Transformers Age of the Primes Quickstrike review

After an entire year without any Beast Wars rep whatsoever in the Age of the Primes Year 1, we get another character who appeared in the series. Quickstrike probably is best known for his Fuzor aspect more than anything else; while Silverbolt was a huge fan favorite thanks to his campy personality and overall chemistry with Blackarachnia (even their increasingly growing romance making her switch back to a Maximal over time), Quickstrike doesn't really stand out that much compared to the remaining characters introduced in Season 1 as well as fellow Season 2 Predacon Rampage. Sure, he had the trigger-happy redneck personality, him controlling Optimal Optimus with an exo suit was cool, and I liked his interactions with Inferno and Waspinator he and the fire ant were killed; however, he was easy to manipulate given his dim ass nature, with the phrase "two heads are better than one" not necessarily meaning he has two brains. However, I will always be happy to get a new figure of him, especially with how fragile the otherwise great original version is. Let's see if it's worth getting this dude as we slowly complete Season 2!

Here we have Quickstrike in his beast mode, which is a stylized scorpion with a cobra instead of a stinger tail. While we already have a scorpion Transformer literally in the form of Season 1's Scorponok, I will always appreciate Hasbro designers for making this design unique beyond the Fuzor aspect. The color scheme is appropriately Egyptian-esque with the goldenrod and teal, in addition to the few bits of black and charcoal here and there. The legs are more orangey than normal, but they at least fit the deco. This toy is super faithful to the cartoon model, arguably moreso than any of the Kingdom figures for the BW cast (though it's due to the CG model being super accurate to the toy). While we don't have clear plastic anymore, this at least fixed the fragility issues we once had in the 90s. We even get as much articulation in the claws and tail, though the water squirting gimmick is replaced with an opening jaw with blast effect compatibility.

For a comparison with fellow Fuzor, here he is with Silverbolt from the Legacy United line. I find it funny how Bolty at least tries to add not just the wings of an eagle but also the feet at the front and the tail at the back. I guess Quickstrike could have had extra cobra heads instead of pincers, but he will make up for his basic Fuzor philosophy...

...because the transformation is not only close to the original, but it's arguably more creative than what the average Scorponok toy could offer. Instead of the robot arms being made from pincers, that job goes to the robot legs. Likewise, the arms for the robot mode are composed of the tail and the beast legs, meaning we don't have the tail over the head or the legs sticking out from the back of the robot legs. Even the transformation of the torso means the back of the beast mode is where the robot head lies instead of the beast mode head being partially used for the robot mode. The resulting robot mode is once again accurate to the cartoon, which, as mentioned earlier, comes from the CG model being one of the few to be directly toy-accurate. I always loved the asymmetrical nature of Quickstrike's arms; sure, he may not be able to hold a thing, but with a personality like his in the show, who cares? I guess I could wish the gold for the legs and parts of the arms were gold, and for the beast legs to be slightly less neon, but the rest of the color scheme still works well. It's not like the inexplicable color change on Kingdom Rhinox looking worse than it should be. One minor thing I wish the toy would have is a secure slot for the beast head to tab into, but it's not like it's a floppy mess back there.

His head sculpt looks pretty accurate to the show model, though I always find it funny how that piece at the bottom expands slightly everytime he talks, almost like how the mouthplates on G1 Optimus and Soundwave bulge to indicate they're talking. The articulation is standard for the ball jointed neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation and hinged elbow on the left arm, waist rotation, universal hips, thigh swivels, hinged knees, and ankle pivots. What is unique, however, is the right arm utilizing SIX ball joints for all the needed flexibility of the cobra tail. The left arm has the scorpion legs as a claw-like contraption, but that beats the tired dual claw method seen on other scorpion Transformers.

Here we have our two Fuzors together in robot mode. I love that we have some Season 2 rep, even if it began with the online-exclusive Transmutate and Ravage before we nearly waited 3 years for Silverbolt and then 2 years for this year's Quickstrike. We just need Rampage and any character who turned into a Transmetal for the show before rounding things out with Depth Charge as well as the final forms of Blackarachnia and Cheetor. While I hate the price hike affecting the line as a whole, at least Quickstrike manages to not only prove "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" with his engineering and design, but the new version technically fixed what usually broke on the old toy when it comes to durability. I also love that they didn't cheapen out on the ball joints as he manages to have as much crazy range as what we had before. I recommend you get him no matter what.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐