Tread Head – Skylander Review
Tread Head is a new Tech core Skylander making his debut in Trap Team. Tread Head was an orphan from the Dizzying Dunes who always dreamed of racing. One summer he found enough old parts to build his own bike. He built his bike his way with a focus on performance. Once his bike was finished he entered it into a local race, but the other competitors all laughed at his bike’s design. Since he had built his bike for performance, and not looks, he easily raced to a commanding lead. While in the lead, he entered a canyon and found a roadblock of Goblin troops! In order to protect the other racers, Tread Head pulled off the road and kicked up a bunch of dust that forced the Goblins to retreat. This allowed the other racers to pass safely. Unfortunately for Tread Head, it also meant that he would loose the race. However, Master Eon took note and offered Tread Head the chance to become a Skylander and to race over evil.
As soon as you see Tread Head in the box, you know he’s going to be an interesting character. The focus of his character is the unique motor bike that he rides. Instead of just riding a regular two wheel motorcycle (which Hog Wild Fryno already does), he rides a three wheeled motor bike that has a bulldozer style single tread surrounding him in a triangular shape. It looks fast, agile, strange and not like any other Skylanders character. Anticipation for getting this character was pretty high due to this uniqueness. Tread Head himself who sits inside the triangle protection of tread is a rather small character who is decked out in a red racing suit. He has a rather round face and a wide smile full of teeth. He looks similar to Wallop and Flynn which might make him a Mabu or at least related to Mabu. But the focus of the character remains the triangular motor bike, which suits a Tech Skylander very well. He is one of the best looking core Skylanders in Trap Team.
Out of the box, Tread Head is pretty strong. His first attack is the Wheelie attack. This attack allows Tread Head to run right through enemies. The second attack is the Backfire Blast. This attack allows Tread Head to attack those who might be sneaking up from behind. It doesn’t have a huge range but when used after running over enemies, it can be a devastating combo. The upgraded third attack is called Spin Out which allows Tread Head to spin and attack those who are all around him. These three attacks are fairly powerful from the start. The only problem is that Tread Head is best when on the move. He can stand still and just spin or do backfires, but neither are very powerful by themselves. The Wheelie is the main powerful attack but this means that Tread Head is always moving. This is both good and bad. The good is that you can perform nice hit and run attacks. Run over some enemies deal some massive damage and then get away before they counter attack. The bad part is that it’s a little hard to control. You have to actually be aimed at your target and run them over. You could easily miss smaller targets with the speed of the bike. Also once you do attack, you’ll need to turn around and re-position your target for another pass if you want to attack again. Tread Head has two upgrade paths, one that upgrades the Wheelie and Backfire attacks and the other upgrades the spin and Wheelie turning attacks. The downside of Tread Head is that he is pretty much 
a one trick pony. Most upgrades don’t do anything more but add more power to the attacks he already uses. One increases the length of the Wheelie which is most useful. Another adds bigger tread for increased damage. The third upgrade just makes the spin do more damage. So all of the basic upgrades only make Tread Head stronger without adding too much to the attacks themselves. Even on the Drag Racer upgrade path, one of the upgrades increases the Wheelie attack damage again by adding spikes to the tread. Despite the lack of other innovative attacks, Tread Head’s main attack of running over enemies with wheelies is both powerful and a blast to use. His soul gem attack adds a ground pound style attack to his arsenal, but it’s very difficult to pull off. It’s called Rocket Boost and once Tread Head reaches top speed from his wheelie attack, you can press Attack 3 to rocket boost off of a ramp where he then slams back down to the ground destroying all those around him. It’s very powerful but is very hard to pull off. You’ll only really end up using it, if you want to show it off, because speeding around and running over enemies is all you’ll really need to do.
Overall Tread Head’s usefulness comes down to just one attack: the Wheelie. However, it’s a very fun and satisfying attack and once upgraded is quite powerful. Sure you’ll use the backfire attack when you force yourself to, and you’ll probably accidentally use the spin attack while trying to pull off the soul gem attack, but all you will really use Tread Head for is to run over the enemy and that’s O.K. What he looses in diversity is made up for in fun and satisfying gameplay. Tread Head really should be part of everyone’s collection.
SkylanderNutts gives Tread Head…
8 out of 10
Tread Head Video Review
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