Transformers Generations Skids

Presenting the Autobot Skids from the Transformers Generations toyline.

We chanced upon Skids at retail and frankly had no interest in buying him. He's Skids after all. In the greater scheme of things, he's nobody - no offense to Skids lovers out there - but he is Decepticon cannon fodder (Check out his yellow eyes below. He'll never be a Prime).

But everyone in the community seemed to want him so we had to find out why.

So we picked him up.

When we opened him, we were quite disappointed with the Transformers Generations Autobot Skids. Skids had beyond poor articulation, horrible feet, used gimmicks - though we had to admit the shoulder-mounted mini-missile launcher system is new.


But we are absolutely happy though that the world is now introduced to who the Autobot Skids really is: an incredibly intelligent Autobot, a philosopher (Skids is a theoretician - though we think he's definition of theoretician is quite different from the Marxist one) whose intelligence hampers his people skills (Skids is quite the introvert).

Not this Bayformer catastrophe that feebly attempts to combine comic relief with racial, latino stereo-types.

The Transformers Generations Autobot Skids' blister card reads: "With no memory of his life before a few cycles ago, Autobot Skids finds himself with a rare opportunity. Not knowing who he is allows him to be anything he wants to be, and the firepower of his mysterious new blaster gives him the strength to follow through on any adventure he pursues."

See the Resemblance?

Actually Autobot Skids has more than a blaster. We'll get to that later. The blister pack also lists his statistics as:

• Strength: A very weak 4
• Intelligence: A very strong 9
• Speed: An average 5
• Endurance: A respectable 6
• Rank: Interestingly an 8
• Courage: 7
• Fireblast: 7  Hmmmm. Should probably be higher
• Skill: 7

Now before we move on to the review of Transformers Generations Skids, we were initially frustrated by how poor Skids' articulation was. Here's the extent of how far the figure was capable of raising his legs forward:

That's already him trying to move forward. There was a design flaw on the joint which was preventing his leg from moving forward.

THE REPAIR:

So we took Skids legs off with the intention of shaving off the excess parts just so he could move. That's when we noticed these L & R marks on them. The "L" marked ball joint socket was on the right leg and the "R" marked ball joint socket was on the left.

There was clearly a manufacturing assembly error.

So we took the little tool from the Pandora's Box Optimus Prime Upgrade and popped them out of their sockets.



Switched the two, and suddenly Skids could do this:

I feel much better now doc, thanks!

What's to like about the Transformers Generations Autobot Skids?

FIRST: Let's start with his facial sculpt: We love the little underbite that the designers really didn't have to do. He looks like he forgot something really important - or just dropped a load in his pants. It's just such a joy to see personality in an action figure when no personality is fine. You can see the aforementioned yellow eyes, which, kinda suggests that Skids will never wield the Autobot Matrix of Leadership.

SECOND is that Autobot Skids comes with two modes. Technically Skids is not portrayed in the IDW comic books with his "wings" extended that far, nor is he portrayed with a shoulder mounted quad cannon nor mini-missiles exposed. Further, you actually have to trigger a catch at the back of Skids to snap out his shoulder-mounted quad-cannon.

Ergo, it is possible to display Generations Skids like this:

Personally we think this is a better form for Transformers Generations Autobot Skids because (THIRD) it allows him to hide and execute his gimmicks at leisure such as his forearm cannons (We're not really sure why you have to extend them. They look like they can fire perfectly where they are):

And Autobot's Skids' trademark mini-missile launcher. Purist will claim that this is an abomination because the missiles should be coming from his tires, not his front fender. We think this is a good enough compromise and love the idea. 

Combine Skids's two hand-held weapons together and you have an Autobot with an Alpha Strike:

The FOURTH thing we love about the Autobot Skids is the articulation granted to him by simply switching his hip sockets. Yes, Skids can kneel - in a fashion:

The FIFTH thing we love about Transformers Generations Skids is his car mode. He no longer transforms into a Honda City R (Though that would have been cool). We're not sure what he transforms into - some kind of sleek looking hatchback, but it is nice to look at:

Check out the detailing that went into his front grill. We forgot to shoot him with the "doors" open as his final transformation move involves bringing down the two "gull wing" doors which looks nice.

Skids weapons snap onto the side of his car mode:

You can actually also mount Skids weapons on his wings which is eh... kinda meh. Nothing special:

What's NOT to like about the TF Generations Autobot Skids?

Unfortunately there is still a lot to hate about Skids.

FIRST off, we shouldn't have to perform minor surgery on a toy that we paid righteous money for just for it to work. Where was the quality control? As was pointed out recently by Hasbro, they want to target kids hence the easier transformations, not that many kids will be able to figure this out and will probably break the figure - speaking of which, rumor has it that the ball joint stud is actually weak and may break off. Boooooooo.

Hey look! A 4th Form!

SECOND Skids' arm articulation is generally limited to him raising, lowering and twisting his forearms. He can't really raise his entire arm because his shoulder pauldrons are so massive they bang into almost everything - his chest, his back, his wings. There is no escape or easy surgical fix for that.

THIRD: What's with those really flat footed feet? Skids is top heavy and his feet provide no support towards the back at all. You actually have to cant his legs a bit forward at the knee so that he stands. or keep him in action poses.

FOURTH: There is no place on him to hide his weapons while Skids is in car mode. You either mount them on the side or leave them behind. You can slip one of them in the undercarriage (The smaller pistol), but certainly not both of them at the same time

Transformers Generations Autobot Skids was purchased from Toy Kingdom in SM Megamall here in the Philippines for PhP 849.75 (Roughly US$ 19.31). He is available on Amazon for a low of US$26 and a high of US$ 39.95 (Roughly between PhP 1,144 and PhP 1,757.80 plus shipping).

We still don't understand what the fuss is all about. Back to collecting Primes.