Gatoraider

Allegiance: Decepticon
Size: Mini-Con
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Black, light pea green, and some transparent light pea green
Individual Rating: 5.5

    Like many of the "partners" for the Subscription Service figures, Gatoraider is a redeco, but of an Arms Micron toy that was previously released only in Japan-- Dai-- so this review is basically as if he was a new toy. In his main beast mode, Gatoraider is-- obviously-- a mechanical alligator, and is an update of Krok's original Action Master partner of the same name. His proportions in this mode are fairly solid, with an appropriate long, flat body and legs that tend to poke out of the side. The only oddities in this respect are that the sides of the main body stick out a bit too much in addition to the legs, but this is a small complaint. Like the original, this version of the character has light pea green used for the legs in addition to the black that otherwise dominates his color scheme. It's definitely an appropriately gator-y scheme, and fits in with Krok quite well. There's also just a dot of pea green paint on the solo eye on the head, and a circular piece on his tail (which initially had a spark crystal in it) is a transparent version of the same shade of green. I would've appreciated a bit of red paint or something on the pea green, but otherwise it's an okay scheme. The mold detailing is quite detailed on the head, with a long jaw, a single eye, and even little guns behind the eye that are quite apparent, though Gatoraider fits into the profile of most other Arms Micron toys on the rest of his body by having fairly minimal and/or simplistic detailing. (That said, the little molded-in bolts on the side are a nice touch.) For articulation in this mode, Gatoraider can move up-and-down at the head as well as at two places along the tail-- not particularly articulated, but then again few Arms Micron toys are.
    To transform Gatoraider into his weapon mode (see picture of Krok below), you fold his head and arms in towards the main body, flip out a peg along the bottom for a larger TF to hold him, and the tail just sorta... scrunches up a little. Yeah, the tail is a really obvious extra and definitely my biggest issue with this mode, especially since it goes so far back it can interfere with some toys holding him while still bending their arms at the elbow. The weapon mode is definitely meant to be a handheld missile launcher, with missile pack-like details on the front (again, I wish they were painted). Other than the tail, it's a fairly solid mode. As with most Arms Micron toys, Gatoraider has a TON of 5mm ports and pegs to combine him with other compatible toys if you so choose. As far as pegs, there's one on the bottom side of this mode, as well as one on each side of his tail. There's also plenty of ports-- one on the bottom side of his tail, two on each side of this mode (hidden in gator mode as they're on the interior of the pea green pieces), and two on the bottom of the head.
 

Krok

Allegiance: Decepticon
Size: Deluxe (comes packaged with Nightracer w/ Shakar)
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Black, light pea green, dark milky purple, dark metallic purple, and some transparent light pea green, light pinkish red, and silver
Individual Rating: 8.8

(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Generations IDW "Stealth Bomber" Megatron. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of "Stealth Bomber" Megatron here.)

    The original Krok was an Action Master, but like most Action Masters he LOOKED like he had an alt mode-- some sort of aircraft, so making him into a stealth bomber makes perfect sense! In vehicle mode Krok is almost entirely black, with a bit of metallic dark purple. I do wish that the purple was a bit lighter for better contrast, but it's still a pretty decent shade. There's just a touch of pea green visible in this mode from the transparent parts on the underside of the wings, but the toy's still largely black and purple. I wish some green paint apps had been added to this mode to help differentiate Krok a little more from IDW Stealth Bomber Megatron, who also had purple and black as his main colors in vehicle mode. In typical late G1/early G2 fashion, Krok does have one fairly loud color, though on him it's pretty minor-- the windows for his stealth bomber mode are a light pinkish shade of red. This is in keeping with his original version and just a bit loud, but even if you're not a fan of loud colors, in this small of an amount it doesn't overwhelm the senses by any means. In robot mode Krok's colors get considerably more broken up and interesting, with a good amount of pea green on his upper and middle legs and upper arms. (Despite what the picture shows above, the plastic of his upper legs and his other green plastic is not noticeably different-- chalk it up to lighting conditions, I guess.) The transparent pea green also becomes more obvious on his arm-gun. The dark purple isn't just paint, but plastic as well, and covers most of his arms as well as his kneecaps and feet. The black is mostly centered on his torso, but there's some silver and pinkish red to break even that up some. All in all it's a great, solid color scheme that is fairly original, and the green in particular really makes the toy (and makes his name more suiting).
    Krok has a new headsculpt, pretty much a direct update of his original Action Master head but smaller in proportion to his body-- not just for space's sake, but to fit more typically Transformer-y proportions (his Action Master toy did have a relatively big head for a TF). All of the necessary sculpting details are there for his fairly unique, round-yet-detailed head, with a good amount of silver paint to highlight these details and a bit of pinkish red on the forehead.

    TFSS Krok & Gatoraider is a great duo, and one of my favorite releases from TFSS 3.0. Krok is a solid mold with a nice, unique color scheme that does an excellent job of "updating" an Action Master with an alt mode, and Gatoraider-- though not the best Arms Micron mold-- is a pretty nice update and fits as a nice partner figure for Krok. My only issue is that Krok's alt mode is a bit too similar to IDW Stealth Bomber Megatron's in terms of colors. An easy recommendation if you have the budget for TFSS figures (and yes, I'd recommend this over the Titans Return version).
 

Reviews by Beastbot

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