Dave's 1-2-3 Transformers Rant Charlie Chopper Policeman Pete CAPSULES Charlie Chopper: Looks okay in both modes, but not as poseable as I'd like. Transforms like Wind Sheer in terms of autofolding stuff. Has voice chip phrases in both modes. A bit expensive for what you get, IMO. Ignoring price, mildly recommended. $14.92 at Wal-Mart Policeman Pete: Pretty much the same evaluation as Charlie, but a slightly more complex transformation and better accessories, plus an undocumented feature. Recommended. $14.92 at Wal-Mart RANTS Charlie Chopper: Again, no techspec. Like Rescue Roy, Charlie Chopper comes in an open-faced box. It and its accessories are held on by massive numbers of twist-ties (11 to be precise). You can listen to the toy's robot mode phrases by pushing on the cockpit while it's still in the box. To hear the vehicle mode phrases, hold down the little orange button behind Charlie's head while pressing the cockpit. Robot Mode: 6" (15cm) tall, mainly orange and very light grey with silver and black accents. The chest rises up to block the face partially, and the figure is in a permanent "looking up at you" pose. The shoulders are very restricted universal joints, the elbows are standard hinges, and the head swivels. The right thumb is jointed so you can have Charlie give a thumbs-up, but the left hand has no joints. The hips and knees hinge...sideways only. So the only poseability in the legs is how far apart you want him to have his feet. Charlie comes with two accessories. One is a wings badge that can either be used as a shield or clipped to your shirt. The other is a life preserver that he can't really hold in robot mode. I initially thought there were just four phrases in robot mode, but there's really four openings and four closings, which are mixed randomly for a total of 16 phrases. Four sample phrases are listed below: "Jumpin' jet rockets, let's go to chopper mode!" "YAHOO! I think they need an airlift!" "Leapin' Lifters, you're a great wingman!" "Twistin' Turbines, let's fly to the rescue!" Okay, as gimmicks go, it's technically pretty simple. But a nice touch. Transformation: 1-2-3, dude. Very simple. There's actually a fourth step if you count removing the shield from the fist and attaching it to the underside of the chopper...a fifth if you include flipping out the hook that holds the life preserver. Vehicle Mode: 5.5" (14cm) long "chibi" helicopter with fists. Yeah, there's a bit of robot kibble here. The rotors have a span of 5" (13cm) and spin freely. No "gerwalk" mode is possible, although you can fold down the arms so he can punch things (kinda like old Supermobile). One of the sounds in this mode is just helicopter whupwhupwhup sounds. The other three phrases start and end with radio static, and they play in order, rather than randomly. "Let's go to robot mode!" "Chief, we're ready for airlift, over." "Ten-four, buddy. We got the sky covered! Over." Overall: Is it worth half as much as Rescue Roy? Not really. Granted, making things childsafe down to 3 years old makes things more expensive, but there were a lot of shortcuts they took that reduced fun value much more than they reduced cost. Policeman Pete: Boxed the same way as Charlie Chopper, but the cityscape scenery bit includes a donut shop. Will the stereotypes never end? }-> Anyway, there's also 11 twist-ties involved in this one. You can't get the vehicle mode phrases without removing the toy from the packaging, though, as the button that tells the chip which set of phrases to use is inside the torso and inaccessible. Robot Mode: About 6" (15cm) tall in blue, white and black with gold feet and some red accents. Oddly, while the badge on his chest (which you push to make him talk) is five-pointed, the rest of the stickers on the toy use a seven pointed police star. The badge molded on his forehead uses a five pointed star, which suggests to me that there was a decision to change to seven points after the mold had been made. Poseability is actually worse than with Charlie Chopper. The shoulders only hinge to swing out, same with the hips. And there's no sideways knees as with Charlie, so the legs-apart poses are less stable. The elbows bend, and the wrists move sideways for transformation, which isn't a very good point of articulation. And, of course, the head turns. However, the accessories were much better thought-out for this toy. Both hands have peg holes both in the normal "grip" position and also at the front of the fists, so you can plug the baton or shield/badge-for-you onto either fist. The baton has a grip that goes into Pete's fist, and the baton itself is attached by a swivel joint, so it can be positioned in many ways, even held as a tonfa (a Tonka tonfa, heh). Wisely, they decided to make the shield more badge-shaped rather than a riot shield...a police toy with baton and riot shield always looks odd smiling. The baton has an undocumented feature. There's two slender pegs on the grip part that puzzled me for a bit, until I discovered holes of the same size on the boots...it becomes an exhaust pipe for vehicle mode! Here's the phases Pete says in robot mode: "Read 'em their rights, chief!" "Let's go, 911!" "We'll protect, serve and defend!" "We'll protect them from danger." "You're a great backup!" "Let's catch the badguys!" "Hey partner, we're on patrol!" "When there's danger, we'll help!" These phrases are said in order, the chip just cycles through the eight of them. No mix and match like with Charlie. Transformation: Once you've practiced it a few times, it's no more challenging than Charlie's, but there's a few tricks that you have to learn. Transformation is reminiscent of Tow Line's, but things snap together more firmly. And there's a little fiddly bit or two, like the rear view mirrors, that needs to be adjusted. Vehicle mode: A squatty superdeformed SUV police truck about 4.5" (11cm) long and 3" (8cm) tall. It has big hard plastic wheels that roll freely, and the front wheels splay apart a bit when you push down on the toy (as a result of the transformation sequence), for a cute anthropomorphizing of the vehicle. The accessories have places to peg onto the back of the vehicle mode, and as mentioned above the baton can instead become an exhaust pipe. The shield doesn't peg into place the same way as shown in the pictures on the box, though, and it kinda hangs out to the side. The robot toes keep it from doing much of a wheelie. This mode only has a few phrases: Siren noise "Buckle up, we're in pursuit!" Siren noise "Let's go to robot mode!" It cycles through these in order. The two siren sounds are the same, but it inserts them between each phrase. Overall: While it shares many of Charlie Chopper's flaws, Policeman Pete manages to just tip over the threshhold into niftiness for me. Having accessories that can be used or stored in both modes is a BIG plus in my book. If you just get one of the two smaller 1-2-3 Transformers, get Policeman Pete. Dave Van Domelen, figures this line is meant as much to compete with Rescue Heroes as anything else....