Kickback's alternate mode is a locust. No, scratch that, a robotic locust. No, scratch that again, a Cybertronian robotic locust. This gives the designers a bit more leeway than if he had, say, scanned a locust on Earth, but for the most part things line up fairly well-- I mean, despite the colors and detailing, he IS easily identifable as a locust/grasshopper. My biggest-- and only major-- beef with this mode is just how ridiculously small his front four legs are compared to his hind legs. I mean, yes, he's a locust so his rear legs would be a fair amount bigger, but not THIS much, particularly with this bulk. It just doesn't look right. His robot hands are also a little visible underneath his abdomen, though this is a minor issue considering that his rear legs mostly cover this up anyways. That said, most of the other aspects of this insect mode's construction I love-- the way the robot head and antennae are actually folded around and down to form the locust head; the designs on his main body and abdomen; and his long, oddly feathery wings. Yes, the dark transparent purple bits that attach to his wing "skeletons" in this mode actually would look more fitting on a bird than an insect, but they ARE accurate to the game, and the circuitry detailing on them is nice. Heck, the mold detailing on all of Kickback is nice-- he really pulls off the "robotic insect" look well, with little robotic spikes like large hairs on his hind legs, sharp (well, not literally) points everywhere; and some nice designs on his thorax and abdomen that fit right in with the FoC design aesthetic. The greenish-gold paint apps on these parts also look really nice and help break up Kickback's purple a bit more (which is a pretty darn nice shade, by the way). Most of the rest of Kickback's colors are various shades of gray and black, but they aren't used so much that they make the toy look boring. There's also a bit of gunmetal gray, dark flat purple, and purplish pink paint detailing here and there, the former two complementing Kickback's other colors quite well while the pink-- used as a sparse accent color as it is-- helps establish Kickback's "glowy bits" on his form, which is a staple of the FoC design aesthetic. For articulation in this mode, Kickback's antennae can move back-and-forth (as one), his wings can move at the base of each and at the mid-section (the former is on a ball joint), and his large rear legs can move at two points at the hips, three points at his backwards-bending knees, and a bit at the ankles. The pieces that comprise the front two legs on each side can technically flip up if you want to consider that a point of movement, but it looks weird. (The pieces don't tab into place either, which is mildly annoying; they come "undone" from their assigned spot rather easily.) Kickback also has a rather large (proportionally) weapon; a pretty cool disc launcher that fires off a transparent purple projectile when you push forward on the back of the light gray part of it. It's a pretty cool accessory with lots of nifty sawblade detailing on the disc, but it doesn't fly very far, being a simple push launcher. There also isn't any place to store it in this mode without it really sticking out and looking odd-- pretty much the only places you can plug it in here are on the insides of his wings.
    Kickback's transformation is rather interesting (but not that difficult), consisting of essentially turning his midsection "inside out", rotating the head around it, and then repositioning the arms and legs. The result is a pretty decent robot mode, though I wish it wasn't so incredibly obvious that his rear locust legs become his robot legs (though perhaps that's a complaint more on the insect mode side of things). His proportions are generally solid and fit in with FoC, having somewhat beefy arms and legs. The arms-- which are made out of the halves of his abdomen-- look very nice in particular, the gold paint apps really looking snazzy there and on his chest in this mode, and the midsection of the insect mode forming nice shoulder pads. His robot midsection is a bit small proportionally, but to be fair this is game-accurate. I love how his "stripped" wings hanging out behind his back become basically an extra pair of deadly-looking appendages in this mode; it's fitting for an insect TF, and they give Kickback a much more unique silouhette, as well. The only real insect mode kibble I would say is in this mode are the pieces that comprise his front two insect legs on each side, which sort of stick out rather blatantly behind his shoulders, though they don't get in the way of articulation TOO much. Everything that's supposed to tab together around the waist area does so quite solidly, so no worries there. Most of his detailing here is carried over from his insect mode, though his long pointed fingers are appropriate for the character and look quite cool, and his headsculpt is fantastic-- keeping the antennae from insect mode, but adding more "robotic" details like a faceplate that looks like it's framed by robotic mandibles and a single, evil-looking visor. (Unfortunately, the transparent plastic in the back is too dark for the light piping to work much.) Kickback's wing segments clip onto his weapon in this mode, making it look more like a crossbow, which is a neat and inventive feature. Unfortunately, it's still overly large proportionally, and he has no "storage" for it other than those odd posts on his wings, if you don't want him to hold the weapon in his hands. For articulation in this mode-- besides the back claw-wings, which have the same movement as Kickback's insect wings-- he can move at the neck (at two points), the antennae (both as one piece), and at the shoulders (at two points), elbows, hips (at two points), knees, and at ball joints at the ankles. Many of these joints are ball joints as well, so with the exception of somewhat restricted knee articulation here, you can get him into a good number of poses, particularly considering his large, stable feet.
    FoC Kickback may share many of the same visible parts in both modes, but he's quite well-designed, with the overly large rear legs in insect mode and the inability for his overly large accessory to store anywhere being his only major flaws. He's got nicely-done proportions, good detailing and colors, good articluation, and because of his alt mode, he's a bit more unique than the other FoC toys. If you're at all a fan of beast Transformers (particularly mechanical ones), this is a recommended buy.

Review by Beastbot

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