by Wolfman Jake » Thu Dec 06, 2018 3:51 pm
- Motto: ""A mountain with a wolf on it stands a little taller."
-Edward Hoagland"
- Weapon: Retractable Mecha-Fangs
Last, but not least, here's my review of Flywheels (a.k.a., Skytread). Since Flywheels in the original name, and the one I'm most used to, I'll be using that for the remainder of this review, but to anyone not in the know, it's the character named "Skytread" for the Transformers: Siege line to which I am referring whenever I say Flywheels.
I, along with many other fans, had been anticipating Flywheels since we knew we were getting Battletrap in Power of the Primes. Of course, many of us were hoping for the same kind of update we got with Battletrap, where we would get two figures with their own alt modes and robot modes that combined into the classic characters from G1. I recall a LOT of people loved how Battleslash and Roadtrap turned out in PotP, but opinion seemed to shift a little more once Flywheels was fully revealed for Siege.
Judged on its own, Flywheels is a great update of the original G1 toy. While that thing was fun, it was mostly an "autoformer" that produced a robot with very funky proportions and minimal articulation, even for a G1 toy. This modern update fixes all of those issues, giving us a figure that we convert manually, resulting in a robot mode that looks proportionate and cool, like the original animation models from The Headmasters and G1 toy commercials. Flywheels is not slouch in articulation either, sporting some nice ankle tilts like the rest of his Deluxe Class contemporaries in the SIEGE line. The battle damage paint is again kept to a minimum and works well to enhance the look of the toy without being overbearing. The "paint scrapes" are relegating entirely to the tank portion of the figure and end up on the feet and outsides of the legs. You hardly notice they're there unless you're looking for them.
How does Flywheels stack up when compared with Battletrap, his partner in crime from Power of the Primes? Again, it would have been nice had the two been done in the same style as one another, either both having individual robot modes for their two vehicles, or both lacking that addition altogether. At least they are compatible with one another, so they can swap shirts/pants if you really want to. They do look silly and mismatched that way, mostly because of the stark color contrasts, but you can do it if your heart desires. From not having the individual robot modes, Flywheels does transform into robot mode more easily than Flywheels, is noticeably less "fiddly" when posing, and looks overall more cohesive in sculpt. Do the individual vehicles modes have as much advantage? Yes and no. While both the SUV and helicopter of Battletrap suffer from having to combine with one another, on top of being individual vehicles and robots (essentially, they are combiner pieces in Legends scale), the tank of Flywheels turns out quite well (aside from some design/molding issues). The jet component gets stuck with two Deluxe sized robot arms for an undercarriage on a jet that's Legends sized. It's not elegant, but it's not horrendous. It's just disappointing. I think we would have gotten more play value out of Flywheels had been designed in parallel with Battletrap, but in robot mode, they still look good paired up together on display. Like Battletrap, you also can't really securely seat the flying vehicle atop the ground vehicle securely with Flywheels, meaning that if you want to replicate that G1 "pre transformation" pose with these figures, you just have to balance one atop the other.
Going back to the design/molding issues mentioned above, most of the problem is with the tank component. Everything about the jet component works as intended, and the only downside is the robot arms hanging out below the fuselage. The tanks is more problematic, and these issues have been noted by several other reviewers as well. The tank turret doesn't peg in securely. There is a lip of plastic, intentionally molded on the butt of the rifle, that keeps it being able to push the peg all the way into the tank. Either the peg needed to be longer to accommodate that molding decision, or the lip in the sculpt should have been eliminated before production. The turret sits okay, but will fall out easily, especially if you pick up and manipulate the tank at all. The other issue is that the pieces that form the tank turret don't snap in place at all. The tabs are too long/thick and will pop out of their slots. This means that the parts don't lay flush and will always look a little slanted and off unless you fix the tabs yourself with some sanding or trimming. I've hear rumors of some hip joints being "frozen" with Flywheels, but my copy doesn't seem to have any issue.
Overall, I'm glad to have Flywheels, but he could have been designed and polished just a bit better, especially considering he should have been easier and more cost effective to engineer and produce than Battletrap just one year earlier.
Wolfman Jake - Spendin' the day howlin' away.
I'm tempted to try my luck at Smyths toys, here in the UK they got combiner wars, titans returns and potp figures not long after they hit you lucky Americans
