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By Daniel Suh
Yearning to own another Skyboom shield? Or are you simply very fond of race cars? Either way, the Road Assault Team is the set for you.
DIRT BOSS
Vehicle
Mode: Dirt
Boss is some kind of rally SUV. About 5.5 cm (2.2") long, he's
black with red panelling and front grille, dark gray tires, metallic silver
windows, and yellow headlights and flame decos. His faction symbol is
behind his driver's side window and his PX socket is on his underside.
With such a color scheme, it's a shame he wasn't called Big
Daddy.
Transformation: Separate and extend the front section of the SUV, flip out the feet, swing out the arms from the sides, and flip the head out from underneath.
Robot
Mode: Dirt
Boss stands 7 cm (2.7") tall at the head. He's still mostly black
in this mode except for his head, chest panel, upper arms, thighs, and
feet, which are all red. His head is shaped like an upside down bucket
with an angular mouthplate somewhat resembling Darth Vader's. Pity it's
all one color.
Dirt Boss is articulated at the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, but he isn't all that poseable. His shoulders only angle out to the sides and his elbows curl, as if he were lifting invisible weights.
While his new color scheme is pretty sweet, Dirt Boss' robot mode suffers somewhat from being part of a combiner team. 6.5/10
DOWNSHIFT
Vehicle
Mode: According to Aaron Archer, Downshift's
race car mode is based on none other than the Batmobile, although his
new color scheme makes that difficult to notice. He's white with a red
hood and spoiler, dark gray tires, orange rearlights, a black lightning
deco on his hood, and black and metallic silver comet decos on his sides.
His faction symbol is on his left side and his PX socket is in the black
panel on his underside. He measures 6.5 cm (2.5") long.
Transformation: Swing out the arms from the sides, fold down the torso, and flip up the head.
Robot
Mode: Downshift
stands about 6 cm (2.3") tall. He's still mostly white except for
his black lower torso and the orange accents on his fists and shins. His
face is orange with narrow white eyes. His massive chest, formed from
the front section of the race car, makes him seem slightly G1-ish.
His poseability is about as the same as most G1 toys too, which isn't a good thing. His legs spread apart a little at the hips and his shoulders have combination ball and swivel joints. Moreover, his arms are so long and massive that he falls over if you raise them 45 degrees or more.
I've grown less fond of this toy since his Race Team version. The car mode is neat, but the robot mode's kinda disappointing. 6/10
MIRAGE
Vehicle
Mode: Mirage
is a nitro dragster, remolded from the Swindle/Zapmaster
toy. He measures a little under 7 cm(2.8") long and is red and white
with dark gray tires and driver's seat. His faction symbol is on
his left side and his PX socket is mounted on his underside at the rear.
Looks nice except for the robot head in plain sight at the rear.
Transformation: Swing out the arms, separate the legs, rotate the waist around, and slide down the spoiler a little.
Robot
Mode: The runt of the trio, Mirage
stands about 5.5 cm(2.2") tall. His head is dark gray with a metallic
silver face. He has no proper hands, just a couple of claws on each arm.
His shoulders droop, his arms raise to the sides, his waist turns, his
legs spread apart at the hips, and his ankles pivot. He can actually be
made to balance on just one foot with a little adjusting. Also, he seems
to be much sturdier than my original
Mirage toy, whose legs kept falling off.
While his poseability isn't great, I like this little guy. 6.5/10
SKYBOOM SHIELD
Transformation: From vehicle modes, split open Dirt Boss down the middle and flip out the red panels, swing Downshift's sides forwards, peg them into place, and then snap him onto Dirt Boss, and then attach Mirage to the front of Dirt Boss by his head.
Shield
Mode: The Skyboom shield measures an impressive 16 cm (6.2")
long with a width of up to 7.5 cm (3"). It can either be grasped
by the handle or in some cases pegged onto a robot's forearm via Dirt
Boss' PX socket. Interestingly, the Downshift
component resembles a robot's face when viewed from head on, with big
round gray eyes, a long red nose, an open mouth, and a long white chin.
The shield holds together very well, even when shaken roughly.
Overall, the Skyboom shield is definitely the strongest reason for owning the RAT. 7.5/10
Overall, Susp Sez: While the vehicle modes and Skyboom shield are neat, the RAT's robot modes all leave something to be desired. The new color schemes are nice too, but really no better or worse than the original ones. If you already own the Race Team, you may want to save your money for Energon. 6.6/10
Susp
"We can take Decepticons anytime, anywhere!" - Big Daddy
