
Despite the different gimmicks, they work very well together, except for different purples. The Insecticons really needed better color matching. I had been hoping that they would be re-released as a set with matching colors, but nope...
> Now that Hasbro is actively focusing on the relative scale of characters, though, it made sense to release the Insecticons at the Deluxe price point. The Insecticons weren't as small as Rumble/Frenzy, but they were bigger than the smallest Mini Autobots like Bumblebee or Cliffjumper. So, I'm glad we're finally getting larger versions of them. It would be great if they could pull double-duty as the 1985 Deluxe Insecticons, too. (Ransack was similar in design to Kickback; Shrapnel could be repurposed as Chop Shop. If they retooled Bombshell into Barrage, then that would just leave Venom.)
Kickback feels a little too large, honestly. I think Deluxe is a better choice than core, but a little smaller would be better.
> Anyway! Kickback is 5" at the head, with his antenna adding another quarter-inch or so. The insect antennas on either side of his head are nice and rubbery, which I like (the ones on the G1 toy were hard plastic, and were notoriously fragile). His chest panel is translucent plastic, but does not open up like the G1 version did. It looks like there's a hinge, but there are tabs that keep it locked in place. His wings are translucent as well.
The translucent chest should have had the interior sculpted better, as they did the silver-on-the-inside trick. Bring out more faux mechanical details with sharp lines, rather than the weirdly organic looking curves.
The clear wings kind of bother me -- for a toy that is trying to be cartoon/toy accurate to 1984-5, it's a big change. Either go for a strict homage, or don't.
> Even though there don't seem to be Weaponizers in this toy line just yet, Kickback is designed to be C.O.M.B.A.T.-ready and has peg-holes in the forearms, shoulders, his back, the sides of his legs, and the bottoms of his feet. (Then again, we don't know what the Energon Monsters are just yet. That could be some kind of new Modulator style toy.)
The Energon Monsters are Hitler, Jeffrey Dahlmer, and Jane Austin molded in clear plastic.
> In addition to his machine gun, Kickback also comes with two blades, which are translucent plastic and tinted purple. The instructions suggest various uses—plugged into the sides of his robot arms, carrying them like swords, or bolstering his own insect wings—but I think their true intended purpose is to complete the missing thorax for his insect mode. You can plug one or both of them into the gap between his rear legs, making him more entymologically authentic. I kind of liked the blast effects better. They were more versatile. You could use them on literally any toy. These weird wing-shaped things only really work for Kickback.
The thorax is really needed though. I'm glad they were included. They are probably more necessary on Ransack than Kickback (Deluxe Insecticon means Thorax!), but it's a nice inclusion here.
(And, while the clear wings bother me on such a G1 accurate toy, these don't since it isn't required)
> You don't even need the instructions. Just throw them away. His transformation is G1. Well, there are a couple of minor tweaks. There's a new flip-up panel which can cover his robot face, which is nice (but not entirely necessary, to be honest, since you could totally see his robot face in the cartoon, even when he was transformed).
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> His grasshopper mode is about six inches long, and looks a lot like an upscaled version of the G1 toy. He's honestly really great. His handheld gun can store under the grasshopper mode for safe keeping. The robot legs have a lot more articulation this time, of course, which means the grasshopper legs can move around a lot more, too.
I hope this is the last time they try to reproduce this design, as it doesn't work as well with the modern jointing. G1 Kickback's hips couldn't go out, so the grasshopper form was more stable. Maybe it just needs a few tweaks to the design to make it stable -- some cross-leg support, or folding the thighs into the shins?
Also, I'm 95% certain mine came misassembled. The teeny, tiny grasshopper rear feet are on the wrong legs, so the gaps are on the outside. At least he doesn't have two left feet or anything, so it's easy to switch around.
> I guess these are armybuilder toys, aren't they? I wonder how many Insecticon clones are a good number without being absurd. I suppose I'll shoot for three of each one, so I can have three main Insecticons and a swarm of six clones. That seems doable. (Guess that means I'm not canceling my Hasbro Pulse pre-order.)
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> SKIDS
A lot of people thought that the jeepy thing in the Jurassic Park set was going to be a premold of Skids... and if it is, it's such a radical premold that I don't see it. I'll admit to not having played with both at the same time, but they seem entirely different. It makes me wonder if Comrade Park Vehicle or whatever his name was is going to get used again.
> Poor Skids was not an important Autobot in the cartoon by any stretch of the imagination (he only made two appearances, and in one of them he was completely demolished). But, he exists, and the previous Generations toy we got of the character in 2013 was not adequate by any means.
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> In robot mode, Skids is five inches tall. For some reason, his cartoon model gave him splashes of color that his G1 toy didn't actually have—yellow headlights, orange fog lamps, and a two-tone color scheme with both blue and light blue parts. Hasbro decided to shy away from the sky blue, but we do get the painted headlights and fog lamps, so that's something. This toy has silver painted upper legs, which seems to be based on the color of the consumer-applied stickers on the G1 toy. His color mapping is pretty good, but I wish he had red-colored fists instead of black.
Given that there is a red plastic sprue, I don't understand why the firsts are black. I don't think there is a different type of plastic being used for fists and feet or crotches.
> The way he was drawn in the show and comics has his arms positioned unusually low on his body. This toy can be configured so that the shoulders are either high up, near his head, or lower on his torso as per his animation design. It's great to have options! He comes with two cartoon-based weapons to mount to his forearms (the G1 toy couldn't hold things; he had Insecticon/Aerialbot style guns that would slide over his arms) plus a translucent blue axe-like thing. All three weapons can combine together.
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> My toy came mistransformed in the package, with the rear wheels already visible. They're supposed to fold down and tuck under his feet when he's in robot mode.
It's a shame that the front wheels cannot fold in too, to give him a Back To The Future Flight Mode. Not that he ever seemed to have one, but it would have been fun. And the reason he got so few cartoon appearances might have been that he was hovering out of frame.
My biggest complaint with this toy, though, is the clear plastic. There's a lot of panel massage getting everything together just right in vehicle mode, and it's panel massage with clear plastic, so I fear for his durability. Add to that the giant bright red strut that is visible through the windshield, and the silver legs... I think this is a toy that could really benefit from a Buzzworthy no-translucent-plastic variation.
They did a great job of matching the blue paint with the blue plastic though.
Overall, he's really fun, and looks like a G1 toy, despite being able to do non-G1 poses, like slouch his shoulders.