Review – Unique Toys’ Salmoore (Cy-Kill)

Created as an homage to the GoBots Cy-Kill, the Unique Toys Salmoore* is generally an impressive piece of work and mostly a toy I’m very happy to recommend. The pics and digital images of Salmoore that went online before he was released made the toy look quite cool, and in-hand both robot mode and cycle mode are excellent . . . but it’s getting between the two modes where things start to fall apart.

Parts Clearance, People!!!

Ibentmyman-thing posted a review of Salmoore at The Fwoosh that warned all of us. But even with that warning in place I didn’t quite appreciate just how poorly-designed the arm transformation on Salmoore* really is. In the review, Ibentmyman-thing writes:

“Speaking of his transformation, there’s a place or two that was a bit awkward on mine. And when I say awkward, I mean it was a bitch. When you put his arms behind his head, there’s a spot where it’s extremely tight, and by too tight I mean there was a significant amount of scraping.”

And by “too tight” I’m going to say that what he really meant to write here is: What in the hell was going through the designer’s brain when the decision was made to lock these two arms so tightly together?

The arm transformation sequence on Salmoore* is terrible!!! As you yank, twist, pull, tear, and rip the hell out of the plastic — not to mention your own flesh! — those arms just continue to fight and argue with you. It got so bad at one point that I grabbed a screwdriver in an attempt to just take the damn toy apart and then rebuild once I managed to get the arms transformed.

What is especially distressing about this awful arm transformation is that other than that — and the hands are a bit of a pain to transform — Salmoore* is a well-crafted transforming robot that has some fun motorcycle mode transformation tricks. And all it would have taken was a millimeter or two of clearance between the arms and problem solved, so I am writing this in hopes that Unique Toys works harder on their next toy because the arms would have been fine if there had been space for them to move.

Saying Something Nice

Woah, I guess the arm-thing on Salmoore* really does bug me. Looking at the rest of the toy I can say that the sculpt is fantastic, looking like a modernized form of Cy-Kill but not so different from the original 1983 toy that anyone can confuse it for anything but a GoBots homage. Some out there may be bothered that the tailpipes and wheels have to be popped off and rearranged for transformation between the two modes, but the final look is so wonderful that the partsforming doesn’t bother me at all.

But then I’m a fan of the Marchon Road Bots so my opinions on partsforming probably doesn’t mean much to many of you . . .

Paint Apps

Salmoore*, as I feel the photos prove, really looks fantastic and has the tight paint apps to support the sharp sculpt of the toy. And if you compare this to Cy-Kill — side-by-side comparison shots posted in the review at The Fwoosh — you can really see how closely the color design matches the original toy from the eighties.

Closing Thoughts

I’m seriously torn on whether or not to recommend Salmoore* to you guys. Articulation, sculpt, paint, plastic durability, and everything that really matters in a third-party Transformers toy is top quality . . . except for that terrible arm transformation design. It really does come down to one simple question you should ask yourself:

Are you looking for a Cy-Kill in robot mode for display?

If the answer is “yes” then this is your toy. But if you want to transform this unofficial Transformers toy I think I have to advise you to pass on this design. That arm issue is a serious flaw in the toy’s design and there is no reason any of us should pay $100 for a toy that can lose an arm at any second during transformation.