|
|
Top | Kids | Toys
|
Boring Machine
|
Ratings ( 16 )
|
|
Idea by zobovor
Level (1)
Entered: 1/16/2001 8:32:20 PM
|
|
|
Idea Description
Mol is probably the least impressive and most disappointing of the Beast Machines Deployers. What's strange, though, is that Hasbro seems to have completely erred in his instructions, since an intuitive alternate mode is by far more interesting than the official one presented in the instructions.
Like the other Deployers toys, Mol is a robotic incarnation of the animal his name represents--a mole, in this case. About 4 1/4" long at the nose and 2" high, Mol has the loudest color scheme of the group, decked out in translucent red with a yellow body and front legs. He's also got a paint wash along the detailing on either side of his body, which really helps to bring out the detailing in his design. His bodyform is the most abstract of the three Deployers, with a drill bit for a nose and (non-working) treads mounted beneath his rear legs.
Unlike Rav or Dillo, both of Mol's gimmicks work whether you bother to transform him or not. When you rotate the wheel behind his head, his head-mounted drill will spin. His ears tend to get in the way whne you spin the wheel, though, and there's no way to get the drill to spin through its own inertia. Mol also launches a missile, in the shape of a large buzzsaw blade, from his back when you press the spring-loaded trigger. Because of its weight and two-piece construction (the locking clip for the missile is mounted on the side of the buzzsaw blade), it only travels a couple of feet when launched, but sometimes it will roll half again as far.
To transform Mol... well, it's easy to do so accidentally and not even realize it. By depressing on his head, a spring-mechanism is unlocked that causes the rear section of his body to swing up. Rotating his front legs around to either side creates a tripod, with his head-mounted drill supporting the toy. The launcher still works, though it's facing the opposite direction of the drill. Hasbro calls this a bore mode, which strikes me as strange since the Deployers allegedly transform into weapons. What's more, he's equipped with small handles that appear to be mounted backwards in this form.
I suggest an alternate transformed mode: a weapons emplacement. By making the buzzsaw blade launcher the front of this transformation, the purpose of the handles on either side of the weapon (which Hasbro neglected to mention in the instructions at all) become all too clear. Mol was designed to be operated by a basic-level Beast Machines toy such as Silverbolt or Nightviper or Hammerstrike, all of whom fit quite nicely seated at the controls, using the crest of Mol's head as the seat. Silverbolt works especially well with Mol since their colors match so nicely. I'm not sure whether Hasbro abaondoned or neglected this entirely obvious design feature--perhaps they didn't want to confuse the Deployers with the Beast Riders?--but it's not the first time it's happened, and most intrepid fans would stumble onto this facet of the toy eventually.
As with the other Deployers, the biography and tech specs on Mol's packaging seem to hint at a connection to the original Transformers of the 1980's (which, in the context of the current storyline, are ancient history on the order of several hundred years). The only direct reference made is that Mol was recently reformatted by the Oracle "following eons of deactivation at the hands of the Decepticons," but I believe that someone intended for this to be the Autobot named Brawn. In The Transformers: the Movie, Brawn was indeed one of the characters killed by the Decepticons--perhaps the most infamous of the bunch among the fandom, due to his reputation for great endurance. Furthermore, Brawn and Mol both share the tech specs function of Demolitions, and Brawn himself had a drilling mode in two of the original cartoon episodes. A fairly obscure trail of evidence, to be sure, but no more so than the other Deployers.
Mol is also available in a repainted version, with the translucent red replaced with dark blue and a rather loud green substituted for the yellow. The new scheme is somewhat unattractive. While the second version was originally intended to represent another character, tentatively named Burro, the new version of the toy is sold on the same backing card as the original Mol, complete with photos of him in his original color variation.
At any rate, Mol is a substandard toy at best, though his play value increases dramatically once you realize that he was meant to interact with other Beast Machines figures. I recommend him the least out of the three; the only reason I own him is because I'm a completist.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Login to post the first message!
|
|
|
 |
|
charlenep,
MysticSmurf,
rmavis,
mar6732,
Gizzykat,
Prncess,
lara122,
TMayf63350,
equineldy,
RaeM,
Cash4Momma,
endora60,
moviegeek,
thequietone,
zobovor,
ashford,
|
By Popular Demand
Suggested First By sktvm
|
|
|
|
|
This site will be moved shortly to community.brightidea.com please update your links & bookmarks.
