Cliffbee.com Boss Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Boss
Series: "European" G1
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Force Leader
Alternate Mode: Sports Car



CAR MODE
Height: 3.5cm Length: 13.5cm Width: 3.5cm

   A baby blue sports car with transparent pink windows and headlights, Boss bears an uncanny resemblance to the Batmobile, since his missile launcher is embedded in the middle of his car, and the front of the car ends looking like a giant turbine (it looks like it has blades inside too). He has an Autobot symbol on his roof and you can attach yellow missiles on the edges of the spoiler and another in the turbine - which makes him look less like the Batmobile, although not all that much. His engine block, which is the launcher's main block, is a dark blue, and the two blues work well together. In fact, the baby blue is a nice shade anyway, and Boos looks unusually good for a pastel coloured Transformer.

   Boss has black wheels which are slightly smaller than they should be, but I don't mind since if they were oversized he'd look more like some weird Batman toy. Aside from the turbine-front you could believe this is a real car model - although I don't think it is. He has moulded taillights, but below these he sports red orange and white stickers - which looks pretty weird. You can easily skip applying the stickers, although this will leave the back of the car entirely blue.

   As with all Turbomasters, Boss's main gimmick is the missile launcher, and it shoots a yellow missile about two feet (60cm) - it would go further if the launcher wasn't so close to the ground. It just hit my cat, who looks very unimpressed, but can't work out what hit him. The missiles are small and light, so yellow isn't a bad choice since it makes them easy to find. Thankfully they resisted using too many colours here - the yellow and pink are bright, but neutralised by the dullish baby blue. Oh, Boss can also roll along on his wheels if pushed, despite sitting very low to the ground.

   I like this vehicle mode, and while it's not fantastic, it does what it has to. Boss is most famous for looking like Bruce Wayne's ride, so I suppose the location of his launcher is what defines Boss. The front mounted launcher does look pretty good in itself, and is far better integrated here than on the other small Turbomasters.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Flip the rear over to become his boots and rotate his legs. Pull the front fenders out to the sides to become his arms, detach the launcher from whichever arm is clings to (assuming it doesn't fall out). Fold the fenders back to become shoulderpads, flip out his head and rotate the roof to become his chest. Place the launcher in his hand.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 12cm Width: 5.5cm

   Again mainly baby blue, Boss dark blue shoulders and thighs as well as a dark blue head with silver mouthplate and transparent pink eyes. The lightpipe doesn't work very well, but the face looks pretty good anyway. In fact the head looks vaguely like that of Optimus Prime, moreso than that of Thunderclash, who is also a leader of the Turbomasters (not sure why a team of six needs two leaders). The transparent pink windows on his chest break up what is otherwise a two tone blue robot mode. All told, this is a nice colour scheme - but then again I usually like blue.

   The spare missiles now mount on his knees, and while they look really good in car mode they're not quite as exciting now so you can remove them if you like. The launcher makes for a hefty gun, and if you remove the missile it could be some sort of wind-gun - although a launcher is more menacing than a hair dryer. The missile shoots further now since the launcher is higher off the ground, and I managed to miss the cat this time around, sending it around five feet (150cm) along the floor.

   The G1 line just before the Actionmasters had too many toys whose robot modes didn't make use of vehicle mode features, but by the Turbomasters the designers had reversed this trend. Boss has _lots_ of car visible. The roof on his chest looks really good even if the windows are pink, and is reminiscent of Tracks. His boots are the back of the car mode, and the spoiler is on his knees. The front fenders form shoulderpads that point backwards and give Boss fairly unusual arms. I like the effect, it gives this robot personality and makes the fenders a feature rather than kibble.

   Poseability is about what you'd expect of a European late G1 toy. His shoulders rotate, lifting his arms up will cause the shoulderpads to swing down but you can always lift those back up if you like. His waists swivels, which is a by product of the transformation, and a nice bonus. On my Boss the chest tends to sit slightly askew, leaning a little to his right. There's an internal spring designed to prevent the joint becoming loose with age, but even at ten years old, the spring is a little tighter than it should be. Still, it's easy enough to correct and better tight that too loose.

   A nice robot mode, I really like the emphasis on car aspects becoming robot mode features. The colours work and he's well proportions, so it's a robot mode I like. There's not really much play value, but he's no worse than any other Transformer of the era.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of. Boss wasn't sold in the United States, although he did reach Australia, Canada, Europe and Japan.

OVERALL

   While he's best known for his Batmobile looks, Boss is a good toy in his own right. I have a feeling the Batmobile semblance was either intentional or realised during design, since the "turbine" has blades. I'm glad they didn't ham it up and make him a caricature, since Boss is a nice toy in his own right. Worth picking up if you're a G1 fan - even for those in USA - 7/10

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