For more pics, click on the image above Prelude: Legal stuff first as always. Boostor here is not a figure released by Hasbro or Takara-Tomy and thus not officially a Transformer. He’s from Impossible Toys and clearly meant to be the Decepticon Seeker Thrust, but for legal reasons he can’t be called by that name. Robot Mode: Boostor and his Tetra Squadron mates are supposed to portray the Decepticon Seekers in their original form on Cybertron, as seen in the original G1 cartoon pilot and several later episodes. Which is a very thankless task, mind you, seeing as the Sunbow animators somewhat cheated by having all the Transformers in their Earth-vehicle-based robot modes already, even though they still transformed into alien alternate modes. Given that, it was pretty much unavoidable that Boostor and his mates would end up being shell-formers. So yes, the robot as such heavily resembles G1 Thrust, except for the big wings and other kibble on his back. Basically the entire outer hull of his alternate mode is there, a big three-point piece that serves as the back of the aircraft, as well as the wings which form the sides. The result looks surprisingly good, though, as the big kibble parts are only really noticeable if you look at the robot from the back. From the front you do notice that he looks a bit different than your standard G1-style Seeker, but not much. So in terms of trying to create a figure from the (very difficult) animated template, I’d say mission accomplished. As for the figure itself, I’d call it the good side of average. Articulation is good, but short of great. Look and detailing are good, but not spectacular. Boostor has got the appropriate conehead, the arm cannons, and the chest design one associates with a Seeker. So the bottom line for the robot mode: pretty good and accomplishing what it set out to do. Not a revelation, but good. Alternate Mode: Boostor transforms into a three-sided flying pyramid, basically. The proper term is Tetrajet and it’s an alien aircraft that manages to look very cool and sleek, I must say. It takes quite some doing to line up everything and get all the panels clicking together properly, but the result looks pretty spiffy and could easily be at home in any given science fiction movie of your choice. The arm cannons go on the wing tips, a second set of smaller cannons is sculpted onto the hull, and everything fits together quite well. The craft has a landing gear as well, though getting the front wheel out requires very small fingers or some kind of tool for an aid. So all in all, a very good-looking alternate mode, no complaints here. Quality: The few Impossible Toys I had in hand had their ups and downs when it came to quality. Boostor is somewhere in the middle. He is mostly pretty solid despite feeling a little fragile (especially those wrap-around wings), but he has at least one very glaring weak spot in the hip, where a single screw holds him together. The plastic casing of the screw is already bent on mine, so I don’t plan to transform him very often. So not nearly as bad as Valkyrie, but below the descent quality of the Alicon. Remarks: The original G1 cartoon showed us only very few pre-Earth alternate modes (in the first two seasons anyway) and, as mentioned above, usually left the robot modes unchanged. Since then we’ve seen quite a few toys with pre-Earth / Cybertronian modes, but I think the Tetra Squadron might actually be the first to do it in G1-styling. That said, the Tetra Squadron were the swan song of third party company Impossible Toys, as they closed down shortly afterwards. The press release stated: This is due to weak pre-orders sales on the Tetra Squadron. We anticipated higher but it appears we no longer have the support from the fandom we used to. So basically, it’s the fault of the fans. Shame on you, fans. Anyway, a better explanation might be that Impossible Toys vastly overestimated the market for toys that adhere strongly to the original G1-style aesthetics, rather than the current Classics/CHUG-style figures Hasbro is banking on. As I write this review the Tetra jets are on clearance pretty much everywhere, which is also the reason I bought this one. I found the idea very interesting and wanted one in hand, choosing Boostor out of the seven available models was more or less incidental. Bottom line: a very nice idea, decently realized, but lacking the kind of mass appeal Impossible Toys was banking on, I guess. Recommended to G1-fans who can find it at clearance (pretty easy right now). Rating: C+
