It's Cybertron again and this week, I will be reviewing the Scout Class Backstop.
In the series, Backstop is portray as the grand master of the Jungle planet who despite being a master of martial arts believes in making peace than aggression. Unfortunately, his 2 best students; Scourge and Snarl were unable to understand this philosophy and in the end part ways with their master; the former joining in the Decepticons and the later joining forces with the Autobot.
Alternate Beast mode:
Coming from the Jungle planet, Backstop's alternate mode is in the form of a beast and in this case a rhino. Like all other beast in the Cybertron series, he is non organic and you can see tons of mechanical features throughout.
Backstop's color scheme is well worked in my opinion. He had his body and head in dark Byzantium (a tone of purple), limbs in shades of grey and some detailing in red and yellow. Not the 1st time, Hasbro had done a better color selection compared to the plain silver grey Takara is using for this figure.
There are some unbelievable details on this Scout Class figure. Lets have a look.
Details:
The front and back spots 2 eye catching feature. The red horn and the yellow tail. The use of red and yellow in my opinion were very striking contrast compared to the dull body colors.
From the side, you can see several textured patches over his body just like how a Rhino's hide will be like. This is followed by some clever use of colors and shades to enhanced the already impressive detailing and panel linings giving the extra punch to this awesome beast.
The head is nicely sculpt and you can see how much details were packed on it. The one thing that failed badly is the red robot arm that Hasbro has paid little attention to conceal.
Force Ignition Gimmick
On the back of his head is the inlet to the cyber key.
Like the Wolf fang and all other Jungle planet transformers, his cyber key is in green with a silver crawl deco on the perimeter.
Upon activation, his spring loaded horn extends an extra inch.
Longer reach = first to strike?
Look how menace he is with the extended horn. Again, here you can see how obvious the red arm is under his neck.
Articulation:
The articulation of Backstop is very limited. The only parts that have some form of articulation are the limbs. Rotation of his head is also limited and I would think that if his head can be lowered or raised, he will be more fun to play with (e.g. ramming like action).
Transformation:
Transformation is very very disappointing. Surely Hasbro can come up with something that is not just extension of limbs or flipping heads. The main problem though is that the beast mode is still very visible in his robot mode.
Overall:
In terms of Backstop's outlook as a Rhino, he is simply breath taking. The amount of details and color selection deserves a thumbs up from me. Size wise, I would prefer a voyager figure to pack more gimmicks or improve his articulation in his alternate beast mode. The main drawback however has to be the lack of articulation and not to mention the 'disgraceful' transformation steps that brings his overall score down to the bottom.
Next week: Backstop in Robot mode
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