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Name: Booster x10
Allegiance: Decepticon
Size Class: ‘Real Gear’ Scouts Class
Accessories: Weapon

Booster X10 is a mean-spirited trickster with a talent for toying with people. Sophisticated hypersonics allow him to distort any audio signal, even simple speech. His favorite trick is to wait in his victim’s pocket and alter incoming sounds to cause accidents and arguments. He loves seeing how much trouble he can cause just by changing the sound of a word here, or making a racing ambulance sound like a barking dog.

Yeah, Booster X10 (who henceforth shall be referred to as merely ‘Booster’) might be a nobody in the grand scheme of things, but boy does he have a fun little bio which implies a lot of psychopathic pranks. The Real Gear Robots, equivalents to Scout class toys of previous lines, transform into electrical household items and are supposedly the stuff that the Allspark brought to life in the movie. The little guys were supposedly designed for the Cybertron line but were withheld to tie in to the movie.

That aside, though, I really do like Booster’s bio. It’s the only work of fiction he has and probably the only one he will ever have, but jeez, for a MP3 player brought to life he is a massive asshole. I mean, changing the sound of an ambulance to a dog? That said, the superpower to change sounds is a rather unique one…

Booster is, in addition to being a brand-new mould and a brand-new character, homages Generation One Laserbeak. And he also happens to be one of the three Transformers that started the snowball that is my collection rolling. Therefore, despite initially lambasting Booster all those years ago for ‘not being GEEWUN enough’ (I want to slap my past self in the face with a chair) I have grown to really like the little dude.

Alternate Mode:
Booster splits into two upon transformation, the main body transforming into a fictional MP3 player which looks kind of antiquated now, but probably fit with the thicker iPods back in 2007. It’s still pretty blatantly made of plastic though and doesn’t really make a good disguise unless people think it’s a Tamagotchi toy or something. Booster’s gun thing apparently is an ear bud? I’ve never made the connection myself, though I suppose that rubbery thing is able to let the gun hang from your ear. It’s stupid-looking to do so, though.

Anyway, Booster’s MP3 player alternate mode makes me happy because it’s a nice updated version of the original Soundwave’s tape deck alternate mode. It’s mainly red bordered with black, with a circular D-pad and a central button that’s completely not trying to pretend to copy the iPod design. The buttons are set in a silver circle. None of the buttons work.

It’s a pretty flimsy device, though. Other than the fact that it’s blatantly plastic, Booster’s head can be seen on the transluscent screen. The lack of an earphone jack or any sort of electronic jack also totally ruins the disguise, which is a shame. I know it’s a low-budget toy no one really put any effort into, but still, they could’ve done better.

Of course, Booster’s alternate mode is not necessarily bad. He and Power Up are my two favourite Real Gear robots simply for the fact that they look more or less in the right size for the things they’re supposed to be mimicking, instead of being ridiculously small like the phone, the camera and the handycam.

There really is nothing much to say. It’s there, I haven’t transformed Booster in over five years, let’s move on.

Robot Mode:
Booster transforms into a bird robot. It’s mainly red with black and silver highlights, with orange translucent feathers giving the appearance of additional mecha-feathers and make Booster’s wings look like actual wings. Booster’s eye and beak are coloured in gold. Booster’s bid mode is a cute, well-designed robot bird, a faithful update to the Laserbeak… if it were marketed as Classics Laserbeak people would be rambling about it, but instead it was released as Booster X10 and then inexplicably painted white and sold as… Nightbeat? Night Beat 7, rather, but still, a strange choice.

Booster is articulated, oh yes. The head can rotate, and the bird legs are hinged on the thighs, knees and ankles. The hinges are kind of restricted and doesn’t allow total freedom of motion, but it’s enough for whatever you want a bird to pose with. The wings are hinged at the middle part, and double-jointed where it meets the main body. Booster can have his wings horizontal all G1 Laserbeak-like, or he can angle them upwards or tuck them closer to his body. Good stuff.

His ear-piece half plugs in and forms a single-barreled gun tampographed with his name in case you forgot who he is. The gun makes him the only Real Gear robot that’s actually, you know, armed with a weapon to blow people up. The general vibe is that of a far more streamlined and iPod-ized version of Laserbeak. Booster will always hold a special place in my heart beyond ‘dude who looks like Laserbeak’, however, because of how much he featured in my playtimes of old spying on Autobots and changing important messages and stuff.

Marks out of ten for the following:
Transformation Design: 7/10 It’s not the most innovative of transformations, but it is nice and leaves the alternate mode kibble-free and the robot mode looking grand.

Durability: 9/10 The rubber bit is worrying but other than a slightly-loose wing joint Booster has survived nearly seven years of abuse from me as of the time of writing.

Aesthetics: 8/10 Booster is a kickass-looking bird, but a terrible phony looking MP3 player. It’s decent enough for a toy though.

Articulation: 8/10 Has most of the joints you’d expect a robot bird to have.

Fun: 9/10 Booster was never a main character in my playtimes, but I truly, genuinely grew to like him throughout the time I had with him. He’s got that assholish personality and a great, posable and unique bird mode which made him cooler than every other Real Gear Robot I owned.

Price/Value: 7/10 Back in the days, Booster was probably not worth the money I spent for him. Nowadays, though, paying second-hand prices? You can probably buy ten of him with the money I spent for him back in the days of retail.

Overall: 8/10 Booster is hardly an essential toy in anyone’s collection, and I doubt anyone would want Booster for the sake of getting Booster the Real Gear Robot… anyone hunting him down would hunt him down for the Laserbeak-esque looks, and that’s fine. Booster makes a very serviceable Laserbeak, but more than that he’s a well-designed toy from his time. Again, hardly essential, but you will not be disappointed should you choose to add him to your collection.