TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:
Alternate Mode:
Additional Image:
Box Art:
Technical Specifications:
STR
INT
SPD
END
RNK
CRG
FPR
SKL

Dennis's review of: Cybertron Dirt Boss

Name: Dirt Boss
Allegiance: Decepticon
Planet: Velocitron
First Appearance: Episode 5 "Space"

Dirt Boss is a wild and rugged villian whose sheer size has fooled many unsuspecting opponents into thinking he's slow.

This is the Cybertron toy I had been looking forward to the most. Finally, I found him at a local retailer, and he's sure impressive.

Vehicle Mode:
The vehicle mode is a monstertruck of some sort. The colours are mainly purple, neon green, silver and translucent red -- the paint job screams Decepticon. That goes well with the `Con logo on his roof. The design of the vehicle mode is very hard to describe, but it's not the classic type of monstertruck. It's a very sleek design, and it looks like this was built for speed and strength instead of strength alone. The two exhaust pipes in the rear give the feeling that this truck has tremendous power under the hood.

This mode would be near perfect if it weren't for the hands sitting in the back next to the exhaust. The wheel base in this mode is very high, and you would expect working suspension, but he has no suspension at all. The wheel design is... let's just say that they're a new type of design. They're split in half, and each half is mounted on opposite sides of the neon green things so that they work as eight wheel halves. The wheels have almost no grip at all on many surfaces, so he isn't the type that you can give a push and have race across the room.

Robot Mode:
In this mode, Dirt Boss features the same colours as before except for a darker purple for his upper legs. He has a great deal of articulation: his head can turn, he has full shoulder articulation, his elbows bend, he can turn in the waist, he has full hip movement, and he can turn and bend at the knees. Overall, he is greatly molded, (especially the head that has the left eye exchanged for a triple lens that's made of transluscent plastic).

When seen from the side, he looks like he might be a bit back-heavy, but he isn't. The bulkiness of this guy is the same as Thundercracker: almost no muscles at all, just functioning limbs. The proportions are very good though, and the wheels on his back don't interfere with the robot mode's intimidation factor. As an added bonus, he has black wristbands that help with the bulk factor of the lower arms, and these can also double for G1 style communication radios.

Overall, the robot mode is superb with good proportions, a great head sculpt, and lots of articulation.

Gimmicks:
Just like every other Cybertron figure, he has a key-activated feature. However, this guy sports two. In vehicle mode, the key is inserted into the rear of the wheelbase, causing it to widen and become a high speed mode of sorts. The vehicle mode was already sleek in the beginning, and now it looks even faster. In robot mode, the key inserts at the same place and the shoulder cannons snap 180 degrees forward. These guns are realy small though, so there's no launching missiles.

Transformation: 5. Simple, but at the same time different.
Durability: 6. Just don't drop him, and he should be alright.
Fun: 8. A wonderful toy with great play value.
Price: 7. I paid 229 sek for it, so it was somewhat expensive.
Overall: 8. A fantastic toy with a grat deal of articulation and cool gimmicks. What more do you want?