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Series: Energon
Year: 2004
Allegiance: Autobot
Class: Combat
Prelude: Really, all you need to know about Kicker is in the name. He kicks things, like, a lot. Pretty much all he does. Well, occasionally he also punches things, like walls, or beings made of metal. Because that is deep, apparently. See, teenagers? Hasbro totally understands you! So here is the boy you wished you were, dressed up in his finest Mecha armor, and riding a transforming bike from outer space. Admit it, you love it! Let’s kick it!
Many thanks to my buddy Fuchs Geronimo, who loaned me Kicker and High Wire for this review.
Kicker: The actual Kicker figure included in this two-pack is a rather generic action figure, more or less identical in size and articulation to G.I.Joe action figures. The body design actually hails from the then-current G.I.Joe series “Valor & Venom”. It shows Kicker wearing the battle suit he wore for most of the series. Sadly there is no way to take off the helmet, nor is there a replacement head, so we sadly cannot enjoy his amazing Anime mullet.
Kicker is as well-articulated as you’d expect from a G.I.Joe figure, so pretty good, and he has an Energon-style spark crystal on his back, where you can attach an Energon star (see 5th picture). So bottom line: he’s an action figure. A good one, yes, but nothing more than that.
High Wire: To complete the two-pack, Kicker comes with High Wire, a Deluxe-sized Mini-Con. And I mean that literally, as High Wire here is really just a scaled up version of Mini-Con High Wire from the same toy line. Sure, he is slightly better articulated and carries a few more details, but still: he’s an oversized Mini-Con. He has a spark crystal on his chest, so he can wear an Energon Star, and his one fold-out fist is too small to actually hold any of the Energon weapons that were the hallmark of the toy line. He can, weirdly enough, hold the Cyberverse line weapons that would not come out until several years later.
High Wire transforms into a bike of compatible scale with the Kicker figure (maybe a tad too large). Kicker can easily ride on High Wire and hold on to the handles. The transformation is a bit smoother than on the Mini-Con, simply because the parts are bigger, but and the resulting bike does look pretty realistic, so I’d call this High Wire’s better mode. So bottom line here: an oversized Mini-Con that you will probably leave in vehicle mode most of the time anyway.
Remarks: Kicker Jones (and yes, that is a ridiculous name) was the son of Dr. Brian Jones, the foremost human expert on Energon, who thought it a great idea to take his young boy along to meet those towering alien war machines on Cybertron. Kicker ended up severely traumatized, especially after he fell down a long shaft straight into Cybertron’s core and met the Transformers god Primus down there. Primus, apparently just for shits and giggles, gifted Kicker with Energon-related abilities, which caused Kicker to be a person of interest in the Energon War.
From a real world perspective, Kicker was the obligatory human kid in the Energon cartoon series and was easily the most annoying human sidekick until Miko came along in Transformers Prime. The idea of a human kid who, for once, was not immediately enamored with the Autobots and not actually that keen on being dragged into an interstellar war with beings five times his size, was pretty interesting. Sadly the execution was a pretty generic angry teenager stereotype who, true to his name, kicked things a lot, mostly his Autobot friend Ironhide.
There were several Kicker figures as part of the Superlink line of toys (Takara’s equivalent to the Energon line), but all these were based on Microman figures. Hasbro did their own version of Kicker on the scale of their own G.I.Joe figures, which was probably not a bad idea, seeing as the Microman Kickers are notorious for being fragile as glass. So bottom line for this two-pack here: it’s okay. Not great, but a good representation of the character we saw in the cartoon. So if you liked Energon and Kicker, this here is your best bet to own him in toy form without, you know, having him break apart on you.
Rating: C+
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