Knock Out (Prime) [Remote-Controlled]
Vehicle Mode w/ Remote ControlRobot Mode
Allegiance: Decepticon
Size: Remote Control ($15 U.S.)
Difficulty of Transformation: Automatic
Color Scheme: Moderately dark milky red, dark brown, moderately dark milky grayish brown, light milky gray, and some silver, dark chalky purple, black, and dull yellow
Rating: 5.5

    As with the other Remote-Controlled Prime toys, Knock Out's vehicle mode is a bit "superdeformed", particularly when it comes to how the front portion is proportional to the back portion; the front third or so of the vehicle has been compressed quite a bit to fit in with this subline's transformation gimmick, while the back section has been bulked up quite a bit both vertically and horizontally. Knock Out also has an exposed engine on this version, to fit with whole "radio receiver on top of the car mode" bit. The mold detailing and overall look of the mode is quite curvy, even for Knock Out, though since his car mode's already rather curvy already, it fits in better with the superdeformed look better than the other figures in the line here. One big plus about this mode is that-- finally!-- it actually HAS Knock Out's yellow paint apps on the sides-- at least on the wheels. The sides between his wheels are so short and small on this toy I suppose it's not really worth giving that tiny area a more complex paint app than a silver paint stripe, but the yellow on the overly large wheels goes REALLY well against the other colors-- a dark dull red, dark brown, and silver, mostly, with some black windows-- and makes what would be otherwise a dull color scheme pop quite a bit. This is what was needed on the mainline deluxe toy desperately, and I'm glad it made onto at least one version of Knock Out. The paint overall is just superbly done, and there's a lot-- one of the highlights of the toy, in my opinion.
     Like all of the toys in the Remote Control assortment, Knock Out also comes with a small remote. What's quite interesting about this remote is that it can be set on three different frequencies, with a slider on the side to select the one you want to use; the toy also has a corresponding slider on the bottom, allowing you to set it at the "I", "II", or "III" frequency. This allows three different people to control the three different toys in this assortment separately and at the same time! Knock Out's remote has some nifty "armor panel" detailing on it and is largely a shade of milky light gray that's blah and way overused on TFs, though at least that's only on the remote. The bits of dark red and purple on the buttons and the Decepticon symbol near the top of the remote help to give it at least some visual interest, at least. The remote itself is quite simple, though-- don't expect to get your Knock Out toy to do anything spectacular. There's a "conversion" button that will have Knock Out transform from his current mode to his other mode (accomplished by either having the front two-thirds of the toy spread out/collapse together and rotate up or down, depending upon which way you're transforming him). The other button causes the toy to move forward-- no other directions are available, though in actuality Knock Out moves forward at an ever-so-slight angle, so he'll slowly turn to face another direction. That said, the lack of other directions for him to move is my big beef with this aspect of the toy. In vehicle mode, because he's got all four wheels on the ground, Knock Out will move forward fairly steadily, even on some carpet-- however, because he's only on his rear wheels in robot mode, he can get "caught" on carpet a bit easier there.
    Knock Out's robot mode follows the rest of the subline in terms of having weird robot proportions. His lower body is a big curvy stump with wheels on the sides and two little feet on the front. Knock Out's robot head sculpt is quite well-done, if a bit overly simplistic even for Prime aesthetic detailing-- the lower section, in particular, is a bit too skinny, like there's no neck behind his chin or something. A milky grayish brown plastic also makes itself known on many of the interior parts of this mode, which is an okay color, though a straighter brown would've looked better, methinks. Continuing on with his proportions, the chest sits too far forward and is overly fat, and his arms are very two-dimensional, with only their placement and the silver-painted fists at the end of said arms making it obvious that they ARE arms. The car roof also sits fairly plainly on Knock Out's back, though compared to all his other proportional maladies this kibble is pretty minor. For articulation (ignoring his remote-controlled movement), he can rotate his upper body to the right (but only right), and you can push back his arms a bit, though they're spring-loaded which means that they pop right back into their default position as soon as you let go of them. All of this odd articulation, though, is for what I think is the coolest part of the toy-- the way Knock Out "walks" in this mode. Unlike in vehicle mode, Knock Out doesn't simply roll forward when you press the corresponding button on his remote-- no, as he's moving forward, his upper body will swish from side-to-side, his arms swinging appropriately, like he's "walking" (even though his lower body stays inert if you don't count his wheels). It's a pretty neat and addictive gimmick that it took me surprisingly long to get bored with.
    Remote-Controlled Knock Out has the major downsides of the other toys in this assortment-- namely, a superdeformed vehicle mode, really odd robot proportions, and very limited articulation-- but he has some pluses that the other toys don't. Namely, his paint job in vehicle mode is quite well-done, with him finally getting some yellow in there, and his robot mode looks visually interesting as well. The curvy nature of his vehicle mode already means it fits being superdeformed better than the other toys in this assortment to boot, and because of these two pluses this is my favorite of the Remote-Controlled toys.

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Review by Beastbot

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