Review – Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Kickback

The Transformers: Fall of Cybertron series (Amazon.com search*) is quite cool, and I was very excited when I found out that Hasbro was planning an Insecticon toy for the game-based toys. Kickback has arrived and, for reasons I don’t understand, continues the modern tradition of constructing an Insecticon toy with a frustrating transformation and poor instructions.

Insect Mode

Below you can see Kickback next to the unofficial Kickback from FansProject, Backfiery, and both toys annoy me when it comes time to transform them into their insect modes. The Fall of Cybertron may even have the more annoying transformation process of the two, with a couple of steps — especially the way the arms don’t properly tab in and lock — that are really tedious and make the bug mode way less fun than it should be.

The robot insect mode itself is okay once you get the toy transformed, but like Backfiery I think it is a less than effective robot insect design. The biggest failure of the Fall of Cybertron Kickback, to me, is the lack of attractive wings. Both the FansProject Backfiery and the official 1985 Kickback toys have great wings, but the Fall of Cybertron Kickback only has mechanical arm-like appendages with the robot’s blades snapped in place to act as semi-translucent purple wings. A nifty idea, but one that I feel doesn’t work and is not at all fun or exciting.

Robot Mode

So if the insect mode is unattractive and disappointing, how does the robot mode work out? Actually, the Fall of Cybertron Kickback has a reasonably decent robot mode with quite a few joints . . . but those missing wings seem even more of a mistake in robot mode than they did in insect mode. After all, the insect wings projecting skyward is one of Kickback’s distinguishing features and that’s missing in this design.

Articulation

Fall of Cybertron Kickback has way more articulation than the original Kickback and the toy holds its robot mode shape better than the FansProject Backfiery does. And with several hinges and ball joints holding the toy together I want to take a moment to run through each separate component:

• Arms – Hinged shoulders that connect to ball joints, ball-jointed elbows, and swivel wrists give Kickback a decent range of arm movement. The shoulder hinges are specifically for the transformation, but as often happens with such joints they also help the robot’s poseability.
  
• Legs – Ball-jointed ankles and hips, a swivel thigh, and hinged knee make up Kickback’s legs. Those giant feet beg for a hinge in the toes to help with poseability, but fortunately those giant feet help balance the toy even without toe articulation.
  
• Head and Torso – Ball-jointed neck is it; Kickback has zero points of articulation on the torso so you can forget pivoting him at the waist. And that neck joint has limited up and down movement because of the sculpt; it exists mainly so you can swivel the head around 180-degrees during transformation.
  
• Mechanical Arms – The two arms on Kickback’s back are connected to the body with a ball joint and have a hinge about half-way down the length of the arms.

Sculpt

Fall of Cybertron Kickback looks great and makes an excellent Cybertronian version of the character in robot mode. I miss the wings, yes, but the mechanical arms look very neat and the articulation lets you pose them for battle. I’m assuming this was a computer design because of the transformation and the sharp, straight lines, but regardless of how the toy was designed the artist did a good job of translating the game character to the toy. I may be unhappy with the insect mode, but the more I play with Fall of Cybertron Kickback in his robot mode the more I think this will make an excellent addition to my shelf of Insecticons.

Paint

“Okay,” is the word I think of to describe the paint apps on the Fall of Cybertron Kickback toy. At a distance everything looks just fine — it helps that so much of the toy’s color comes from the purple, dark gray, and light gray plastic — but once you really get in close you can find some ugly spots where the gold smears a bit more than I would like. But to be fair to Hasbro the paint is no worse than we should ever expect from mass market toys and it’s really only noticeable to me because I spent so much time in Photoshop working on these photos.

Accessories

Fall of Cybertron Kickback comes with three accessories: Numbers one and two are the blades I already mentioned that form the wings in robot mode while accessory number three is the “Disc Launcher” shown in the above photo. The two blades snap into the launcher to make a sort of sci-fi crossbow and the launcher is so big and ugly it is really only there to give younger kids a projectile launcher . . . that doesn’t work all that well. I know toy manufacturers must meet safety standards, and I am fine with that, but the disc barely launches five inches. Into a box with the launcher and Fall of Cybertron Kickback can use his blades as his weapons on my shelf.

Closing Thoughts

The Fall of Cybertron Kickback toy has a very disappointing insect mode and is just a pain to transform that I can’t see kids wanting to transform the toy between modes all that often. The robot mode is nice, though, and I can safely recommend this one to Insecticon fans and any fans who are trying to complete the Transformers: Fall of Cybertron series (Amazon.com search*). It is not Hasbro’s best Transformers work . . . but it is most definitely not the worst and I’d rate it as a fairly average modern Transformers toy.

Philip Reed will say that he likes Kickback enough that if Hasbro makes more Fall of Cybertron Insecticon toys then he’ll give them a shot.