(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 "Thrilling 30" Trailcutter. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Generations "Thrilling 30" Trailcutter here.)
Lift-Ticket is an homage
to one of the Diaclone paint jobs given to the toy that would eventually
become the G1 Hoist mold. Lift-Ticket is only partially sentient, relying
mostly on his "pilot", Cline, for instruction,
though it should be emphasized the toys cannot interact in any such way.
Lift-Ticket's paint job is mostly red, but not a "bold" red-- rather, a
slightly pale shade of the color, which actually looks better than a straightforward
red would've, as the latter would've been a bit too bold when compared
to all the orangish yellow paint used on the rear section of the vehicle
mode, the crane arm, the robot shoulders, waist, and eyes, and for part
of the stripes on the sides. The orangish-yellow and red really contrast
and complement each other well, and the black used on such areas as the
tires, crane arm and missile pack, and front bumper and stripes help to
give the color scheme a nice "dark" color to keep Lift-Ticket from being
too light. There's also a fair amount of silver paint and light milky gray
plastic, mostly visible in robot mode on places like the lower arms, upper
legs, knee, and toes, though some minor vehicle mode details on the front
are also painted silver. The silver serves as a nice contrast color against
the black; against the red it looks okay, but nothing particularly special.
I don't like the particular shade of light milky gray that was used, though
at least a fair amount of "glitter" was used in the plastic to make it
a bit more interesting visually. As one final color, there's some blue
on Lift-Ticket, both in terms of the pale blue used for the transparent
plastic and some blue paint on the robot shoulders. The blue paint looks
VERY nice contrasting against the red, but the transparent blue is a bit
too pale; a bolder blue would've popped better, if you ask me. Just like
on the Diaclone toy, Lift-Ticket has "WRECKER" in white along the sides
of his vehicle mode, over the stripes; however, the white isn't "solid"
enough here, as you can still see the stripes behind the lettering, which
just looks kinda bad and should've been fixed before the final release.
Additionally-- although otherwise Lift-Ticket has a pretty respectable
amount of paint-- not putting any paint on the rear end of his vehicle
mode was a bit of an oversight, I think.
The same mold changes
have been made to Lift-Ticket that were made to Generations
"Thrilling 30" Hoist, but no mold changes have been made specifically
for this release. Unfortunately on a fair number (but not all) of Lift-Ticket
toys, the bottom of the crane arm was assembled backwards (as mine is);
hence the odd configuration of it in the vehicle mode pic above. To fix
this you'd have to remove and re-insert a pin, so I just leave it alone.
It's kind of a bummer, but doesn't ruin the toy; it still collapses into
gun mode just fine.
Lift-Ticket is part
of a two-pack that Transformers fans have been requested for a while--
that is, a Diaclone homage. It pulls off its job pretty well (with a few
minor exceptions, like the see-through "WRECKER" emblems), has some fairly
nice colors, and a good amount of paint apps. He's a solid recolor, but
since Hoist also has the yellow/black stripe patterns, I felt this toy
needed a bit more to stand out, even if it wasn't accurate to the original
Diaclone toy. As is, it's essentially "red Hoist", which isn't necessarily
a bad thing, but it could've been implemented a bit better.
Review by Beastbot