One of the main sources of inspiration for the Machine Robo series was military aircraft, with the F-4 Phantom, F-14 Tomcat, A6M Zero-Sen, F-16 Falcon, F-15 Eagle, Harrier, SR-71 Blackbird, SH-2 Seasprite and AH-64 Apache among those chosen, these realistic efforts making up the backbone of the line in contrast to the line's earlier fantasy leanings. The Fairchild Robo was thus modelled on the A-10 Thunderbolt II antitank aircraft.

This became the Renegade Bad Boy in 1985, but preceding this was the European release, briefly marketed as Tank-Bust before falling in line with the American name. The character appeared several times in the Challenge of the Gobots animated series, most notably siding with upstart Renegade Zero in "The Third Column".

It was one of several figures reissued by Bandai under the Robo Machines banner in 1993, rebranded as 'Tank Buster'. In 2004, the Bad Boy name was attached to a recolour of the Transformers character Powerglide as part of Takara's Gobots premium set, though the toy eventually came out unnamed.

The plane is fairly well rendered, and both this and the realistic colour scheme means it knocks spots off Powerglide. Where it falls down is a total lack of rigidity. This guy just gets astonishingly loose, with the wings never staying stiff for long, the tail hard to keep together, and the nose tending to slump.

This means he doesn't display well, sadly, and undermines some nice detail work, such as the retractable nose gear and chrome payload, plus a nice set of stickers (including the snarling teeth pattern on the nose, and a unit badge on the tail).

That is a risk; however, if you can find a good condition one, the impression is much more favourable. The sticker sheet is excellent, and the green, while a little monotonous, does look nice.

The transformation is novel, with the engines forming the arms. He's unusual looking, and a bit clunky, truth be told. The engines do have hands lightly engraved inside, but to be honest he's not fooling anyone, and moving the arms to anything other than about 45º from his body makes him look very silly.

There are a few frustrations as well, with the panels that form his back being fiddly to separate, and the legs are a mess. They're very bulky, and the wings being alongside them makes him look very bottom-heavy. The shape is poorly defined, and he looks out of proportion.

However, Bad Boy has a very unique look to him, and like Slicks is diverting just for being rather different.