Fallback is another of the seven figures included in the BotCon '05 Descent into Evil set. He's probably the most interesting of the set, color-wise, so I thought it'd make a nice contrast with Ricochet by doing him second.

Fallback is a new name and body for the G1 Minibot Outback. Outback Steakhouse has a death grip on the trademark, so "Fallback" is, well, a fallback name for him. I think that's sincerely awesome, and I approve. Outback is, of course, Australian, so much like Cybertron Jetfire, a good portion of his play value is being able to hop him around affecting a horrible accent. The other portion of Fallback's play value is merely being an awesome toy. He's a redeco of Strongarm, which was redecoed into Energon Strongarm, both of which you can see in the photo above. I happily bought both the original versions, 'cuz, hey, he rocks.

Being a muted and attractive mix of brown and khaki with blue highlights, Fallback stands out among the set by not being 1) all one color, or 2) red and black. Fallback is REALLY nice-looking. It's not just the brown and khaki, but the particular shade of blue and the shade of gray they chose for his forearms and pelvis. He's what I think exclusive toys should look like -- they should have interesting colors.

(It should also be mentioned that his eyes are yellow, which is very nice. It's been sort of an annoying trend recently to see Autobots and Decepticons' eyes color coded blue/red by faction. The yellow eyes on Fallback make him look very striking.)

I have to admit, though, that I probably still find Energon Strongarm has the best set of colors on the mold. I really do love his blue and mustard. Fallback is still charming in his own way, though. And he's Australian. That's always a bonus.