[REVIEW-KO] Quick Change Animal Robot Transforming System
ShadowWing
up these four in various identities (I think another KO company had them, or
Quick Change used different packaging) for a while now. Yesterday I saw them
at the Bristol, CT Big Lots (along with the Protectobots and Aerialbot
knockoffs, the Dinosaur Robot, and the Insects--the latter also packaged
separately on another rack) in a "giftpack" set, and decided to grab them
while I had the chance. For knockoffs they're pretty well made, like the
Valdigus set.
I've decided that these guys, like most of my other knockoffs, will join
the "Neutrals", dedicated to protecting the civilians from the Decepticons
while proving to the Autobots that they "don't need your stinking help, so
just concentrate on stopping this stupid war". That's why they carry
weapons. ^_^ First up:
THEIR NAME: Red-Eagle
MY NAME: Sunflare
I'm changing the names because...I don't like them. Sunflare works
better for me, since I see him similar to a phoenix, but I don't know if
that's what they had in mind. I can't judge on their QC names, which seem
mostly designed to reflect their colors. Red-Eagle/Sunflare is definitely a
bird, though, and since he forms the body of the combined bot (a status
symbol for your faction, which is why I needed one for the Neutrals:) .
Let's start with beast mode. Besides what you've gathered from his name,
Sunflare has gold vacuum-metalized wings, with red accents which complements
the wings quite well. He also has white legs with yellow talons, a white
beak, blue eyes, and some yellow headgear of some kind, similar to antennas
on a Prime. There are black accents on his legs, and two stickers with
another on his back that give it a mecha look. The wings can also move up
and down and fold it, but that may be just to get them out of the way in
robot mode. His white arms are also somewhat visible, a flaw his teammates
share. Finally, there's a grey panel on his butt that hides the combiner
head. Not as good looking as the Transmetals but I kind of like him.
I'll just say this right now and get it over with: robot mode tends to
suffer on all four of these guys, made up for with the other two modes, at
least to me. I'll also note that Quick Change (and parent KO company
Midwestern Home Products) continues its tradition of not bothering with
minor details like INSTRUCTIONS, so transformation tends to be guesswork on
my part. Where the little pegs seem to go in robot mode tends to make the
bird "thighs" and feet force our hero to stand at an angle, The wings also
do that, but are more difficult to get out of the way. There is also some
extra grey on his face and the triangle on his helmet. The bird head is
quite prominent on his chest, but can be removed, a necessity for combiner
mode, which I'll get to later. Following the box art and color scheme, he
has a small saber, also vac-metal or just shiny with a red jewel in the
hilt, and a white shield with a red square. His arms move, and that's about
it for articulation, especially with the unileg. This is sadly not unique
among his teammates.
NEXT UP:Green-Bull
MY NAME: ShadowWing, did you forget already?
MY NAME FOR GREEN-BULL: Toros? I'm still working on it, I guess.
Renaming Green-Bull is important for one reason--THE SUCKER AIN'T GREEN!
He's purple. (I'm just assuming he's colorblind. :) He's not totally purple,
but the only green is on his stickers, which in typical Quick Change fashion
were applied with the same care that most of us gave our Transformers back
in the day--which is to say "it's there, it's fine". Vac-metal gold for the
horns and upper legs with gold eyes and some things on his head. His white
legs have black hooves and purple "legwarmers" on his back legs as well as a
yellow tail. When he came in the package, his robot head was visible and the
only way to get it out of the way is to put it in the same spot as in
combiner mode. Not bad, but it involves splitting the robot in half, which
I'll explain later.
There's also this odd little piece in his colors that doesn't seem to
belong and isn't in the photo or art on the box. It's purple, with red and
green designs running around it, but the pegs don't seem to go anywhere. It
was pretty much around his neck. I've decided to ignore it since it doesn't
even seem usable. I should also note that even in the photo, Purple-Bull is
indeed green.
Nothing new in robot mode. The beast head still gets in the way, but
removing it makes his difficult to stay together, since he splits in half to
form the combiner arms. This does have one positive aspect; while
technically Green/Purple bull still has the unileg, the split down the
middle makes it looks like he has two legs. The box gives him the axe and
the shield with a circle on it. Both the square jewel on the axe and the
circle on the shield are green. Like I said, he's colorblind.
THEY CALLED HIM: Blue-Puma
I CALL HIM: Sparkstalk
This guy could almost be the illiegitate child of a Zoid and
Metalgarurumon from Digimon. I'm not sure how puma-like he is, but at least
he's the right color for his QC name. He also has some green spots, some
poorly applied mecha stickers, a black nose and tail, plus red eyes, and a
non-working missile launcher with three white molded-in missiles. His paws
are also black on white legs. I just like the look of the little guy, even
though he's not nearly as advanced-looking as the Transformers of today.
His robot mode is...a robot mode. His design and a small spot on his
helmet have some grey but that's about it. The launcher now becomes a
useless piece, but he's not unarmed. He has a...tuning fork?...with a blue
jewel and blue triangle on his shield. The beast head can be taken off for a
better-looking chest, but that's the best I've got.
AND HE WAS DUBBED: Golden-Lion
BUT SHALL NOW BE: Goldleo
He's more yellow than gold, actually. He and his fellow leg,
Blue-Puma/Sparkstalk has no vac-metal at all, giving the other two more gold
than the guy with gold in his name. Still, a yellow lion isn't a bad thing,
and this guy looks like a support unit for Voltron. The stickers are the
best applied of the four, which isn't saying much, but there's some extra on
one of his stickers. Not-so-Golden-Lion also has red highlights on his mane,
eyes, tail, and the gun that just about clears his head. Luckily he can
rotate it, like his pal's missile launcher. There are also some hoses on his
legs and back that aren't painted. His nose, paws, and some other areas are
black, with white on his muzzle and legs. It's a nice combination.
Robot mode--well, you know. Some grey on his face and helmet, has a
unileg, small white arms--it never ends. You actually have to take the beast
head off, since the mane just gets in the way of his arms, especially if you
want him to make any real use of his spear and shield, both with a yellow
"V" design worked in. Luckily, all these crappy robot modes come with nice
beast modes and a combiner mode to rival some of his G1 peers. To wit:
COMBINER NAME:
SO LET'S CALL HIM: Animalbot or...something
Now this is pretty nice. The removed heads of the beast are placed in
different spots. The bull head attached to Red-Eagle/Sunflare's combiner
head, forming a war helmet; the Golden-Lion/Goldleo head connects to the
chest better than it does it's true owner, and the bird and puma heads go on
the shoulders. An extra piece (actually two pieces, a connector in
Sunflare's colors and a vac-metal cod piece similar to those used by many
"Scramble City" combiners) connects the legs. The weapons take a cue from
the Beast Wars combiners. The individual robots' weapons combine into a
sword the Voltrons would be jealous of, and the individual shields combine
into a big diamond-shaped shield thanks to a black-and-red circle piece that
helps keep them together. (The shields interlock, with the extra piece being
used to help hold them in place.) The robot face itself is grey with red
eyes and while it eyes and a "nose", I can't see any mouth or mask.
This is where the lack of instructions really got on my nerves. It took
a lot more trial and error than one would think the target audience would
bother with without knowing what they were doing. Because of where the heads
are, looking at the photos on the box would make it look like Goldleo forms
the body, Sparkstalk and Sunflare form the arms, and who knows where the
legs came from. However, Sunflare forms the body, Toros splits into the
arms, and Goldeo and Sparkstalk form the legs, with their heads going all
over the place. The result, once you figure it out, is worth the work.
The sword stays together quite well, although it's not packaged fully
connected. (You need to push in a little more than they did. The shield's
holding pegs (for the individual robots) can swing around so you can have
Animalbot can hold the shield with whatever design you want at the top. Just
be careful, since the pegs are rather loose and come off pretty easy. Plus
they're small.
FINAL ANALYSIS: The individual robot modes suck, but the beast and combined
modes make up for it, and it's not often I see a combiner made from four
robots (the Build Team is the only other one I know of personally). He just
really works, holds together quite well, and if your a knockoff fan, I can
recommend Quick Change Animal Robot Transforming System. Now if I could just
integrate the missile launcher and laser cannon I wouldn't have any extra
parts lying around. Except for that collar thing.
