Bot Reviews: Transformers: Kingdom Deluxe Tracks

Tracks, in the hierarchy of Generation One, is roughly what I’d classify as a B-lister. Introduced in the second year of the original toyline, he was added into the cast of the animated series in the second season, and was a bit notable for having two entire spotlight episodes focusing on him (“Make Tracks” and “Auto-Bop”), which saw him teaming up with a streetwise hoodlum called Raul, to fight Decepticons in the big city.

As a character, Tracks was defined by a sense of vanity, a kind of upper-class, vain snobbishness. He took pride in his appearance, and liked being the center of attention. This meant that in the 90s’, and early 2000s, it was a common, tired joke in the fandom to speculate on the character’s sexual orientation (for the record, his voice actor, Michael McConnohie, says he was aiming for a Harvard-style high-class snob with his performance). Tracks is the kind of B-lister I’ve always been kind of fond of, the kind of good guy who gets to still be a hero and do the right thing, regardless of any personal flaws (that sense of snobbish narcissism) they might have.

When it comes to past figures, Tracks has had a fair run of it. Outside of his original G1 release, he first got an Alternators figure which, I’m told, is one of the better ones in an uneven line, not that I’ve owned it. Then, he got a mainline update in the form of 2010’s Reveal the Shield Turbo Tracks.

That was an okay figure, but it didn’t really feel like Tracks, especially since it shared a tooling with Wheeljack, and so had a wide, stumpy build that suited the scientist better, instead of Tracks’s more svelte physique. After that, he got a Masterpiece figure, which I, again, owned for a time. While it certainly captured his proper appearance, it was a bit too fiddly and difficult for me to have fun with, coming out right on the cusp of Masterpiece figures becoming complicated. And so, we’ve arrived at his latest update, in the Kingdom line, and it’s one I’d not heard very good things about, mainly focusing around a complicated transformation, and some less-than-stable engineering. But, I was determined to see if Tracks had finally got a new form worthy of his sense of self-esteem, so I checked it out anyway.

Robot Mode

Like most of the War for Cybertron Trilogy, this take on Tracks is based pretty directly on his cartoon animation model  and does a good job of it sculpt-wise. He’s got his lankier proportions, wings and wheels on his shoulders, the “hoodie” on his back with the missiles uptop, and his car-hood-chest. They’ve nailed the vibes pretty well. I particularly like his statuesque face, with those cool little cuts under his eyes. They got the crest right, and opted to add some extra greebling for details.

Speaking of that extra greebling, it’s all over him, around his chest, arms, and legs, but it’s not too much, and adds visual interest. A lot of it is replicating G1 toy-specific details, like the ones on his collar, so to its credit, the detailing is being pulled from someplace, and it all comes together into a fairly good-looking bot in most places.

The feet have something strange going on, though. They don’t actually attach to his ankles, and in fact, he has no ankles, just a bit of empty space, since his feet attach to small little struts beside them. At least he’s immune to a slash to his ankle. I’ll skip ahead to his build quality, though, and say that while they look fiddly, his stability isn’t impacted by this, it’s just a bit of visual weirdness.

The other visual issue is his hollow torso. There’s nothing between his chest and his backpack but air and some ligature, and he doesn’t do a great job of hiding that from any angle other than the direct front. You’d think his big backpack would conceal it better (that big backpack itself is fine, that’s just what his character model looks like).

Here’s the thing about his colors: He’s missing a lot of the deco he had on the cartoon. His wings are solid white, without red or yellow, the white on his waist is missing the red and yellow on top of it, his missile pod is solid white, and his feet are unpainted black, among other things. In theory, this is disappointing. But in person, it works, because despite that, he doesn’t look plain, or under-deco’d, or anything. It helps that he’s got a fair bit of color on him, in general.

He’s mainly dark blue, light grey, and white, and comes with yellow and red accents on his arms, and chest, beneath his Autobrand. His head’s got a nice red face, with blue eyes, too. Like, I wouldn’t call him underpainted. The deco he has is good and varied enough, it’s only an issue if you’re comparing it with a cartoon screengrab.

As I mentioned before, those oddly-built feet are actually really stable. He’s got no problems standing up on them. In fact, the feet are on (tight) ball joints, so he’s got fully-articulated ankles. The rest of him is equally impressively poseable, including highlights like a lifting hip-skirt to not impede his hips, tilting wrists, and a ball jointed head. Most impressively, his backpack doesn’t get in the way of his arms, which might make its gappy nature worth it.

The bit trouble spot, or so I’ve heard, are the panels on the sides of his lower legs, which spin for transformation. And sure enough, they don’t like to stay attached to the thin tabs on the sides of his legs they’re supposed to fix themselves to in this form. However, this isn’t really a problem for me, at least on my copy. Sure, they only stay attached about two-thirds of the time, but when they come out (which only happens when posing him), the joint they’re on is tight enough that they’re not flopping around or anything, they still basically stay where they are. Maybe I got lucky, and this is a later run, like what happened when I picked up the first Studio Series Shatter. Or maybe it doesn’t bother me as much.

For accessories, Tracks has got a smaller black pistol based on his cartoon model. It’s a bit of a pea-shooter, but suits him. On top of that, the twin missile rack on his roof can pop off, as it’s held on by a War for Cybertron weapons port.

You can mount both his weapons in a lot of places on him, and even combine them into a larger weapon.

He’s got a big spread of War for Cybertron ports on him, including the top of his backpack, back of his backpack, top of his shoulders, forearms, those pesky leg panels, and the bottoms of his feet.

The onus is on you to find him some fashionable weapons!

Transformation

This is, according to the discourse, another trouble spot. To be fair, it’s more complicated and less smooth than most of the Deluxe War for Cybertron Trilogy cars I’ve handled (Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, and Exhaust), but it’s not that tricky. The big thing is that compressing those legs of his into the front of the car is oddly specific.

As in, you need to do all of the steps in a specific order, or else things won’t clear around other things. Really, though, I had more trouble popping his windshield piece into the completed front of the car, and had to undo some bits to make it fit, as well as massage the front of him to get those side panels into place.

I’ll say this on the positive side of things: His backpack is made of painted over clear plastic, which the Transformers Wiki notes with a warning of caution when it comes to unfolding it over his fake robot hood-chest, but in hand I think the Wiki has it wrong, it doesn’t feel fragile at all, this isn’t a Studio Series 86 Jazz scenario.

Vehicle Mode

This is actually a different Studio Series 86 Jazz scenario. See, G1 Tracks changed into a (checks the Wiki) Chevrolet Corvette, and like all modern Generations Transformers, the new one has to change into a car that pointedly isn’t that. However, looking at them side by side, this is really really close (like Jazz being somehow really close to a Porsche). There’s a few different details, but this is pretty close to his Corvette alternate mode, and has the same sleek, curvy silhouette. Not that that’s a bad thing, it makes for a great car mode.

Tracks is now almost entirely deep blue, with clear blue windows. For additional paint, he’s got silver rims, and a bit of black on his bumper. I wish the back of the car had some paint apps, and there was more of an attempt to hide the white bits used in his third mode, but it works pretty well.

There’s a red flame pattern on the hood with an Autobrand that’s another point of contention. Basically, it’s much simpler than the original toy’s hood pattern, which included orange, among other things, and was even copied by the Masterpiece. But the reason for the simpler deco on this guy’s hood is that it’s aiming for G1 cartoon accuracy instead, where the pattern was simplified for animation. As a cartoon fan myself, I get it, and I dig what they’re doing. I just wish mine didn’t have a big plastic chip taken out of it straight out of the box. I used a red Gundam marker to cover up the missing paint, but it was a deep chip, so the texture’s still off. I guess this is an equivalent exchange for mine having legs that were fine, but I know the real Tracks would be really unhappy about it.

For features, Tracks rolls around really well, with no bottom-dragging. He’s still got mounting points on the car’s back, and the sides near the doors, and the instructions specifically suggest combining his missile rack and gun into one, and mounting them on the car’s back.

Transformation to Flying Car Mode

Yup, he has another mode! This transformation is nice and simple, all you’re really doing is flipping the arms back out, and raising the fins at the back.

Flying Car Mode

Tracks has always been a kinda-sorta-triple-changer, both in original toy form, and in the original cartoon. It helps that even the G1 figure had wings for this specific purpose. This version adds little fins in the back of the car to match his show model. The whole thing’s kind of goofy, and not terribly clean, with those arms just hanging out at his sides, but neither was the original alternate mode, and I appreciate them leaning into that goofiness.

I do wish his arms and wings actually locked down in some way, they’re just out there freely mobile, but at least the joints are tight enough that nothing’s flopping about.  One stability issue he does have, though, is that the sides of his car front are now in danger of slightly unpegging, since his folded-away arms don’t provide the stabilizing force they did in his car mode. That, plus he’s not got any kind of flight-stand peg.

For other features, this form still has the same weapons mounting points as his previous form, and placing his missile rack on the back of his car mode is now a specific imitation of how his G1 figure did his flight mode.

Overall

Maybe it’s me being reflexive against the dislike I’ve heard around him, but I like this figure a lot more than I was expecting.

The problems people seem to have are either not present with what I’ve got, minimal, or overstated. Yeah, his legs aren’t the most stable, and their transformation is a bit fiddler than your typical War for Cybertron carbot, but I had the Masterpiece, this is not really fiddly. Really, the most pressing issue to me is just the front of his car coming unpegged in flight mode.  Beyond that, Tracks a good-looking, poseable robot, with a surprisingly fun set of swappable weapons, and a good-looking car mode that keeps his goofiest gimmick intact. I like this better than any other Tracks I’ve had, he’s the right combination of accurate and fun, and if you’re a fan of the character, you ought to dig it too, presuming you’re lucky in picking up a later-run copy like I am.