Allegiances: Autobot
 

Trickout

Size: Mini-Con
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Dark red, black, and some silver and moderately light blue
Individual Rating: 6.0

    Trickout's alternate mode is an offroad vehicle kinda thing. I say "kinda thing" because some of these Activator Mini-Con's alt modes can be a bit abstract. There's some elements here of an offroad vehicle, with a solid, large front bumper, an angled cockpit w/ windows, and a generally solid main body (though the robot arms are quite obvious on the sides). However, the size of the rear wheels, and some exaggerated features like the HUGE exhaust pipe coming out the back end, make it look a bit like a monster truck. So it's kind of a mix of both, I guess? Beyond the mold details already discussed, there's some nice tread details on the wheels, a grill detail on the bottom of the (outrageously huge) front bumper, some details on the back end to make it look more like a gas exhaust pipe, and a few angular lines here and there to help break things up. Unfortunately, there is absolutely NO paint apps in this mode whatsoever-- a huge loss given some of the rather intricate mold detailing in places. The entire body of the toy is a dark red in this mode, with black used for the wheels and some minor connector bits. It's not a bad color scheme for a small toy, but MAN some paint was needed here.
    As with all RID2015 Mini-Cons, Trickout's transformation is quite simple. Just pull down on the front bumper and stand Trickout up, and the rest auto-transforms, though it's not much of a transformation-- the arms angle slightly out, as do the rear tires, and the exhaust pipe retracts in a bit, but that's about it. It's pretty obviously the vehicle mode more or less standing up on its back end. The end result makes Trickout look like a rough-'n-tumbler, which you'd expect from a Mini-Con with his alt mode. The arms are a little on the thick side for a Mini-Con (though not cartoonishly so), he's got a wide chest and stock frame, and his round head has a rather perturbed expression on his face. In fact, he looks like a lot like a Mini-Con version of G1 Ironhide if you look just at the head, given the design elements. Oh, and Trickout has those huge rear tires for legs in this mode, kind of like Fixit. It helps make him a bit more unique, and adds to his stockiness as well. The exhaust pipe coming down the backside helps stabilize him, so no need to worry about him just rolling all over the place. Unfortunately once again when it comes to paint, Trickout is really lacking-- his face is painted silver and his eyes blue, but that's it. He really needed some color on a few of all those red parts, though beyond that it's still a fairly unique, fun robot mode. As with most Mini-Cons, Trickout has no articulation in robot mode.
 

Strongarm

Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Moderately dark blue, black, white, pearlescent white, and some dark red, silver, and orangish "cheesy" yellow
Individual Rating: 7.3

    Strongarm's police SUV alt mode is replicated pretty faithfully for her Activator version, at least when it comes to the proportions and details. The center portion with her windows may be a tad undersized, but not by much; otherwise everything's sized appropriately in this mode, from her wide front grill to her large tires to the curved sections coming off the back end. All of the mold details are here, from the blocky, angular front grill, to the rear view mirrors and angular side doors, to the treads on the tires, and the divots on the back end that become her lower legs in robot mode. (In fact, this is really her only real robot extra in this mode; the feet can be seen on the backside of the roof, where the rear window should be instead. They're not painted, though, and they tend to blend in well enough with the surrounding parts where they're not particularly obvious.) She also has those triangular taillights on the back end, though due to her transformation, there are two rectangular gaps on the bottom of the tail end. As is unfortunately the case with basically every RID2015 Strongarm toy, Hasbro just can't/won't use enough paint to get her color palette accurate in this mode-- she either has too much blue or too much white, and in this case, it's too much blue. She still, of course, has her main colors of white, blue, and black, but there should be far more white on the sides of the vehicle, with blue only coming up from the doors and then being more apparent on the back end. Additionally, there should be a blue stripe down the center of her white hood, not a white stripe down the center of a blue hood! Ugh. It's really frustrating to see all these Strongarm toys and none of them accurately represent her color layout (at least that were sold in the USA). Additionally, many of her details are not painted, like much of her grill and headlights, as well as her taillights and the full extent of her stylized stripes on the side. She does have at least the center portion of her grill painted silver, though, and her windows are painted black while her sirens are painted red and blue. She does have white plastic used around the middle section, while most of the rest of white in this mode is paint; however, the white paint doesn't quite match up with the plastic. The white paint is more of a straight, "pure" white, while the plastic is more of a pearlescent white.
    Pressing in on the black button on the top of the roof or inserting Trickout or another Activator Mini-Con in between her sirens will activate Strongarm's Activator gimmick, which has her tires pop out on some molded-in "suspension springs", while the sides of the front two-thirds of her vehicle mode also pop out a bit as well. I'm not so fond of the sides popping out uneccessarily-- why, it just makes her look more fragmented for no reason-- but giving her essentially suspended "monster truck" tires is a cool idea. You have to push back in the tires and the sides to reset her to her "normal" configuration again, though to transform Strongarm to robot mode you have to use the Activator gimmick to get her arms to slide out and then annoyingly push back in the tires into her shoulders again.
    Strongarm's transformation to robot mode is pretty simple-- beyond what I just mentioned about the arms, you flip the front of the hood onto the back and then rotate the back sections of the vehicle around to become her feet (unfortunately probably having to reset her leg-wheels again in the process, as they are liable to pop back out again during rotation). The end result is fairly accurate to Strongarm's robot mode, though a bit simplified obviously, and no "door wings". Granted, I'm not weeping because of the loss of some kibble, but it does give her a slightly different look. The front grill/hood section on her upper back does just hang back there, but it doesn't get in the way of movement and only becomes obvious from a more side-on view, so it's a minor complaint. The front side sections of her grill should also be facing forward on her shoulders and they aren't-- add this to the fact that there's large pins on her elbows that LOOK like she should be able to move there but can't, and her arms are a bit disappointing. (The lower arms are also a bit too short and stubby.) The legs are pretty solid overall, with all the necessary mold details there as well as on her main body. She's got those faux "crushed up vehicle" sections on her chest, along with a "belt" molded onto her waist, and a pretty show-accurate headsculpt. As far as paint goes, she has an accurate black waist, blue paint apps on her chest, and white on her lower legs, though as with her vehicle mode, too much of her is blue-- her arms in particular. Her headsculpt has some silver on the face and some blue on the forehead and eyes, as well as a bit of orangish "cheesy" yellow on her headcrest, though the blue on the sides of her head are missing. She's still more accurate color-wise than in her vehicle mode, though, and the color breakup is better with more of a white/black feel towards the center portion of the body. For articulation, she can move at the neck, shoulders, side-to-side at the hips, and backwards at the knees. That's it-- a bit of a shame given this is the largest Strongarm toy in the line. Elbows and forward knee movement would have been especially appreciated.

    Strongarm's Activator gimmick is pretty cool, giving her a "monster truck" look to her vehicle mode, her proportions are pretty good overall, and her kibble is minimal. As such, for someone who wants a simpler, gimmicked version of the character, she's a decent pick. However, what with her lack of articulation, weak arms in robot mode, somewhat annoying wheels that can spring out during the transformation when you don't want them to, and an inaccurate color layout in vehicle mode, it all definitely keeps her from being the best RID2015 Strongarm toy there is; as is, beyond the neat gimmick she's merely so-so. (Trickout is a cool little extra, but not worth the price of the full package just for him.)
 

Reviews by Beastbot

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