Dave's BW Neo Rant:

     VS-36: Archadis and Mach Kick

     The other half of my purchase from astrotoys.com, and probably my last
Transformers review for a little while...new TMII's still weren't in my area
today, and then my car broke down.  D'oh.

CAPSULES

     Archadis: Fairly good archeopteryx mode, okay transformation, decent
robot mode, okay gimmicks.  Mildly recommended.  
     Mach Kick: Incredible beast mode, challenging (if somewhat frustrating)
transformation, good robot mode, good gimmicks.  It supposedly has a third
mode, but it's not worth bothering with.  Strongly recommended.  

RANTS

DESTRON: Archadis
Beast Mode: Archeopteryx (proto-bird)

STR 7  INT 9  SPD 9  END 7  RNK 9  COUR 6  FRP 8  SKL 9  Avg 8

     From his appearance in the manga, Archadis seems to be a suave rogue
type with a lot of ego and enough talent to back that up.  It's worth noting
that Archadis was picked in a fan design contest (along with Mach Kick), but
the original design was female.  Archadis is pretty clearly male, if a bit of
a dandy.

     Beast Mode: 7" (18cm) from snout to tail feathers, with a normal 8"
wingspan.  Wingspan can be extended to 10" (25cm).  Colorful plumage in a
mixture of gold, green, blue and sky blue, with red accents.  Color scheme
works well for what is essentially a bird.  Wings can be moved up and down,
neck moves on two ball joints, jaw opens, legs are moderately poseable.
However, the legs suffer from Original Dinobot Syndrome, in that the robot
feet just sort of rest against the beast mode's chest.  Otherwise, most of
the robot kibble is hidden, with the exception of a gun sticking out the side
of the tail (and the whole right arm visible under the tail).  Reasonably
stable, although the robot legs aren't really locked into position.
     Pressing buttons on each wing cause the wingtips to extend an extra
inch, revealing more robotic detail.  The wingtip claws are on a part that
can be snapped open, revealing a pair of laser cannons (or somesuch) that
don't quite point all the way forward.  Additionally, Archadis has a pair of
wing bombs, which look more like leaves than feather clusters, that will drop
when the wings extend.  The bombs are labeled R and L (in mirror image,
oddly) so that you can tell which one to put on each side...they're not
interchangeable. 

     Transformation: Pretty simple once you've done it once.  Pull down the
robot legs and rotate the hips to face front, then pull over the wing
assembly and fold them against the torso.  Pop out the head and you're done,
although you can also deploy his handgun with a clever (if bulky) gear
attached to the tailfeathers.

     Robot Mode: 5" (12cm) tall, with a squat torso and long, spindly legs,
the wings block most of the torso and make it a bit hard to move the arms
around.  Spark is on his chest, and covered by the wings.  His beast head
becomes his left hand, although it ends up upside down.  It does NOT, as I
had earlier reported, contain a dagger weapon...  apparently, someone heard
about the dagger in the manga, then mixed up signals and told me it was part
of the toy too.  The wing gimmicks are pretty much pointless in this mode,
but he does have a gun.  And, in a clever bit of design, he has an extra
elbow joint to compensate for the fact that his ball-jointed elbow will not
bend in a way that makes holding the gun look good.  So, above the ball joint
is a hinge in the traditional elbow direction, eliminating a Cheetor TMII-ish
problem.  The ankles are fairly stiff ball joints, which is good...you'll
need all the help you can get making this very top-heavy toy stand up.

     Overall: Not bad, and certainly has a creative way to deal with properly
proportional wings in robot mode.  Looks elegant and dashing, but doesn't do
much.  


CYBERTRON: Mach Kick
Beast Mode: Horse

STR 9  INT 9  SPD 10  END 7  RNK 9  COUR 6  FRP 8  SKL 9  Avg 8.375

     Mach Kick is the last of a group of courier warriors, if I recall
correctly from translations I've seen.  He's not part of Big Convoy's group,
but allies with them at times.  The original design was not named Mach Kick,
and it was in crayon, probably the kiddie division winner (Archadis was
probably drawn by a 13-year-old).

     Beast Mode: 4" (10cm) tall at the shoulder (which would be one hand
tall, I suppose), 5.5" (14cm) at the mane.  A little over 5" (13cm) long from
nose to buttocks.  And aside from the open space under the belly and the
unposeability of the rear hips, this is almost a perfect poseable horse toy
on its own.  Proper scale for 5" action figures, even (evil Deirdre from
Mystic Knights looks a little big for him, tho).  A dark bluish grey in color
with black mane, legs and tail, plus a white blaze.  The tail is made from
synthetic hair, rather than being a solid piece, and it hangs down to the
ground (I suppose stiffening the base so that it would hold up like a proud
stallion's "flag" would have been too much to ask, though...maybe mousse?).
     The mane is actually an extender arm (the kind that looks like linked
X's in a row, XXXX), and if you push down on the back of it, the head shoots
out on the end of the extender, rapid like a snake's strike.  If they wanted
to do a Transmythic, this gimmick would go really well with a unicorn's horn.
     Mach Kick is packaged in a nice rearing pose, and he can actually stand
up on his own in that pose if you're careful and have a nice, stable
surface.  
     There have been other beast modes this good before, but they tended to
be very static beasts, not much inherent poseability.  Mach Kick's horse mode
is both excellently made and dynamic as his robot mode, if not more so in
some ways.

     Transformation: Here's where you pay the price for such a kick-butt
beast mode.  Lots of panels and twisting and stuff, and it's a lot harder to
get him back in horse mode than to transform him to robot mode.  His waist is
a big ball joint, which tends to pop out if you don't do the transformation
correctly.  But it's not impossible to learn, and once you figure out where
everything's supposed to go it's not too hard.  Easier than Big Convoy, to be
sure.

     Weapon Mode: Fuggedabout it.  It's lame.  A pile of horse parts with the
head sticking up out of it.  Obviously something worked out after the fact.

     Robot Mode: 5.5" (14cm) tall at the head, add on up to another inch
depending on how you position his beast mode forelegs.  Transformation brings
out a lot of red, white and gold, and his spark sits on his left thigh.  He
has several panels that get in the way, although at least the one with his
forelegs adds to his appearance.  His neck panels just sort of hang back as a
skirt and get in the way.
     His horse head becomes his right arm, gimmick intact, and there's a red
claw bottom that pops out and lets him actually hold stuff in that hand.  His
left arm is a standard robot arm and holds his tail/axe.  The tail is
connected to a short handaxe, looking rather nifty.  Additionally, he has a
real ponytail attached to his head (something you need to be careful with
when transforming back).  Poseability is pretty good despite all the panels,
and since his waist is a ball joint he has a good point of articulation
there. His boots are kinda odd, being formed from his upper rear legs and
therefore very bulky near the top.  He has a rudimentary toe on the front of
each foot to help with balance and posing.

     Overall: While suffering from the typical "Pretender wearing its shell
in pieces" transformation problems of most Neos, Mach Kick makes the trouble
this causes well worth your while.  A good robot mode and a kickin' beast
mode make this one of the best BW Neo toys, and easily the best for his
size.  

     Dave Van Domelen, has some DinoZaurs he can review while he waits for
his car to be fixed....