![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/guest\/2013\/cleatus00.png?w=640\")
<\/a>As always, I like to give one spot in a Guest Review Week to one of our readers. For this week, I\u2019ve got a review that I\u2019ve inadvertently had in the queue for some time, an updated college version of the Fox Sports Robot from reader Dayraven! Sorry it took so long to get this posted, DR!<\/p>\n![](\"newsimages\/spacer.png\"){kind=spacer}
<\/p>\n
Dayrvaven:<\/strong><\/span> Hey crew, this is Dayraven, back with my third guest review for IAT. This time, I’m taking a look at the Cleatus version 2.0 Fox Sports bot. He is a new release and only a couple of months old, but I’ve been looking forward to this review for some time, so let’s get started!<\/p>\n Firstly, I would like to acknowledge Actionheads, the credited creators on the packaging. I contacted them to thank them for a great toy, and after a couple of email exchanges, I got to chat directly with FoamFanatics rep Jeff Richey about this stellar toy. He was incredibly gracious with my questions, and I thank him for that opportunity. <\/p>\n So, let me spill some beans… Mr Cleatus here was modeled on the animation by Blur Studios, the guys behind those cool action sequences at the beginning of Fox Sports events now (and intermittently, during the airing of those programs). Cleatus has come a long way from those early commercial segue segments, and he’s not just for Football anymore. Any UFC fans like myself see him now during broadcasts of fights, and word is, he’ll be getting more face time thanks to the new Fox Sports channel, where Cleatus will be a branding tool that covers all the sports Fox is showing. That’s great news for geeks like myself, as Mr Cleatus will be wearing many hats, and with luck, we’ll be getting figures for all of them. There could come a day, one sweet day, where I might have the Wolverines Cleatus I’m reviewing today, standing next to a Red Wings Cleatus, sandwiched between Red and Blue Corner Cleati… it’s enough to make me salivate. The prototypes were executed by industry mainstays Gentle Giant, and then finished and distributed by Actionheads. They also were the ones who came up with the superhero-like attributes we see discussed on his packaging. Whether you’re a fan of big robots, the NBA, MLB, NHL or UFC, Fox wants to show you sports with their new mascot, and Actionheads wants us to have toys of them. Personally, I’m hoping these move well enough to get another Football bot, the big-body linebacker model from those animations… a Dayraven can but dream right? But I dreamed of a Red Wings bot and may well have him before next Saturnalia… Fingers crossed!<\/p>\n Jeff told me that the team was really focused on quality this go around, and it absolutely shows. This guy is a beast! A big, sturdy, well made toy that is just a delight to pose, play with, and look at. He’s got a great sculpt, not quite as detailed as his version 1.0 counterpart, but still very well done. Rivets show, exhaust ports peek out where his pistons vent pressure, lubricant hoses lurk beneath protective plates, and thick armored plates are all evident over him as you look the sculpt over. He reminds me of how a dinosaur would look, if robots were dinosaurs. Where 1.0 and Baseball bot were kind of all purpose combat droids, Cleatus 2.0 reflects a more refined aesthetic, defined in purpose and built to a specific task. <\/p>\n 2.0 does not feature an add-in ball, and while he’s shown certainly running the ball in the animations, thanks to his well executed articulation, he’s more than capable of a Barry Sanders style juke… he just lacks a ball. Luckily, the glued in ball from 1.0 can be tucked under if you need him to do the Heisman pose. I actually prefer him not having a ball, as they’re easy to come by in his scale, if you need one, but I personally don’t. This Wolverine is for beating some behind, rather than ruling the gridiron. <\/p>\n His shoulders pads are now better integrated into the sculpt, so his movement is much less inhibited than his 1.0 brother. It’s also worth note than Actionheads should teach classes on how ball torsos should be done. Baseball’s torso ball had a smidge better range of motion, but 2.0’s is MUCH more solidly showcased, and intergrated better to disappear into the sculpt. In fact, all the articulation is designed into him to work with the sculpt, and it blends very very well.<\/p>\n This is a big boy. He is the most space-filling of the three Cleati, and, were it not for those HUGE shoulder pads on 1.0, he’d easily be the most massive of the three as well. Just like his brothers in arms, this a great snag for any sports fan but he’s a great snag for any robot fan or toy fan as well. This big fig is rock solid and sure to be a hit with the discerning collector, the aspiring customizer, and the kids. He will absolutely handle the rigors of kid play, and that to me is a huge part of his appeal. He looks great on my shelf, he can fight superheroes, wrestlers, or hero factory figs with equal aplomb, and is probably the only adult collectible you can hand your kids with complete confidence. Best of all, unlike some adult collectibles, you can find this big bad is some good old fashioned brick and mortar stores like Party City, Kohl’s, and Bed, Bath and Beyond… so if your relatives hit you up with those annoying gift cards this holiday season, you can spend not-cash and equip your robot army with their new general. How can you turn down holiday robots? Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Articulation is the best here of my three Foxbots, and that’s saying something. What we have here is a peg and hinge neck enabling up\/down and side to side motion, peg and hinge balls at the shoulders, lower bicep swivels, hinge elbows, swivel wrists, ball torso, ball in socket hips, thigh swivel, double hinge knees, hinge and rocker ankles, and lastly, just for good measure, mid-foot hinges. So you probably read that and were wondering why I think that’s the best articulation since Cleatus 1.0 topped it in sheer number of articulation points. Good question. The answer is, this is the best overall articulation quality wise. The ball torso is tight and offers range in all directions.<\/p>\n The ball in socket hips look great and are tight and well designed with a fantastic range of motion, better by a large margin than either of the competing Cleati. The thigh swivels lie inside those huge armored thighs, and are tight and completely hidden. The double hinge knees are tight and sturdy, as well as ratcheted to aid in posing. The ankles hinges are ratcheted and tight, and so are the rockers, which again have a great range of motion. It’s the most solid mid-foot hinge I’ve ever bought. The elbows are tight and ratcheted, the wrist swivels are tight, the neck is tight in both up\/down and side to side, and the shoulders are ratcheted in the in\/out range of motion, and are… you guessed it… tight and sturdy. Flat out boys and girls, this is the best execution of articulation I’ve bought in YEARS. Like, I’m kind of stunned by how well this articulation works, it’s that good. I was happy with the MLB bot’s articulation, but this… WOW! The complaints, IF and only IF I were forced to offer them, would be the lack of hinge motion in the wrist, and the lack of swivel at the shoulder joints where they plug into the bicep. These complaints though are really just observations, since the bicep swivel still exists, just not where you might expect it to be, and the wrists are more stable without that hinge motion. Check this three-point stance, he’s the only one who can do that… <\/p>\n Paint aps are this big boy are few, but again, well done. The Fox Sports logo is tampoed on and the edges are clean and sharp. The areas on his ribs and around the team colors logos are tightly applied and clean, with NO instances of slop, though there is a little bleed through on a couple spots where the dark blue of the cast plastic is just more than the yellow stripes can conceal entirely, but that’s something you really have to make an effort to notice. There are a lot of sculptural details that would really pop with an extra wash, especially in the yellow cast areas as the bright yellow makes it hard to really see all the detail that’s there. None of this is in any way a deal breaker, and were I scoring this on a star system, I’d knock him MAYBE a quarter star for the lack o’ wash and bleed through… really just a great paint application here.<\/p>\n So this being IAT, I found myself compelled to do some funny stuff, but I had an epiphany… Noisy has his fun with wit and wisdom, Vault likes his outdoor shots, but me? My action figure fun (as in “have fun with your toys”) usually involves someone getting a chin check from someone else, and Wolverine Cleatus simply demands several such foes to adequately vent his talents on. Seriously gang, one of the most playable figs I’ve bought in a very long time. It’s been beyond fun reviewing this guy, and there has been much play between writing and photo sessions. So I hope you enjoyed this bru-ha-ha, this ballyhoo, this dustup, this beatdown… Cleatus 2.0 is on the clock, and unlike that diminutive Canadian guy, Wolverine Cleatus really is the best at what he does!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As always, I like to give one spot in a Guest Review Week to one of our readers. For this week, I\u2019ve got a review that I\u2019ve inadvertently had in the queue for some time, an updated college version of the Fox Sports Robot from reader Dayraven! Sorry it took so long to get this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[34,10],"tags":[1833,1832,1831,1590,1705,1592],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-5PL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19544,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=19544","url_meta":{"origin":22429,"position":0},"title":"Reader Review: Fox Sports Baseball Robot","date":"July 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"We\u2019re spotlighting some of our favorite sites this week, but we also thought it'd be cool to let our readers in on the guest review action. Today\u2019s article is a piece submitted by long-time reader Dayraven. He sends word of a toy I didn\u2019t know existed: a Fox Sports Baseball\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22569,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=22569","url_meta":{"origin":22429,"position":1},"title":"January Review Index Updates & Top Reviews for January","date":"February 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"January saw most of the reviews being posted in the second half, but some higher than expected traffic pushed those later reviews, like Rorschach, Netossa, & the Metal Men, into the top spots for the month. Also check out the latest updates to both the IAT & Battlegrip.com Review Indexes!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9870,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=9870","url_meta":{"origin":22429,"position":2},"title":"Most Requested Figures: Dark Tower","date":"October 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We're a little behind on our Requests for this third round and we've had a few requests where none of the IAT staffwriters were proficient on the subject matter. Today's request, Dark Tower, is one of those requests. So, we turned to reader Dayraven for the in's and out's .","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22554,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=22554","url_meta":{"origin":22429,"position":3},"title":"Review Round-Up (January 21st-27th)","date":"January 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In this week\u2019s Review Round-Up, Marvel & DC return with a vengeance while MOTU only clocks in with four reviews. I\u2019m sure He-Man & the gang will be back though. Until then, check out this week\u2019s round-up with reviews on the TMNT Pop-Up Pizza Playset, the New 52 Hawkman, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12239,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12239","url_meta":{"origin":22429,"position":4},"title":"DCClassics.Com Review: Green Lantern Stel (C&C)","date":"April 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Armless Stel Week is reaching its shattering conclusion with... well, a review of Armless Stel! He's an interesting figure because he's a mix of greatness and annoyance. I suppose that's true for most of the line, but with Stel it's a little more annoying knowing that they made him wrong\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DCClassics.Com"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19572,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=19572","url_meta":{"origin":22429,"position":5},"title":"ZedsJoeSite.com Review: Ultra-Poseable Amazing Spider-Man","date":"July 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Day 4 of Guest Review Week brings us to a site that knows how to have fun with action figures. ZedsJoeSite.com features some great reviews, but the real gem of Zed\u2019s site is the ongoing toy webcomic, Scale Wars. Today, Zed\u2019s taking a look at the new ultra-poseable Amazing Spider-Man.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22429"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22429"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22438,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22429\/revisions\/22438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/guest\/2013\/cleatus01.jpg?w=640\")
<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/guest\/2013\/cleatus02.jpg?w=640\")
<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/guest\/2013\/cleatus03.jpg?w=640\")
<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/guest\/2013\/cleatus05.jpg?w=640\")
<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/guest\/2013\/cleatus06.jpg?w=640\")
<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/guest\/2013\/cleatus07.jpg?w=640\")
<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/guest\/2013\/cleatus04.jpg?w=640\")
<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/guest\/2013\/cleatus08.jpg?w=640\")
<\/center><\/p>\n