TOY REVIEW

Name: Beachcomber
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Geologist
Vehicular Mode: Dune Buggy
"Know the conflict within before facing the conflict without."

VEHICULAR MODE

Length: 5.3 cm
A reasonably well sculpted toy for it's size. The main chassis is grey. It has some really cool looking mechanical parts moulded on the back as well as two seats and a small steering wheel moulded in the middle. Alright, the steering wheel's not terribly convincing, but it would be insanely difficult to make anything better on such a small toy (generally the rule is that the smaller the toy, the harder it is to sculpt in fine detail). The driver's compartment is shielded by a black rollbar. The front bonnet of the car is blue. Two grey structures that look like shock absorbers protrude from either side. They have two grey headlights attached. Attached to these parts are two grey wheels wrapped in a pair of black rubber tyres (I've heard that these tyres were manufactured by Dunlop, which has a special division for manufacturing rubber tyres for toys and models). The sides of car are also blue with a nice grill pattern moulded on either side. Towards the back are two more grey wheels with black
Dunlop rubber tyres. On the back of the vehicle are two small slots, resembling mufflers.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

Fold down the bonnet to form robot legs. Pull out the sides to form robot arms. Flip up robot head.

ROBOT MODE

Height: 7 cm
A stout, but pretty nifty looking robot. The head is completely blue except for the eye-visor, which is silver. The main torso is grey with some stickers that add some red, yellow, silver and blue. The chest plate actually resembles two rows of six mufflers. Obviously not used in vehicle mode, it seems to be there for purely decorative purposes. These seems to be rather unusual move for a Transformer at the time. Could this be a precursor to the "let's make part of the robot mode resemble the alt mode" that we later see in Beast Wars Neo, Beast Machines and Car Robot figures? The moulding on the fist is less than spectacular and only seems to suggest that he has only three fingers. Very *long* fingers, suggested by the placement of the thumbs. This toy features the "basic four-points" of articulation: shoulders and knees. It can five points if you want to count the head being able to move within a 90 degree range.

OVERALL

Beachcomber will always hold a special place in my heart. As I child, he was always my favourite mini-bot and for a long time, was one of my favourite Autobots as well. I remember spending many countless hours, in and out of school, playing with this little fella. Despite it's primitive moulding and construction, I believe that if a toy can instill such unforgettable fond memories, then it must be a very good toy.

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