Deluxe Skids and Mudflap Ice Cream Truck

Height: 8.5cm (Skids), 9.5 (Mudflap head height); 11.5cm (vehicle length).

Articulation:

• Skids: 16 total points - Ball joint neck; 4 points in right arm: Swivel shoulder, double joint elbow, hinge wrist; 3 points in left arm: Swivel shoulder, double joint elbow; 4 points each leg: Ball joint hip, hinge knee, post-knee swivel, ball joinjt ankle.


• Mudflap: 14 total points - Ball joint neck; 3 points in right arm: Swivel shoulder, double joint elbow; 4 points in left arm: Swivel shoulder, double joint elbow, hinge wrist; 3 points each leg: ball joint hip, hinge knee, post-knee swivel.

Colors: Molded pink, off-white, white, dark grey, clear blue; Painted blue, off-white, pink, silver, light blue, dark blue, red, light brown, dark brown

Accessories: N/A

Release Data: Released in third-quarter 2009 at a SRP of $US11.99.

Author: ExVee


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Maybe people like Skids and Mudflap. I can't imagine how that is possible, but I guess I have to leave room for the chance of somebody being brain damaged or otherwise mentally defective. The only possible value I can see in the characters is their brief existence as an ice cream truck, playing once more upon my interest in the oddball vehicle modes that only the movie's money-making powers could ever hope to provide for us. Also it somehow oddly amuses me to have the twins walking around in pink.



Vehicle Mode

As soon as the toy is unpacked, you run into the first flaw in the design. To demonstrate how this is two robots that make one vehicle, Skids and Mudflap are packaged in vehicle mode, but not attached together. Your first task as proud owner of the toy is to try and get them together. There is an obvious series of tabs along both halves of the toy, and in theory it appears simple to snap them together and have your much longed for ice cream truck that you can pretend are more tolerable characters. The reality is rather removed from that notion, however. The rear half especially is composed of an unfortunate number of separate panels, but both halves will be more ready to bend and fold than tab into a single unit. Add to that the tabs do not fit together all that well, and you're quickly coming up on a frustration party. Topping things off, after connecting the halves only a few times there are noticable stress marks on almost all the connecting tabs.

Oh, and I guarantee that during this process you'll trigger the unintended vehicle mode action feature of having a robot head pop out of the hood.

Thankfully once the vehicle mode does come together it holds pretty tight and aside from a couple extra-wide panel seams you have a pretty nice, if sparsely decorated toy of an ice cream truck. A set of stickers from reprolabels.com will help you out if you want a more realistically and movie accurate decorated toy. I've had some trouble making all four wheels touch the tabletop, but I'm not sure how much room there is for adjustment without tempting pieces to come apart. Definitely one of those occasions where you'll be happy to say "good enough!"



Transformation

Transforming Skids is fairly simple, and the only real trouble is getting the arms around the bumper. But Skids is the smaller of the pair, to his benefit. Mudflap occupies a larger volume of vehicle and has more moving pieces in transformation. The great majority are panels on hinges and ball joints that all have to clear each other and other parts. Worse is that Mudflap is barely bigger than a Scout but with the full complexity of a toy almost twice its size. It's also pretty necessary to reference the package photo or instructions for the proper disposition of the floating vehicle panels.



Robot Mode

I suppose we'll start now with Skids. Skids has the basic expected level of articulation, plus an extra wrist hinge on the right hand. In the case of the arms, the degree of posability is mostly academic. The forearms being molded to the backside of the door panels and the shoulders being composed of the wheels and fenders severely restricts how far any joint can move. Conversely, the legs are rather open and free, and even have some unnecessary double jointing. The waist also swivels as a matter of transformation, but this is almost entirely useless for poses. The worst thing is that the roof, windshield and hood are all stuck folded up and hanging off the back. Along with the bumper it makes a very bad case of backpack. The only saving grace here is that everything is so small that the backpack lacks the mass to throw the toy's balance off.

Also, the head sculpt makes me want to vomit.


Mudflap, as noted above has more parts and mass and follows a much wider body plan, no doubt purposely exaggerated by the placement of some vehicle panels. It's almost like Mudflap was made to be an opposite in terms of how the articulation plays out. probably because of the greater number of moving parts for transformation, Mudflap has fewer actual points of articulation. However, his arms are much more free to move than Skids'. Mudflap also has the extra wrist hinge, but on the left arm. Where Skids had free moving and well-articulated legs, Mudflap goes in an entirely different direction. Skids' legs are pretty slim, not needing to form any part of his half of the vehicle mode. But Mudflap's lower legs are the rear wheel wells, fenders, and the bottom half of the back doors. Mudflap is stomping around in some pretty huge boots. Although working with the basics of ball joint hip and hinged knee - and even having an extra swivel thrown in - it's pretty well impossible to have any meaningful posing of the legs just for how large and boxy the lower legs are.

Mudflap probably has more pieces of the vehicle hanging off than Skids, but it ends up working out better since it's not all piled into a single backpack-like structure. It's not a tidy arrangement by any means and while I really hate having random panels hanging around for no reason other than a lack of space to integrate them, I'll still take this over a big square mass projecting off the back. Sad thing is I think Mudflap would be more likely to have balance problems because of that. Despite having absolutely huge feet, the majority of them push way out in front of the center of balance - moreso had there been a giant back-mass. Even now you do need to hunch Mudflap forward to make sure the slightly rounded heels don't let the toy try to rock backward. But I'm sure slouching fits in with the character type they went for with these two...

Also, the headsculpt makes me want to cry.

Paint and Deco

This toy is one of those occasions where it's especially sad that there's not more budget for paint operations. The vehicle mode has several areas that are molded with a rough texture to simulate rust, but they go completely unpainted for cost effectiveness. Speaking for myself, I'd gladly trade a couple paint apps in other places to get at least part of the rust spots colored correctly.



Accessories




Closing Remarks


This was a guaranteed sale for me regardless of any other considerations. I mean, it's an ice cream truck. You just don't get that in Transformers. Too bad that's pretty much the best part of the toy. I appreciate what they tried to do with this, and to a degree it worked out. But I think that this idea really needed to happen on a larger scale. The two robots would have been more along the right size to fit with other Deluxes, and the complexity would be more appropriate. It'd also be great if this had been any other two characters, but I guess I'll take it for what it is. Plus adding on things like critical connection tabs developing stress marks after only combining the vehicle halves a number of times in the single digits, it doesn't matter how great the vehicle mode is. That is simply a materials and engineering failure. Skids and Mudflap very clearly Could Have Been Better. Tempted as I was to knock them down another notch, a Transformers Ice Cream Truck is at least worth owning.

-ExVee