Review – K.O. Joe Kobra Power Rat

I was completely surprised by how playable — and durable — the X Transbots Glider and Wild Child (review here) turned out and those two toys sparked a renewed interest in unofficial Transformers toys that has slowly been building into a larger project. But we can talk about projects later; for now I want to show you another variation of the Glider mold, this time the Kobra Power Rat which is a melding of the G.I. Joe Rattler and Transformers Powerglide in a single toy. And while it is not as well produced as Glider and Wild Child I count myself lucky to have grabbed this guy before he vanished.

Packaging

Marked as the K.O. Joe Kobra Power Rat the box is great, following the design lead of the G.I. Joe toys of the eighties while clearly an homage and not an attempt at passing itself off as an official toy. Actually, looking at this box reminds me of the packaging for HeadRobots’ Cobra Blue Soldier “Snake” (review here), which was another unofficial Transformers toy with a G.I. Joe-inspired colorway. My only complaint with the box is how scuffed and dirty it is; opening the outer package from KOToys I was a bit unhappy to see that they had crammed everything into one box (even going so far as bending the card of one toy). Fortunately, though, the toy was unharmed in shipping.

Jet Mode

The Power Rat is an exact match of the X Transbots Glider and Wild Child toys (review here) so we’ve already taken a look at the physical design of the toy. This time around we get a dark blue version of the toy with what appear to be tampos applied for the numbers and Cobra symbols. At least I think these are printed on and not decals, but I’m not about to go scratching at the details to see what happens.

Fans of classic G.I. Joe toys will notice the Rattler-like look of the toy (see yojoe.com). Power Rat is missing that third engine to really give it the Rattler look, but I can forgive that since this isn’t meant to be an exact match and is merely another version of Glider in great colors. And knowing the way the unofficial Transformers market works I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see someone release an upgrade set for this that gives us new arms (with missiles) and the third engine (which could then snap onto one of the arms as a cannon).

Not as Clean as Glider

I won’t pretend to know anything about the manufacturing process of the X Transbots Glider and Wild Child toys (review here), but it seems to me that despite their minor flaws those two were cleaner — they had fewer rough edges and dirty spots — than Power Rat. I know that KOToys has a history of knocking off designs so is it possible that Power Rat is a bootleg of an unofficial Transformers toy? What I can find online suggests that Jizai Toys (website) is the original designer and these are knockoffs, but it’s going to take someone with much better contacts (and Japanese skills) than me to trace the entire sequence of events. All I know is that the toy, while great, is dirtier and slightly less polished than Glider was.

Arms Like to Come Off

Both Glider and Wild Child toys (review here) sometimes have their arms slip off of the ball-joints at the shoulders, but Power Rat here always loses his arms when you transform him and sometimes when you’re posing his arms. Something’s not quite right at the shoulders, and that flaw is part of what makes me suspect that this is a copy of a copy and wasn’t made from exactly the same mold as Glider and Wild Child. Or maybe it’s just an error with my specific toy and not across the entire run; whatever is the problem it’s frustrating to have to keep snapping his arms back on.

It’s Still Great

And even though he has problems this Power Rat is every bit as much fun as Glider and Wild Child toys (review here) and stands out as a better toy than the MakeToys Bomber (review here). The plastic feels good, the size is right, and the toy’s just poseable enough to be playable without being so fiddly to transform that I don’t want to change back and forth between robot and jet mode. I’m still saying that you should find yourself one of these toys; not this particular colorway, exactly, but at least one of the versions of the mold that’s out there. If you’re a Powerglide fan then you need this in your collection.

And He Has a Knife!

Something I neglected to mention about Glider and Wild Child toys (review here) is that each one came with three weapons: two blasters and a knife. How very lame of me, but hopefully showing you Power Rat with his knife will make up for my failure in the earlier review. I can only find a place to store one blaster when the toy’s in jet mode; if anyone out there knows a secret to concealing all three weapons when he’s in jet mode please leave a comment and let us all know.

Closing Thoughts

Power Rat is a fun merging of G.I. Joe and Transformers in a toy that’s easy to transform and a lot bigger and more poseable than the toy that inspired it. Highly recommended and I have to admit that when I ordered Power Rat I also ordered the Hothouse Deceiver (see KOToys) as well as two DIY versions of the toy that I have to assemble. The Hothouse Deceiver did not come as it is shown in the photos — no Decepticon symbols — so I can’t recommend trying for that design. But the base toy is great so find a color you like and order before these are all gone.

My Glider and Wild Child both came from Robot Kingdom. The toys were at TFSource but I no longer see them there so it’s possible that these are going to get tough to find very soon.

Philip Reed needs to test paints on the DIY versions of the mold so that he can fully customize the white and black versions that he has waiting for assembly.