Name: Thrust
Series: Beast Machines
Allegiance: Vehicon
Function: General
Alternate Mode: Cybertronian Motorcycle
MOTORCYCLE MODE
Height: 5.5cm Length: 19cm Width: 6.5cm
A maroon and yellow motorbike with some cobalt blue on the front support struts and tailpipes, Thrust also sports some chrome silver around his engines and on both hubcaps. The tyres are black plastic along with various pieces of both support struts while the windshield and a spark crystal immediately in front of that windshield are transparent green. Despite the multitude of colours, Thrust's colour scheme is actually quite unified, since everything is gear to supporting the maroon and yellow. It helps that the chrome and transparent green are only used where they make sense, mind you.
Long, low and sleek, Thrust looks like he's built for acceleration and nothing else. The tyres are wide, suggesting he'd have a good grip on the road - indeed he can easily stand on his tyres. The exhausts end in yellow claws, the right side claw can extend and open while the left can fire a transparent green missile. Both work backwards - they're not really intended for the bike mode - but nonetheless they're accessible. Thrust's other gimmick is specifically for his bike mode - there's a small rubber wheel underneath, if you push him along and press down the windshield assembly will turn to the left and snap back rapidly. This piece is specifically designed to resemble a head (as with many BM Vehicons), creating the illusion of Thrust scanning for Maximals are he cruises around. The only downside to this trick is that the windshield is detachable and would be very easy to lose.
His wheels don't roll as easily as I'd like - but he can roll when pushed. This doesn't really trouble me since if you're pushing Thrust along, you're looking at the pseudo-head. I'm more concerned with the number of pieces that detach easily for no good reason. Aside from the windshield, the front wheel cover and three left claw prongs all come off easily. OK, so I got my thrust new and I take care of him, but these pieces would make a complete Thrust hard to find second hand - and I don't see why they need to come off in the first place.
While there are some problems here, Thrust's motorbike mode is impressive. It looks really good, with a clever colour scheme and a very sleek feel. The main gimmick is fairly simple but works well. I just wish there weren't so many detachable pieces.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Split the front wheel to form feet, flip out the feet and heelspurs concealed within. Pull out the silver engine pieces, which become the shoulders. The tailpipes will loosen, turn the arms down, split the claws. Split the rear tyre, fold out the halves to form shoulderpads. Fold back and split the back cover of the bike, slide in the front wheel cover and then slide the central piece (robot head, windshield) up. Pull out and position his head. lastly straighten the legs and stand him up.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 16cm Width: 9.5cm
Again based around maroon and yellow, although Thrust's robot mode allows the other colours to come to the fore a little more. His shoulders are silver, the forearms cobalt blue. The thighs are also blue while his boots are black. The windshield piece is his chestplate, and has some green, including the spark crystal which is nicely positioned at the centre of his chest. The eyes are green with a working lightpipe while the four tyre halves are all visible - the front in the middle of his feet and the rear as shoulderpads. While the supporting colours are more visible now, Thrust's colours still manage to centre on the two main colours - ensuring the colour scheme still works.
As with many Beast Machines toys, Thrust prioritises style over substance. While this doesn't really affect the bike mode, his robot mode is quite unusual. He's very lanky - and I'm talking African famine lanky, not could-be-drafted-by-Chicago-Bulls lanky. The arms are long, the legs very thin. The stylistic problems mainly relate to his legs - sure the arms are strange, but they're _meant_ to be. The ankles are rotating joints - the feet tend to spin around when you lift Thrust up. As a result it's not easy to actually get this toy to stand - it can be downright annoying actually.
Thrust is quite poseable, even if he doesn't look like he would be. The head is on two ball joints and a hinge - the neck cranes, while the lower jaw opens and shuts. His shoulders, elbows and hips are ball jointed and his knees are hinged. The toes and heelspurs are hinged, and while these joints are transformation joints, they help in standing Thrust. The claws open, the left side manually and the right as part of one of his two gimmicks.
The left hand contains that missile launcher the right side is the grappling claw. Both are far more useful than in the bike mode - and the poseable arms makes them worthwhile gimmicks. Adding to the play value, Thrust has two semi-modes available. The first is a wheeled robot mode which simply involves folding up the feet and forming the front wheel - allowing Thrust to balance on one wheel as in the cartoon. There's no way for Thrust to stand unassisted in this configuration, bit if you're playing that's not so much of an issued. The other semi-mode is a three-wheeled mode - essentially the same with the shoulderpads folded down and the front wheel pushed out to the front. This one is stable if not as convincing.
While the wheeled robot mode provides play value (and cartoon accuracy) it impacts on the stability of the legged robot mode. Thrust's colours work as does his rather unusual style - not always the case in Beast Machines. The poseability is good, other than the troublesome ankles. If you like Beast Machines you should like this robot mode.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of. Thrust is meant to represent the same spark as Waspinator.
OVERALL
While he's not without his flaws, Thrust is a good toy. He's certainly better than many BM Maximals which also try to be stylistic. Thrust certainly has an unusual style in robot mode, but both modes still work and the poseability of his robot mode largely makes up for the dodgy ankles. The wheeled robot mode will appeal to fans of the cartoon. The bike mode looks really nice and while there are a lot of pieces that can pop off this toy, Thrust is still worthwhile if you like the idea - 7/10
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