Review – Mini-Warrior Rager

Last week we looked at the unofficial Transformers not-Seaspray (review here) from iGear (website, Facebook) and I hope I did a good job of showing you guys just what a cool toy it is.

But Spray wasn’t alone when he arrived, and now it’s time to look at Rager, the not-Huffer that’s got excellent articulation, nice colors, and the same damned head problem that Spray suffers from.

A Beefy Truck

Rager, as you can see in the photos, is styled a lot like the super-deformed Huffer toy of the eighties. He’s awfully cute in truck mode, and he rolls fairly well with just one wheel giving me any problems (it likes to stick). And, as you can probably guess, the toy feels pretty fat in your hands when you’re playing with it; those super-deformed proportions make it a lot bulkier and feel heavier than you would expect from a small toy car.

Below you can see Rager next to the Transformers Pipes that came out of the Transformers Encore Minibots Set*. I don’t have an original Huffer, but since Pipes was just a retool — though a very impressive retool (see the Transformers Wiki) — he works well for this size comparison shot. As you can see, Rager is significantly larger than Pipes.

Robot Mode

Before jumping into Rager’s robot mode I thought I would take a moment to show one bit of the toy’s transformation that isn’t completely clear at first glance. Rager, like Spray (review here), doesn’t come with any instructions so you’re on your own to figure out how to change him from truck to robot. It’s not too bad, but keep in mind that the arms pop out, get rotated, and then snap back in. The below photo shows one arm complete and the other in mid-transformation. This should help you get all of the way from truck to robot mode without any difficulties.

Articulation

Rager’s packed with points of articulation. I know it’s a dull way to review a toy, but by location:

• Head – A ball-jointed neck, but the only way I can move the head is by shoving a toothpick under the cab and using the toothpick to manipulate the head. My fingers will not fit in that space.
  
• Arms – Ball-jointed shoulders and elbows and hinges at the wrist (the hands collapse inside the stacks in truck mode). The shoulder movement is a little restricted by the sculpt, but it’s not as bad as I’ve seen on some toys.
  
• Waist – You can swivel the waist 360-degrees. Actually, you have to do this to transform the toy so this is another one of those points of articulation that exists for the transformation process and not because the designers wanted a swivel waist.
  
• Legs – Ball-jointed hips, hinged knees, and hinged feet. The hinged feet combined with the ball-jointed hips really help with poseability; Rager can actually sorta crouch which is always neat.

Paint

As with Spray (review here), Rager’s colors come mostly from the plastic. His windows, grill and headlights, and face are the only painted spots on the toy, but the paint’s fairly clean and looks great. Huffer was never one of my favorite of the original Transformers toys, but if he had looked like this in 1984 I probably would have been a lot more excited and wanted one.

Closing Thoughts

iGear (website, Facebook) is going to become my favorite unofficial Transformers producer if they keep making toys like this. Poseable, great quality plastics, clean paint, and all for less than $20. I know this is a lot more expensive than the Hasbro Transformers, but considering this is made by a tiny company I feel the price is fair.

Definitely recommended if you’re a fan of the original Autobot mini-cars.

Philip Reed now wants to get the iGear not-Cosmos toy. And they should create a Powerglide to partner with Bomber (review here) and Glider (review here).