Cliffbee.com Hooligan Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Hooligan
Series: Generation 2
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Hit And Run
Alternate Mode: Fighter Jet



JET MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 11cm Width: 7cm, 11cm with wings out

   An orange swing wing fighter jet with a black missile launcher claw on top, black undercarriage and black tiger stripes on the fuselage, wings and tailwings. The wings are actually black plastic with orange stickers. The stripes run across the top of the jet, and along the length of the wings, so if they're retracted they don't align with the fuselage stripes. I suppose the wings are meant to be extended in this mode. The canopy is transparent yellow while the missile is a solid yellow. On the whole it's a good colour scheme. The orange and black go very well together, the yellow isn't all that great but is close enough to orange that it doesn't hurt any.

   There are orange stickers on the inside of his tailfins, with the number "002" on them and drawings of a European dragon below the number. This is the sort of marking you'd expect to find on a fighter, and is a nice touch. Hooligan lacks any allegiance symbols - in fact there's not even a G2 stamp anywhere - which is unusual for a G2 toy.

   There's a little bit of undercarriage, namely the red and orange robot legs and waist. None of it really stands out, and the red blends into the orange anyway. The rear wheels fold down from his robot legs and the front wheel folds out from under the nose, while the red groin sits under the cockpit minding it's own business.

   Aside from the already mentioned wheels, the swing wings and missile launcher give Hooligan pretty good play value for a small toy. The missile launcher is a ball-pressure affair. Basically, you push on the back of the missile until the ball slips out of the claw and the missile flies across the room. The upside is that there aren't any moving parts to wear out, but these aren't as powerful as spring launchers. Hooligan comes with two yellow missiles, and the spare can stow thanks to a notch on the underside. The launcher is on a ball joint, so if you unclip it from the top of the fuselage it'll point in any direction other than those blocked by the tailwings - you can even swing it underneath the plane!

   On the whole, this is a very good fighter jet. The aposematic colours work well and the launcher is a lot of fun. There's also some plane lines on the mould, as well as the tail stickers, so his finer details are also good.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Pretty involved for a small Transformer, and difficult to really describe. Basically, the landing gear folds away and wings retract, the legs swing out from underneath, the front of the jet becomes the front of his torso and the rear his back. The missile launcher becomes his right forearm while the left arm was buried inside the toy.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 10cm Width: 7cm

   Again mainly orange, but now the red is more prominent than the black - he has red upper arms and thighs, a red head and a black right forearm. There are some tiger stripes on his chest, but most of the stripes are now on his back. You can swing the wings out in this mode if you like, although they're not really meant to stick out the sides and look pretty kibbly if you do. The back is pretty much a pile of wings and fins, but it's all close to his centre of gravity so there's not really a problem with stability. The relegation of the stripes to his back helps the robot colour scheme of red and orange, with black and yellow now only minor colours.

   Hooligan's head is actually red painted over transparent yellow. His face is an unpainted transparent yellow "T" shape, which works in the same way as Shockwave's eye works - simple and effective. The lightpipe effect works really well, which justifies the transparent face. There's also the yellow cockpit and yellow missiles.

   The missile launcher come right hand works just as well in this mode, and if unloaded, the claw is about the right size to be a claw-hand for Hooligan. The left hand can hold his other missile, or you can attach it to the notch on the underside of his left forearm.

   The missile launcher is only half the coolness of this robot mode. The neck, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees are all ball jointed and with the exception of the neck have wide ranges of movement. A wide range of poses are possible, and he can aim his missile or use his spare as a club.

   I can't really fault this robot mode. For the time the poseability was nothing short of revolutionary and even today the Cyberjets have terrific poseability. The colours work, the missile launcher is cool and the lightpipe is a success. All up a great robot mode.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of.

OVERALL

   Two good modes, a complex but not difficult transformation, good colours and tremendous play value for a small toy make Hooligan a great toy. G2 produced some really poor toys, but it also produced gems like this guy. I'd strongly recommend you pick up either Hooligan or Jetfire, a repaint of Hooligan. If only all G2 toys were this good - 9.5/10, only losing 0.5 for a lack of allegiance symbols

"Transformers" and other indica trademarks of Hasbro and/or Takara.