Offroad was one of three Combiner Wars members who replaced a pre-existing teammate for the sake of adding a brand new mold that would later receive use down the line. The Aerialbots had Alpha Bravo replaced Slingshot/Quickslinger, the Protectobots had Rook replace Groove, and the Stunticons had Offroad replace Wildrider/Brake-Neck. While a helicopter hanging out with different jets is weird and an APC is too beefy next to some emergency response vehicles, a pickup truck that's fairly small doesn't seem too out of place next to the other vehicles, and it gives him a sort of intermediate feel between the other cars and Motormaster. That being said, how does he hold up as a Transformer?
Here is Offroad in his truck mode. It's got a 4x4 pickup motif to it, though it is of a generic design compared to the other cars we covered previously. At least there are some nice details thrown into the mix to make it interesting, such as the front's hood design going with the grill, the red windows, the minor paint apps for the door, the gunmetal gray used for the hood (and its Decepticon insignia), and the silver rims going on the tires. It's a little on the Legends Ironhide side of proportions, but it's more manageable here of not looking too "deformed" as one would expect.
The design isn't too shabby, and while there are some unsightly things like the feet and the screw, it's manageable nonetheless and does give it a bit of a Hummer H3T feel to it.
As far as weapon storage is concerned, the HFG can be placed on the truck bed while the ax can be stored on the sides that look like petrol caps.
For a size comparison with Earthrise Ironhide, he's actually smaller than the Autobot is, and it's making me wonder how big G1 Ironhide's vehicle mode is supposed to be next to small pickup trucks.
Transformation is very simple as far as the process is concerned, as you lift the arms up, hinge the front to the back, and untab the shins to extend them into legs. You may also flip the head around. The resulting robot mode is not too bad though does feel in-between the nice robot modes of Dragstrip and Dead End with the weaksauce nature of Breakdown. The legs look perfectly fine, as does the torso (and I appreciate that he looks like he has chest windows, but the arms are pretty much the sides of the truck and are barely altered (I'm not a fan of the shoulder flaps either). And of course, the back sticks out too much and doesn't look too hot.
Head sculpt is the nicest part of it, and apart from it looking like a Decepticon face with a mouth, I like the blue forehead details and the green face. His articulation is the same as with the other Stunticons, though he lacks any foot movement and has limited shoulder range due to his shoulder flaps.
The weapons he has plug in as expected, and the axe might be a bit of a hatchet instead.
Let's go over the reuses of the mold. As far as straight repaints are concerned, this is Grabuge! This was the intended mold meant to go with the character until Hasbro found out that Ruckus couldn't be obtained so they went with Offroad as the Brake-Neck replacement. The colors scream late 80s and some of the paint apps mimic stickers. That being said, minus 10 points for the weird layout and the unpainted hatchet.
And from Takara, we have Breakdown! He is included with a set of Takara Unite Warrior repaints with the likes of Tactician Cyclonus, Ghost Starscream, Curse Armada Thrust, and Wandering Roller to create Grand Galvatron!) The repaint works better than expected, and the head sculpt being the same doesn't bother me as it does have some influence of the Prime character. While the proper Breakdown toy found in the Prime line is superior, this one is neat for the Takara G1 and Prime continuities.
Now let's go over another take on the tooling with Ironhide! He has a new head and is given the traditional colors one would expect him to have. While better than the Universe version of Ironhide, he does have that feeling of a younger version of the guy before he became a beefcake.
And here is the Takara Unite Warriors version of Ironhide! He's got some differences compared to the Hasbro version yet is mostly the same otherwise aside from being included with Optimus Maximus.
And we go from Ironhide to Trailbreaker! This guy has a retooled right arm to give him the arm cannon as well as an alternate hand that looks like a claw to give Trailbreaker a unique look to him. Beyond that, he's mostly got the same tooling as with Ironhide and Offroad.
This is the Takara Trailbreaker! He's...got that similar but different feel to his color layout. It's trying to be more cartoon accurate but is otherwise not that mindblowing. He's included with the Lynxmaster set that consists of Sky-Lynx, Wheeljack, and another character who we'll discuss in the latter part of the mold history.
And here we have Hasbro's First Aid! This guy has been given major retooling to make him look like a futuristic/Cybertronian ambulance yet has the same rims that Offroad has. Most notably, the legs and the roof and windows are significantly different. He still has the axe, though.
This is the Takara version of the character. Once gain, it's trying to be cartoon accurate.
And here we have the Takara version of the tooling, for those who are willing to pay for the Lynxmaster set that also had Trailbreaker!
And for a comparison with Ironhide one more time, he's actually shorter than him for the sake of keeping him around the same height that the other Stunticons have. It's also where you can see how lanky he feels compared to the beefy Ironhide. So overall, Offroad is a decent toy despite having some major issues to him. I wouldn't say he sucks, but he definitely is in second place behind the tie set between Dragstrip/Dead End and Breakdown.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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