Titans Return Twin Twist with Flameout

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Titans Return Twin Twist with Flameout

As soon as a Titans Return version of Topspin was rumoured people began to speculate on Twin Twist being done too and done as a retool of Topspin. Although very similar in many ways the originals don't actually share any parts but I could see the reasoning. The week before Toyfair he turned up on a Case Listing from a retailer and then the night before the show he was accidentally revealed on Twitter by Hasbro themselves, the latest in a long line of similar mishaps, before being officially revealed in the showroom, alongside his brother who was already out, with his official images following later that day.

In contrast to the original Twin Twist the Titans Return version appears to be largely reused from Topspin, albeit with a great many parts swapping colours. The blue lower arms leg fronts and Titanmaster arms, lower legs & head become white while the white of the guns, chest and upper part of the upper legs become blue, the latter acquiring a coat of white paint. The white of the waist, knees and Titanmaster chest & upper legs stays the same resulting in Burnout becoming all white. New parts are all white and include the deluxe robot head, upper arm, tank treads, drill section, feet, which look identical in this mode but aren't, and back of the legs. This last section, under the vehicle and behind the robot, might seem an necessary remould but it's been changed to include wheels to allow the toy to roll along better in vehicle mode. The tank tread look a little odd on the side of the shoulders and towering over them, the original Twin Twist had his treads built into the back of his arms.

Transformation is nearly exactly the same as Top Spin's. The only real difference is when the arms are pushed into the body of the tank the tank treads need to be folded down.

Vehicle mode is, yes you've guessed it, a drill tank with twin drills at the front! While the original Twin Twist had drills whose thread indicated they turn the same way, the Titans Return version has threads which oppose each other indicating they'd turn in opposite directions. Of course, like almost every other Transformers drill tank they don't turn! He feels longer than the original toy, more than Twin Twist did who length was balanced by the wings to the side. Two wheels under the rear and one under each tank tread allow Twin Twist to roll along. The rear of the vehicle has new, rectangular thrusters formed from the rear leg section and new feet. With the wings gone you need to look for somewhere else to mount the guns and you're left with either the 5mm peg holes on the sides of the rear, inherited from Topspin, or new 5mm holes on the sides of the tracks. Either way you're looking at something that extends the width of the toy. I'd have been very tempted to replace the guns with new weapons that could be placed flat against the side of the vehicle mirroring his original gun. Once again there's no way to attach the combined weapon to the top of the toy so the Titanmaster can sit in it and no used for the twin rectangular slot on the top of the toy which really look like they should do something.

I like Twin Twist, I really do,but he's not blowing me away like Top Spin did and the reasons why not are quite varied. Top Spin's Titan Return version really was an improvement on the original, which felt like a wedge with wings whereas the new version feels like a space fighter. Of the original Jumpstarters Twin Twist always was the better, the drills felt like they did something and gave the toy a purpose that Topspin didn't have so the addition of a cockpit here doesn't feel like that great an improvement. The Titans Return mould feels like it's designed to be Top Spin and adapted to be Twin Twist and that's keenly felt in Twin Twist's arms that do nothing to camouflage the tank treads. And I really, really wish they given them different guns!