X-Transbots Savant (Transformers Skids) Review

X-Transbots Savant (Transformers Skids) Review

Posted on 30 Oct 2018

I have to confess a small bias here - I really like Skids as a character. From his early appearances in the US Marvel comics where he fought at a Bruce Springsteen concert (Brick Springstern in the comic to avoid legal issues!) to falling in love with a human, dropping Ravage down a mineshaft and taking on Megatron himself, Skids was seemingly made of the same stuff as Marvel comics Ratchet. Sadly, he fell afoul of Circuit Breaker, had his head mounted on a wall, and then suffered even more in the UK comics as he was banished to limbo, allowing a mad Galavatron to ravage the present day Transformers. Though he would eventually return, he was largely forgotten by the fandom. I always found that somewhat unfair, especially as his toy, one of the tallest in the line, compacted into a cute little Honda City R and became the smallest of the G1 carbots. The toy was not only genius, it was armed to the teeth with 3 weapons, one of which fired rockets. As a shortpacked toy (where there were less of his toy than others per case) he was also among the rarest of the original releases.

All of this should make him a bit of a star, but sadly his lack of G1 cartoon presence has left him pretty much forgotten.

But not by X-Transbots, the third party transforming robot company that has now released a Masterpiece scale version of the character to fill that gap on our shelves. So what do we have?

Packaged in car mode (a rarity these days) the paintwork is absolutely stunning. His car "shell" has metallic blue paint from bumper to bumper, which gives the piece a really premium feel. Rubber tyres, silver painted hubcaps and strikingly fine detail in his stripes, lights and grill make him one of the best looking third party cars I've seen in some time.

Transformation is also fun - everything (almost) unfolds as you'd expect, with clever little engineering touches around the legs and hood area that make the job enjoyable. There are a couple of stressful areas, in particular untabbing the windshield from the bonnet - which is bloody terrifying - but overall it's a satisfying effort.

Once in robot mode, Skids has more die-cast on his thighs, some red highlights (feet, hands and midriff) and a variety of blues to keep it interesting. His arms are a lighter shade of blue, which is cartoon accurate, but honestly I would have preferred more of that lovely paint to make the upper body uniform like the toy. It's not as stark a contrast in-hand as it appears in photos, and I can live with it.

The feet, which looked like massive duck-bills stuck on the bottom of two boxes in early photos are actually more reasonably proportioned than I expected too. Overall, his proportions are heroic and rather handsome.

Much has been made about his face and the soft moulded detail around the mouth. While there's nothing wrong with the design, it really could have done with lighter paint or sharper details. We've seen some very ugly mouths on other figures ruin them so I think I'd rather have muted detail than ugly sculpting. It doesn't break the toy, but it's a slight disappointment on an otherwise excellent toy.

I always liked how Skids looked from the back on the original toy, and Savant is just as solid in this respect. The rear of a figure isn't usually that consequential for display purposes, but when you're putting dioramas together, it's nice to know that a toy has no unsightly angles. Savant is a great looking toy at any angle.

He's no slouch in the accessory department either. He has a little handgun for his right hand, complete with a little tab that locks it into place on his forearm. For his left, he has a pair of twin lasers that peg into place. There's good paint here, both lasers are grey with a blue central piece sporting some white detailing. It's not bad, but the toy fan in me would rather they had made both of these weapons silver, like the original toy. I'll likely paint these myself though (as I have done with Maketoys Downbeat and a few Hasbro releases) to make it pop a little more. The lack of a larger rocket is also a letdown, but it's all in keeping with his media appearances, so I can't be too mad.

He also comes with a little portable scooter. This was a selling point of the original Honda City R, which came with this portable ride, and while the Transformers toy didn't feature this accessory it was included with the Diaclone (pre-Transformers release) and some European versions, like the one I picked up in Italy aged 11 on a family holiday. Happy times!   

So all in, has X-Transbots gifted us with the perfect MP Skids for our collections? Well, very nearly! Aside from the soft detailing of the face and a couple of minor (but scary) transformation steps, it's very, very good. Lots of die-cast, premium paint, solid overall proportions and fun accessories, he's pretty much bang on.

It's a solid addition to your Autobot line-up and I doubt I'll be looking for a replacement. Grab him while you can.

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