Bisk (3-Step) [RID 2015]
Vehicle ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Decepticon
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Milky orange, dark dull milky red, and some charcoal black, black, silver, moderately light orange, and moderately light blue
Rating: 7.6

    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

Back to Robots in Disguise (2015) Index