Beast Mode:
I really like this wolf mode because they've finally made a mammal
with the correct structure, rear and fore limbs underneath the body
and not on the sides. He's also the best blending of the
techno-organic concept so far. His back looks like blue-gray plates of
armor, along with brown fur. However there's 2 problems, the beast
head is rather small and the tail looks upside down. The head is
sculpted quite intricately for being so small, with on opening jaw.
Poseability in beast mode includes: jaw, head on ball joint, forelegs
with should ball joint, correctly bending knees/elbows, and ankles,
tail can wag a bit, back legs swing back and have hinged ankle but no
knee joint. This all makes for a surprisingly poseable regular beast mode.
Transformation to Robot Mode:
Fold brown panels with rear legs to sides, separate front legs a bit,
open chest, slide the inner section with legs and robot head down,
fold wolf head into chest and close, swing legs down and twist waist,
left up robot head, turn forearms 90 degrees so ball joints function
as elbows and do whatever you want with the hands/wolfpaws. A clever
transformation for a small TF. The "smallness" of the head problem is
even out by the coolness of folding it into the robot chest, any
bigger and it would fit. The tail is now right side up and sticking
out the back of the robot head. It has to be upside down in one mode
but I think the correct orientation would add more to the wolf mode
than it does to the robot mode.
Robot Mode:
A somewhat squat, but powerful looking bot. This guy's been working
the upper body too much and forgetting to do the leg press. Jointing
in the legs is like TM2 Cheetor, minus the knee joint which is a bit
annoying. He has a waist pivot, along with a ball jointed neck that's
bent forward. His arms have ball shoulders plus hinge/ball elbows and
the wolfpaws' hinge joint. He doesn't quite have hands, but I just
fold the wolfpaws against the wrist area and it looks like a fist,
albeit with no thumb. The sliding section that connects the head and
waist also contains the red spark and a hinge joint that is evidently
useless. The arms are a bit too long(not as bad as Geckobot's) but I
like them on him. The long arms fit with his gimmick and they have
enough poseability to make for some fun. However I don't really like
the face, it looks almost skeletal but with a bunch of brown fur on
it. A bit more of the blue/gray on his head would have been nice.
Gimmicks:
He's got a simple gimmick but it rocks! On his left arm there's a
small brown trigger, release it and a translucent blue switchblade
springs out of his forearm. Simple, Effective, and BADASS! With his
rather long arms a switchblade is a logical weapon for him to use. It
can also be released in wolf mode, but mounted on a rear leg it's not
very practical.
Transformation tip: Optimus Minor Mode
From robot mode, swing
legs back, bend at upper ankle, then straighten arms twist paws
forward, and it's a primate! I think this actually makes a better
regular-sized primate than Op Minor's chimp mode. The jointing isn't
odd and restricted and he looks cooler(although not sculpted as a
chimp, his face does look a bit simian).
Overall:
Although I still like BW Wolfang better, BM Quickstrike(originally
Wolfgang) is actually a step up in terms of the quality of engineering
and design. Definitely the best of the first 4 regular BM Maximals.
Overall Rating: ***1/2