Cliffbee.com Rook Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Rook
Series: Convention Exclusives
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Journalist
Vehicular Mode: Corvette



CAR MODE
Height: 2cm Length: 5.5cm Width: 3.5cm

   Rook's car mode is small and grey, basically. He has mid blue windows (and targa-top windows), blue sunshielded windows at rear. There are some black robot bits visible on the sides, front and back, the front bit just looks like a bumper, aside from the loop to which you can attach the keychain. He has a silver grill at the front and a foil Autobot symbol sticker on the hood

   He's not terribly a realistic Corvette, but you have to remember that in Microman, he was a toy car that turned into a robot - so he's not meant to be realistic anyway. No problems with Chevrolet & licensing as such..

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Fold the rear of the car down to become the legs, pull the front fenders out and slide them down to become the arms. Stand him up.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 7cm to the head Width: 4cm

   Rook's robot mode is very simple, and he has a simple face. He has grey arms, grey & blue lower legs, silver thighs, a black chest & head (one piece), a silver mouthplate and blue eyes. He's cute, but it's pretty much an ornament. This isn't necessarily a bad thing for a keychain - poseability would make it delicate - not that I recommend using your BotCon toys as keychains..

   His arms move up and down on swivel joints, and you can bend his knees (part of the transformation) but that's it. He comes with an Autobot symbol sticker on his chest. Mine came applied with this sticker upside down, so I'm glad it was a foil sticker not a paper one that you can't remove without damaging.

   Don't get me wrong I like Rook, but there's not really all that much to his robot mode. It's simple but still a pretty cool little Autobot. I never thought much of the colour scheme until mine arrived in the mail, but I must say he has a rather nice colour scheme..

VARIATIONS

   A repaint of the Windcharger keychain, Rook is a BotCon Europe exclusive, and as such is likely to be a single production run.

OVERALL

   Very simple in both design & transform, Rook is not for those who like to play and pose. But it's an old mould, and it's a BotCon toy anyway, you get it for the rarity, not the play value. As with many of the BotCon toys in the Hallit era, he was overproduced and hence fairly inexpensive, so he's worth the going rate if you like Minicars as I do - 6.5/10

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