Intro:
When the Revenge of the Fallen movie was released back in 2009, the Twins, a.k.a. Skids and Mudflap received so much flak from so many quarters. Honestly, I don’t know what the fuss all was about. Sure, they swear and curse a bit too much, but the characters in South Park do it all time and I don’t see anyone complaining about them. So what gives?! They might not be the best of characters in the movie, but heck, they sure weren’t that bad…
Anyways, I have to admit, I’m not much of a fan of the individually-released Deluxe-class figures of both, and I almost skipped them entirely until I finally decided to give Tuner Skids and Tuner Mudflap a shot – although I wasn’t too badly disappointed with them, I wasn’t entirely too happy with them either. I, however, was more interested in the ice-cream truck, for which the Twins were first depicted in the movie. The moment I saw that scene, I knew instantly that I was going to get it the moment HasTak decides to release them. As most of you loyal Cybertronians may know by now, I am a huge sucker for unique Transformers, and this ice-cream truck version of the Twins absolutely fits the bill – both combining to form the vehicle mode, that’s unique in my book.
So I’ve waited patiently for months, before my prayers were finally answered. So, here we are now, reviewing these highly anticipated figures.
Alternate Mode:
Well arguably, this is the main attraction of the set itself – having 2 robots/ characters combining to form 1 singular alternate mode. The size is that of a regular Deluxe-class figure and predominantly pink and white in color – a color combination that I would normally have a problem with, but in this case, it’s an exception.
For one, this mode looks horrible from the bottom as the kibbles are fully exposed. The front half of the vehicle mode’s windshields are made from see-through plastic and the robot legs are arranged in a way that they look almost as if they are the seats in the cockpit, which is nice.
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| Kibbles |
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| From left to right: Skids & Mudflap |
Robot Mode (Skids):
To be honest with you, I used to not be able to remember which of the Twins is which – the obviously differentiated green Chevy Beat and the maroon Chevy Trax were somehow a topic of identification crisis for me. So you can just imagine my utter confusion when in ice-cream truck mode, with both having the same color-scheme in robot mode, it was almost impossible for me identify which is which!!! Then finally, it hit on me – Skids have an oversized right arm, while Mudflap has an oversized left.
In my humble opinion, Skids is the weaker mould of the two. Skids is very top heavy and having a set of very scrawny little legs really doesn’t help a lot. However, you will still be able to pose or stand him once you find those sweet spots.
Despite being small in size – approximately 3-inches tall – the little has quite a number of articulations to him. The head is on a ball joint, but it’s very, very, very tight to use. The upper shoulders have a two-point swivel articulation that provides the upward and downward motions to the arms. Unfortunately though, due to the sheer size of the shoulders and the monstrous mess that is his back may hinder a lot of possible movements. Lower shoulders are on rotational joints. The elbows are ball-jointed as well as having rotational joints – so the lower arms have all range of motions. The hands however, are different between both arms. The bigger right hand (dark grey in color) is on a swivel that swivels inward and back, while the left hand (pink in color) is stagnant.
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| The Face only A Parent Could Love |
Personally I think the arms are somewhat overwhelmingly – gorilla arms, if you would – that it makes him look even more awkward.
All in all, Skids is probably my least favorite of the set. He’s not bad, just could’ve been better.
Verdict: 7/10
Robot Mode (Mudflap):
Proportionally-wise, while Skids has everything wrong, Mudflap has everything right. He doesn’t have gorilla-arms and feet are bigger (maybe a bit too big) – Mudflap looks way better in comparison to his elder brother. On the flipside, just like his brother, Mudflap can be a bit back-heavy too. You just have to look for that sweet spot when posing him.
Mudflap also has that cape-thing going on at the back, which is kinda cool and they also double-up as an extra support for the back-heaviness at times.
Articulation-wise: the head is on a much looser ball joint, in comparison to that of Skids’s; the shoulder pads (guards) also swing inward and out, and rotate upward and down; the shoulders themselves are on ball joints; the elbows bend and rotate; unlike Skids, Mudflap’s larger left hand now is on a swivel joint instead of the right, and it is pink in color instead of dark grey; no waist movement; hips are all loose ball joints; the knees bend and rotate; and finally the toe-flaps swing up and back down.
Both Mudflap and Skids are almost the same height with the former being slightly, very slightly, taller.
Generally-speaking, quite nice.
Verdict: 8.5/10
Overall:
Despite their shortcomings, I really do love these guys, probably even more than their Chevy-versions. Eye-piercing color scheme aside, this mode is quite unique and is generally a fan favorite due to the memorable Shanghai scene at the start of the ROTF movie.
If you haven’t got one of these yet, I suggest that you do.
Recommended.
Final verdict: 8/10.
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