Review – Impossible Toys’ Tetra Squadron Prankstor

I think if I had to select one “Seeker” as my favorite of the Transformers jets I’d have to go with Skywarp (Amazon.com search*), if only because the purple and black color combination go together so beautifully. And for that reason alone I’m starting my look at the Impossible Toys Tetra Squadron with Prankstor, their not-Skywarp in a Cybertronian mode.

Inspiration?

Modeled after the appearance of the “Seekers” from the very first Transformers cartoon — see the Transformers Wikia and collecticon.org — Impossible Toys’ Tetra Squadron is a design I’ve wanted in toy form for almost thirty years now. I think if you look at the linked pages and the photos of the toy’s jet mode you’ll agree with me that Impossible Toys came very close to perfectly adapting the onscreen appearance to the new toy.

Alt Mode

That tri-winged jet design looks great, even if the transformation between modes is a bit of a headache the first few times you work through the steps. Following Impossible Toys’ usual approach to toy design, Prankstor looks as if he could have been released by Hasbro back during the Transformers Generation One days of the eighties. Lots of smooth plastic, not too many moving parts, and fairly simple paint apps all come together to make this a good addition to any G1 display.

And the design — as you can see in the pic below — works fairly well next to the original 1984 Skywarp toy. The Tetra jet is way bulkier — but that’s no surprise — and the only real issue that keeps this from being a fantastic Cybertronian version of Skywarp is that the purple is the wrong color; immediately obvious when you look at the two toys together. But not all that much of a problem IMO.

Robot Mode

Can you believe that weird jet turns into a robot? A lot of it’s because of the huge wing panels that hide the robot’s body in jet mode, but overall Impossible Toys did a nice job with the transformation design. The only real headache is if the wings detach; they snap back on easily, but it took me a few tries to get everything oriented just right when I popped the wings back on.

The Prankstor sculpt is a bit softer than I would like — especially that face, which is noticeably rounded and doesn’t quite go with the rest of the toy — and the legs feel too short. What the legs needed was the ability to extend for robot mode; even as little as a quarter inch of leg extension would have seriously helped the robot’s look.

Articulation

Prankstor doesn’t have quite the same level of articulation that we see in most modern Transformers toys, but when compared to the original Skywarp this guy is a serious improvement in the articulation department.

• Head – A swivel neck.
  
• Arms – Swivel hinge shoulders, swivels just above the elbows, and hinged elbows. The hands technically swivel down since they hide inside the arm, but that doesn’t really count.
  
• Legs – Hinged knees and swivel/hinge hips.
  
• Torso – No articulation at all.

As you can see, that’s definitely better articulation than the 1984 Skywarp.

Paint

Very, very minimal paint apps, with the bulk of the color coming straight from the plastic. The silver and purple apps are okay, but things aren’t as sharp as we would like. But I can admit that the paint feels appropriate for what’s essentially a Generation One-style toy.

Closing Thoughts

If you had asked me my opinion of the toy in the first hour or two after opening the box I would have said it was okay . . . but needed a lot of work. Ask a day later and I’d say it’s clever . . . but some of the engineering needs refinement. And the more I play with these the more I like them, so I think I’ll reserve my decision until I’ve opened a few more of the Tetra Squadron toys.

I’m not completely happy with Prankstor, but I like him enough that I’m eager to pop some of the other boxes open and dive in with the rest of the series. So please keep your eyes open; more members of the Tetra Squadron will find their way onto the site soon enough.