Making Turbo Tracks

Only this guy and one more to go.  I have to wait for a new Metalhawk head as the one on mine looked like it had gone 10 rounds with Overlord (the real one).

Back to Tracks though.  Oh, Sorry.  Turbo Tracks.  Once again we have a couple of influences for making this evil version of Tracks.  It is based on Road rage, an e-Hobby release of G1 Tracks that was inspired by the Diaclone colouring of the same toy.  For a pretty interesting read, have a look here.

 

Believe it or not, I actually like this one.  Oh, except for maybe the bio, it’s a bit too similar to normal Tracks’ one for my liking.  The bio is written fairly well which is a nice surprise.

 

 

I like this toy.  The car mode is cool, it has all the looks of Tracks and now he is red and we all know that red cars go faster!

 

 

There are some good homages to the times of Diaclone here, like the triangle on the flames and the D in the wings.  It’s very good.  To break up the monotony of red, Tracks has a black stripe down the side.  Now for some sexy car shots!!

 

Oooo, I love that angle!

The Evil Autobot Insignia is in the triangle in the flames, just like the Diaclone ‘D.’

 

Painted grill and lights are pretty nice but nothing exceptional.

 

 

Underneath is fairly neat and hides most obvious robot parts away.  The exhaust under the doors and bits by the back wheel are quite purple.  Again My camera can’t handle purple too well.

 

 

 

 

As this toy is a rather clever remake of the original, it also has a flight mode in which the doors fold out and down and leave a rather un-aerodynamic vehicle mode.  You will also need to flip over part of the boot and stick the exhaust pipes on the back for jet boosters.

 

 

Still the fact that its’ included is pretty cool.

 

The car is very cool looking, but lacking any major detail aside from the flame decal on the bonnet.  My only real complaint is that it isn’t as sleek as the G1 toy is,It feels a bit fat when I look and assess it.  So let’s move on to the robot mode.

 

 

It isn’t as sleek as G1 Tracks, but the robot mode is pretty faithful.  The articulation is very nice, with a fiar amount of movement on his body.  The knees don’t really bend a lot, but what is there is adequate and his big feet give him plenty of balance.  The arms have double joints at the elbows but are a tad short and if you have him with his arms up, then the looks very top heavy.

 

It also has a bunch of nice decals painted on that reflect the Diaclone origins.  The knees look reminiscent of stickers that would go there and on the wing is a square that is close to the ‘wing D’ for Diaclone.  Even the arms have nice little painted parts that remind me of stickers.  Man it’s great!

 

The roof can be raised up, which I suspect is a nod towards Wheeljack, which this body was also used for by Hasbro.  Sadly he is unable to store anything in there.  Unlike Felix the cat’s bag.

 

 

Oh it’s good to have a big belly laugh hey Tracks?

 

The weapons are nicely done too.  In purple no less, although I suspect that the gun is a lot smaller than G1 Tracks’ rifle.

 

 

The head sculpt is good too.  Very close to the cartoon version of Tracks, perhaps a little squat however.  the eyes have light piping possibility, but it is a solid piece of black plastic, so that pretty much kills that idea really.  Shame as some nice red eyes would have looked cool.

 

 

Now for the bio.  Considering how this is Shattered Glass universe, one would expect either an opposite version or for the normal characteristics to be pushed to the extreme.  Normal tracks is a bit of an exception in his bio as he is already vain.  The SG version doesn’t quite manage to push it much further in my mind. 

 

 

All up Turbo Tracks is a pretty good little fellow, the homage works and the nods towards the Diaclone history (like Ultra Magnus) make for a good little evil Tracks.  I like it.  I just wish that the bio was a bit more extreme.  Perhaps an opposite side of things, Tracks hates his look so much that it makes him a crazy berserker on the battlefield as he attempts to get some scars to damage his body.  Or he is so vain that he will relentlessly hunt down anybody who questions his beauty.  Truly try and make him really psychotic, as we already have many crazies on the Autobot side in SG, any more really need a little something in there to keep them up to standard.

 

So in essence.  Good toy, Weak bio.