Cliffbee.com Tailgate Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Tailgate
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Autobot
Vehicular Mode: Pontiac Firebird

  


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

   Like his elder brother Windcharger, Tailgate's small and simple. He's mainly white with black windows, green bits showing and a silver grill. Unlike Windcharger he has a rubsign indent on his hood, which detracts from the car mode if there's no rubsign (having said that my Tailgate has a rubsign and Windcharger does not - so the indent serves a purpose there). It's not terribly realistic, but you have to remember that in Microman, Windcharger was a toy car that turned into a robot - so he's not meant to be realistic anyway. Tailgate's car mode was not modified from Windcharger's, apart from the rubsign indent.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Fold the rear of the car down to become the legs, pull the front fenders out to become the arms. Stand him up. He's actually a step simpler than his elder brother, whose arms slide down. Incidentally, this makes his transform identical to Gears & Swerve

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

   A simple robot with a simple transform. He's got white arms, white & black lower legs, silver thighs, green chest. He has a silver head, though not chromed like his grill or thighs, but it's fairly complex in features for the size of this toy. He comes with a sticker on his chest but mine disappeared about 10 years ago so I can't really remember what it looks like, apart from the fact it's base colour is silver. He's a nice toy but as with most minicars, has only limited play value. Keep in mind this design is from the 70s so the toy technology then wasn't what it is today, so overall it's a decent robot mode for the size.

VARIATIONS

The 2008 Encore reissue has painted blue eyes.
OVERALL

   He's got rather simple car & robot modes, so if you don't like unposeable G1 you won't like him. I'd say he's a little better that Windcharger though - partly because of better detailing in robot mode and partly because I prefer this colour scheme. He makes only a very brief appearance in the G1 cartoon (one frame in Five Faces Of Darkness), so not really a major player in G1. But if you like G1 and/or minicars, worth getting for say $10 or less - 7/10

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