Death's Head
01-02-12, 12:02 PM
“Why so serious?”
Cackle the hyena is more commonly known as Jawbreaker, his more familiar US name. Although a good fit for such an alt mode, Hasbro entered into a fit of trademark retention and Cackle quickly became Jawbreaker. On some European cards (like mine), he retained his original name which I much prefer.
As with all Transmetal 2 toys, Cackle bears the silhouette of the animal on which he is based, but is tricked out (or pimped, if you will – not a term I’m fond of, what with its prostitution connotations, but what would I know, not being terribly street and possessed of a belt for my trousers) with a spinning saw blade in his back, plus various blades poking out all over the shop. He also has the requisite machinery parts intertwined with his flesh, making him something akin to the technological monstrosities that appeared in Dark Horse Comics Virus comic book that no one but me remembers (although you might have seen the rubbish film). Cackle carries it off very well, and the colours are a good match with the black body complimented by those blues, metallic red and yellow. It’s quite a punk looking alt mode and has something of the cyberpunk look at about it. Articulation is limited, although all four legs are moveable feasts. It’s a bit of a shame that his head cannot move up as he does look like he’s permanently snarling at the ground – curse you ants!!
Getting to robot mode is fairly straight forward. The whole animal head and back forms the right arm and it’s just a case of unravelling the robot mode torso from the underside of the creature. It clips into place nicely enough and the end result is a pleasingly stocky little fella brandishing a massive sword. The front legs fold up and hang around the shoulders, which does make Cackle a little top heavy. The massive right arm doesn’t really help, making him look decidedly lop sided. Yet thanks to some excellent joints, the right arm supports its own weight without drooping on an easily worn balljoint and the massive feet do a grand job of supporting him.
The fatal flaw with Cackle is the incredible amount of wear that occurs to those chromed front legs. The transformation sequence requires those red pods to scrape up against the body of the beast which rapidly wears the vacuum metalizing and you’ll quickly find your hands covered in small bits of red dandruff. Worse still, as these parts require lots of handling, the outward facing sections will also start to flake. Looking at my example, you’d think this toy had the wear associated with children’s regular play, but no. I bought Cackle as an adult and he’s largely been stood on a shelf or neatly boxed away and yet most of the chrome has fallen off. It’s one of the worst decisions Hasbro made coating the main contact points of their toys in this stuff. It just doesn’t wear well at all. To add further insult to injury, the left and right shoulders are composed of entirely different materials. Whilst if one were of the persuasion it would be easy enough to sand off the remaining chrome nad repaint the right arm, you couldn’t do that with the left as the left shoulder is composed of unpaintable plastic meaning you’ve no chance of sorting the mess out (and it is a mess on mine, nearly all the chrome has dropped off leaving an unimpressive bone white plastic visible).
If it weren’t for this hideous boob, Cackle would be a decent, if weird looking robot. As it is, he doesn’t get touched much these days. And I managed to snap his thumb off his left hand. Rubbish!
13651366
Cackle the hyena is more commonly known as Jawbreaker, his more familiar US name. Although a good fit for such an alt mode, Hasbro entered into a fit of trademark retention and Cackle quickly became Jawbreaker. On some European cards (like mine), he retained his original name which I much prefer.
As with all Transmetal 2 toys, Cackle bears the silhouette of the animal on which he is based, but is tricked out (or pimped, if you will – not a term I’m fond of, what with its prostitution connotations, but what would I know, not being terribly street and possessed of a belt for my trousers) with a spinning saw blade in his back, plus various blades poking out all over the shop. He also has the requisite machinery parts intertwined with his flesh, making him something akin to the technological monstrosities that appeared in Dark Horse Comics Virus comic book that no one but me remembers (although you might have seen the rubbish film). Cackle carries it off very well, and the colours are a good match with the black body complimented by those blues, metallic red and yellow. It’s quite a punk looking alt mode and has something of the cyberpunk look at about it. Articulation is limited, although all four legs are moveable feasts. It’s a bit of a shame that his head cannot move up as he does look like he’s permanently snarling at the ground – curse you ants!!
Getting to robot mode is fairly straight forward. The whole animal head and back forms the right arm and it’s just a case of unravelling the robot mode torso from the underside of the creature. It clips into place nicely enough and the end result is a pleasingly stocky little fella brandishing a massive sword. The front legs fold up and hang around the shoulders, which does make Cackle a little top heavy. The massive right arm doesn’t really help, making him look decidedly lop sided. Yet thanks to some excellent joints, the right arm supports its own weight without drooping on an easily worn balljoint and the massive feet do a grand job of supporting him.
The fatal flaw with Cackle is the incredible amount of wear that occurs to those chromed front legs. The transformation sequence requires those red pods to scrape up against the body of the beast which rapidly wears the vacuum metalizing and you’ll quickly find your hands covered in small bits of red dandruff. Worse still, as these parts require lots of handling, the outward facing sections will also start to flake. Looking at my example, you’d think this toy had the wear associated with children’s regular play, but no. I bought Cackle as an adult and he’s largely been stood on a shelf or neatly boxed away and yet most of the chrome has fallen off. It’s one of the worst decisions Hasbro made coating the main contact points of their toys in this stuff. It just doesn’t wear well at all. To add further insult to injury, the left and right shoulders are composed of entirely different materials. Whilst if one were of the persuasion it would be easy enough to sand off the remaining chrome nad repaint the right arm, you couldn’t do that with the left as the left shoulder is composed of unpaintable plastic meaning you’ve no chance of sorting the mess out (and it is a mess on mine, nearly all the chrome has dropped off leaving an unimpressive bone white plastic visible).
If it weren’t for this hideous boob, Cackle would be a decent, if weird looking robot. As it is, he doesn’t get touched much these days. And I managed to snap his thumb off his left hand. Rubbish!
13651366