The Twins: Skids and Mudflap

[Onslaught Six]

It just felt...'right' to start reviewing the two together, as opposed to seperately. So that's what I'm gonna do.

For those who still can't get it right: Skids is the green one. Mudflap is the orange one.

Vehicle Modes:
I'm gonna start with a disclaimer: I don't like the deco on these vehicles. That's not to say that I immediately dislike the deco on the figures themselves--I just don't like the way these cars look. Skids' random black hood is incredibly annoying, to me, as are the black bits on Mudflap's bumpers. It's the same problem I have with the way Sideways' vehicle mode is decoed, even if his toy doesn't look like that--and to a lesser extent, this problem dates back to the '07 movie Decepticon Jolt figure, or even as far back as Blue Bluestreak. (Although in Bluestreak's case, he usually makes that deco work.)

That said, these altmodes pretty decently capture the likeness of the vehicle decos. They look like little minivan-SUV-whatever-the-hell-these-are. And Skids' black streak patterns on the door 'do' look kind of cool. But if anyone fails here, it's Mudflap. To start with, he's got really visible screws in the back windows. It doesn't bother 'me' all that much, because that kind of thing usually doesn't bother me--I acknowledge that these are toys and, occasionally, sacrifices must be made, but I can't say I'm doing my job as a reviewer if I don't point it out.

Mudflap's other suck point is his missile. Unlike Skids, Mudflap has a traditional missile launcher on his arm, and it has...a missile, surprise! And it *does* have storage. But it's really sucky storage. You basically just throw it underneath the car and slide it into the place it goes--it's not unlike how a lot of Universe figures like Ironhide and Prowl stored their guns. The problem here is that there's a big chunk of missile stick hanging out the back, no matter which way you do it, and it just looks bad. No effort made to camoflague it. Bad dog, Hasbro, no biscuit.

One last thing: Mudflap apparently has a variant out. The first release has a red license plate with "TRAX" in black letters--the kind of vehicle Mudflap turns into. I can't say for sure if this is accurate to the movie or not. The newer variant has a black license plate with "MUDFLAP" in red letters. For what it's worth, I got the old variant.

"Okay, now watch the transformation:"
I don't like to explain out a transformation sequence, especially step by step, because I feel like...somehow it's spoilery. And also, describing how parts shift and move around one another is probably one of the hardest things to describe. (Tied is action sequences.) But there's some things I feel like I need to talk about in this one.

Being twins, Skids and Mudflap transform pretty similarly. They both have their feet tucked under the hood with their arms towards the back of the car, both involve a large portion rotating around a single swivel joint in the back, both have hideously fiddly backpacks, and both have waists that don't like to move properly. That's where the similarities end--Skids' arms are connected right to his body while Mudflap's are connected to the backpack. Both involve different methods of fiddling with back kibble and leg kibble--even though the back kibble on both is extremely similar.

With both figures, you'll probably be able to quickly piece together something that easily resembles a robot mode, with proper arms and legs and a head and a chest--but the details will still need to be worked out. The backpacks are 'endlessly' fiddly and even after owning them for a week, I'm still not sure if I'm doing them right. And I don't *care* because they can at least be worked into something that's not too horribly inhabilitating or ugly-looking. I wish the windshields would fold up more into the back portions, but I can't seem to do that.

So, who's the winner? Skids, again. As I said, Mudflap's arms are connected to his backpack. This wouldn't be too much of a problem, but he also has horribly fiddly shouldery doorwings, and these will often rub up against the wheels that form the inside edge of his arms. On top of this, the only connection point on the backpack is the missile storage slot, which hooks rather unsatisfyingly to a tab behind Mudflap's head. Skids has a similar issue--the only point his backpack connects to his body is a similar tab and slot, *but* because Skids' arms are attached to his body and not his backpack, it's not as much of an issue. There's a lot more wiggle room there.

Robot Mode:
I'll get it out of the way now. Their heads! At this point, we've known what the Twins would look like for months, so you either like the heads they have, or you've at least gotten used to them. They are, without a doubt, probably what will keep most people away from the figures. With more normal-looking heads, they might have been real hit characters, but as-is I don't think they're going to win a lot of people over. Mudflap's entire head actually is built like it's a pair of binoculars, and I'd like it a lot more if it were straighter.

Now's a good time to mention--there's a Skids variant out. One apparently has the teeth painted wrong or not at all, it's unclear to me, but the other has them properly painted--his right tooth (our left) is gold while the left (our right) is silver. I ended up with this one, purely by chance, since I didn't know about the variant when I bought mine.

Again, being twins, they're very similar. They both have one huge arm and a regular-looking one--on opposite sides, no less. Mudflap's got a missile launcher that rises slightly when you move his wrist. It's honestly a cruddy gimmick, and it's not that impressive at all. Probably Mech Alive, I didn't look to check. Skids has a giant Fist Of Doom (although it's actually no bigger than Mudflap's) that launches and stops, like the tail stinger on Scorponok from the first movie line. I get why Hasbro would stop it from shooting the whole way--from the looks of things, it's definitely not long enough to work as its own projectile without breaking safety standards. But the idea of Skids shooting his fist out entirely brings to mind images of 60s super robots like Mazinger Z, or the original Lion Voltron's shooting lion head fists, or even the (neutered?) fist-shooting gimmicks of guys like Trailbreaker, Grapple and Devastator.

Oh, and when you pop out the fist, a little gun flips out. It's not that cool.

They also both have an odd gimmick where pushing their chest makes their head bob downwards. I think it's supposed to be Mech Alive, but all it reminds me of is the Pillsbury Doughboy. It's not 'intrusive,' certainly, but I can't help but think the budget that went to *that* couldn't have been better spent on something like splitting fingers for Demolishor or Sideways' abandoned arm gimmick (gimmicks?).

So. Who's the better robot? Mudflap's got an armgun, and guns are cool, but Skids' idea of Punchy Flying Robot Fist entertains me more than it should. (I'm honestly thinking about taking his arm apart to see if it's possible.) Plus, Mudflap has those cruddy shoulder wings that I mentioned earlier, which have the potential to literally knock the robot apart if you mess with them too much. Skids is much more solid in that department.

Overall?
Here's the thing. Did you like the Twins in the movie? I did. That's part of why I got them--I had a feeling I'd probably like them, and even if I didn't, the toys looked interesting enough that they could probably redeem them. So I liked the Twins enough to buy them. Both of them. And even though Skids is technically the better toy...They compliment each other. They look good in a pair. I honestly can't imagine seeing one of them without the other next to him. But, if you're hell-bent on only buying one, get Skids. He 'is' the better individual toy.

[138 Scourge]

Waiting for the Ice Cream truck because it's pink. And I'd get both of 'em in one.

I know, I dunno what's wrong with me, either.

[Onslaught Six]

I can see the appeal of the ice cream truck altmode and everything. Hasbro themselves said it was so out there, they had to do it. But that said, these are the forms they're in for most of the movie, so I nabbed those instead. And, I dunno, 'I'm' satisfied.

[138 Scourge]

I've been tempted occasionally because I really like Skid's colors, and because I like their stupid-lookin' faces. Well, these are some toys with character, all right.

But at this point, I could seriously stand to hold off on going all ape with the collecting, is all.

[Onslaught Six]

The only reason I bought a fuckton of the guys at once was because I had Birthday Money.

[JediTricks]

That said, these altmodes pretty decently capture the likeness of the vehicle decos. They look like little minivan-SUV-whatever-the-hell-these-are.

I saw the real concept vehicles at the 2007 LA Auto Show when GM had 3 of them together, the Beat, Trax, and Groove. Skids is the Beat, basically the same green color but no black hood or other things Bay added. Mudflap is the Trax and was pretty much the same orange but no black fenders and whatnots. What the toys and I suspect the movie don't give a good indication of is that the trio of concept cars are TINY, smaller than a new Mini, not quite as small as a Smart Car, but dinky like just under the Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris. So while Mudflap has the look of an SUV, that's just a design exercise, he's a tiny car.

Naturally, my favorite of the trio of designs, the Groove, was left out. It had a nifty matte black paint job and a rounded Scion-type styling that was a little retro-cool. I blogged about the photos I took at the auto show: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuse ... =333646275

Haw, I just realized, in that same blog, there's the Chevy Volt which appears in the movie, but my shots are of the vastly-superior concept version with its sharp lines that got tossed in the production model in the film.

[Onslaught Six]

Huh. Fun backstory information!

As an aside, that Lamborghini looks so cool that I really wish MovieSwipe was one of those instead of the Vette.

[JediTricks]

Huh. Fun backstory information!

As an aside, that Lamborghini looks so cool that I really wish MovieSwipe was one of those instead of the Vette.

Yeah, totally. Orcitzman tried to get one of the Lambos out now as the character, but Bay is such a whore for GM that he put the kibosh on it. The Reventon looked so very impressive in person, the matte stealth-esque dark gray, the stealth-esque jagged shapes, and the low, wide stance. I haven't been blown away by a Lamborghini in quite a while, but that one totally delivered, would have made a really mean TF.

[onslaught86]

I dunno, that Lambo's pretty slick, but really doesn't blow me away any 'more' than any of the other models of recent years have. I'm not so sure on the pointiness of that grille section either, there's something off about it. I really do like the Stingray concept too, it's a shame Deluxe Sideswipe's so panelly and doesn't capture the doors, looking forward to Human Alliiance 'Swipe for that.

I only own Mudflap, but have fiddled with Skids, and did indeed find Skids to be the better of the two. He's quite froggy, and it's not just the green. I almost get a TMNT vibe from him.

On Mudflap - Vehicle mode's neat, those screws do bug a bit though. It's quite 'trucky' for a tiny concept car, the beefy front on it's pretty cool, very different from the smooth, angled Skids. I don't find the missile offensive since it's sculpted to be the standard energy blast/exhaust cloud schtick they've used for years, an easy projectile to discard in an accessories box as it adds nothing to display - energy blast missiles look bad on figures displayed at rest.

The transformation bugs me, it's vague and not very intuitive, yet it gets a lot better with multiple transforms. The stock photos AND instructions, even Takara's stock photos, show the toy mistransformed, with the hood and windscreen panel all but scraping the ground like some big ass-flap on those old pyjamas (Appropriate, given the name and character). It slides up quite a bit more into the figure's big chunky backpack, I do wish more went on with that backpack, there's a big bit of the toy that doesn't transform at all.

The robot's pretty well articulated, good range in the ball jointed head. I kinda dig the noddy gimmick, it's odd, has some charm to it. Head's still ugly as sin, big hand's stupid too. Main problem with the robot is these grey pieces that stick out to the sides and block arm movement, they're incredibly annoying and I've found no way to shift them thus far. Bah.

If you can get past the stupid head and the big hand, he's a pretty decent little toy, much more interesting and fiddly than he first looks, especially when he's on card. I bought him because there wasn't anything else around, and don't regret it.

[donosaur]

I find it weird that people keep complaining about the big hands, that's one of the only things about this two molds that appeals to me. I like asymmetry though