Sleek & Slippery–Animated Oilslick

Oilslick from the Animated Cartoon only featured in one episode, but we managed to get a toy of him.  Omega Supreme was a major player in quite a few episodes and he is not available.  Odd.  Oilslick though is a very nice little figure, and the character has a lot of potential.  Again, another bit of evidence that shows Animated finished before it’s time.

 

 

Oilslick was in the same episode of season three that had Rodimus in it, he was with Team Chaar and was attacking a Space bridge as the Decepticons attempted to find Megatron.  He managed to infect Rodimus with Cosmic Rust, a nice little G1 reference and set the tone for the character.

 

Which was set a bit better through the short run comic book.  Oilslick is a chemical engineer, which kind of translates to a Decepticon medic. However he specialises in creating dangerous poisons and diseases.  This theme is carried well in the toy.

 

 

First off is the vehicle mode.  He is a motor bike and when I first saw it, I thought “Ghost Rider!”  Oh yeh, I know you did too!  The ram’s head on the handle bars give it a very tough look, and the fat wheels and spikes add to the road warrior feel of the vehicle.

 

I love that they have put the ram's head there.  It really breaks the monotony of having just a head light.  he actually has headlights moulded onto each of his shoulders.

 

As you can see from the picture above, the wheels are made of two halves, that join together.  As lame as this looks, it fits with the character as he is a master of vehicle combat.  So he is able to use one arm as a wheel and can attack with the other.  There is an ‘official’ attack mode, but as usual, the ‘official’ photos of it make it look silly…

 

So here is one of my own.  Naturally it isn’t silly at all…

 

“Hi Mum!”

The paint work on him is fitting.  The marks on the tank of the bike look a bit like stylised wing decals and that bit forms his chest, so it ends up looking like tattoos.  There is also some decent paint apps on his tank for the fuel and meters.  Anything pointy is made of extremely soft rubber, so things like his handlebars, ram horns and fingers are very squishy.  Oddly his thumbs aren’t.  So no stabbing Autobots for Oilslick.

 

 

 

The back of the bike has a couple of mounts for his barrels, which could hold oil, or some other concoction.  I go for poisons and acids!!  He also has a low slung seat there and the exhaust pipes, which don’t really connect to any engine looking bits.

 

 

I quite like the colours they have used.  The green and olive compliment each other well.  Even the slightly metallic paint they have given him looks green enough to stay in theme, but not so much as to overwhelm.

 

The barrels on the back of the bike do come off and the good news about that is the pieces that attach to the barrels fold down quite sleekly over the side of the bike, so they don’t look out of place without the barrels!

 

 

Personally I prefer the bike with the barrels on.  Just makes it a little bit wider and therefore gives more reason for him to have fat wheels.  I will get to the barrels later on.  For now it is time to look at the robot mode.

 

Now for those with long memories, you might remember the MachineMen (with the Gobots as the good guys and the Renegades as the bad).  The Gobots were lead by Leader-1, who has appeared (in Tranformers) as a Mini-con with Megatron from Armada.  If you cast your mind back, the Renegades were lead by Cy-Kill, a large motor bike.  If you can remember this well enough, what did he look like?  And how did he transform?  Google it, or just have a look at Oilslick, as it is almost exactly the same.  That gives this a nice kind of homage I guess, although the name is completely different, but Cy-Kill would talk and fight as a bike if my memory serves me right.

 

Anyway, OILSLICK, TRANSFORM!

 

 

For all intents and purposes, Oilslick is just lying on the ground with his arms out front and his legs tucked up.  Just like Cy-Kill.  Oilslick’s head folds into his chest though, whereas Cy-kill’s just descended a bit as the top formed the light. 

 

It’s a simple transformation that just works really well for this guy.  There is a little bit of extra transforming in the shoulders, as the ram’s head flips over and you have to swing them upwards a tad, but basically it’s the same.

 

I quite like the robot mode of Oilslick, it is lanky, skinny, he looks a bit creepy and his head in the bubble adds to the ‘messing with poisonous materials’ theme well.  Originally it was intended to have water in his helmet, thereby adding to the chemical theme even more, but it was decided against.  Wisely.  Due to the issues with Chinese water cleanliness (and leaking etc).  I think it is nice enough as it is and am happy to sacrifice the small gain that the water would have added for the safety of knowing that his head won’t leak over my other Transformers.

 

Best of all, even though they planned differently for his noggin’ they have still included light piping.  Sadly it is hard to get a good photo of, due to the helmet.  A lot of light will catch in his eyes, as well as off the top of his helmet.

 

 

The paint details on his fuel tank make nice looking tattoos over his chest and the ram’s head adds a little bit of interest into an otherwise plain looking shoulder.   His shoulders however have a small flaw.  Where the ram head plugs in, there is a small panel that helps clip the front wheels together.  These are joined to the shoulders through ball joints.  Unfortunately, the panels on the shoulders block movement, so he has trouble reaching back, which I find really annoying, as the figure to me just says “pose me creepily’ which usually requires at least one arms angled back a bit.

 

 

Elbows are quite well articulated.

 

 

He has no waist joint, but that isn’t really needed, as his hips have swivel joints and are connect through ball joints as well.  His ankles and feet are also well done, mainly through gains from transformation.  he can move his toes and the ankles can swing all the way about, providing excellent balancing options.  As he has to tuck up his legs for his vehicle mode, he can crouch right down nice and low as well.  My only issue with his legs is that some of the hip joints are a bit loose, making it hard for him to hold a pose and often his leg will pop off.  I might put some nail polish on there to tighten them up a bit one day.

 

Despite these flaws, he can still pull off some nice poses, even a bowing pose that would make TF: Prime Starscream Jealous.

 

 

The ram’s head and tattoo look are pretty cool when just hanging about for his robot mode.

 

 

His hands are pretty cool.  The fingers fold out of the wheel and are big and pointy and his thumb is attached via a ball joint.  This allows his hands to posed quite well.  The fingers are made of soft plastic.  He can hold his bike barrels in his hands rather well, due to the little peg holes in his hands.

 

 

 

Both barrels have a little surprise inside.  Well one does, the other has nothing.

 

 

One has a lid that opens up!  Thumbs up for a brewski!!

 

The other forms a rather interesting chain weapon.  Annoyingly though, the chain on the box picture is an awesomely long silver looking one, whereas the on with the toy is a much shorter plastic one.  Still the barrel comes apart and looks rather jaggedy enough to look like a nasty weapon.

 

 

And now for some action poses.

 

 

One thing that one needs to be careful with though is the usual issue with the Animated toys.  Low Quality…  I haven't transformed this guy much, but I can see already a stress mark in the plastic on the back of his foot.  This bit plugs into torso to hold the bike together.

 

 

So all together, Oilsick here makes a really nice little toy.  The look of him gives him a really tough feel.  The transformation is remarkably simple and still very effective hiding most of the robot mode, despite the fact that the robot mode is always exposed.  It’s a shame Oilslick didn’t get more time in the cartoon, although he seems to be a part of Team Chaar when it rocks up (i.e the Botcon comic), as there is a lot of potential for him. 

 

He stands a bit smaller than the other Decepticons from Animated, as he is a deluxe, whereas the rest are voyager sized, but that is acceptable as he is a motorbike.  Articulation is good and the aesthetics are great and he has an awesome weapon too!  So much potential!  Oh Animated, how sad your early demise was….

 

Erm, ok, so I guess, I mean to say, Oilslick is a good toy.  Better than average for a deluxe and quite a nice toy for a figure that transforms into a bike, which I have noticed seems to be a tricky form to pull off when compared to other vehicle.  Get it if you can!