I wish they had offset the height of his wings so that they could rotate his wings over each other, sort of like Wheeljack's spoiler, to form a lightbar for the tow truck mode. On the G1 toy you popped the wings off and the pegs represented tow truck's sirens.
This figure is pretty baffling in hand. Loads and loads of space beneath the vehicle mode front end... and yet the wheels are pancake thin, there's no weapon storage, the arms don't fold away cleanly and the truck has trouble rolling freely? A whole hood and roof made of painted translucent plastic... and yet the side windows are black anyway, so making the rest black or green plastic with a black windshield would have made it sturdier and more visually cohesive? Robot mode seems to work fine but the rear end of the vehicle mode has some trouble tabbing in. I'm glad to have a Hoist at this size, but I definitely preferred the build quality on the T30 figure.
It's weird how the green plastic and green paint don't match in photos but seem perfect in hand (at least to me...I AM slightly red-green colorblind. Which is why I ran all those red lights, officer. Honest...)
I found one today and of the ones I have so far (Prime, Cliff, Wheeljack) it’s easily my least favorite. The transformation isn’t hard but it’s not well designed. Things bump into each other, back end doesn’t tab well, wheels don’t roll freely and space is utilized poorly. I dislike the stubby feet, the knees are loose and the junk on his bed is really unattractive. He’s got a great head sculpt, fantastic colors and is decently poseable. As an overall toy I think the previous Hoist is better but this one looks the G1 part more. Not the best, but not a regrettable purchase either.
Hoist has always been characterised as this kind of sturdy, reliable, middle-of-the-road dude, and this figure kinda feels like the perfect representation of that. Everything tabs or pegs together pretty solidly, articulation is great, the moulded detail is decent – with a killer head sculpt – and his colours are pure 80s goodness. The arm panels are a tad annoying, and his feet seem rather stubby, but his size is impressive. I’ve seen Hoist held up as proof that WFC deluxes aren’t downsizing, but truthfully that only applies to his robot mode. There’s no getting away from the fact that his truck mode is dinky. I held off on getting the Thrilling 30 version because it looked under-sized next to most CHUG deluxe cars. If you squint, Earthrise Hoist just about gets away with it: Here’s a comparison with UW Trailerbreaker, who is shorter and more athletic looking (so slightly off character), but forms a beefier truck. My main connection to Hoist is from the UK Marvel comics. Back in the 80s, my parents picked me up a random selection of issues from a car boot sale, including issue 53, the first half of Rock and Roll Out, with the cover showing Hoist and four other ’85 bots are being brought online (in what you could retcon as cold construction from the IDW series). For some reason, the image from that cover has always stuck with me, and is part of the reason I’ve been trying to collect a CHUG version of these characters. What was also cool about that story, in retrospect, is that basically Bumblebee wakes up 5 of his buddies and immediately takes them to a rock concert. That’s how you welcome someone to the 80s!
Easy pass. I’m glad for those that love his G1 look, but there is such a thing as too G1 and I think with the arm kibble and potbelly look he’s there. I’m keeping T30. Unlike a lot of other G1 figures I do t have enough of a connection to hoist to have to have something that is too slavish to his original toy. But I am really glad for those of you that like him. There’s enough room for me to stay with an old toy so others get something cool and fun.
That's the exact same way I feel about Wheeljack. My perfect Wheeljack is the Transformers Prime version. I really don't feel the need to update or upgrade it. But I'm glad for those who like Earthrise Wheeljack. There's plenty for all fans to enjoy.
I get that. Earthrise is a very G1 Jackie, which I do have a connection with. Him and Sideswipe are the two G1 toys I recall most fondly. As such, he’s pretty much perfect. I’ve kept the Prime Wheeljack toy because damn if that’s not one of the coolest iterations of the Wheeljack character ever. I have his RiD toy, his Dark Energon toy, both of his legion scale and his ship. That’s what is so cool about the Siege Trilogy though. If you want a G1 version of a character, you’ve got them here. If you want something different there’s been some of that too. For example, I love Siege Thundercracker and will probably skip Earthrise.
Bought a few figures thru the mail during this shutdown time..I was REALLY excited for hoist. Its not a bad transformer per say, but is sure as hell misses the ONE mark I, and my son, was looking for. The freakin tow bar dont work. My G1 hoist used to pull around any TF. I LOVED it as a kid. This part is way too small to actually work. The ONE thing that could have made hoist a really cool toy, the tow bar (or whatever you wanna call it) should have been better designed. Mold a few extra parts, and this could have been the definitive Hoist for me. Bot mode is exactly as you see..nothing really special..truck mode isnt bad...but I really feel they failed here. I watched my son take almost every TF to try to tow it around..alas..it would just roll off..and not work. Too bad. There could have been a bunch of these toys making lil guys happy pulling other bots out of the "mud" and "broken down". Trailbreaker will be where its at for this mold.
Saw Earthrise for the first time grocery shopping today, saw the deluxes and I've got Cliffjumper and Wheeljack already on their way from Pulse, but Hoist looked good in person. So I picked him up. I was a little frustrated on the first transformation, but after realizing a few things (tabbing the waist into that torso joint took more force then I was expecting, then I didn't realize that the calves tab into the thighs), I eventually got it along with the different arm transformation down. I don't know if it's just mine or what, but I have this weird thing where the back panel on the left arm can't quite clear the front vehicle mode fenders in robot mode when swinging the arm forward, but the right arm does. Overall I like him quite a bit, but I have no doubts that I'm going to love Trailbreaker. He's got a great robot mode, the lack of places for the forearms to go in alt mode which turned me off so much in video reviews don't really bother me at all in hand, and it's a nice level of complexity to the transformation.
I'd like Hoist and Trailbreaker being repainted in these colors. And yes, both red Hoist and blue Hoist would be Wreckers. I think red Hoist should remain as Lift-Ticket.
Earthrise Hoist does feel a bit thin and hollow in robot mode, maybe even a little cheap in hand compared to his deluxe wave mates. If I wasn't a fan of the character I probably would've passed on the mold. The truck mode is solid though and I am glad to have him in my collection and look forward to getting Trailbreaker as well. The T30 doesn't look G1 enough for me so I never backtracked to pick him up, lol.
I got this recently. I am super happy with it, and regardless of which design you prefer between this or the IDW look, this is just a much better figure. The Generations one has terrible proportions in robot and vehicle mode, and it is just super floppy and poorly engineered.
Totally get that. If you’ve got a connection with a specific incarnation of a character, but the one that scratches that itch. I’ve had a different experience with mine. I greatly enjoy the T30 Hoist. Part of that is the connection with his IDW character, but I suspect I just have a good copy. My one complaint with him is that I never feel like his hook/gun integrates well with his alt mode.
I can't get him to hold his weapon, no matter how hard I try it just will not fit in his hand. It pegs in just fine in all the ports on him, but he can't hold it, feels like it's going to break trying to get it in EDIT: it fits in the left hand, but not the right, i am so confused EDIT 2: This is as far as it will go in the right hand I have no idea what the problem is, it goes in the left hand easily EDIT 3: ok i pushed as hard as i could and it finally went in, wtf
I was originally going to pass on this guy after seeing pics...but he does look better in person. The truck mode is...OK...but the bot mode is pretty good, aside from the arm kibble. Very posable...nice head... I haven’t had a Hoist in my collection for a really long time...he’s going to look swell next to Trailbreaker once he hits.
