G1 Crosscut, meanwhile, was an e-HOBBY exclusive with a 'new' (that is, derived from one of the alternative Diaclone versions of the mold) head sculpt so, when Hasbro announced a Generations version, with a head styled after the original figure applied to the new Skids mold, the fact that I'd enjoyed Generations Skids so much put Crosscut straight onto my want list.
Vehicle Mode:
Where the original Crosscut was almost entirely painted silver, the Generations version is a slightly pearlescent grey plastic. It's clear that this is intended to represent silver, however, because the windscreen and window pieces feature silver paint on the windscreen wipers, window frames. Silver paint is additionally applied to the hubcaps, but all this paintwork is a little untidy on mine - slight overspray on the windowframes, slight smudging and underspray elsewhere, while rear leftside hubcap almost looks like it was painted using a darker metallic paint as the coverage is so poor. The black stripe down each side is irregular on one side but virtually perfect on the other, albeit a little misaligned. At the front of the vehicle, the entire grille area is painted black, with the headlights picked out in yellow and the lower, central part of the grille has a poorly defined coat of metallic cherry-red paint. Surprisingly, the back end of the vehicle has more paint than Skids - part of the indicator details are painted both yellow and metallic red, with a slightly untidy black strip between them. The only other decoration is the large Autobot insignia at the front of the bonnet - just like on Skids, only it's larger and without the white outlining/background.
No surprise, Crosscut comes with exactly the same weapons as Skids, just molded in a very matte black plastic that feels slightly grainy. They interact with vehicle mode in exactly the same way, via the 5mm ports next to the rear wheels on each side.
I think, on balance, that Crosscut looks a little bit more impressive in vehicle mode though, admittedly, Skids looks more deliberately sporty, as if his choice of colour was intended to present him as fun and sporty, where Crosscut is trying to be cooler and flashier. He even has identical tolerance issues, in that the left front wing doesn't peg in as snugly as the right, and the rear wings/outer sections of rear bumper are very slightly misaligned.
Robot Mode:
In this new colourscheme, the toy based on Alex Milne's reimagining of Skids looks every bit as good as the original release. He looks rather more subdued overall, with some of the vehicle's grey giving way to more black and metallic red. It all strikes a nice balance and, to be honest, much as I liked the bright red on Skids, I prefer the darker red of this one, particularly thanks to its metallic sheen. It's also nice to see his hands painted considering that particular stylistic homage was missing on Skids, though the paint stops a fraction short of his wrists.
The mass of weapons seems just as out of place on Crosscut - ostensibly a diplomat, specifically an ambassador - as it did on Skids but, according to the character's G1 bio, it's all defensive weaponry, designed to incapacitate rather than kill. The original toy's bio lists an 'Electromagnetic Pulse Emitter Rifle', a 'Twin Vertigo Gun' and a 'Stun Grenade Launcher' but, the way the weapons were arranged on this mold, the only accessory that definitely fits one of those descriptions is the larger handgun, which is probably the first of these weapons. Technically, I guess the arm-mounted guns would be closest to the 'Twin Vertigo Gun', albeit now fully integrated into the robot... but this leaves the smaller pistol as the 'Stun Grenade Launcher'. Perhaps the small drum on the underside is a revolving cylinder but, even then, it looks pretty weedy for that purpose. Alternatively, perhaps the concealed batteries of launchers on his shoulders are the grenade launchers, and the smaller pistol (or the forearm-mounted guns) are something new... Since the Generations toys didn't come with anything resembling the old G1 Tech Specs, we will never know for sure - even the mighty TFU.info refers to the accessories only as "Gun" and "Small Gun".
My main complaint about the Skids version of the mold was that the head sculpt - while perfectly accurate to the IDW artwork at the time - didn't look robotic enough. With a head derived from a Diaclone toy, Crosscut is one of those 'bots with a faceplate so he automatically looks more like the traditional mechanical being he's supposed to be. Overall, the head is very true to the G1 original, albeit with tweaked proportions and finer detailing. Where the original was molded in red plastic, this one uses the same grey as the car shell for the most part, and painted over with the same metallic red as is used elsewhere on the body. Again, it's not a particularly accurate paint job - it doesn't extend to the insides of the cheek guards or the underside of the brow, and doesn't keep to the sculpted detail especially well - but it works well enough. He does suffer from the same overpainted light piping - the eyes are yellow paint over translucent blue plastic - but I like the overall look as it's fairly true to the G1 model. The central crest is unpainted, where the original had a sticker applied, while the 'ears' are neither sculpted nor decorated to match the stickers on the toy. He does still have the cat-ear-like protrusions on either side of the central crest, though, and the head certainly suits the robot.
All the concerns I had about Skids transformation are present on Crosscut as well - there's clearly something a little bit adrift about the engineering if two completely different toys based on the same mold have the same variances in the transformation seams. One additional issue with this one, though, is that the door wings are a little harder to pop into/out of their vehicle mode positions, to the point where I'm concerned the translucent plastic may eventually break. It's still a fun and innovative transformation, and I'm glad the mold got a second outing as this lesser-known, forming exclusive character.
It's entirely possible I wouldn't have bought Crosscut if I hadn't first bought Skids and, having picked both of them up, I'm more than a little tempted by the Skids repaint, Rollbar, which appeared in the Age of Extinction 'Breakout Battle' boxed set as an interpretation of the car driven by the character Shane Dyson. The only downside to that is that it uses the Skids head sculpt, even though the packaging art shows the Crosscut sculpt.
This is a surprising and cleverly-designed mold - in retrospect possibly one of the most interesting from that portion of the Generations line. I only wish Hasbro had taken the opportunity to release a few more Generations updates of a few more e-HOBBY characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment