Name: Dirtboss
Series: Movie Tie-ins
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Forklift
FORKLIFT MODE
Height: 5.5cm Length: 9.5cm Width: 3.5cm
A tennis ball green and mud brown forklift, Dirtboss has brown tyres, forks and a brown rollcage while much of the rest of the toy is green. There's a brown Decepticon logo stamped on the left side and some bronze diamond grip on either side, but Dirtboss is essentially green and brown. I get the bright green for a vehicle which could be a workplace hazard, but I don't see why Dirtboss has so much brown. Surely a mainly green or yellow vehicle with black tyres and maybe some dangers stripes would have been better. As it is, the brown only serves to highlight the green as garish, and while the green _is_ garish, it's meant to be for safety reasons - this effect is lost with the second colour. While I don't hate this colour scheme, I think the decision to heavily offset the green wasn't the right one.
For the first Transformers forklift (I'm not going to count Armada's Liftor, which was a rocket car with forks), this is a very good effort. The rollcage, hydraulics, forks and inner cabin are all done well and there's really no kibble here. On mine the front lifting assembly is a little crooked, but I'm not sure if this is across all toys so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The sculpt is better than you might expect from a Scout, and while some of the details could have done with black paint (lights on the cage, crossheads), it's an impressive forklift.
The play value is very limited which is to be expected at this size. The wheels roll and the lifting assembly can rock back and forth, and that's it. A working lift assembly wouldn't be something I expect here, and I'm happy with the realistic looking vehicle that we get. He's devoid of gimmicks, but Dirtboss focuses on being a good forklift.
A well detailed mould and an excellent first effort for a Transformers forklift, even if the colour scheme chosen misses the mark. The play value is by the numbers but that's usual for a Scout. I'm not really sure why a vehicle destined to spend it's existence in a warehouse or industrial yard - on concrete - would be called Dirtboss, mind you. Overall this is a good vehicle mode.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Unclip the feet inside the front wheels, split the front and fold the front and sides back. Fold down the legs, fold out his feet and stand Dirtboss up. Fold back the inner cabin (steering wheel, seat) onto his back, slide up the rollcage to form shoulders - this also makes the head slide up out of his torso. Swing the assembly halves forward as arms, fold the forks down as blades and you're done.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 10.5cm Width: 7cm
A brown, bronze and green robot, Dirt Boss has a brown and bronze chest, bronze boots and green arms and thighs. The head and groin are brown along with the blades on his arms. The brown rollcage halves form sort of shoulder pads. The colours map very well here, it has to be said - there's less tennis ball green so he's not as garish here. There's a red circle on his chest while his face is bronze with red eyes. While the colours here look great, I still don't see why the vehicle mode needs so much brown - there's almost no brown here which is carried over from the vehicle mode. Dirtboss has no allegiance symbol visible in robot mode. A good colour scheme with great colour mapping.
Dirtboss is a very short Scout, at least at the top of his head. His rollcage pieces bring him to slightly above average for the size class, but he won't look too many Transformers eye to eye. His body is still well proportioned, thankfully. The arms could do with some paint to help discern his hands from some kibble behind them - you'll notice the brown blades at the end of this kibble rather than his hands, but otherwise this is a visually appealing robot mode. The shoulderpads and blades are nice visual features rather than awkward kibble.
The poseability here is pretty good for a Scout with a lot of forklift on his edges. His head and waist are fixed, the head was always going to be fixed for this sort of transformation on a small toy. The shoulders, elbows, hips and knees are all ball jointed while his wrists and ankles are hinged. The wrists allow Dirtboss to use his blades while the ankles give Dirtboss stability in action poses. There are no gimmicks, however yet again this allows him to focus on being a good robot - and with impressive poseability.
A great robot mode with no major flaws. The colours work very well here, the poseability is impressive and fun and the forklift aspects are well integrated. As seems to be a theme with ROTF Scouts there are no detachable weapons, but the forks work well as blades, giving Dirtboss melee weapons. This is his better mode, mainly for the colours.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of. Deadlift is a repaint of Dirtboss.
OVERALL
A fantastic mould, which is very impressive considering he's the first Transformers forklift. Both modes are well thought out with a realistic vehicle mode and a poseable robot mode devoid of annoying kibble. The colours are the achilles here - they work well in robot mode but the vehicle mode is caught moving away from realism and towards garish. I'd easily recommend Dirtboss, despite the clearly inappropriate name and slightly-off-the-mark colours. I'm hoping there's a repaint down the track in more realistic colours, but I'm far from unhappy with Dirtboss - 9/10
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