Crosswise
(Cybertron)
Crosswise's alternate
mode is a very sleek sportscar. I'm told that it's based heavily on a real-life
car, but it looks rather futuristic to me. Regardless, this mode is pretty
cool-- the proportions are great, and with the exception of the robot hands
and back of the head visible behind the front window, there's no robot
extras at all. The mold detailing is a bit sparser than on most TFs, but
it IS supposed to be a sleek car, after all, and it still has an acceptable
amount of detailing on it. I wish the car doors could open up to let "passengers"
in, but they can't because of the transformation, d'oh. The silver and
bronze colors also go together very well with the black and transparent
aquamarine-- it makes Crosswise look like he has a bit of mean side to
him, which is appropriate seeing as how he's a bounty hunter. There's also
an aquamarine plume of exhaust coming out his tailpipe to make him look
even faster than he otherwise would have. By pressing the trigger near
the tailfin, the exhaust missile fires (it doubles as a gun in robot mode).
As for Crosswise's Cyber Key gimmick, it's pretty cool and unintrustive
on the rest of the figure-- insert the Cyber Key into the rear of this
mode, and two missile launchers flip up from the center of the car, ready
to do some damage! The missile launchers can't fire, alas, but they're
still pretty cool. The launchers can also be deployed in robot mode, over
the shoulders.
Crosswise's robot mode
reminds me of the RiD Car Brothers, who had similar-looking, slightly asymmetrical
robot modes with car parts hanging off them. Because of this type of design,
Crosswise's aesthetic is rather unique among the Cybertron cars-- however,
I don't this difference is in a good way. I'm not fond of kibble that doesn't
complement the robot mode; the car doors hanging off the shoulders just
gets in the way of movement, and the car parts hanging off his upper back
don't look like anything either (and given the long, skinny protrustions
on his upper back, I'm worried about those parts cracking if he falls on
a hard surface the wrong way). The car hood piece serves pretty well as
an arm guard, however. Crosswise has the standard car-front-as-chest design,
but it's a bit wide proportionally considering his rather skinny arms and
small head. However, the rest of his robot mode looks pretty good-- I really
like the bronze detailing on his arms and legs, and his head design is
great-- I love how the top of his head resembles the front of a car, as
well as the racing-like visor over his optics. Crosswise also has great
articulation-- he can move at the head, shoulders (at two points), elbows,
hips, and knees, and most of these are ball joints.
Crosswise has a pretty
cool color scheme and a great robot mode. His robot mode does have its
share of positives as well, but the odd chest proportions and the car kibble
do detract from that mode a fair amount. About average as far as Cybertron
toys go-- mildly recommended.
Review by Beastbot