2023 Retrospective

It's that time of year again... and, like last time, I'm going to keep the preamble short. Suffice it to say, 2023 was a difficult year and a disappointing year, in equal measure.

Not least, this has been one of the leanest years this blog has seen since it began, party due to a five month gap in postings. I've barely bought anything that wasn't discounted to half price (or less), and the Legacy line has utterly failed to engage me, while Studio Series has made a mess of the toys from the first live action TransFormers movie since Christmas 2018, and Hasbro's streams have consistently 'revealed' toys that have been common knowledge for months. As far as official TransFormers go, I think we can safely say I'm no longer an active collector... At least until they produce something a bit more innovative, that isn't deeply rooted in G1.

Though there's some cool Third Party stuff to look forward to in future...

So, let's get on with this year's retrospective:

Human Alliance Skids & Arcee

OK, by this point, I am reasonably certain that this is actually the last - the very last - Revenge of the Fallen figure in my collection, at least until Studio Series adds something worthwhile from that film. As with Mudflap, this toy had been languishing, largely forgotten, in a box for years. The photos I had taken have been awaiting upload from my computer for more than ten years.

Skids and Mudflap were referred to in RotF as 'the twins', but their Deluxe Class toys were surprisingly different, given the limitations of the size class. They had broadly similar Mech Alive gimmicks, but the specifics of their operation were quite different. Their transformations had similar aspects, but their weapon features were wholly unique. The craziest thing about the Human Alliance versions is that they're even more similar in terms of their underlying engineering, despite the (marginally) larger size versus the Deluxe class toys.

So, let's take a look at this much-maligned character, and see how he fares in this underutilised format.