Death's Head
01-11-11, 08:42 AM
“It will catch your eyes/ in the City/ Honda! Honda! Honda!” so sang Madness in a long forgotten advert for The Honda City sub compact car, a sort of forerunner to the Smart Car, those weird little squirts that latte quaffing new media types with flat caps and funny little beards swan about in. Such things being unheard of in the western world (save for Britain’s own Mini), Skids alt mode was erroneously portrayed as a mini-van. Mind you, those starring issues of the Marvel US Comic with him being soaped up by Charlene probably wouldn’t have had quite the effect artist Herb Trimpe was looking for.
Skids is one of the best Autobot Cars. His alt mode is a cute little thing, a nice little boxy city run around from a time car design was still managing some individuality. Takara’s attempt to capture this in the form of a transforming robot means there are some slightly uncomfortable looking parts – notably how far out the front wheels stick. The way the windscreen folds up to the body roof also leaves a visible gap and having not owned the original toy it wouldn’t surprise me if this was just down to mould degradation (something which would become more prevalent with subsequent outings for this mould). He doesn’t roll as freely as some of the other cars, opening the doors – although possible – will cause the vehicle mode to fall apart. The boot can be opened which is a nice touch. The original Diaclone figure came with a Scooter that would fold up and fit in the boot (much like the real thing) which is omitted from the Transformers release. As with all the Transformers Collection releases, Skids comes packed in a smart presentation box, which comes with a couple of character profiles, catalogue shots and a nice bit of character art (thankfully not from the broken fingers of Pat Lee).
This tiny little vehicle forms one of the tallest Autobot cars. Unclipping the doors causes the centre section of the car to collapse, the arms swing out from under the front wheels. Opening the bonnet reveals the head and the legs, and in one of my favourite moves, the rear wheels fold underneath the chasis to form heels for the figure. Again, some possible mould degradation comes into play here as they don’t fold flush to the chassis which makes this version of Skids a little unstable on his feet. It’s a shame he has these minor flaws as it spoils him somewhat. Particularly as you can tell that were these minor flaws corrected, he’d be a cracking figure. As with all the original Transformers, Skids comes with some glorious chromed weapons, as well as a missile launcher. This being a Japanese release and not subject to the same toy safety standards, the missile launcher is quite powerful. The robot mode looks best with arms arranged as in my photos, not with those weird broken looking efforts both the cartoon and instructions portray him with where they jut out from under the bonnet.
At the time these were released, it was easy to overlook the gaps in Takara’s quality control, particularly as these were a more affordable alternative to the original figures at the time. Time and repeated handling have made the problems with the mould more pronounced and disappointing. With the success of the limited release E-Hobby versions of some characters only a year or so before, its suprising that Takara weren’t minded to exercise some proper quality control on some of their moulds and tweak them where necessary. That said, this first reissue bears non of the problems that would plague the later Encore reissue.
1118111911201121
Skids is one of the best Autobot Cars. His alt mode is a cute little thing, a nice little boxy city run around from a time car design was still managing some individuality. Takara’s attempt to capture this in the form of a transforming robot means there are some slightly uncomfortable looking parts – notably how far out the front wheels stick. The way the windscreen folds up to the body roof also leaves a visible gap and having not owned the original toy it wouldn’t surprise me if this was just down to mould degradation (something which would become more prevalent with subsequent outings for this mould). He doesn’t roll as freely as some of the other cars, opening the doors – although possible – will cause the vehicle mode to fall apart. The boot can be opened which is a nice touch. The original Diaclone figure came with a Scooter that would fold up and fit in the boot (much like the real thing) which is omitted from the Transformers release. As with all the Transformers Collection releases, Skids comes packed in a smart presentation box, which comes with a couple of character profiles, catalogue shots and a nice bit of character art (thankfully not from the broken fingers of Pat Lee).
This tiny little vehicle forms one of the tallest Autobot cars. Unclipping the doors causes the centre section of the car to collapse, the arms swing out from under the front wheels. Opening the bonnet reveals the head and the legs, and in one of my favourite moves, the rear wheels fold underneath the chasis to form heels for the figure. Again, some possible mould degradation comes into play here as they don’t fold flush to the chassis which makes this version of Skids a little unstable on his feet. It’s a shame he has these minor flaws as it spoils him somewhat. Particularly as you can tell that were these minor flaws corrected, he’d be a cracking figure. As with all the original Transformers, Skids comes with some glorious chromed weapons, as well as a missile launcher. This being a Japanese release and not subject to the same toy safety standards, the missile launcher is quite powerful. The robot mode looks best with arms arranged as in my photos, not with those weird broken looking efforts both the cartoon and instructions portray him with where they jut out from under the bonnet.
At the time these were released, it was easy to overlook the gaps in Takara’s quality control, particularly as these were a more affordable alternative to the original figures at the time. Time and repeated handling have made the problems with the mould more pronounced and disappointing. With the success of the limited release E-Hobby versions of some characters only a year or so before, its suprising that Takara weren’t minded to exercise some proper quality control on some of their moulds and tweak them where necessary. That said, this first reissue bears non of the problems that would plague the later Encore reissue.
1118111911201121