Cliffbee.com Kick-Off Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Kick-Off
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Security Expert
Alt Mode: None (was an all terrain vehicle of some sort)

Thanks to Demonac for lending me Kick-Off for this review, and helping me acquire my own Kick-Off.



ROBOT MODE
Height: 10cm Width: 4cm

   With a white chest, black and orange arms and groin, grey thighs, black and red boots and a grey and red head, Kick-Off is one of the less cohesive Actionmasters, yet it all comes together very well. The face is yellow with red eyes while there's some yellow on his chest in the form of a bumper and some headlights. The head is sculpted like a racing helmet and the eyes like a visor, giving him something of a racing driver feel. This is an attractive robot mode rounded out by an Autobot symbol in the middle of a red stripe running down his chest.

   The chest is quite obviously the front of a motor vehicle, with the headlights, bumper and red stripe joined by a black winch just under the bumper, on his waist. There are big treaded tyres on his shoulders which, along with the winch, suggest that the original alt mode was some sort of dune buggy.

   Kick-Off's poseability is typical for an Actionmaster - his head turns, arms rotate and legs have G.I. Joe poseability (fully poseable hips, knees bend 90 degrees). The shoulders attach in the centre of the tyres, so rotating his arms rotates the tyres.

THE TURBO PACK

   A black backpack with neon orange winglets on either side that match his orange handgun, the Turbo Pack has colours that actually match Kick-Off - which is somewhat rare for an Actionmaster accessory. There's a black barrel which can flip out over his right shoulder, and this works really well even if it's not really designed to do so. The barrel is for combined gun mode, which is not only unstable but looks really poor.

   The Turbo Pack is a good backpack, although it's gun mode is a waste of time. The shoulder cannon makes it work and the colours make it well suited to Kick-Off.

VARIATIONS

   None that I know of.

OVERALL

   The colours probably aren't the best ever, but the overall look is pretty good and certainly beats the neon on some Actionmasters. The dune buggy theme is nifty even if it's not quite as interesting as some of the suggested alt modes on other Actionmasters. The Turbo Pack works better than most of the non-droid partners, making for a pretty good Actionmaster set - 7/10

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