Over the Black Friday 2022 sales period, there was one figure that I consistently saw on sale - the MP 53 Skids. Generally, at worst most MP figure maintain their MSRP. Very few get fire sale priced at the retail level. The only other one I've seen was Road Rage, which is was fine with me as she's not only a Fembot, but was also a retool of one of my favourite G1 characters, Tracks.
So while it wasn't quite as cheap as Road Rage, $59 USD plus $4 BBTS shipping said to me that I might as well give it a shot. As luck would have it, my friend from the US basically popped over the border the day after it arrived at his place, so I didn't have to wait like 6 months to receive it.
So Skids isn't exactly the most popular G1 character, so its puzzling that he got a figure ahead of several highly desired G1 entries, like Jazz and Mirage, or you know.. the rest of the Dinobots. But, for whatever reason here we are - Skids was released along side a silver repaint/retool Senator Crosscut, and they recently announced yet another retool/recolour, Diaburnout.
The figure retailed for around $100 CAD, which is incredibly cheap by MP standards, so I guess in a way this was a slight warning sign regarding what the expect. Still, it's an MP - how bad could it be? Maybe they'll just skimp on the frills!
In addition to the standard documentation, this is pretty much all you get - the figure, and two weapons. I suppose if there wasn't much to attribute to him on the show, there's not much to give him here. Quite honestly, I'm not familiar enough with the character to say they actually forgot anything, so I'll just take it as being accurate.
Vehicle mode is GLORIOUS. I know it's not the most sexy looking vehicle, even by 1980s standards but you have to understand... this is what ALL cars looked like when I was a kid. My Dads first car in Canada was a Toyota Tercel. It was just as ugly as this thing was, but there's that certain sense of nostalgia for me. I think its fair to say this toy captures all that 80s energy perfectly.
As an added bonus, all doors are fully functional on the toy,, and of course are worked into the transformation sequence itself. Skids isn't the only Autobot to feature this sort of thing, but it's always nice to see, and reminds me of when this was a selling feature on the Binaltech releases, though the MP figures don't have detailed interiors like the former.
Transformation to Robot mode isn't as involved as with other MP figures, but again, given the price point I kind of figured this would be the case - after all, Skids has a nice bulky Vehicle mode that can easily hide robot kibble within. About the only real trick is to not snap the nub on the rear vehicle roof when finalizing the transformation steps, something that is pointed out in the manual.
Robot mode is where things go wonky. Skids doesn't look particularly sleek, but again, that's the character, so you can't fault anyone for that. The head sculpt seems off to me, even by cartoon standards - I feel it is too small for the body.
Unfortunately, the biggest hit this figure takes, at least IMHO, is the fact that despite this is a MP level figure, the articulation is effectively no better than your mainline Deluxe release.. What hurts the most is the way the shoulders are arranged. Not only do you not have crap range of motion, but the shoulders are positioned in a way where they look really in anything other than an arms down pose. To add insult to injury regarding effort put into this figure, all of the weapons just clip onto the forearm, which makes you wonder why did they bother giving the figure the standards articulated MP hands.
This could have been an acceptable figure, and I'm guessing the wonky articulation combined with a general lack of enthusiasm for the character probably resulted in this clearance pricing. It's too bad - the Vehicle mode is fantastic, and the quality of the figure lives up to the expected levels of a Masterpiece figure.
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