Death's Head
26-08-11, 08:29 AM
Not to be confused with K9, K-9 is an Alsatian dog. Not sure they were around on prehistoric Earth, though, what with their origins dating back to the 19th Century. Anyway, he's an extensive retool of the previous years' Wolfang toy (guess what he transformed into). He's very nicely sculpted and detailed, and has a nice pose to him in beast form. - just a shame about those highly visible blue robot arms. Whilst in beast mode, K-9 has no articulation whatsoever so he just kind of stands there. Appropriate, given his security guard status.
K-9's transformation is pretty neat. The dog's back unclips and will be used as a shield. The tail pulls out to be used as a hand gun. You then pretty much stand the dog on its hind legs. The robot legs rotate from out of the dog's hips, the head splits in half and rotates around to form shoulder pads for the robot arms. The elongated dog torso then just snaps together resulting in a powerful looking robot mode. As he shares Wolfang's mould somewhat, he retains the mutant head gimmick from the first year toys - something jettisoned entirely from the range during year two.
I'm always in two minds about K-9's robot mode. On the one hand, it's and above average example of the neat engineering and design of the beast era, with sensible weapon storage (love how those harpoon - like missiles are stored in his chest) and an imposing look. On the other, his colour scheme in robot mode is a bit of a sickly mess. A jarring fusion of bright blue, yellow, white and black it's a quite ugly looking. Perhaps if they'd made his robot parts silver it would look better. The blue is just too forceful. He is a little kibbly too, what with those fore legs just dangling off the arms. At least the folded animal parts on his hips look like some kind of armour.
In terms of putting the 'action' into 'action figure', K-9 is pretty much faultless. The harpoon gun is excellent and a suitably threatening bit of kit. Unlike Snarl's tail...thing, this does actually look like a gun which helps convince you that K-9 isn't just waving animal parts at you like someone larking about in an abbatoir. The shield accessory is also nice, but could have used some paint on the interior to stop it looking like he is just holding the back of the dog in his hand. As ever, extensive ball joints allow for a range of striking poses to be achieved.
I'm not sure ultimately how to qualify K-9. He is a good figure, and the retool makes him worth the time (unlike say, Grimlock or Black Arachnia whom are just straight recolours of Dinobot and Tarantulas respectively). The unfortunate paint scheme and slight lack of dynamism in the toy make him one to pick up down the line.
418419420
K-9's transformation is pretty neat. The dog's back unclips and will be used as a shield. The tail pulls out to be used as a hand gun. You then pretty much stand the dog on its hind legs. The robot legs rotate from out of the dog's hips, the head splits in half and rotates around to form shoulder pads for the robot arms. The elongated dog torso then just snaps together resulting in a powerful looking robot mode. As he shares Wolfang's mould somewhat, he retains the mutant head gimmick from the first year toys - something jettisoned entirely from the range during year two.
I'm always in two minds about K-9's robot mode. On the one hand, it's and above average example of the neat engineering and design of the beast era, with sensible weapon storage (love how those harpoon - like missiles are stored in his chest) and an imposing look. On the other, his colour scheme in robot mode is a bit of a sickly mess. A jarring fusion of bright blue, yellow, white and black it's a quite ugly looking. Perhaps if they'd made his robot parts silver it would look better. The blue is just too forceful. He is a little kibbly too, what with those fore legs just dangling off the arms. At least the folded animal parts on his hips look like some kind of armour.
In terms of putting the 'action' into 'action figure', K-9 is pretty much faultless. The harpoon gun is excellent and a suitably threatening bit of kit. Unlike Snarl's tail...thing, this does actually look like a gun which helps convince you that K-9 isn't just waving animal parts at you like someone larking about in an abbatoir. The shield accessory is also nice, but could have used some paint on the interior to stop it looking like he is just holding the back of the dog in his hand. As ever, extensive ball joints allow for a range of striking poses to be achieved.
I'm not sure ultimately how to qualify K-9. He is a good figure, and the retool makes him worth the time (unlike say, Grimlock or Black Arachnia whom are just straight recolours of Dinobot and Tarantulas respectively). The unfortunate paint scheme and slight lack of dynamism in the toy make him one to pick up down the line.
418419420