Dave's Fuzors Rant:

     Air Hammer
     Quickstrike

     These have finally penetrated Columbus, although they're still not
available everywhere as of 1/9/98.  The Deluxes have not been spotted in
stores yet as of that date either.

CAPSULES

     Air Hammer: Rather dippy beast and robot modes, feels kinda cheap, but
has a rather more complicated transform than suggested by the rating on the
package.  Very mildly recommended.  $4.99 at Toys R Us.
     Quickstrike: Very good beast mode, fairly interesting transformation,
good robot mode.  Recommended.  $4.99 at TRU.

RANTS

MAXIMAL: Air Hammer
Function: Aerial Reconnaissance
Transformation Difficulty: 2 (Basic, I'd give it a 3)
Quote: None

If Air Hammer possesses one attribute, it is mind-boggling speed - add that
to his scanned characteristics and it equals the perfect reconnaissance
warrior.  His aerodynamic structure helps Air Hammer to be equally [sic,
should be "as"] dextrous in water as in air.  He sees with the eyesight of a
hawk and has the ability to sniff out a Predacon from miles away.  Well liked
by his fellow Maximals, Air Hammer is a robot of few words, oreferring to
save his razor-sharp jaw for locking onto the limbs of enemy Predacons.

STR 5  INT 8  SPD 10  END 9  RNK 6  COUR 9  FRP 4  SKL 8  Avg 7.375

     I've decided to start correcting the bad grammar of these notes as I
type them in...and I'm tempted to rewrite them to remove the jargonizing the
writers put them through.

     Beast Mode: Reminiscent of the Optimus Primal bat in its rigidity, but
at least this is more stable and has less undercarriage garbage.  The
sculptor did a pretty good job of merging the lines of a hammerhead shark
with those of a bird of prey, considering how divergent they are.  Most of
the beast parts are made from the milky white plastic Hasbro's grown so fond
of, with brown and metallic blue accents painted on.  The critter's five
inches from nose to tail (12cm) and has a wingspan slightly over five inches
(about 13cm).  It's pretty much unposable, although you can work the jaw,
which has a spring in it to help it snap closed.
     Transformation: Not too hard once you get the hang of it, but very weird
and unintuitive, hampered by the fact that (at least on mine) the joints are
very stiff, but weak...so bits pop off before you can get them into the right
positions.
     Robot Mode: 3.75 inches tall (9.5cm), with light grey plastic forming
the upper arms, thighs and pelvis.  Neither hand is an actual hand...one is
the jaws of the beast mode, the other is the shark tail.  Unfortunately, the
jaw hand is, like that of both versions of Tarantulas, underhanded.  The head
can turn stiffly, but the paint job makes it look like a cheap knockoff.
There's a huge "backpack" going, but fortunately the feet have long enough
heel spurs to allow the toy to stand.
     Overall: It's not horrible, but unless you're a completist or a shark
fan, you can safely skip this one.


PREDACON: Quickstrike
Function: Desert Combat Expert
Transformation Difficulty: 2 (Basic, about right save for one tricky part)
Quote: None

There are few robots as downright mean as Quickstrike: even his fellow
Predacons steer clear of his terrible disposition whenever possible.  His
deadly cobra-headed tail squirts a venom which instantly paralyzes its
victims, leaving them defenseless against his razor-sharp scorpion pincers
and attack claw.

STR 5  INT 7  SPD 5  END 6  RNK 6  COUR 10  FRP 6  SKL 8  Avg 6.625

     Note that it is not, strictly speaking, possible to steer clear of
someone's disposition.

     Beast Mode: With the tail fully stretched out behind him, Quicky
measures 11.5 inches (29cm) long.  He's significantly shorter when the tail
is curled up over his body.  And the tail is quite neat, being fully
articulated, with seven ball joints in it.  The jaw of the cobra opens when
you push on the squirt function.  The scorpion pincers are a bit weak-feeling
and floppy, unfortunately, and Quicky suffers from the same problem
Powerpinch does in beast mode...he doesn't so much stand on his legs as roll
about on his stomach.  His main colors are dark brown, translucent yellow,
slightly translucent orange (scorpion legs) and metallic green painted on.
     Transformation: Goes pretty much how you'd expect, with the pincers
becoming his legs and feet, and the tail and scorp legs twisting about to
become the robot arms (it's a little tricky to get this to work just right.
In an interesting development, his scorpion head becomes his, ah, skidplate
in robot mode.  Yep, he's a butthead.  There isn't a tab or anything to help
in opening up his claws to form his feet, so you need to worry at them or get
a pin or something to open them up.
     Robot Mode: The translucent plastic is more obvious in this form, and
Quickstrike's one of the few BW toys to have glowing eyes, since his entire
head's translucent.  His HUGE feet (2 inches/5cm long) make him very stable
in a variety of poses, including ones where his cobra arm is pointed straight
out in attack.  His lack of real hands isn't as big of a problem as it could
be, since his claw hand can hold things (and other Transformers), albeit
weakly.  Including his "head scoop" he stands about four inches (10cm) tall.
The superposeable right arm makes him look a little odd in some poses, but
quite nifty in others.  The cobra head fires a thick stream, not a mist, and
it fires past the fangs in such a way as to look surprisingly like the spit
of real spitting cobras (at least as close as my memory of the last Discovery
Channel show on snakes I watched says).
     Overall: While not without problems, this is generally a pretty durn
good toy.

     Dave Van Domelen, putting Quickstrike atop his monitor to clash with
Razorclaw over the last enerbrewski....