Name: Hoist
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Maintenance
Alternate Mode: Tow Truck

TOW MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 11cm Width: 4.5cm

A black tow truck with grey plastic windows, as well as what looks like a grey strobe rack on the roof, with black plastic wheels and a burgundy gook at the back, Hoist is about as dark as they come. On the sides are yellow stickers with red borders and the words "Wilk and SON TOWING", mostly in black lettering. He has yellow and red striped stickers along the engine block, which are slender enough that they might as well not be there. There's not really a lot to this colour scheme - he's black with some dark bits and stickers. It's dull, but I suppose that's better than neon.

The back section is essentially two side panels doing a bad job of hiding the robot arms, which are meant to be machinery or something, but are fairly obvious from the top view. On a black toy they're dark enough to not jump out at you, but they're still there, not trying to hide. The hook sticks backwards from between the hands, and doesn't move. The front grille has some silver paint, but it's very subtle and the headlights are unpainted.

The transformation might be simple, but it takes it's toll on this vehicle mode. Sticking out on either side are the gears that the arms pivot on, they're big dome shaped things that are largely cosmetic rather than functional - he'd be better if they'd skipped this feature. The other thing that bothers me is the gap underneath the truck, which is to allow for the front to fold down and become the chest. Which would be fine if it didn't leave this clear gap. In Hoist's partial defence, it's not quite as obvious on black as it is on Hubcap, who is bright yellow.

Play value is limited to rolling Hoist along on his plastic wheels. Hours of unbridled joy... As you can tell, I'm disappointed by this tow truck. The colour scheme sucks, the arms and gears are nothing but robot kibble and the play value doesn't make up for his flaws. If they'd put more effort into the colour scheme I'd be a lot keener on this truck mode.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

Lift up the hook and theoretically he'll transform himself. In reality the arms wont flip right out, because the gears that stick out the sides and end up on his shoulders provide resistance, so you'll have to finish flipping out the arms. You're meant to detach the grille and fold it over to form a handgun, but the grille panel just sits on top of the gun. Detach the gun, pop the grille back and put the gun itself in his hand.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 9.5cm Width: 7cm

Even blacker than the truck mode, if that's possible. His eyes and the windows on his chest are grey, as well as the back of his head - thanks to an abandoned lightpipe. The elbow joints and forehead are dark burgundy and the yellow and red stripes are now on his chest, but again are easy to miss. Despite the monochrome colour scheme, this mode does look better. It looks nothing like G1 Hoist's robot mode, mind you.

The torso is boxy, thanks to the side panels of the truck sitting on the outside of the torso, The front of the truck forms the torso itself, and points down, about 30° off vertical. This sloping truck effect works fairly well, since it gives Hoist a truck facade without a protruding chest. He does have a slight pot belly, mind you. As I said before, leave the grill attached. It not only adds kibble to the gun, the lower torso looks incomplete if it's not there. The face consists of the grey eyeslit and a black mouthplate - which is very boring.

Remember how I said this is the better looking mode? Well, that's partly because of the chest, but also because you can do stuff. He's poseable. The shoulders rotate, and have hinges allowing his arms to swing out to the sides. The elbows and hips are ball joints, and the knees are hinged. The hips are restricted by the side panels, but he still has some poseability. The articulation isn't as good as the other Machine Wars basic moulds, but it's still the best part of this mould.

The gun location is quite cool, but the gun is pretty much a rectangle with a barrel on it. It's boxy and short, although better short than short with the front of a truck stuck to the back.

As you can probably tell, I'm not a huge fan of this robot mode. The poseability does give Hoist some play value, but the colours are still poor and nothing really jumps out to save this toy from being mediocre.

VARIATIONS

Released concurrently with the yellow Hubcap. Tow-Line of RiD is a repaint of this mould.

OVERALL

A forgettable toy, Hoist has one of the least interesting colour schemes ever, neither mode is really terribly interesting, and the poseability isn't much for the time. I'd only really recommend him if you want one of this mould - and even then if you can get Tow-Line instead, I'd get the RiD toy, which actually has paint on it - 3/10