Review: #29
Brand: Transformers
Line: Revenge of the Fallen
Year of Release: 2009
Name: Skids
Allegiance: Autobot
Size Class: Human Alliance (Wave 3)
Variations: Repainted in black for the DOTM line
VEHICLE MODE:
Skids transforms into a green concept Chevrolet Beat with some black skid marks on the doors. The shade of green used is really nice, and the colourless transparent plastic is also a nice touch.
The details are great, especially the headlights. The back looks a bit plain due to the bare green plastic, but he has "Beat" sculpted just below the back window (it's really really small though). He has a little bit of kibble, you can see the feet hanging off the bottom from the back and the sides of his arms. However, they don't obstruct the clearance, Skids rolls very well.
Both doors open, and he features a fairly clean interior. The only proper car detailing is the driving wheel, he has a 'wall' blocking in the middle and rudimentary seats, nothing compared to the Alternators.
Being "Human Alliance", Mikaela can sit in the driver's seat and grasp the wheels with her hands. In terms of size and mass, he is a bit smaller than a Voyager but clearly has a bigger mass than Deluxes, kind of halfway (leaning more towards the Voyager side though). A great car that's displays well and has good play value.
TRANSFORMATION:
Skids has a very complex transformation with a lot of pegs and panels. The first time is particularly annoying but there are a few clever aspects, it doesn't save him as I dread it every time I switch between the modes. The one annoying thing it when pulling or attaching the hood in car mode, some bits at the sides get stuck and you're in danger of stressing the plastic at those bits when struggling to pull it off. You'll notice when transforming Skids that he's very spindly, mainly due to the empty area for putting human figures in the vehicle mode.
MIKAELA BANES:
I'll focus on the human figurine in this set first, and we get Mikaela Banes, it doesn't look much alike Megan Fox though...
There is a very obvious hole at the back, this is for plugging her into the seats of Skids and other HA figures. She features the standard articulation, but she feels very rubbery, unlike the plastic on the robots.
Her face is freaky, with the positions the pupils are painted, and her faces looks very plasticky (well, I guess it is plastic but still, you should know what I meant). Due to her small feet, she's fairly hard to stand. A mediocre little figure, not that anyone will care, I highly doubt someone would buy the set just for the human figure.
ROBOT MODE:
Going back to the robot, Skids is still, at the bare-most level, an ugly robot, albeit looking leaps and bounds better than the Deluxe version. You might not notice straight away, but the grill on his chest is fake, the real one is on the back, but his chest looks so natural.
You don't notice many details looking at the back... this is because he wears most of the vehicle there, completely obstructing the view.
It is more clear from the side how much he is just wearing on his back, pretty much the whole vehicular shell, which is a kind of a disappointment. You'll also notice the thin 'spine', that's it for the body, so Skids doesn't feel very solid when you can see the straight through his body just from looking from the side.
It might be coz they lost the black, or it's better proportioned, but the head, while still ugly, is bearable. He has a gimmick here that when you pressed this middle protruding 'crest', his mouth moves, to simulate him speaking, it's an okay gimmick.
Skids has a gun on his oversized right hand, the sad thing is that the seat can only flip down flat if the gun is situated to the side, a slight annoyance. The gun is also a missile launcher so you can fire the missile if you want.
Skids interact with Mikaela in a few ways, the first is flipping open the seat on his left arm and placing her there. This is where the peg hole on Mikaela's back come in handy, as it prevents her from falling over.
The second place is on the right arm, you can now flip up the gun and handles for Mikaela to control. This position is the best looking out of all the places.
The last is a flip over Gatling cannon over Skids head with Mikaela standing in the space on Skids back (between his head and backpack). I find that the platform at the back isn't high enough for Mikaela to stand so she's situated there a bit loosely (only the grip of her hands is preventing her from falling), fairly unstable.
Poseability is good and what you would expect, only weird thing is that the 'knee' swivel is below the double hinged knee joints (the double hinge makes Skids a bit weak there and more likely to keel over). The backpack is a problem but his feet is big enough to cope with it. A nice solid robot that is screen accurate, the best representation of Skids yet.
OVERALL:
A good robot mode and an excellent vehicle mode, only separated by a painstaking transformation process. Despite the higher price, I would recommend this version of Skids over any other (including the DOTM ones). Once you've got him in one of the modes, he is extremely fun.
Name: Arcee
Allegiance: Autobot
Size Class: Human Alliance (Wave 3)
Variations: repainted in purple as Elita-One and came with the DOTM Skids
VEHICLE MODE:
Arcee transforms into a motorbike that bears some similarities to the one seen in the movie (a Ducati 848). It is a fairly messy bike but not bad considering that she is sized between a Legend and Scout. She can stand upright thanks to a molded kickstand.
I forgot to take a photo but Mikaela can ride on top, although she doesn't peg in or anything, she's just resting there, but it's better than nothing. The bike is pinker than I would like it, a deeper red would be nice. Not a bad bike mode, just that the front is a bit off.
TRANSFORMATION:
A very simplistic transformation that works really well, in bike mode everything plugs in very securely, while robot mode is okay. The transformation is made easy due to the many big blocky pieces of plastic that you move around.
ROBOT MODE:
Must be the set of the uglies, but again, Arcee is better than her other incarnations. A thing you'll notice is that although the colours are Arcee, it is using the model of Chromia, they mixed up the colouring...
She has a huge gun as her left hand, this makes her hard to balance unless it's crossing her chest due to the small 'footprint'. She has a wheel for her foot, with a small panel underneath such that she can actually stand upright.
The head is really ugly for some reason, and doesn't look at all like the character model, I guess being painted weirdly doesn't help. Sadly, her left elbow is fixed in place, making posing a nightmare.
You can actually place Mikaela on top of the gun and it looks okay like that, it gives some interaction in robot mode.
OVERALL:
Not the best Arcee (I think the Legends version is more impressive) but considering everything, I think they've done a bang up job, looking plausible in both modes.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:
A good set, and frankly, better toys than HA Sideswipe. I only got Skids coz I wanted to have the HA version of his brother, Mudflap, together (they do look great together if you want to know). He is an okay toy, I wouldn't say it was outstanding, I definitely wouldn't give it to a kid to play with as they'll more than likely break it while trying to transform the thing.
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Some photo galleries of Skids, Arcee and Mikaela can be found here, here and here.
Credit: pictures and text is all mine, but I've linked a few pages to TFwiki.net and Wikipedia
Thank you for reading this review, more can be found here.
