I was recently given a pair of Battle Wheels action figures/cars to try out, and I thought I’d tell you guys a little about them. I have to apologize for the boring promo pics; my camera has no end of problems. At least they’ll let you see what I’m talking about.
Basically, Battle Wheels are the top half of a Rock ’em Sock ’em Robot mounted on a remote controlled car. The robot torsos have basic arm articulation (ball shoulders, bicep swivels, single elbows, and wrist swivels), but that’s it for the action figure part of the toys. The articulation isn’t really the focus, though; it’s just there so you can set up the robots’ weapons and shields for best effect. The figures look to be all the same mold, just with different heads, shoulder armor, and accessories.
Each figure comes with a unique shield, morning star/mace dealie, and a long melee weapon, which varies from figure to figure. The two I have, Vul and Tyr, have a sword and a hammer/lance, respectively. Vul’s sword is pretty flashy, too; it’s designed to look like flame, and is all chromey and shiny. (Each of the Battle Wheels has one chromed item; Tyr’s is his shield.) Beyond that, their unique shoulder armor is removable (or able to be knocked off for "battle damage") and their heads pop off when a big button on their chests gets hit. Knocking off your opponent’s head is the way you win a battle (though it doesn’t interfere with controls, if you want a little headless zombie payback).
Once you get the arms posed the way you want, Battle Wheels are all about the wheels. Each figure has two large wheels (one on each side of its body) with two stabilizing wheels in front and back. The two main wheels are driven by independent motors, so they can spin in different directions at the same time, useful for "whirling dervish" style melee combat.
Battle Wheels have tank controls, with one stick for each wheel, controlling whether that wheel is spinning backward or forward. The controls take a little getting used to, but it’s pretty easy to get bashing once you play around with them a little.
They seem to handle terrain pretty well; thick carpet is no problem (though it makes spinning a little less smooth), and they can zip right over books and stuff like that. Or, if you’re feeling destructive, you could mow down a bunch of your other action figures and roll victoriously over their corpses. Here’s a video of one of them (Kagu-Tsuchi) killing an army of ninjas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7_fDxqfPao
There’s a whole backstory, which you can check out at http://www.thebattlewheels.com/, but it pretty much breaks down to "they’re robot gladiators." And, anyway, this kind of toy doesn’t really need a backstory, since the play is pretty much just in the moment. And, in the moment, they’re fun. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to mess with any R/C stuff, and trying these guys definitely took me back to younger days.
My one big battling disappointment is that the heads just kind of fall off because they’re too heavy for their springs. I was hoping for a dramatic decapitation, but that’d probably be a bit dangerous.
Ultimately, a fun little diversion, but I think I’m a little out of their intended age range. I suspect kids around 10 would love these things. (I know my daughter, who’s two, was fascinated and kept swiping the control from me.) Although, if you’re so inclined, there’s some nice sculpted detail in the individualized pieces, and these guys could look very cool with some additional paint work. Standing at about 7" tall, they might make some nice menacing enforcer robots for your favorite tyrannical despot. (Or they’d fit right in with Power Rangers-style stuff.)
Battle Wheels retail for $29.99 and are available at TRU and Target, but not Wal-Mart, for some reason.
If you need to avoid work, they’ve even got a video game: http://www.miniclip.com/games/battle-wheels/en/
And there’s a TON of clips on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=battle+wheels&search=Search
Dunder Mifflin? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCl4wre4qGI
{gallery}firstlooks/Battle Wheels{/gallery}
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