After weeks of fruitless hunting, I finally found the Space and Street Speed Teams at Loblaws, a Canadian grocery chain. Nice to finally have them, but it is kinda sad that Loblaws got them in before Wal-Mart and TRU.
BACKTRACK
Car Mode: Backtrack is a 2003 Cadillac XLR, as seen here: https://www.hiddencar.com/2002show/2003_cadillac_xlr.jpg . Grass green with white windows and silver hubcaps and headlights, he measures 5.5 cm(2.2") long. He rolls very nicely on hard surfaces and carpet, and will no doubt cause more than one unfortunate parent to slip and fall painfully. His faction symbol is on his trunk and his Powerlinx socket is on his underside at the very rear. Oval and Spiral also have their sockets mounted at their rears, and as a result, they don't work well with Red Alert's canopy gun or Smokescreen's crane cannon. On the plus side, Backtrack and Spiral activate Starscream's flip-out launchers quite nicely.
Transformation: Here's where the trouble starts. It takes a certain level of skill to transform Backtrack without the chest panel or the forearms popping off. They snap right back on, but it's certainly annoying.
Robot Mode: Backtrack stands just over 5 cm(2") tall at the head, with his shoulder spikes adding a half centimetre or so. He's still mostly green, with yellow optics and gray hips and thighs. The shape of his head makes him look like G2 Manta Ray's landgoing offspring. He's got ball-jointed hips and shoulders, a turning waist, and elbows that bend about 30 degrees or so before popping off. His arms also feature moulded fists and exhaust pipes that can be interpreted as laser blasters.
Backtrack is my favourite of the trio. Nice, stable car mode, interesting if somewhat annoying transformation, good robot mode. 7.5/10
OVAL
Car Mode: 5.5 cm long, mainly pumpkin orange with black windows, white headlights, grey vents, and silver hubcaps, Oval is a Saleena S7: https://www.mtv411.com/auto/Saleen-S7.jpg . His faction symbol and Powerlinx socket are on his rear underside. Rolls nicely on most surfaces.
Transformation: Similar to a G1 car, with the hood becoming the chest. Unfortunately, the two pegs holding the torso together simply refuse to remain inserted.
Robot Mode: With lanky arms and legs and a height of 6 cm(2.4"), Oval is the tallest member of the SST. His midsection and thighs are gray and his visor is silver. He has ball-jointed hips and shoulders and elbows that bend 45 degrees or so. Like Backtrack, he has moulded fists and small laser blasters on the ends of his arms.
Overall, a fairly nice toy with stability issues. 7/10
SPIRAL
Car Mode: Spiral is most likely a Mercedes-Benz CLK, similar to this one: https://www.autoguide.ee/gallery/mercedes/clk/merc_clk_02.jpg . Dark blue with silver hubcaps and windows and white headlights that have been specially moulded to avoid copyrights, he measures 5.5 cm long. His faction symbol is on his underside middle and his Powerlinx socket is on his underside rear. While he looks nice, he's basically a mass of panels, not all of which are stable. On the plus side, it does mean you can get a neat "totalled" look.
Transformation: Canopy splits apart to become arms, sides and front become legs, trunk section becomes chest plate.
Robot Mode: Spiral stands about 5 cm tall. He's mostly blue with a gray midsection, yellow panels on his chest, and a green visor. His arms are reminiscent of Smokescreen's: big canopy halves with moulded fists on the inside. His waist turns, his shoulders and hips are ball-jointed, and his elbows and knees bend roughly 30 degrees. And as with Backtrack and Oval, Spiral's elbows do pop off and snap back on easily.
I'd say Spiral is the weakest of the lot due to his instability. Still a cute, good-looking toy though. 7/10
Overall, Susp Sez: Articulation is both the Street Speed Team's gift and curse. They've got great car modes, good transformations, and neat robot modes, but their flimsy elbows and other vehicle parts are pretty frustrating. I can easily picture some poor child losing one of Spiral's forearms or Backtrack's trunk section and never recovering it. All in all, the Street Speed Team is a good, but flawed set. 7/10
Susp
"Speed over strength!" -Street Speed Team
Reviewer | Suspsy |
Date | December 22nd 2002 |
Score | (7 out of 10) |
Reads | 5114 |
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