Cybertron Backstop

Series: Cybertron
Allegiance: Autobot
Categories: Scout
Year: 2005

Once the most feared and powerful warrior on the Jungle Planet, Backstop was long ago beaten and cast out by Scourge. Forced to live among the weaker beasts, he came to value the equality of all creatures above all else, and now fights against Scourge with the other Jungle Planet rebels. He hates the cruel dictator and dreams often of the day on which he will finally throw down and destroy the evil, three-headed dragon-bot.

Robot Mode: Backstop has a unique-looking robot mode, being basically the rhino set sideways. The idea is very original, but has quite a few problems. Posability is almost nonexistent in the legs, he can't turn his head, and his right arm isn't very mobile, either. The detailing is nice at least, but overall it can't make up for the design problems of this mode. You can activate his Cyberkey gimmick here, causing the rhino horn to extend sideways, but it doesn't really make a lot of sense here. Overall a below-average robot mode.

Alternate Mode: The better of Backstop's two modes is this nicely detailed techno-organic rhino. The posability is almost better here than in robot mode. This is also where the Cyberkey gimmick comes into play, inserting the key causes Backstop's horn to extend forward. All in all the beast mode beats the robot mode hands down.

Remarks: Backstop was the ruler of the Jungle Planet before being beaten and cast out by Scourge / Flame Convoy. He later led the rebellion attempting to overthrow the dragonbot (which didn't happen in the end because Flame turned good). Anyway, the figure is a nice idea with bad implementation. The originality of making a robot out of a sideways rhino is offset by the robot being almost useless. The beast mode is nice, but not enough to elevate the figure past the bad side of average. Recommended only to Cybertron completists.

Rating: C-