Bisk's vehicle mode is
a lobster-esque car, though certainly bigger than his other various toys.
Like said other various toys, he has some lobstery details in this mode,
such as a rear spoiler that looks a bit like a lobster tail, small details
on his hood that look like flattened lobster antennae, and a general, curvy
claw look to the sides of his front section. He's got some angular details
on his front headlights and grill, though unfortunately because of the
transformation many of those details are a bit lost in the shuffle because
the grill comes apart in a few places. Beyond that, there's a couple of
basic details-- such as the angular windows, exoskeleton-like layered detailing
down the back portion of the car mode, exhaust pipes on the back end, and
a few divots and angular bits here and there, but otherwise he's pretty
smooth mold-wise in this mode. Proportions-wise, there's little to complain
about this mode, with everything being pretty accurate, beyond the front
hood section perhaps not being QUITE as long as it should be, but still
pretty close. There's no robot kibble whatsoever as well, always a plus.
As with most other Bisk toys, his main color is a milky middle shade of
orange that for some reason comes out more red-tinted in my pictures than
it actually appears in real life. In real life, it's a very close match
to an actual lobster. Part of the front sections of his grill are painted
an orange to hide the fact that those parts are the backs of the dark dull
red feet in robot mode, but the orange paint doesn't match the orange plastic--
it's noticeably lighter, which is a bit distracting and honestly a bit
ugly. Otherwise there's some black paint on his windows and some charcoal
black plastic on his wheels-- again, a slight color mis-match that's odd.
He's got some silver paint on the area around his headlights and some moderately
light blue on said headlights, as well as along rings on each of his wheels.
It's a decent start, but this mode needed more paint-- specifically on
those details on his grill, as well as on his spoiler and possibly on the
antennae-like details on his hood, too. The orange is a good shade, but
on this large of a toy there's a bit TOO much of it here unbroken.
Bisk's transformation
is insane, easy, and SUPER fun. Basically you take the vehicle mode and
pull out the sides, essentially dividing the entire mode into thirds. Then,
swing the left third one direction 180 degrees and the right third in the
OTHER direction 180 degrees, and then push them back together into the
middle third. Voila! Transformation complete! The end result is definitely
very Bisk-y, but also a bit overly bulky for the dude. As in the show,
he has longer arms than legs, but his arms are a bit on the 2-D side, being
considerably flatter from a frontal angle than from a side angle. His big
clackin' claws can't move at all either, and instead are just molded into
those side sections of his car mode-- kind of a big deal when you're dealing
with a lobster with claws that he should be able to snap open and closed.
I'd easily give up back-and-forth elbow articulation (the only articulation
this mode has) in exchange for some claw movement; that seems pretty essential
to me for this guy. His body is mostly accurate detail-wise, with the faux
window on his chest, some basic curved ab and pelvic details, and of course
a headsculpt that looks like a crazed human-lobster hybrid, with large
blue googly eyes, a somewhat normal mouth with a silver "nose" and upper
lip, long antennae, and little bits underneath his chin that look like
a "beard". (That said, the paint on his head is the same slightly off-color
orange paint used on the grill pieces in vehicle mode.) The proportions
for Bisk's main body are a bit too bulky and wide, though, when they should
be skinnier, especially around the waist. He also doesn't have those spoiler
bits behind his back on the show, though given the whole 3-step gimmick
that's a relatively minor concern. His legs look pretty nifty and fairly
accurate, but his two-toed feet don't extend down QUITE as far as they
should, meaning that he can tend to fall forward quite easily. This is
easily my biggest beef with the toy beyond the lack of claw articulation,
as it's kind of a big deal that a toy this big is difficult to even stand
up straight. Still, the color breakup is much better in this mode, with
the black paint on the faux window on his chest, middle of his claws, and
on the sides of his lower legs. There's also a new color-- a dark dull
milky red-- used on much of his lower arms/claws, his feet, and painted
on much of his abs and the front of his upper legs. Overall, this makes
his color breakup and contrast much better in this mode and more eye-catching.
It should also be noted that, even though his claws can't carry anything
in between them because they're all molded into the same piece of plastic,
there are ports on the top of each claw for you to peg in a Weaponizer
or accessory from another TF there.
The 3-step changer version
of Bisk has a great vehicle mode (though a bit under-painted) and an absolutely
addicting transformation that is my favorite out of the ENTIRE 3-step line.
It's so fun to do over and over again; I think a lot of kids will love
transforming this toy. That said, the robot mode-- though not outright
bad-- is definitely the weak point of the toy, with the claws merely molded
into the sides of the car mode, a main body that's too wide/bulky, and
feet that can't quite keep him stable. Still, I'd recommend this the most
of the "simplified" Bisk toys, particularly given that ultra-fun transformation
of his.
Review by Beastbot