Quillfire's alternate mode is an SUV very similar to Prime Bulkhead's vehicle mode. By and large this is a pretty solid mode, with minor extras at best; on the back end you can see the top of the feet below the rear bumper, and if you look at him from a straight-on side view you can just barely see the robot chest sticking out below the bottom of the vehicle body (though it's not low enough to affect the rolling of the wheels). The vehicle mode is a bit wide, though. It's not nearly as bad as the 1-step changer version, but it is still definitely noticeable. For colors, Quillfire has a pretty earthy color scheme, with tan and a dark milky brown alternating spots on his vehicle mode. They both complement and contrast against each other fairly well, though it's not anything worth writing home about. The dark brown is a swirly semi-metallic shade, though, which looks good. There's also some black on the wheels, a bit on the rear bumper, and some black paint on the front and side windows (but unfortunately not on the rear window). There's also some dull gold and dull orangish red used for the headlights-- both of which go great with the tan-- and some silver on the front grill. There's also some gold circles on the tires. I wish there was some more paint on the back end, but otherwise Quillfire is okay in that respect. For mold detailing, as per the RID2015 usual it's fairly sparse, but there are a few intricate areas, like the front bumper with its stylized headlights and even a molded-in winch at the bottom, some divots on the sides, and taillights molded in on the back. Unfortunately, though, the taillights aren't painted at all, which is particularly bad since the plastic makes them partially tan and partially black.
    Quillfire's transformation is done by having the car doors and front side sections become his arms and shoulders; the back section rotates around and folds down to become his legs, with the chest also folding down below the head; and the hood pops open to reveal the head, with the roof section folding up behind his back. Said roof section is Quillfire's only real extra in this mode; it kinda hangs off his back rather unceremoniously and doesn't lock in anywhere, though at least it doesn't get in the way of articulation and only sticks out from the sides of his main body just a bit. Otherwise Quillfire has a rather short but stocky build, with legs that are proportionally short but purposefully so. The arms are actually longer than the legs, but this fits the "humanoid robot porcupine" look of Quillfire. I'm not fond of the lower arms being mostly hollow and 2-D and just blatantly the car doors without any attempt to "thicken them up" by, say, folding them up a bit. The clawed hands look great, though, and the front bumper sides make for great, bulky shoulders. Quillfire is quite a hunchback, with his head poking out the front of his vehicle mode bumper. I LOVE the facesculpt-- it's evil-looking but makes him look like the overly enthusiastic anarchist 'bot that he is, with an angular black porcupine head, large expressive narrowed silver eyebrows, red eyes, and a silver-painted lower jaw with teeth that can open and close. He looks ready to COME AT YOU, man. The chest is fairly nondescript, being just a faux vehicle window with a black stripe across the center, which is the case on MANY RID2015 designs. He has a few basic details on his waist, legs, and curved toys, but threre's not much else to say about them-- they do the job, but not particuarly fantastically. Additionally, as you'd expect from a porcupine-former, he's got some quills that stick out of the back of his hunchback head. Surprisingly, one of them can actually come out and be held in Quillfire's hands, if you want to pose him like he's about to throw one. He also has a dark brown gun that plugs underneath the bottom rear of his vehicle mode, and it looks pretty cool-- it's detailed like it shoots quills, with the quills "angled in" near the back of the gun like an extra set of bullets. When it comes to Quillfire's colors in this mode, it's mostly the same as in the vehicle mode, but much of his "robot-only" parts are unfortunately that blah light milky gray plastic, which I really wish Hasbro would stop using and switch to a more metallic color. There's also a bit more black-- on the waist, face, and chest, specifically. So overall the color scheme is a bit more varied, but still nothing amazing. Beyond the face paint apps, you've got the black stripe on the chest, and a few gold paint apps on the hips and toes (which looks nice against the black plastic), but all the other paint apps are carried over from the vehicle mode. I wish he had a few more paint apps, like on his lower legs. As far as articulation goes, Quillfire can move at the jaw, shoulders (at three points), elbows (at two points), at the wrists, rotation at the waist, and movement at the hips, knees (at two ponts), and at the ankles. I mean, he's got pretty much all the articulation you could reasonably expect from a toy with these proportions, and he's pretty well-balanced, so you can get some nice poses out of him.
    Quillfire may be a bit basic in terms of his overall transformation/design, but the overall result is still a pretty unique Transformer. His vehicle mode is quite solid-- though a bit wider than it should be-- and there are a few minor extras in robot mode, but otherwise he's a nice solid, squat porcupine Transformer, with a nice hunchback with spikes and a very unique face. An easy recommendation if you like the RID2015 Decepticon designs.
 

Review by Beastbot

Back to Robots in Disguise (2015) Index