I was mostly interested in these figures for their alt mode. Turns out robot mode is pretty neat too. MAAS Toys Skiff and Gold are decent figures if you're looking to pad out your War Within shelf.
One interesting thing to note - if you examine the boxes, you will see that the art work is by Bobby Skullface and the product photos are by Kuma Style. Both are great reviewers so be sure to check them out.
Vehicle modes work rather well as sci-fi hovercrafts. Other than the front ends being obviously robot crotch and thighs, the design is definitely evocative of the War Within design. The windshield on Skiff was a missed opportunity for some higher end paint applications, which is what the figure sorely needs. Some energon lines or just random detailing would have gone a long way to break up all that yellow. In contrast, Gold has beautiful metallic gold paint. I wished Skiff had been done in metallic yellow. The undercarriages are unmistakably robots contorted to fit. They both roll just fine on tiny wheels. Their rifles store underneath.
Transformation to either mode is rather simple. The lack of included instructions was not missed. Going to robot mode, just make sure to collapse the backpack joint into an L shape so that the backpack sits snugly against the back. Their thighs are facing the right way if the molded detail is visible on the outside rather than the large slit for articulation. I wish the arm kibble folded away or tabbed into something. They are a bit of a hindrance.
The proper transformation to robot mode calls for the arms to sit quite a distance from the body. I prefer reversing the upper shoulder joint so that arm positioning looks more natural. This is the position for vehicle mode. It doesn't seem to affect articulation. The only downside is the visible ball joints when viewed from the sides.
I like the overall silhouettes of these figures. Skiff has a more serious face sculpt than I would expect from the character, but I'm not that familiar with what I assume is War Within Bumblebee. Skiff doesn't seem to have any paint applications except for the slightly different yellow on his upper thighs. Gold doesn't reveal any new paint applications either. The shoulder pads could have been toned down a little in size. The arm kibble is definitely a hindrance.
Not surprisingly, both feature the same articulation. Heads are on a hinges and swivels. Both can look up vertically, but not down without engaging their substantial ab crunches. Shoulders are badly designed. The shoulder pads are on large ball joints. Arms are attached to the shoulder pads via hinged ball joints. The whole contraption is rather unwieldy and cumbersome to manipulate. I would rather the shoulder pads be locked into place instead. They can raise their arms out and up to a little past 90 degrees. They swivel at the biceps, wrists, waists, and thighs. Elbows are single-jointed and only curl to 90 degrees. Wrists are on hinged ball joints, but the hands do not have articulated fingers. Thighs are on universals that allow them to perform full front and side splits. They have single-jointed knees that bend to 90 degrees in both directions. Feet are on rockers and tilts.
Their accessories include two rifles each. Skiff also comes with an an alternate face. The rifles are black or blue plastic with line work. They are very similar to the rifle that comes with Masterpiece Bumblebee and sit reasonably well in their hands. The alternate face for Skiff has a mouth plate instead of a mouth. They don't come with instructions. You have to scan a QR code to watch it on YouTube.
I'll be displaying Skiff and Gold alongside Spark Toys Alpha Pack. Gold fits in just fine, but Skiff definitely could have used higher quality paint. Aside from the shoulder joints and arm kibble, I do enjoy these figures. MAAS Toys seems to have a bunch of minibots lined up so it looks like Alpha Pack will soon be acquiring an army of tiny soldiers.
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