Name: Skids
Series: Movie Tie-ins
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Chevy Beat Car
CAR MODE
Height: 2.5cm Length: 6.5cm Width: 3cm
A grass green subcompact car with a matte black hood, metallic blue windows, black tyres and a red Autobot logo stamped on his hood. Skids has black lines on either side, as on the larger toy. The headlights are painted silver and the taillights red while his grille is black. The colours are very similar to those on the larger toy and essentially match those seen in the film.
As with most Legends car modes, Skids's only play value is rolling wheels. It can be tricky to line up the sides when transforming from robot mode - leading to ungainly gaps under the side windows. The trick is to swing the legs back before folding them away. Once you get the hang of this trick, the car forms quite nicely.
A straightforward vehicle mode, but one that ticks all the boxes - it's a good scaling down of the larger toy and represents the vehicle we saw in the film quite well. As Legends go, this is a good vehicle mode with a lot of detail.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Fold down and split the underside to form legs. Split the front of the roof, swing the left front section down to form his left arm, swing the remainder down to form his right arm. Fold the windshield down to reveal his head.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 8cm Width: 6.5cm
A green robot with the black hood on his chest - complete with Autobot logo - and black upper arms. Skids has extensive silver painted details on his legs along with a silver face complete with off-kilter blue eyes and buck teeth. The silver headlights are on his chest, rounding out the details of a good paint job. The colours, while simple, line up to those of the larger toy quite well.
For some reason, this version of Skids doesn't have the squat shape of the larger toy. While some might prefer the more "regular" proportions here, it does mean that Skids doesn't match his twin, Mudflap. On the one hand, his bodyshape looks more normal but on the other hand he doesn't like Skids in the film. Personally, I like the shape here - even if it means the twins are mismatched. Like his twin, Skids uses the roof as his oversized right hand. Skids has a kibbly oversized right hand, but it works fairly well since there's a distinct forearm (something Mudflap lacks).
There's some poseability here and one significant flaw. His shoulders swing out to the sides while his elbows and hips are ball jointed. There are no knee or ankle joints, so Skids's range of poses ends up fairly narrow. The head is on a transformation hinge that pops out too easily - it's quite annoying.
A good robot mode despite the shape - Skids has a few ball joints and good paint job. The shape is a mixed blessing, the paint job is good and the oversized arm is better than on his brother. The loose head is the main aspect that bothers me here.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
Skids has a good vehicle mode even if it takes a trick to get him transformed correctly. The paint job is good in both modes and his poseability is good for a Legends toy. The robot mode shape is not what you'd expect - it could be either good or bad depending on the way you look at things. The larger hand is a better effort than the earlier effort on his twin, but the loose head is annoying. Recommended if you're a fan of Legends in general, despite the shortcomings - 7.5/10
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