Buried Treasure Review - Cybertron Dirt Boss

After a temporary hiatus, the Buried Treasure feature on Seibertron.com has now returned!

The year 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the Transformers franchise. To celebrate this incredible milestone, Seibertron.com will look back at a quarter-century of great Transformers toys, bringing back into the limelight some brilliant figures that have fallen through the cracks over the years. Once a week, a fan (be it a member of the staff or a user on the site) will have the opportunity to write about one of their favourite "hidden gems" of the Transformers Universe, and have their review posted on the site's front page.

We hope this feature will be a great success, and that many of you will be encouraged to look back at the last 25 years of Transformers and perhaps take a worthwhile second-look at some real unsung classics of the Transformers universe.

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Buried Treasure - Dirt Boss (Cybertron series - 2005)

By Skowl

For me, one of the best post-Beast Wars Transformers toylines was the Cybertron series, and one of the best figures of the line (or any line for that matter) was the deluxe-class Decepticon Dirt Boss, a futuristic monster-truck from the Planet Speedia (or was it Velocitron?).

Originally released under the ackward name "Inch Up" (stop giggling!) in the Japanese Galaxy Force series, Dirt Boss was released as part of the first wave of Cybertron figures to hit stores - but as the line gained in popularity, the mold fell behind. Dirt Boss was never re-released in any subsequent wave of figures and as of today has never been repainted or remolded, though anyone who owns this toy will surely agree that the mold has great potential.



As I mentioned in the inaugural review of Cybertron Cannonball, one of the greatest things about the Cybertron line was its brilliant package design. As you can see, the card backing takes the shape of the Decepticon insignia and Dirt Boss's mainly purple colour scheme meshes very well with the packaging, creating a great look overall. The boxart features an angry-looking Dirt Boss, and it's a great interpretation of the character - better than in the cartoon anyway.



The back of the card gives us a glimpse at Dirt Boss's gimmicks (I'll get to those in a minute), as well as his bio and tech specs. Everything is very crisp, clear & uncluttered. A very nice piece for MOC collectors.

But leaving Dirt Boss in his plastic prison isn't doing this great figure justice, let's take him out and see what he can do!



Dirt Boss's vehicle mode is a wicked-looking futuristic monster truck. As far as TF vehicles go, this one is really unique and is unlike any monster truck you'll see on this planet (and I'm assuming your reading this from planet Earth). His colours here are mainly purple with green as a strong secondary colour and nice silver detailing on the hood, on the roof (with molded spotlights) and on the side of the truck. There are also some green exhaust pipes in the back and some green tubes on the hood, next to the truck's exposed engine-thing, while four green headlights decorate the grey bumper in the front. The colours are very reminiscent of classic G1 Decepticons, making this cool TF even better for having a sense of history.



The wheels and suspension take up about half of the entire truck mode. Everything here is mostly green and while the wheels may look black, they are actually a slightly transluscent dark red. What is most bizarre is how the wheels are attached to the truck - instead of having each wheel attached to the vehicle's main body, the wheels are attached to each other on each side with a connection to the truck's main body in the middle of the wheel segment. Those big wheels of his roll very nicely on carpeted surfaces, giving him great play value for the kiddies. It really looks like he's driving on two giant lollipops, but I think it looks hardcore awesome.

Just sayin'.



So there, soak it in - this really is an awesome looking truck. It looks aggressive, dangerous and it just screams "King of the Road" - oh, and while you're at it, pop in that Cyber Key, and see how Dirt Boss is "King of the Offroad" as well...



One great thing about Dirt Boss is how his Cyber Key gimmick works in vehicle mode. The line was full of hit-or-miss key gimmicks, but Dirt Boss's really shines and is possibly the most unique (and the most fun) of the entire series! Pop in the key and the suspension of the truck buckles and lowers, giving Dirt Boss a sleeker "race car" look. The play value in the vehicle mode is amazing, all it takes is a Cyber Key up the rear-end and you've got a whole different vehicle!



Transforming Dirt Boss to robot mode is easy, and great fun as well. The truck's hood unfolds into two halves, revealing both his legs. Fold out the headlights and bumper to make the feet and pull down the sides for his arms. The back end of the truck folds down and a compartment opens to reveal his head - but this can't be done if the wheels are up in "monster truck" mode as there isn't enough room to fold the piece down. Not to worry, as the designers found an ingenious way to solve this problem - simply rotate the hips around (which needs to be done anyway) and the wheels will automatically spread out as if the Cyber Key was inserted! No key needed! An Automorph gimmick years ahead of the '07 Movie line! Very clever engineering - another thing to love about this toy!



There's too much to say about how great a toy Dirt Boss is in robot mode. His truck mode is brilliant, but his bot mode is one of the coolest-looking Decepticons I've ever seen. The green and purple colour scheme continues in bot mode, with some added purple on the legs and black on the arms. My only complaint is that there is no paint detailing on the inside of his legs, and the purple panel for his head rests on green plastic, not purple, which looks rather strange. It is worth noting that this is not the case with his Galaxy Force counterpart Inch-Up (I said stop giggling!), who has solid purple throughout the robot's body and detaling on both sides of his legs, making for a much more unified look in bot mode. Dirt Boss is also very tall for a Deluxe-class figure, so that's great as well.



In this mode, the truck's giant wheels stick out on both sides - not only do they look cool, but they also have a practical use as they help balance out the toy, allowing for many great poses. And as far as poseability goes, Dirt Boss has it made. His head can swivel almost 360 degrees and his arms can move up or down, swivel at the elbows and even rotate complete around where the arms meets the shoulders.



His lower body is even more flexible (stop giggling! I didn't even say "Inch-Up" that time!) as his waist can rotate 360 degrees, his legs can rotate completely at the hip-joint and his knees can bend up or down and rotate 360 degrees as well. His long feet and "bell-bottom" legs give him just the support he needs. Getting this guy in awesome action-poses is a breeze, and there is no struggling and random toppling-over like with many other modern TF figures.



One of my favourite things about Dirt Boss is his head sculpt. The designers created a head as unique as the rest of the toy, abandoning the old symmetrical faces and giving Dirt Boss a targeting rectacle eye-patch (with three different lenses! Check out the attention to detail!) as well as an asymmetrical head crest. The silver on his face really brings out the "don't mess with me" expression, and I love the little green goatee thing.



Something else that sets Dirt Boss apart from the rest is how his Cyber Key gimmick works in robot mode. Instead of unlocking the same mechanism in both modes, Dirt Boss's gimmick is entirely different in his robot form. Instead of lowering the truck's wheels, the Cyber Key flips out two shoulder-mounted cannons - which is great since Dirt Boss, sadly, does not come packaged with any weapons.

All in all, Dirt Boss is one hell of a great toy - and one of my all time personal favourites. He is a one-of-a-kind figure with great play value all around, great looking vehicle mode with a unique gimmick, an awesome robot with amazing poseability and great engineering. All that at the Deluxe-class price-point - you really get your money's worth, and then some! I would personally recommend Galaxy Force "Inch-Up" (ha! I get it now!) if only for the better paint application, but if you can get your hands on any version of Dirt Boss, do it! This is one amazing figure that every fan should own, and love as much as I do! Thanks for reading!


Links:

Visit the Cybertron Dirt Boss gallery by clicking here
...Or find your own buried treasures by visiting all the toy galleries here!

* If you would like to write a review for our "Buried Treasures" feature, please send a private message to Skowl on the Seibertron.com forums!

Previous Buried Treasure Reviews:



Cannonball by Skowl



Snapdragon by Jeep



Cybertron Downshift by Chuckdawg1999



Frostbite by Duke of Luns



Octopunch by Jeep



Emergency Mini-Con Team by Nekoman