Beast Wars Neo Mach Kick

Robot Mode: In robot mode Mack Kick exemplifies several prominent traits of both Beast Wars and Japanese figures. First of all, he’s clearly a shell-former, as numerous pieces hang off his shoulder, back and hip. Second, the slightly asymmetrical design of the robot, who has his beast mode’s head for a right hand, a huge shoulder piece (the horse’s butt, if you must know) on the left side. Finally there is the awesome articulation of the figure (only slightly hampered by the shell pieces), using ball joints to its full advantage, something Beast Wars was pretty much the pioneer of.

Mach Kick features several rather unique traits as well, though. The aforementioned beast head on his right arm can telescope out a great deal thanks to a mechanism triggered when you press down on the mane on his arm. Sadly the head won’t stay extended, it’ll snap back in the moment you let go of the mane. Mach Kick’s other weapon is an axe (or Tomahawk, according to his bio) with a rather short handle, which has long hair attached to it. Yes, you read that right. There is hair coming out of the handle of Mach Kick’s axe. It’s actually the tail of his beast mode and it is actual (well, actual nylon) hair.

What else can I write? Mach Kick is, to me, a pretty cool-looking robot. I like the head design, I like that the horse legs become part of his robot legs, and I like the details that have gone into his design. So the bottom line is, despite the slight awkwardness that comes with being a shell-former, Mach Kick is a very good robot with no real drawbacks. Thumbs up.

Alternate Mode: To make it short, Mack Kick becomes a horse. A purple horse. He’s the only horse in Transformer history (unless you count techno-organic Battle Unicorns as horses, too) and, I believe, the only Transformer with a tail made from real (or reasonably real-looking) hair, too. If you want, you can comb and braid his tail and call him a cute little pony.

He’s also possibly the most frustratingly difficult shell-former ever, because unless you line up every single piece of his animal shell just right, it won’t fit together. Don’t try to transform him without the instructions and a lot of time on your hand. Once you manage, though, you have a pretty good likeness of a (purple) horse in hand. The robot parts are all hidden away pretty well, only looking under the belly reveals a bit. The shell is very nicely sculpted with visible muscles and veins. The horse head looks great, too, including the white spot between the eyes. You can easily see that a lot of love went into this design.

The horse is far from a brick, too. Articulation includes the two front legs, which are triple jointed each, and the rear legs, which can move at the knees and ankles. Mack Kick can even pull off a rear-back pose without falling over. No neck articulation, but the head can nod up and down. Also, the gimmick from the robot mode works here, too. Pressing down on the mane makes the head telescope out. So all in all a very nicely designed and executed horse mode. No complaints.

Just like all the BW Neo toys, Mach Kick supposedly has a third mode, called a “Protect Mode”, and it’s... I really have no idea. A pile of misassembled parts, that’s what. I did not include any pictures of this third mode because quite frankly, it doesn’t exist, no matter what Takara tells you. Mach Kick wasn’t designed for a third mode, there are no gimmicks or weapons usable only in that mode, and it looks like a one-year old got its hands on your figure and messed it up thoroughly. So forget about the third mode. It’s better this way.

Remarks: I haven’t seen much of Beast Wars Neo, so I can say little about Mach Kick’s role in the series. He did appear, but that’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge. He also appeared in IDW’s “Beast Wars: The Ascending” comic book as a member of the Pack, but it wasn’t a very prominent role there.

As a toy Mach Kick probably isn’t for everyone, but he definitely checks at least three of my boxes: he’s a Beast Wars figure, he has a unique alternate mode, and he’s among the more obscure Transformers figures. People who don’t like beast modes or shell-formers will probably want to abstain, but other than that, he’s a very nice figure. And he’s a transforming purple horse with hair. If I need to say more than that, I really can’t help you.

Rating: B