Phil's
Cybertron Ransack & Ransack GTS,
Galaxy Force Gasket & Gasket Police Type
and
Botcon Rattrap
Review


Ransack

Ransack is another toy which I originally encountered in it's Galaxy Force formet - GD-05 Gasket.

Didn't get off till 2 this morning, and woke again at 5:45. After getting back to sleep for a 2nd time I was a little disgruntled when the front door bell went at 7:50.

Gasket is a red and black bike. There's not a terribly big history of bike Transformers: I can think of Groove, the micromaster combiner one, the G2 cycles (and all their subsequent incarnations), BM Thrust & Cycle Drone, Sideways and Energon Arcee. Gasket immediately calls to mind the original incarnation of Road Rocket - one of the G2 ones - being mainly Red and Black. The bike is a bit more stretched out than a real bike, has thicker wheels and is lacking any handlebars. But far more realistic than the BM incarnations. He has a slot for a Force Chip (a red Speedia chip ala Excillion and Land Bullet which in Cybertron is numbered sc92) which causes 2 exhaust pipes/guns to flip out the back of him. This will become more useful later.

To TF remove the bit to the rear of the saddle the exhaust pipes are attached to - this will eventually form, his weapon. The rear wheel splits into 2 halves - both small wheels - which then fold to the side of the bike. heel spurs come down from the wheel arch, and the rear of the bike folds underneath him to form the legs. Fuel tank and saddle split in 2 and fold to each side to form the arms - a tiny bit of folding to pose them. The windscreen folds down to form the chest plate exposing the head. Mount weapon in standard fist hole and use force chip to flip up barrels.

Oodles of articulation in this little guy - ball jointed knees, hips and elbows, shoulders that move up and down, but also forward a bit and to the sides, a neck joint and - glory be - a waist ! Like Thundercracker the head looks a little friendly for a Decepticon. He's got a port in the back of his head for a light pipe - which I've failed to mention most of the other Galaxy Force toys as having - but the eyes are painted over, which is a shame as it's one of my favourite TF gimmicks and a very simple one. The gun looks HUGE in his hand, and the elbow joint when bent isn't strong enough to support it. However the shoulder joint will, and with the heel spurs offering support some quite dynamic poses can be achieved.

Overall: Fantastic for the size, well worth having.


Gasket Police Type

I love the police type repaints. Lapped up the SWAT Team in Energon and would happily pay for an E-Hobby Diaclone Sunstreaker Police Car if it's ever done with a Sunstreaker re-release. Here the red becomes a slightly off white giving him a great monochrome appearance which would happily sit with any of the other police type vehicles.

Ransack

The Red of Gasket is now black, the black is mint white, and the clear red is clear green. There's gold and metallic blue highlights. Some idiot's painted in the eyes on the lightpipe though - an unpardonable offence in my book. The key remains a speed planet one numbered s2w5.

The repaint's nice - probably nicer than the original and is a good addition to the Decepticon ranks.

Now can we have the police type version in Cybertron please?


Rattrap

Ransack returned in the succesful Botcon 2006 set showing the Cybertron forms of several Beast Wars characters. Ransack became Rattrap, casting most of the red in grey and the black in a bronzey brown. He swaps his key for a modified version of the Sideways key. It's a pretty good marriage of mould and name in this case.


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