Kick-Off is a repaint of the Reveal the Shield Special Ops Jazz mold. And he’s a spectacular repaint at that. It feels as if this mold had this intended reuse the whole time. Looking at the original Action Master you can see the visual cues in paint and sculpt. Hood chest, wheel shoulders, and big stompy black shins with red boots, it’s all there! Even the gun looks like an updated replica of Kick-Off’s original orange blaster. The paint deco is really nice, but seems a bit off. The Action Master has a fully white chest with some yellow and orange detailing, while the Botcon toy is mostly black. Obviously the original toy didn’t have to have a paint scheme that would work out to a working vehicle mode. It would have been nice however if FunPub could have figured out a way to cast him in white plastic and paint the fenders in solid black. It seems like in my head that would still work to create a cohesive vehicle mode while calling back to the original toy more, but I’m not a toy designer. Also my hood seems to be missing an additional coat of orange on one of the panels, but that transforms away in robot mode anyway. He’s got the same joints that Jazz has, so if you have that toy you probably already know what you’re getting. I will say that Jazz seems to be the anomaly in all of his paint variations. Kick-Offs chest seems just as tight as Stepper’s. It doesn’t lock in place but it doesn’t flop around every time you sneeze on it like the original toy. Whether intentional or not; kudos to FunPub for tightening that up especially given their track record with floppy joints on their toys (at least in my cases) I don’t know if it’s a good idea to start out my coverage with what I consider to be the best toy at the convention, but I was excited to review this toy and I couldn’t wait. Do what you can to pick this guy up. He’s a great modernization of an Action Master only character, and the start of more to come if the Club Exclusive Circuit is any indication. For more pics check out my full review! Botcon 2012 Kick-Off « The Plastic Vault
Wow, he's gorgeous!! If I still collected the Classics bots I'd hafta have the guy regardless of the cost.
Great review, Reigner. I was a bit surprised that it sported a new head rather than just the Treadshot head recolored. The winners of the set this year are definitely from the Jazz mold.
I think this is the only 2012 botcon exclusive I even remotely want. Might buy him second hand later on when I finish some other Classics stuff I need. That deco is extremely eye pleasing.
Really happy with the way this guy turned out, despite the fact that I think the photoshop version shown during the FP panel looked better with the more goldish stripes.
i hope the Asia exclusive deluxe wheelie will be similar to this. that way i can use it as my classics KickOff.
Nice review! Enjoyed looking at the pictures! Though, i'm wondering which one is the best among these? Taken from Botcon 2012 Kick-Off « The Plastic Vault
Awesome! This figure and Overlord are my favorites from the convention! I'll have to try to track them down sometime...
