Unique Toys Dumb & Dumber (ROTF Skids & Mudflap) review

It's almost been a decade since the Studio Series line first came out, and we haven't gotten any version of the Twins, Skids and Mudflap. I don't need to explain why people get triggered over them or how they got cut from Dark of the Moon, so let's instead talk about how safe Hasbro is with their decisions for being pussies in regards to the Twins: they would rather shove in more Geewun stuff, they would rather do G1-adjacent stuff, and they made two scrapped characters from the Bumblebee movie that probably had less proof they existed unlike Megatron. At least with the MPM line, there is a much longer time to release certain characters, though given how the focus is on taking Studio Series elements on a revamped Masterpiece line, who knows if these will feel comparable to the original MP line when it comes to engineering and part count. We have Sideswipe on the way, and we're not sure who's next given the Decepticons are still huge and there is no plan yet to determine if Optimus will get a redo to go with Jetfire or not. Until then, Unique Toys helps us go haha to the haters with the appropriately named Dumb & Dumber, so let's see how they turned out!

Here we have Dumb and Dumber in their vehicle modes, and they are pretty close approximations of the Chevy Beat and Trax Skids and Mudflap turned into for Revenge of the Fallen. Obviously they lack the Chevy logos because these are unlicensed, but these do a better job at matching the on screen props better than Hasbro could with Dino. That said, they aren't 100% accurate in these modes. Skids is pretty close to what we saw apart from.needomg a slightly pearlescent green, but Mudflap should not only be a redder shade than he currently is, but he is missing the carbon fiber add-ons for the front and back! You have something vaguely serving a similar purpose for the ridges over the tires, but that's not even close to the color they should be. I know that Unique Toys prioritized the robot mode, which never had those carbon fiber grays, but imagine if Skids had none of the side decals present in his altmode? That would be just as incomplete, now wouldn't it? As a result, it looks more like the concept models pre-modifications for ROTF. Also, one minor nitpick is you can see the tabs near the rear hitches of the altmodes. That said, if one twin manages to win this category, it's Skids, all thinks to appearing more complete than Mudflap could. That doesn't make Mudflap automatically awful, but I'm sure something could have been done with the specific colors for both modes. Then again, G1 Bombshell had a similar issue where his altmode's battle thorax being purple while the robot mode torso was grey.

They surprisingly have interiors much like their Human Alliance toys once did, and while I don't have the right scale of figures to see how well they fit, these at least have proven to fit the likes of Simmons when he once rode one of the Twins. We even have steering wheels! Speaking of wheels, the rims are made out of die-cast while the tires are rubber. Never saw a toy do the former trick, but it's a cool one nonetheless.

For an alt mode size comparison, here we have Dumb and Dumber next to ol' reliable in the form of MPM-3 Bumblebee. This seems to match up how the prop vehicles scaled next to each other, and while I have a few gripes with Mudflap in terms of accuracy, I won't let that he at least completes this Chevy trio in a weird traffic light kind of way. They were the most prominent group of Autobots we saw in the second half of the movie, from the moment Sam and friends were escorted away from the Decepticons after Optimus died.

Transforming Skids is fairly involved but thankfully not as bad as I anticipated. The main issue I would have mostly stems from the front wheels having nowhere to really lock in place, instead depending on the friction of the joints and enough parts to keep the arms from sagging the wrong way whenever you move them around. The rest of the transformation is at least close to what we got before, such as making the backpacks as compact as possible while having similar leg transformations to what other MPMs did where there are more panels used bulk the legs up. Skids works pretty well for the most part, though he ends up looking a bit fat in some angles. Not that it's entirely against his squat design, but then again, it could stem from how scenes featuring him were shot. That said, this is at least less shellformery than the old toy was, and I like that the doors are folded up kind of like Bumblebee's VW Beetle design, especially since the Human Alliance toy got that wrong.

As for Mudflap, he transforms just about the same, though his proportion issues are less noticeable either because of the door wings or because of his slightly boxier alt mode. That said, the torso doesn't have that much of a derpy face look, compared to the CG model so maybe that could have been faked with the gray coloring? While the thighs are the same from Skids, everything else is distinct for Mudflap, though for some reason he came out first despite his number being UTR07. One positive is that his left forearm has a little winch for when he needs to go grappling around, like when he fought against Devastator. And as you can tell by now neither have their backs match the more broken up details from the CG models.

The head sculpts each have their strengths and weaknesses, Mudflap moreso from how underpainted his face is. It appears Skids has been at least painted with the same pearlescent green I was hoping would be used throughout him, and maybe that would at least help the face from looking undercooked. One funny thing is because the ears are the same in terms of detailing and ball joints, you can make them have the swapped orientations. Muds and Skidflap, anyone?

Articulation consists of ball jointed necks, swivels for the shoulders moving front and back and ratchets for moving in and out, bicep rotation, ratcheted elbows, conjoined finger articulation for the smaller hands and thumbs, but individual finger articulation for the larger hands (bird time!), waist swivels, universal hips, thigh swivels, ratcheted knees, and ankle pivots. Their guns are hand held and are very generic-looking. They don't really fit that well with the movie aesthetic, and at least would look better with paint to make them fit better with their own designs. That said, it is funny how they're likely ambidextrous that way, and said guns may be accurate to the Titan comics.

Here we have them once again with Bumblebee. Robot mode scale is going to be a bit harder to work with this time than in their vehicle modes, mostly due to how the Twins were 8 feet if you consider their mass distribution and how squat they tend to be. You can make them squatter if you were to pose them a certain way, but given toy limitations, even for third party standards, it may not be as ideal as one would expect. That said, maybe if Hasbro finally grew a pair and made Studio Series versions of the Twins, they might scale better with the MPM group?

Overall, Dumb and Dumber aren't perfect when it comes to accuracy or scale, especially Dumber not having any of the carbon fiber grey in his altmode or not having enough paint to accentuate his head sculpt, but to give them credit, it's amazing to see how much of a robot they can make out of these smaller vehicle modes and maintain robot modes that aren't shellformer-like. Plus, in a sea filled with so many G1 Prime recreations for the MP scale, a heavier bias towards AOE and TLK for the Chinese market, and Hasbro preferring to do unnecessary characters for Studio Series that have nothing to do with the live action movies, who else to do the Twins justice than Unique Toys? Saying that makes me wish Black Apple made their ice cream versions that are chibified, but hey, maybe UT can do the DOTM versions with a few mods for each brother while using the same altmode. Until then, maybe wait for a sale on these two, and get them from places like TFSafari or ShowZStore rather than US sellers on eBay that charge double the prices.

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