Review – The Changeable Robot Sky Hawk
Hey, looks it’s a new Transformers “Seeker” to join Dirge (review here) and Thrust (review here) in my collection. Wait a minute, this isn’t a Transformers toy. What the hell? Hey! This is a cheap knockoff. And like most knockoffs the problems started as soon as I opened the package.
Already Falling Apart
As I pulled Sky Hawk from the package his wings and nosecone fell off. The wings were easy to pop back into place, but the nosecone took some playing with before it returned to position. And even when transforming the toy to jet mode the wings and nosecone kept falling off. Thanks, The Changeable Robot, for maintaining the poor standards we expect from cheap knockoff toys. But after repeated attempts I finally worked the guy into jet mode . . . and immediately found that he doesn’t quite make it to jet mode. And unlike the official “Seeker” toys this guy doesn’t have landing gear so it’s right back to robot mode.
Cheap Junk
The toy’s joints are weak, parts like to fall off, and the plastic is drastically inferior compared to the plastic Hasbro uses in their official Transformers toys. And I find it funny the toy includes a “CE” mark on the packaging — that’s a sign that the toy passed EU safety testing. Why do I find that funny? Because I seriously doubt this thing was ever safety tested; anyone who would put together a toy this cheap is going to skip on the testing. In general this is little more than plastic garbage.
Why Did I Buy This?
Because it was cheap, and I wanted to see what a knockoff “Seeker” looked like up close and personal. The little details show this is a copy and not even an identical copy — the fans in the chest are different, as an example of differences between this and official “Seeker” toys — and the fact that it’s made of such a cheap plastic and doesn’t want to hold together proves that we’re better off with official Transformers toys than we are with these back alley knockoffs.
I’m going to display this as a fun oddity with my growing collection of “Seekers,” and I’m sure I’ll point it out to the people who care about Transformers toys, but I’m no buying any other releases in The Changeable Robot series of toys because this is a horrible toy. And I suggest that you skip this if you ever see it, even if it’s just $1. You really don’t want to spend your time constantly putting a knockoff toy back together.
Philip Reed has a packaged Acid Storm waiting to come out and play. That should help get the taste of this terrible plastic out of his mind.
Thanks Phil. These keep getting vaguely positive reviews on the Allspark.com boards. So positive I was tempted.
I appreciate you taking one for the team.
Acid storm is a bizarre but endearing deco.
I actually like the robot mode colors, he reminds me of Hot House, who was my favorite micromaster as a kid. though I was too young to get him when he came out, I found him at this rad skate shop/vintage toy store when I was 10 or so.
if I saw this dude for $1, even though I’m not super into Transformers these days, I’d grab him.
@Seth L – I think some of the bootlegs may actually be an okay quality; the pack I opened last night is from the KOToys company and other than some miss-assembly issues the plastic/manufacturing is pretty good. And the color is ridiculous (in a good way).
@d. verburg – Yeah, maybe at a buck he would be worth grabbing. But this particular knockoff is really cheap. Just be careful if you snag one that you don’t snap it apart just opening the package.
Damnit, I just bought the blue and white Prime on the back of the packaging and I’m really worries I just wasted my cash, I’m hoping and praying the Blue and white Prime isn’t as bad as Sky Hawk, but if so, I get to slap myself on the back for a huge waste of cash.
@Christian – I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on that knockoff Prime. It’s possible I’m being too harsh on this toy, but I really don’t think I was rougher on it than it deserved. It looks great displayed, but I need to remember not to pick it up.