Outback (G1 Reissue; Wal-Mart Exclusive)
Vehicle ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Autobot
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Tan, dark brown, black, and some silver, chrome silver, and light sky blue
Rating: 4.4

    Outback's alt mode is a 4WD offroad vehicle. Especially for a Minibot, this mode is pretty solid, with the proportions pretty close to realistic and no extras to speak of. It's a pretty well-built little alt mode, as well; it's hard to see someone breaking this toy in this mode without an absolutely obscene amount of force applied, as nothing feels the slightest bit weak structurally. The mold detailing is pretty decent, especially by G1 standards, with headlights, the grill, side windows, door handles, side steps to the doors, and even a "tied pack" on the back end. There's also a neat turret gun on the top of his spare tire on the roof, which can rotate in place and also be detached to form a handheld weapon-- unfortunately, Outback's robot hands have no holes for said weapon, so it can't really fit in his robot mode, which is really weird. As for the colors in this mode, Outback's mostly tan, which is of course fitting both for the vehicle and for a toy with his name. The main other color in this mode is black on the tires, front window, middle section of the front hood, and the spare tire/gun emplacement. There's a titch of dark brown on the center bottom portion of the front and back, but its use is minor in this mode. There's also some chrome silver on the front grill and wheel hubs. All in all it's a nice, though basic, color scheme. I wish the side and rear windows were painted black, not only to fill in those details but to break up the tan there. Unfortunately, all that's there is a painted Autobot symbol on one side and an allegiance rub symbol on the other.
    To transform Outback to robot mode, pull out the sides and rotate them up and around to form the arms, then rotate the bottom portions down to become the legs. This mode looks fairly awkward-- but the worst are the legs. My word, those are AWFUL legs. They're the bottom of the sides, basically folded out into long sticks at the sides of his waist with no real feet. Only small sections of the soles sticking inward keep Outback steady at all. At least they make him basically the tallest Minibot. The arms are separate silver and chrome silver pieces inside the panels that form the sides of his vehicle mode-- not just molded into the sides of the vehicle, as is the case with many other Transformers toys. I appreciate this, though they're still 2-D and flat, and a bit small proportionally when compared to the body. The robot body is mostly just the bottom of the vehicle mode, and as such is a bit large, though not to an egregious extent considering Outback's head is basically "molded into" said body, without any real neck. Granted, this is the case for a lot of G1 toys, but I don't think that makes it a good look. At least the head section is smaller than the body. There's lots of simple geometric shapes on the body and sides of the neck, and the silver head has a fairly flat top, a large blue visor, and a silver "regular" nose and face with large chinguards-- it looks pretty good for a G1 facesculpt, all things considered. There's also two small stickers on his chest and pelvis with some simple square shapes and robotic details. With the body almost all dark brown in this mode, it helps make the color scheme a bit different than the vehicle mode, with a more complementary scheme that I like a bit more than just black & tan-- though of course, it's still fairly basic. Outback is more articulated than your average G1 toy-- he can move back-and-forth at both the shoulders AND hips. Oooo.
    Outback's vehicle mode is incredibly good and solid for the size with a nice color scheme, but like with many G1 toys, the robot mode can get a bit iffy, especially with proportions. The legs are absolutely awful, and he has no neck at all, with his head basically his entire upper body. I also love his accessory in vehicle mode, but it's a real shame he can't hold it in robot mode. A bit on the weaker side of the Minibots overall because of his odd robot proportions.



Outback Bio:
FUNCTION: Gunner
MOTTO: "Rules are detours on the road of life."
Thinks going by the books is going the long way. Doesn't follow plans-- or roads! Cuts across parking lots, sidewalks, and backyards to get where he's going. Travels at 110 mph with a range of 800 miles. His 4-wheel-drive handles the roughest terrain and climbs grades up to 50 degrees. Carries a turret-mounted mortar cannon that shoots armor-piercing shells.
Strength: 6.0
Intelligence: 5.0
Speed: 6.0
Endurance: 5.0
Rank: 4.0
Courage: 7.0
Firepower: 5.0
Skill: 6.0

Review by Beastbot

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