Dirt
Boss (RotF)
Dirt Boss' alt mode is
a first-ever for a (larger than teeny-tiny) Transformer-- a forklift! In
vehicle mode Dirt Boss ends up looking incredibly realistic given the scale--
other than the tiniest amount of leg kibble behind his wheels, there's
no robot mode extras visible whatsoever here. The proportions are also
spot-on, and all the necessary detailing is there-- the "steering wheel"
in the drivers' seat, wires and metal plating the appropriate places, and
the like. His color scheme really isn't all that hot, though-- having dull
pea green and dull gray just really doesn't strike me well. They don't
outright clash, they just look rather boring-- and I don't see too many
pea-green forklifts running around either, so it's not like it's particularly
realistic. The metallic copper helps a little bit, but it's fairly sparse.
Dirt Boss also can't actually move as much as you'd think a forklift could,
unfortunately-- his front part can rotate SLIGHTLY in an arc where it meets
the main body of the forklift, and the two "teeth" sticking out of the
front can rotate slightly, but the whole front part can't slide upwards
like a real forklift, which is honestly rather disappointing. His steering
wheel piece-- which holds a lot of the whole main body together-- also
has a hard time staying pegged into its place, so this isn't the most stable
of alt modes, either.
Dirt Boss' robot mode,
at least when it comes to looks, is also quite good. His body is a bit
"fat" when you look at him from a sideview, but otherwise proportionally
he's great. His general look seems to be heavily inspired by the forklift
drone from the first Transformers Movie game,
right down to the circular pattern on his chest. The only real difference
design-wise is the head design, which is considerably more humanoid (and
honestly has a bit of a characterful "old" look to it, for some reason
I can't quite figure out. There are no real bits of vehicle kibble that
get in the way-- everything is tucked behind his back or, in the case of
the roof-halves of his forklift mode, actually complement the look of the
mode from their position on his shoulders. I particularly love his the
front "teeth" of the forklift become large stabby-stab weapons mounted
to the front of his hands (which have some excellent molded detailing,
but are sadly unpainted). In addition to his main colors, he also has a
few bits of red in this mode, which REALLY pop against the other colors--
I really wish that color had been used more on this toy in conjunction
with the others, it would've made Dirt Boss look considerably more interesting.
As far as articulation goes, Dirt Boss is pretty set there-- he can move
at the shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles-- and all of those are
ball joints, so you can get some good range of motion of of him. His head
really needs some neck movement, but that's about the only thing that's
blatantly missing. Unfortunately, Dirt Boss has a rather common QA issue--
pretty much all of his ball joints are quite loose, wish some downright
floppy. This makes him feel less "solid" in both modes, and is quite the
downer.
Dirt Boss is the first
real Transformer forklift-- he gets bonus points right there. And when
it comes to looks and proportions, he does quite well in both modes. Unfortunately,
he has some QA/stability issues, and his color scheme is rather blah. Mildly
recommended, as he is a good design, but if you only get one version of
this mold I'd get the Wal-Mart exclusive redeco Deadlift instead.
Review by Beastbot
Second Opinion by VBBN
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Rating: 8.0
Dirt Boss has an alternate
mode of a forklift, which is a very interesting alternate mode. It's one
of the things that I enjoy about movie toys, they bring us something new.
It's a front-entry cabin foklift, not to be confused with the back-entry
opens that you commonly see in places like Home Depot, where the driver
stands instead of sits. And for a scout-sized vehicle, this is quite nice.
Thankfully, the seat actually looks like a seat as opposed to a gray lump,
so no realism issues there. The forks don't raise and lower, but it's not
a huge issue. My main problem mode with this is the colors. The dull gray
is okay, but that pea green seems to be courtesy of some leftover voyager
Ratchets, heh.
Robot mode is nice as
well. Definitely was based off of the first game's movie drone, without
the single-optic head. There's plenty about this mode I like, from his
shank-tastic slicers of doom on his arm, nice-looking legs, and a cool
chest design (makes me think of Cybertron Vector
Prime). Unlike Beasty though, I'm not a fan of the red. That's just
me though, I never like any shade of red+green, as I don't enjoy having
a figure that looks like it should only be brought out in December. The
gold wouldn't be that bad, and I like the shade of it that was used, but
again, that pea green...ugh. What I don't understand is why they use pea
green on this figure, but not on, say, an airport ambulance. That's the
only vehicle that actually has a real-life color like that (besides a race
car).
Review by VBBN