TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

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

Detective Barricade's review: Skids

Name: Skids
Function: Twin brother of Mudflap, goofball, one of Bay’s favorite characters.
Sub-Group: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Class

Because he is slightly less hyperactive than his brother Mudflap, Skids has always thought of himself as “the smart one”. He likes to point this out at every opportunity. While Mudflap zips around like a maniac, Skids prefers to impress his superiors among the Autobot high command by behaving in a way he thinks of as mature, which usually involves talking nonstop about anything that occurs to him.

Recently, Autobot twins seem to be all the rage. For Universe, we got Classic Series updates on the Lamborghini twins, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. For Animated, we got the jet twins, Jetfire and Jetstorm, who can combine to form Safeguard. And for Revenge Of The Fallen (ROTF), we’ve got Skids and Mudflap. This pair come to Earth and initially together (combining) adopt the form of an ice cream truck. Then they go and scan separate vehicle modes for themselves. Right now, that’s all we know about them. Anyway, let’s move on to reviewing Skids.

Alternate mode:
This version of ROTF Skids becomes a Chevy Beat concept car, which will be marketed as the Chevy Spark in 2011 apparently. He’s primarily lime green with translucent blue windows, clear headlights, red taillights, and a glossy black hood. A bit of silver picks out the Chevy logos on the front and back, and the light blue license plate reads, “SKIDS”. That’s cute, I guess... As a car, he doesn’t have much mold detail, though the marks along the sides really help make things interesting! If he’s transformed correctly, then Skids should roll quite nicely. Sadly though, that’s about all you can do in this mode.

Robot mode:
The best bit of advice I can give when transforming Skids is to flip him over and take a good long look at how everything is positioned on the underside before transforming him for the first time. Memorize it all, for the parts will only really fit in the way they’re arranged now. When it comes time to fold the roof up, push the center panel in, then take and forcefully push the outside panels down past the windshield. It will feel like you’re going to break it, but eventually they should get past without breaking. It’ll get easier the more often it’s transformed.

Once in robot mode, Skids is very compact and solid! He’s kind of cute, in a goofball, face-not-even-a-mother-could-love, kind of way. He gains some slightly darker green, grey, and blue in this mode. He’s also got a monocle eye, a silver tooth, and a gold tooth. And if that weren’t enough, he’s got a huge right arm, complete with a spring loaded punch. His other gimmick is the Mech Alive one: pushing the grill in makes his armor plates on his chest to shift. Well at least it’s unobtrusive... With 26 points of articulation, there are some options on how to pose him. However, he is a little back heavy, so you may want to be mindful of that. Overall though, he’s another prime example of a pretty good Deluxe!

Transformation: 6 – Some trouble spots, and can be a bit fussy in how you put him back to vehicle, but not insanely hard.
Durability: 9 – He’s a lot tougher than you might think at first.
Fun: 8 – He’s plenty of fun just on his own. But don’t hesitate to throw Mudflap into the mix!
Price: 9 – Worth it, especially if you can get Mudflap too!
Overall: 8 – A surprisingly fun little toy. A must for those who are suckers for twins, such as myself!

Blackjack's review

Name: Skids
Allegiance: Autobot
Subgroup: The Twins
Function: Warrior; Comic relief

"It's upgrade time!"

Skids is among the five new Autobots (six if you could Jetfire and Wheelie) that was introduced in Revenge of the Fallen. The five new Autobots are Jolt (appeared out of nowhere halfway through the movie), Sideswipe, Arcee(s), Mudflap and Skids. Skids and Mudflap are the Twins, and amazingly they reference G1's Micromaster Combiners. Skids and Mudflap start the film by combining into an ice cream truck, Micromaster Combiner-style. However, after proving ineffective, they upgraded into Chevrolet concept cars. Skids and Mudflap fought over the green car, Chevrolet Beat. Skids won, and got it as his car mode.

Then, Skids and Mudflap pretty much tag along with Bumblebee and the humans as they meet ex-agent Simmons, go to the museum and get teleported to Egypt. In Egypt, Skids and Mudflap's bickering accidentally uncovers the Tomb of the Primes. The Decepticons arrive; however, and the Twins, Leo and Simmons were tasked with distracting Starscream. They were unsuccessful, and were wondering where the Decepticons were gone to when a group of approximately seven construction vehicles combined into the gestalt Devastator. Mudflap got eaten by Devastator, but he proved to be indigestible and blasted his way out of Dev's maw. Skids and Mudflap then tried their best to bring Devastator down, but their antics proved ineffective, and Mudflap shot Skids in the face. Ouch. Presumably they survived the final battle.

Skids and Mudflap had been complained by some to be offensive stereotypes. Personally, I just think they're comedy relief characters with a bad language problem, that's all.

Still, being a 'punk' is a big departure from the G1's smart theoretician Skids. Skids first appeared in 1985, the second year of G1. His toy was rarer than most other cars. In the cartoon he cameoed for two or three episodes, but in the comics (especially the UK ones) he was more prominent. Then, Hasbro lost the trademark to Skids. In RiD, a character named Skid-Z was introduced. In Armada the name Skid-Z was reused as a toy-only Mini-Con. Hasbro later did the smart thing and finally trademarked 'Autobot Skids', resulting in Skids' alternators toy. Then, the movie card game got us another Skids, and now ROTF brings Skids back into the main cast.

ALTERNATE MODE

Skids, after deciding that half of an ice cream truck ain't effective, scans a green-coloured Chevrolet Beat concept. The compact car is charming, and I really like him. I mean, trucks and sports cars are wonderful, but we have very few compact cars. Hooray for Classics Bumblebee! Skids rolls quite well on the floor.

Skids' colour of choice is a subdued lime green, which, in my opinion, makes him stand out among the hordes of silver, black, red and blue robots. I mean, lime green isn't a common colour among the Transformers, but Skids delivers it perfectly. His green is a large departure from his G1's darker blue, but it's not like any of the movie Transformers (bar Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Brawl and the Fallen) have G1 colours. And he's not just solid green with windows, but rather, he has a secondary black colouring, adorning his windshield, grill, and forming a intricate pattern on either side of his vehicle mode. For someone who couldn't read Cybertonian, those patterns really look like one of those glyphs. Translucent blue form the windows, and his license plate reads 'SKIDS'. Of course. What did you expect?

Skids is pretty compact, and looks great displayed alongside other car-mode robots. He's detailed as much as any other Movie/ROTF toy, and looks simply wonderful.

ROBOT MODE

Skids' transformation is unexpectedly very complex, requiring the rotation of half of the toy, adjusting some fiddly parts and trying to figure out where each part should go to. The instructions don't help either. After the complex transformation, you get Skids as he appears in the movie—heroic dopey.

Skids' main colour is still lime green, but darker green appears for the head, arms, legs and hip, while more greys appear. Skids is very poseable, with a multitude of ball and hinge joints. His right arm is larger than the left, like in the movie, and if you press the trigger Skids' hand shoots forward. The fingers on this big arm can bend. Well, at least they found a use for the big arm... There also appears to be a gun port (or possibly the grapple launcher he uses in the Devastator fight) on his wrist, which rises up when you press the trigger that makes the 'punching action'.

However, his Mech Alive feature is rather lame, and I think that its inclusion contributed to the complexity of the transformation. Press the chest, and some panels slide away, and his head moves forward. 'Moving panels'. I'd go with a working grapple line or a gun anytime. As you could guess, Skids' car kibble all end up on his back, making him top-heavy. It's just as well that he has feet with large surface area, and the big arm helps with balance issues.

I simply adore Skids' face, with his dopey look, one eye bigger than the other, horns, and two buckteeth: one is golden, and one is silver. While I'm a little miffed by Mudflap's face, I really like Skids' dopey face. I've heard that some releases of Skids have unpainted teeth, so be careful, as there's no way to know from the packaging. Mine is painted, though. In the movie, the golden tooth fell off Skids when Mudflap accidentally shot his face.

Overall, Skids is a decent toy. Could do with some improvements (less fiddly transformation, better distribution of mass) but overall he's a nice toy.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation 9/10 Skids' transformation is very complex, and very difficult the first time round. It's hard both ways, but it gets better after two or three transformations. Instructions: essential.
Durability 7/10 Being compact, Skids is quite durable. However, I am worried that his roof part might just snap off anytime during transformation.
Fun 6/10 Skids is a fun toy, with a movie role. He is quite fun, especially if you have Mudflap as well. (Would it kill Hasbro to include Skids' grapple gun?)
Price 5/10 Skids is a deluxe class toy, but the deluxes in my place are hideously priced. It's what you would expect from a deluxe, though.
Overall 7/10 Skids is an okay toy, and is highly recommended if you're aiming to collect the cast. I recommend getting Mudflap if you get him. They look wonderful together. Sure, he's got a few problems, but he's a decent toy. Unless you're one of those people who hate the Twins, you should get him. Better him than getting a repaint.