Name: Staxx
Series: "European" Generation 2
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Highway Destruction
Alternate Mode: Racing Truck
Thanks to Sofaman for loaning me Staxx for this review (I have since acquired Staxx).
TRUCK MODE
Height: 6cm Length: 9.5cm Width: 4cm
A gold and blue racing truck cab, Staxx has six black painted tyres, black windows and a grille that's painted gold. The back is mainly gold and the front mainly blue (save for the painted grille), and the gold is that brittle stuff Hasbro were so fond of during late G1 & G2. The gold and blue in itself is okay, but the brittle plastic is never a good thing. There's a large factory applied sticker on the roof with the words "STAXX PM1".
Staxx not only gets a terrible name that belongs in a trailer park, but there's the G2 exposition to go with it. Underneath the grille there's a G2 Decepticon symbol with the word "Decepticon", stamped in purple. I'm not sure why this isn't visible without turning the truck over, but I'd have preferred the symbol to his name on the truck.
If you're curious what "PM1" means, Staxx is a Powermaster. No, he doesn't come with a little dude that turns into an engine - that was the G1 Powermasters. The G2 Powermasters (of which there were four) have pull back motors in them - close inspection will reveal that the rear pair of tyres are rubber (you do have to wonder why he only got 2/6). The idea is that pull back and then place one of his guns into one of the slots on the doors, releasing the catch and sending Staxx scurrying along your floor. I recommend the floor over the table, since this pullback mechanism is actually quite powerful. And that's really all there is to the play value of the toy - so I'm glad it works well. If you lose the guns of course, you'll need to jimmy something else in there.
The black guns double as smokestacks, which is nice, but it'd be nice if one could attach one elsewhere for the sake of the gimmick.
While the pullback motor is quite effective, Staxx's truck mode is a rather poor, low detail affair - there are Micromasters that have better truck modes. If you're purely after a pullback vehicle, the Throttlebots are a lot better as Transformers.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Remove the guns, flip up the front fenders to form arms. Lift up the front to form the torso and fold out the head, which will also lift up the arms. Give him his guns, either in his hands or on his ankles.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 9.5cm Width: 6.5cm
Again a mix of gold and blue, this time his head and feet are gold and the rest blue. His face is an awful fluorescent orange affair, with moulded eyes and nose but no mouth - not that it matters when it's so damn bright. This is an awful colour set, Staxx really needs some stickers on his torso.
Colours are the least of the problems here, believe it or not. The legs and feet are single pieces - the legs are really just a lump attached to the torso, while the _foot_ is the base of the toy that contains the pullback motor. I can deal with single feet but the legs are beyond a joke. The arms are stuck in a forward pointing position, with hands that are barely recognisable - the holes are their main defining feature. Add all of this together with his poor face and you have one crappy robot mode.
The good news is that the pullback mechanism is also available in this mode. Again it works quite well and there's a gold wheel underneath his foot to stabilise him. I wouldn't say it comes close to compensating for the other problems of this robot mode, but at least there's a reason why his feet are a single piece. There is no articulation.
The pullback motor is the only plus here, and they've been built into robot modes already, and done better. There's no escaping the fact that this is a terrible robot mode, worse than his truck mode in fact.
VARIATIONS
None thankfully, although Staxx (along with the other G2 Powermasters) was not sold in North America. In Australia they sold with full tech specs (and the cards listed Hasbro's Rhode Island address) while in Europe they had single line bios (and listed Hasbro's Welsh address).
OVERALL
While Bulletbike manages an integrated sidecar and Ironhide is a G1 character redone, Staxx has nothing going for him. A terrible toy in a terrible line, and he's burdened with that brittle gold plastic just to round things off. Unless you really like racing trucks I wouldn't pay more than a dollar or two for this guy - 1/10
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