Cliffbee.com Charger Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Charger
Series: "European" Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Flame Thrower
Alt Mode: None (was most likely a tank of some sort)



ROBOT MODE
Height: 9.5cm Width: 4.5cm

   A grass green robot with extensive grey on his arms and legs, a grey waist and black groin and thighs, Charger really looks like he was some sort of military vehicle. While he doesn't have any treads or wheels anywhere, he does have a four-barrelled cannon sticking out of his waist (yes, he has an "outie".). The combination of green grey and black is a good one, but there's some bright orange bits which drag it down a little. Thankfully this orange is restricted to stripes on his feet, headlights (or something similar) on his chest and his eyes. The face itself is silver, and the orange eyes are fine. Really, only the orange on his feet looks bad, and there's not much of it.

   A feature repeated throughout Charger's body is texture - he has got rough surfaces on his arms, legs and his chest, as well as his groin and small sections of his head. I like this because it shows they took time to give him detail, even though they didn't have an original toy to try emanate (as was the case with many Actionmasters). Having said that, his head is very reminiscent of Soundwave's except that it's green instead of blue. I'm pretty sure this is coincidental, since by the time Charger was released there was already an Actionmaster Soundwave.

   Poseability is the same as every other Actionmaster - head turns, arms rotate and legs have G.I. Joe poseability (fully poseable hips, knees bend 90 degrees). His handgun is black and has a giant windmill-like star on the barrel. While it doesn't look like a flame thrower, it's one of the cooler (and distinctive) Actionmaster handguns.

THE PARTNER - FIREBEAST

   While his name sucks, Firebeast is my favourite of the second year Actionmaster sidekicks. Actually he's the only one I like. He's a neon green and black rhino (green body, black head, legs and tail), and while these aren't fantastic colours, they're a close match to Charger's so his colour scheme works for him. He has a giant head with a huge front horn, and a black detachable twin barrelled cannon on his back that can rotate. I assume it's these barrels that spew fire - making Firebeast himself the flamethrower.

   Firebeast forms a backpack, which is standard for this set of Actionmasters. Swing his legs back (they've all got hip joints) and place him on Charger's back then pull up the tail slightly, the head will pop up over Charger’s head to form a battle helmet. The close colour match means this works quite well, and you can detach the flame thrower and put it in Charger's hand, so he has a windmill-gun in one hand and a flamethrower in another. And a giant rhino-head helmet.

VARIATIONS

   None that I know of. But they'd be worth an absolute fortune (c8

OVERALL

   Charger is a nice Actionmaster, and Firebeast compliments him quite well. The colours work, they combine well and Firebeast is actually OK on his own, unlike some of the Actionmaster accessories which aren't really anything more than a lump of plastic. While he's hard to find in the United States, if you're a fan of Actionmasters, I'd recommend tracking Charger down 8.5/10

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