Beast Wars Neo Mach Kick

After winning two basic BWN toys from BBTS on eBay, I decided to pick up some other stuff while I was splurging and saving on shipping. On a recommendation from a few people on ATT, I decided to grab Mach Kick. If sold here in the US, it would probably be marketed as a deluxe, so the fact that I paid $15 for it isn't so bad since it is an import after all.

Now, every so often a beast mode comes along that's really kick butt. The first BW Megatron comes to mind here first, so I'll use him as a comparison. Now, while Megs had an excellent beast mode, it wasn't really that poseable. You could move his little arms up and down a bit, and bend his knees, but that was about it. Mach Kick, on the other hand, is fully poseable.

Now when I say fully poseable, I mean he has jointed legs. His front legs have three joints each, and his rear ones have one each, two if you count the semi knee joint which is used in the transformation. Beast mode is quite excellent.

The gimmick, which is the only one he has (about right for a deluxe, right?) is kind of silly, actually. Push down on the last part of his mane and his entire head shoots forward around three inches or so. It's really more comical than anything else. Fun to show people your horse and then poke them in the face with it's extendo-head though.

Also worth note is Mach Kick's real synthetic hair tail (heh, kind of an oxymoron). Rather then molded plastic, they opted for some realistic hair, which is a nice feature, though I'm not quite sure how to care for it, having never owned any sort of other toy with hair (unless you count the Gnarlies from Rock Lords).

Transformation is the fun part. Mach Kick is a shell former to the extreme. The only parts of his horse mode that are integral to his robot mode are the hindquarters and upper rear legs and the head and neck. The rest is that fun kibble stuff. Actually, getting him from horse to robot isn't too tough. Just crack open his shell and shift stuff around until it looks right. It's getting him back to being a horse that may cause problems.

In all honesty I was able to do both without any aid from the instructions, though the first time I put him back into horse mode it probably took me over five minutes to do so. He's even worse than Side Burn in that respect. However, unlike Side Burn, once you get the hang of it there aren't any real problems. Nothing needs to be forced and, for me at least, there's no pieces poping off. Mach Kick is one of your better shell formers, that's for sure.

Mach Kick's robot mode, to be quite frank, is a mess. He has horse parts hanging off everywhere, and he's full of ball joints and other weird things. However, it does have it's charm, and it still manages to look pretty cool. It's also amazingly poseable, and all the ball joints are very tight.

His robot legs do look a little silly, however. They are composed entirely of the rear horse legs, and they extend quite a but out at the knees, which I guess is a good place for him to put his drinks or something. He also has the horse's back and sides attached to his left shoulder and the neck and chest of the horse hanging off his hips. The front legs of the horse make his backpack.

Another neatness is his weapon. It's some sort of short axe, but the horse's tail is attached to it, so it looks pretty cool. He also has more real hair attached to his head, which adds another element, though I sort of wish he came with a comb or something. His horse head also has an extra thing that pops out of it so he can hold stuff in his non-handed arm. Oh, and the gimmick works in this mode as well, and it makes a lot more sense. Go-go gadget horse head!

Overall, despite the kibble mass of a robot mode, Mach Kick is an excellent toy. He's defiantly worth the $15 I paid for him. However, if you do buy one, be warned as he has a very complex transformation and you need to remember how everything fits together before you transform him for the first time. If you hate Side Burn, then you'd better not go for Mach Kick. Also keep in mind I actually like to transform Mach Kick, while I am scared to do a review of Bazooka because that means I have to transform him and I finally got him back to beast mode last night after about a half hour of fiddling with him. Not cool.