As much as I’d love to subtitle this review “…Or how I stopped worrying and love the parts-former,” well, that’s not exactly true. Instead, I think maybe the best way for me to convey my feelings about Bike Robo is to dub him…the Anti-Tracks. You see, when I first opened the box for Bike Robo (who, from here on out, will be called Cy-Kill) he just looked…well, for lack of a better term, disappointing. Sure, when you think of the original Go-Bot, of course there’s going to be some parts-forming…the wheels are a dead giveaway. But in looking at pictures online, you see that the engineers solved the engine issue (remember, in the original figure, it was a block to be removed and kept…wherever…). I’m thinking my disappointment arose when I saw the handlebars…that they were going to be parts-formed. Not a single incarnation of Cy-Kill ever had to parts-form the damn handlebars…they’ve ALWAYS been a part of the arms! [In all fairness, there were only 2 versions of Cy-Kill…the parts-formery original Go-Bot and the Super Go-Bot that even today remains kind of awesome in my mind. – Ed.] For whatever reason…that bothered me. Well, okay, I can tell you the reason. Look, I don’t mind parts-formers so long as every piece can be stored in both modes. I don’t want any leftover pieces and, at first glance, that’s exactly what I thought I was going to be left with.

I shouldn’t have worried…although you would never be able to tell from the instructions. They never mention what to do with them, but they can serve as heels for the robot mode. [And if you don’t like that, there are various YouTube reviews that show all sorts of options. Hell, seems like everyone has a different take on what to do with them. – Ed.] The kickstand, the remaining questionable bit, can easily be stored within the leg as it folds up in transformation. [Actually, since it’s Go-Bots…and I think Hasbro has a copyright on any variation of the word ‘transform’, why don’t be call it conversion? If anything, it makes the guys down in Legal feel better. – Ed.]

Speaking of transfo…ahem…conversion, it expands on the basics of the old-school Cy-Kill figures. Naturally, there is a degree of fiddling with or wiggling things so that they lock into place just right…certainly nothing out of the ordinary with this line so far. As I said before, the legs to unfold in such a way as to not only create the rear portions of the motorcycle just as with the old figure, but also creating the engine section too…and locking into the chest, making vehicle mode pretty secure and stable.

Aside from being the shortest of the lot, Cy-Kill makes another fine addition to this impressive line. And heck, maybe in this new figure we are finally seeing the REAL reason for the Guardian/Renegade war…and it was simply a matter of Cy-Kill’s Napoleon complex…aka short-guy syndrome. Perhaps if he’d been a little more secure in himself…Gobotron would’ve been spared the ravages of war. Sigh…

#actionfigures #toys #masterpiecetheater #transformers