Cliffbee.com Beast Machines Quickstrike Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Quickstrike
Series: Beast Machines
Allegiance: Maximal
Function: Reconnaissance/Warrior
Alternate Mode: Wolf



WOLF MODE
Height: 7cm Length: 11.5cm Width: 4cm

   A silver wolf with copper, transparent blue and brown highlights. His base plastic is for the most part a dull silver (almost grey), his tail and feet are transparent blue (as you do), with silver painted bits. His lower jaw, front ankles and hips are copper, and there's copper paint on his back forming a mane. The brown is painted on his head, back and forelegs.

   So yeah, it's a wolf with transparent feet. But then that's Beast Machines for you. Anyway, he has overly big feet, and the front of his body is also disproportionately big. His head is too small. His tail looks more like he has a blade sticking out the back rather than a bushy tail. It's the bad proportions that really hurt this mode, not the choice of plastics.

   It's not all bad news. Quickstrike does have a fair bit of poseability in his legs, and with the big feet it's pretty difficult to make him fall over. His lower jaw opens and shuts. His head is on a ball joint, but it's for the transform so whilst you can move it side to side moving it up and down gives him a hole in his neck.

   The colour scheme's good, odd use of transparent plastic aside, and the poseability is also pretty decent - better than a lot of quadrapedal Beast Wars figures. It's a shame his proportions are so weird, or I'd really get behind this mode. As it is, it's okay, but nothing special.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Grab the head and fold it down, with the belly. Open the hips out to the sides and snap them into place on his sides to form the robot shoulders. You'll notice his robot head is... well... the beast mode's genital area. I hate to point it out, but it's a rather noticeable feature of this toy I'm afraid. Anyway, push the head and neck down into the torso, the robot legs will slide down and the groin out from within the torso. Fold the beats head into the beast belly and push the belly in to form the robot chest. Rotate the waist, lift the robot head up, position the arms and straighten the ankles. Satisfying enough for a basic, and a fair bit more than the somewhat repetitive "stand up and fiddle" transforms that plagued Beast Machines Maximals.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 12cm Width: 5cm (shoulders)

   Again essentially silver, Quickstrike's got transparent blue upper arms and feet. His ankles, forehead and groin are copper. The brown's nowhere near as prevalent - restricted to his eyes and eyebrows. His left forearm is solid cast, but the right one is hollow - he has lots of holes on it, giving it a much darker look (and cheaper) - also making this mode rather asymmetrical. The blade-like tail is now pointing out the back of his head, it resembles a pony tail, more a samurai style than a schoolgirl's, though.

   The odd proportions of his beast mode are complimented by odd proportions in robot mode, but he pulls it off a lot better this time. His forearms are huge and he has no hands as such, instead just folded back paws (transparent blue, naturally). His groin is small while his chest is big and sticks out to the front. He does give the illusion of being ready to pounce, something he achieves in beast mode too - this is probably one of the better and more meaningful reuses of a Transformer name.

   Play value is probably the best feature of Quickstrike's robot mode. The soild left forearm has a little copper button, pressing it flicks out a spring-loaded transparent blue blade, which is as long as the forearm - about 4cm. The first Transformer with a switchblade! I really like this feature. Not only is it one hell of a big blade for the size of the toy, but it's fun to fidget with.

   Definitely his better mode, the transparent blue's not so out of place here, the play value's great and the unusual proportions work better in robot mode.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of.

OVERALL

   A toy I had an awful lot of trouble finding, part of a fairly small shipment of BM Basics in Australia - which made getting this guy something of an event for me. In fact it wasn't until halfway through the run of RiD that I saw Quickstrike on sale. And then there's the blade, which provided me with hours of fidget fun. Quickstrike is one of the few BM Maximals I actually like. He's not without his problems, but his gimmick actually works and his name suits. Robot mode is easily stronger, the beast mode fairly forgettable, but overall Quickstrike is worth the price of a basic - 6/10

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