Bioroid Terminator
Review by Showapop
One of the few highpoints in Matchbox’s Robotech Defense Force line of action figures and accessories is that some of the products were the only toys ever released from Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, which made up the Robotech Masters portion of Robotech.
The Southern Cross series was abruptly cut short in Japan due to low ratings resulting in only a few model kits being released and no toys ever being manufactured. I much admired the feel, ensemble cast and art design of Southern Cross and when Matchbox released Southern Cross items I quickly picked them up.
Bioroid Terminator was just another great example of the creative armored combat suits that Southern Cross is known for although this armor represents the standard invading Zor forces soldier and police force.
Bioroid Terminator was released with: 1x Bioroid Terminator Figure, 1x rifle. There are no options.
One aspect I do not like about the Matchbox Robotech line, in general, was the bad sculpting of the figures themselves, specifically the lack of anime looking head sculpts and out of proportion bodies that were made up in neck of the figure of all places. Strangely, Bioroid Terminator avoids those two features mostly due to it being a helmeted figure and the body being armored.
The figure features standard GI Joe 3 ¾ articulation with the exception of the bug influenced armored “skirt” that doe not permit the figure to sit down. The sculpt of the armor pieces are excellent and the color choice and paint masks of the figure were nicely chosen and really captures the oddness of the dark Zor art design that was used throughout Southern Cross.
One feature I can give many accolades to Matchbox for is the accurate weapons that were included with many of the figures including the weapon that was released with Bioroid Terminator. The figure looks excellent holding the rifle and is sized perfectly for the figure and is quite anime accurate. Unfortunately, Matchbox only released one vehicle for the Bioroid Terminator but what a great vehicle it was, the Bioroid Hover Craft.
My only real complaint is that the head was molded in another color then painted blue to match the rest of the figure. Accordingly, the figures head tends to wear at all the high relief points and age differently from the rest of the figure. Just another odd Matchbox manufacturing choice.
In the wild pendulum of quality that made up Matchbox’s Robotech line of action figures, Bioroid Terminator really stands out as a well-produced figure and a great inexpensive and much needed pick up for the Southern Cross / Robotech collection.
©2010 Article and Pictures Leonardo Flores and CollectionDX
Comments
5 comments postedBack in the day, I owned two of these guys. I don't know why but I had a real soft spot for this figure, even though both of the ones I owned had the same fault. The upper torso would not sit straight with the lower half of the body. I had tried to correct this by twisting the metal hook inside the torso (that holds the o-ring) but the damn thing broke. The incident scarred me for life!
Good call on the Bioroid Termintor, Mod. Your right about the varying degrees of quality/ coolness with this line. I personally always favored the Dana Sterling figure, and the Invid shock Trooper's greatness cannot be denied.
This is one of the few Matchbox Robotech figures I had as a kid, and I loved it. I always had him sit in my battlepod though.... Great Toy!
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CollectionDX Admin
Yup...this figure was one of the best released by Matchbox for the Robotech line. I just wish they could've figured something out to do with the butt skirt to make it so he could sit down...
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Sanjeev
Yep, I recently was going through all my old toys in my parents attic and stumbled upon my box of Robotech Matchbox toys. This figure was one of my faves too. Found his hovercraft to fly him around on too! 2 Invid Shocktroops, the Invid scout, the Battlepod and 2 old Cyclones plus about 8 or so figues. Man, some of these were made soooo cheaply, makes me wonder how they are still actually all in one piece after 20 some odd years in a hot Texas attic!