Phil's
Beast Machines, Robots In Disguise & Universe Obsidian
Review
Obsidian is a basic sized toy and was one of the first Beast machines toys
to be released after the initial offerings. He's a dual rotor helicopter
with each rotor projecting upwards from the wing instead of being mounted on
the body. The rotor's consist of a pair of blades opposite each other
surrounded by what looks like an energy pattern. The blades turn and the
rotors can be pivoted backwards and forwards. The rotors are in fact ball
missile launchers but don't project a long distance because they're not that
aerodynamic ! The majority of the helicopter is bright green with the tail
of the helicopter, the pivoting gun under the nose & the rotor supports
being molded in dark green plastic. The rear of the tail folds down to
become a landing gear - there's a pair of landing gear molded on the
underside of the missile boxes under the wings. The front of the helicopter
moves slightly from side to side and has two eyes molded in it lightpiped by
the many cockpit window - this gives the helicopter the distinctive face on
a vehicle look of the vehicons.
TF: Fold the legs down under the helicopter which in turn folds the nose
down under the helicopter. Fold the head up out of the back of the
helicopter and down onto the top of the cockpit. Fold the missile boxes
down to become the arms. Fold the landing gear forward to become the feet
and fold the tail fins back to become heel spurs.
Time to introduce the earlier Obsidian review I wrote: "Obsidian's quite
cool - not to posable in the leg dept., simple TF and a cool robot head on a
long and posable neck ! The rotors are used for Cyberjet style missiles. "
Well the dark green legs bend at the ankle & knee and has a ball jointed hip
so can't really see what I was complaining about. No waist. The neck folds
forward and back at the base and is ball jointed at the head which gives you
a range of movement and a choice of there the head sits. Shoulders are ball
jointed, the elbows bend and *then* have a ball joint allowing the arms to
be folded up. The rotor mounts/missile launchers are attached to the wings
by a ball joint allowing a large range of movement. The nose and cannon can
be folded up via a ball joint behind the head so the cannon faces forward.
The spark is located in his back and is an orangey yellow colour.
Overall: Decent basic, appearing well in advance of his debut.
Obsidian was brought back for Robots in Disguise. This time round the body
green becomes a sandy colour with dark brown camouflage patches and the dark
green becomes grey. The Spark crystal is still visible - possibly the only
BM repaint for whom this is true - and is now molded in clear purple. The
rotors stay orange.
Lovely desert repaint. Good realistic colours.
Obsidian returns in Transformers Universe paired with a repaint of Tankor.
This time round the body green becomes a slightly metallic dark blue with
some silver patterns added and the dark green becomes dark metallic grey.
The rotors & all other clear pieces are now molded in clear red.
Again a nice repaint, though the RID version is the better of them for my
liking
Beast Wars Returns is the Japanese release of Beast Machines. Obsidian is
recoloured to more closely match his animating model with the green body
work becoming a metallic blue green and the dark green becoming what looks
like nearly black to my eyes. The rotors and other clear pieces are now
clear green. New red and yellow paint work is added.
Not essential unless your toys must match their animation models.
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