Zobovor
2024-11-15 01:02:56 UTC
I haven't picked up most of the Collaborative crossover toys, just
because I've never really had a strong desire for a transforming Top Gun
jet or a transforming Frankenstein monster or whatever. But, I am a
huge fan of Knight Rider, and there's something about the premise (an
intelligent car that can drive itself) that lends itself well to
Transformers as a concept. (Also, in the Knight Rider TV reboot from
2008 or so, the evil twin car called K.A.R.R. actually did transform
into a robot, and he was even voiced by Peter Cullen!)
So for anybody who has never seen the show, Knight Rider was an
action-adventure show that premiered in 1982, and starred David
Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, who was partnered with his talking car
K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand) and together they fought crime
and solved mysteries and all sorts of fun stuff. The show ran for four
seasons, and in the final season, K.I.T.T. was rebuilt so that he could
adopt a "super pursuit mode" which was a variation on his normal car
mode with extra fins and ailerons and things, so in some respects
K.I.T.T. was already canonically a "transformer" long before this toy
came along.
The box is styled similarly to the vintage G1 boxed packaging, with a
window that shows K.I.T.T. in vehicle mode, an illustration of his robot
mode to the right, and the sequential START -> CHANGE -> CHANGE ->
FINISH photos on the top panel. The box art shows K.I.T.T. speaking
into his wristwatch, which was the means by which Michael Knight kept in
contact with K.I.T.T., so it's an homage to that aspect of the show.
His tech specs also make multiple references to the TV show, especially
his function (to preserve human life) and his duty to "protect the
innocent, the helpless, the powerless from lawless criminals" which is a
paraphrase of the opening narration from the show's title sequence.
This is an officially licensed Pontiac Trans Am, and the back of the box
includes GM's seal of approval as well as indicia that Universal Studios
signed off on this as well. Also, the toy's official name is Agent
Knight but I am going to refer to him as K.I.T.T. and I expect you all
to follow along.
For some reason, when pictures of this toy first came out, everybody
thought it was a pre-tool for a new Omnibot Overdrive toy. It's much
too large to scale with existing neo-G1 toys, though, and there's no
reason for Overdrive to have a big electronics package. So, probably
not.
In car mode, K.I.T.T. is 6.75" in length, a bit too small to be 1:24
scale. (The JADA version of him that I've got, which is indeed 1:24
scale, is about an inch longer.) He's mostly bare black plastic, so
he's less glossy than most toys of K.I.T.T. tend to be, since they're
often die-cast so they tend to be fully-painted. He's got most of the
signature details I would expect a model of the character to have, like
the "bowling ball" hubcap covers and the T-top roof windows and of
course the iconic front red sensor.
The rear license plate sports the Knight Industries chess piece logo
(one supposes they couldn't get the legal rights to accurately reproduce
a California license plate with the word "KNIGHT") and the tail lights
are very red. (On the show, they were behind a tinted panel so you
could only see the lights when they were illuminated.) The windows are
translucent blue, though K.I.T.T. is supposed to have tinted windows so
I think a translucent black might have been a better choice. There's a
somewhat unsightly chunk under the front bumper which contains the
electronics package. It has a little tiny tampo-printed Autobot symbol
on the front.
The chunk is unfortunate, because when he's transformed into car mode,
there's a lot of unused real estate. There's a gigantic gap in the
undercarriage where, surely, some of those electronic components maybe
could have gone! (They might have interfered with the transformation,
though.)
The guns for his robot mode can mount to the undercarriage, and one of
them doubles as his exhaust pipe. The headlights also flip up and down,
manually. The lights are painted white. You can open the doors in car
mode, but there's no room for a driver because the cabin is stuffed full
of robot parts.
The batteries required to operate this toy are not included. Most
modern electronic Transformers had batteries installed at the factory,
so this kind of surprised me. I wasn't prepared for it. But, luckily
I've got other electronic toys that can donate their batteries for a
bit. K.I.T.T. has the following sound and light effects at the touch of
a button on his hood:
1) computer start-up sounds (like a touch tone phone), ignition sounds,
"whoob whoob" sensor sounds
This only happens the first time you press the button (it's his
activation sequence), and then it cycles through the following in order:
2) "I am the voice of Knight Industry [sic] Two Thousand's
micro-processor. K-I-T-T for easy reference. K.I.T.T., if you prefer."
3) "Hold on, this could be a bit bumpy!" followed by turbo boost sounds
4) sensor sounds x3
5) tire screeching sounds
6) "Are you sure this is the right way? Very well!" followed by tire
screeching sounds
7) "Thank you, sir." (K.I.T.T. always called Michael by his first name,
but we'll let this slide)
8) "K.I.T.T. signing off." (after about 60 seconds of inactivity)
It's not William Daniels providing the voice clips for K.I.T.T. but
rather a soundalike, which I suppose got Hasbro out of having to pay
voice actor royalties. It also enabled them to just make up their own
voice clips instead of being stuck using existing dialogue from the show
(though the "I am the voice of the micro-processor" line is from the
pilot episode).
But, I am very impressed that they loaded this toy with so many fun
features. Most of the other K.I.T.T. toys I have will have the sensor
light up when you open the driver's side door or something, but it
doesn't make the "whoob whoob" sound and none of them can talk. So
that's pretty awesome. They could have charged fifty bucks just for it
to change from a car to a robot, and do nothing else, but the
electronics make it well worth the purchase price, even if he was just a
car.
The transformation to robot mode reminds me a lot of the Alternators
toys, and I'm not sure if that's just because it's the same size as
those toys, or because Pontiac had the same kind of input that the other
automotive manufacturers did during the Alternators days. I know they
were particular sometimes about how the toys transformed, because they
wanted their product to be represented well so they were picky about
panel lines being in certain spots, didn't want the car to be able to
fold up to look like it had been in a wreck, etc. It's simple enough,
certainly. The arms fold out from underneath, the head flips out, the
front of the car becomes the chest, the back unfolds into the legs. The
doors mounted on his back (which pivot up at an angle) really helps him
to look like an Autobot, and it evokes 1984 releases like Prowl or Jazz.
As a robot, K.I.T.T. is seven inches tall, so pretty close to what we
tend to consider a Voyager. He's still mostly black with some silver,
but they gave him a blue pelvis and upper legs, which is meant to evoke
the denim jeans typically worn by Michael Knight in the show. The shape
of the robot goggles is also supposed to evoke the sunglasses worn by
Michael Knight. So it's a cheeky reference to the TV series costume.
This part is, at least, consistent with how other Collaborative toys
were designed (e.g., the Ecto-1 toy is styled to look like he's wearing
a Ghostbusters jumpsuit). Articulation is about what you would expect.
He carries a large rifle and a smaller pistol (they are not identified
by name, but in the spirit of celebrating the show and its lore, I
propose that the large one should be a turbo boost cannon and the small
one is a microwave jammer gun). The tips of the guns are both blast
effect compatible. He also wears the wristwatch as a separate
accessory, which can wrap around his left wrist and plug into a
rectangular peg. The guns can store on the backs of his doors in robot
mode. All the sound and light functions work in robot mode as well.
The only iconic aspect of K.I.T.T. that's missing is the voice
synthesizer with those three rows of LED bars that would move when he
spoke. It would have been just above the steering column on the
dashboard. I realize it's super hard to give cars a proper-looking
interior when you have to cram the transforming robot parts in there
somewhere, though.
I would totally buy this toy again as the evil twin K.A.R.R. if they
wanted to load him with different-sounding voice clips and maybe redo
the head sculpt to make him look a little meaner. Since Michael Knight
had an evil twin named Garth Knight (also played by Hasselhoff), maybe
they could model it after that character and give him a little robotic
goatee!
Well, this is a super fun toy for $49.99. There aren't too many
Collaborative crossover toys that are absolute must-haves for my
collection, but this was definitely one of them.
Zob (this might be a good time for me to put up a proper Knight Rider
shelf, since right now all my K.I.T.T. toys are just chilling on top of
a bookshelf and collecting dust)
because I've never really had a strong desire for a transforming Top Gun
jet or a transforming Frankenstein monster or whatever. But, I am a
huge fan of Knight Rider, and there's something about the premise (an
intelligent car that can drive itself) that lends itself well to
Transformers as a concept. (Also, in the Knight Rider TV reboot from
2008 or so, the evil twin car called K.A.R.R. actually did transform
into a robot, and he was even voiced by Peter Cullen!)
So for anybody who has never seen the show, Knight Rider was an
action-adventure show that premiered in 1982, and starred David
Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, who was partnered with his talking car
K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand) and together they fought crime
and solved mysteries and all sorts of fun stuff. The show ran for four
seasons, and in the final season, K.I.T.T. was rebuilt so that he could
adopt a "super pursuit mode" which was a variation on his normal car
mode with extra fins and ailerons and things, so in some respects
K.I.T.T. was already canonically a "transformer" long before this toy
came along.
The box is styled similarly to the vintage G1 boxed packaging, with a
window that shows K.I.T.T. in vehicle mode, an illustration of his robot
mode to the right, and the sequential START -> CHANGE -> CHANGE ->
FINISH photos on the top panel. The box art shows K.I.T.T. speaking
into his wristwatch, which was the means by which Michael Knight kept in
contact with K.I.T.T., so it's an homage to that aspect of the show.
His tech specs also make multiple references to the TV show, especially
his function (to preserve human life) and his duty to "protect the
innocent, the helpless, the powerless from lawless criminals" which is a
paraphrase of the opening narration from the show's title sequence.
This is an officially licensed Pontiac Trans Am, and the back of the box
includes GM's seal of approval as well as indicia that Universal Studios
signed off on this as well. Also, the toy's official name is Agent
Knight but I am going to refer to him as K.I.T.T. and I expect you all
to follow along.
For some reason, when pictures of this toy first came out, everybody
thought it was a pre-tool for a new Omnibot Overdrive toy. It's much
too large to scale with existing neo-G1 toys, though, and there's no
reason for Overdrive to have a big electronics package. So, probably
not.
In car mode, K.I.T.T. is 6.75" in length, a bit too small to be 1:24
scale. (The JADA version of him that I've got, which is indeed 1:24
scale, is about an inch longer.) He's mostly bare black plastic, so
he's less glossy than most toys of K.I.T.T. tend to be, since they're
often die-cast so they tend to be fully-painted. He's got most of the
signature details I would expect a model of the character to have, like
the "bowling ball" hubcap covers and the T-top roof windows and of
course the iconic front red sensor.
The rear license plate sports the Knight Industries chess piece logo
(one supposes they couldn't get the legal rights to accurately reproduce
a California license plate with the word "KNIGHT") and the tail lights
are very red. (On the show, they were behind a tinted panel so you
could only see the lights when they were illuminated.) The windows are
translucent blue, though K.I.T.T. is supposed to have tinted windows so
I think a translucent black might have been a better choice. There's a
somewhat unsightly chunk under the front bumper which contains the
electronics package. It has a little tiny tampo-printed Autobot symbol
on the front.
The chunk is unfortunate, because when he's transformed into car mode,
there's a lot of unused real estate. There's a gigantic gap in the
undercarriage where, surely, some of those electronic components maybe
could have gone! (They might have interfered with the transformation,
though.)
The guns for his robot mode can mount to the undercarriage, and one of
them doubles as his exhaust pipe. The headlights also flip up and down,
manually. The lights are painted white. You can open the doors in car
mode, but there's no room for a driver because the cabin is stuffed full
of robot parts.
The batteries required to operate this toy are not included. Most
modern electronic Transformers had batteries installed at the factory,
so this kind of surprised me. I wasn't prepared for it. But, luckily
I've got other electronic toys that can donate their batteries for a
bit. K.I.T.T. has the following sound and light effects at the touch of
a button on his hood:
1) computer start-up sounds (like a touch tone phone), ignition sounds,
"whoob whoob" sensor sounds
This only happens the first time you press the button (it's his
activation sequence), and then it cycles through the following in order:
2) "I am the voice of Knight Industry [sic] Two Thousand's
micro-processor. K-I-T-T for easy reference. K.I.T.T., if you prefer."
3) "Hold on, this could be a bit bumpy!" followed by turbo boost sounds
4) sensor sounds x3
5) tire screeching sounds
6) "Are you sure this is the right way? Very well!" followed by tire
screeching sounds
7) "Thank you, sir." (K.I.T.T. always called Michael by his first name,
but we'll let this slide)
8) "K.I.T.T. signing off." (after about 60 seconds of inactivity)
It's not William Daniels providing the voice clips for K.I.T.T. but
rather a soundalike, which I suppose got Hasbro out of having to pay
voice actor royalties. It also enabled them to just make up their own
voice clips instead of being stuck using existing dialogue from the show
(though the "I am the voice of the micro-processor" line is from the
pilot episode).
But, I am very impressed that they loaded this toy with so many fun
features. Most of the other K.I.T.T. toys I have will have the sensor
light up when you open the driver's side door or something, but it
doesn't make the "whoob whoob" sound and none of them can talk. So
that's pretty awesome. They could have charged fifty bucks just for it
to change from a car to a robot, and do nothing else, but the
electronics make it well worth the purchase price, even if he was just a
car.
The transformation to robot mode reminds me a lot of the Alternators
toys, and I'm not sure if that's just because it's the same size as
those toys, or because Pontiac had the same kind of input that the other
automotive manufacturers did during the Alternators days. I know they
were particular sometimes about how the toys transformed, because they
wanted their product to be represented well so they were picky about
panel lines being in certain spots, didn't want the car to be able to
fold up to look like it had been in a wreck, etc. It's simple enough,
certainly. The arms fold out from underneath, the head flips out, the
front of the car becomes the chest, the back unfolds into the legs. The
doors mounted on his back (which pivot up at an angle) really helps him
to look like an Autobot, and it evokes 1984 releases like Prowl or Jazz.
As a robot, K.I.T.T. is seven inches tall, so pretty close to what we
tend to consider a Voyager. He's still mostly black with some silver,
but they gave him a blue pelvis and upper legs, which is meant to evoke
the denim jeans typically worn by Michael Knight in the show. The shape
of the robot goggles is also supposed to evoke the sunglasses worn by
Michael Knight. So it's a cheeky reference to the TV series costume.
This part is, at least, consistent with how other Collaborative toys
were designed (e.g., the Ecto-1 toy is styled to look like he's wearing
a Ghostbusters jumpsuit). Articulation is about what you would expect.
He carries a large rifle and a smaller pistol (they are not identified
by name, but in the spirit of celebrating the show and its lore, I
propose that the large one should be a turbo boost cannon and the small
one is a microwave jammer gun). The tips of the guns are both blast
effect compatible. He also wears the wristwatch as a separate
accessory, which can wrap around his left wrist and plug into a
rectangular peg. The guns can store on the backs of his doors in robot
mode. All the sound and light functions work in robot mode as well.
The only iconic aspect of K.I.T.T. that's missing is the voice
synthesizer with those three rows of LED bars that would move when he
spoke. It would have been just above the steering column on the
dashboard. I realize it's super hard to give cars a proper-looking
interior when you have to cram the transforming robot parts in there
somewhere, though.
I would totally buy this toy again as the evil twin K.A.R.R. if they
wanted to load him with different-sounding voice clips and maybe redo
the head sculpt to make him look a little meaner. Since Michael Knight
had an evil twin named Garth Knight (also played by Hasselhoff), maybe
they could model it after that character and give him a little robotic
goatee!
Well, this is a super fun toy for $49.99. There aren't too many
Collaborative crossover toys that are absolute must-haves for my
collection, but this was definitely one of them.
Zob (this might be a good time for me to put up a proper Knight Rider
shelf, since right now all my K.I.T.T. toys are just chilling on top of
a bookshelf and collecting dust)