Next year, we are set to reboot Combiner Wars once more with hopefully better realized (if more expensive) gestalts in the same vein as Legacy Menasor. I remember dreaming of being able to get all of the figures with no issue, yet the way the figures all felt mostly the same or how weak the stability could get speaks for itself. My copies of Silverbolt and Air Raid broke on me, and I hated how weak Menasor as a whole was. Legacy gave us better Stunticons, but I did win an auction for a Universe Silverbolt. Let's see how well he holds up as an Ultra Class from years ago.
Here we have Silverbolt in not a Concorde SST jet liner but instead a stylized XB-70 Bomber. The more modern vehicle fits Silverbolt as much as the original, and it even adds a layer of aggressiveness not normally seen on the acrophobic Aerialbot. This was a trend seen on the Universe 2008 toys compared to Classics and even the earlier Generations run, as retailers were happy with the success of the 2007 movie toyline and wanted more realistic Transformers toys while waiting for the sequel. While Silverbolt maintains a level of realism, such as the more muted color scheme and the addition of markings like BOLT-25 and the military badges, the orange here and there does look out of place when red would make more sense. And yes, he still has a folded up robot underneath with the gun in front. The landing gear works well, and I love how the wheels roll compared to what we get nowadays.
The light and sound gimmicks we have for this toy are access via the button near the thrusters rather than the one near the fuselage (which will be used in robot mode). The green lights work with the machine gun noises (even though they fit better for Powerglide's weapon), the whooshing sound don't have any corresponding lights, and the booster sounds go with the orange lights.
For a jet mode size comparison, here he is next to Legacy United Vector Prime. Silverbolt is an Ultra Class toy, a size class once known for bridging the gap between Voyagers and Leaders. I think the original Vector Prime would be at a scale closer to what Silverbolt currently is.
I came up with a fan mode where Silverbolt can be a poor man's Sky Lynx. It doesn't do much but it is amusing for anyone who messes around with an otherwise basic toy.
Silverbolt's transformation is so simplistic, it rivals Combiner Wars Megatron in some ways. You just fold the fuselage on the back, straighten the limbs, flip.out the hands and feet, and shift the hip assembly up in place. To be fair, I like the transformation sound playing in both ways when you get to that gimmick, but it's still such an uninteresting transformation. The robot mode does look nice, if a bit unfocused with the color scheme. Despite the whole laziness of the transformation, I think this mode holds up better given the heroic proportions and even the striking silhouette with the back kibble adding more flare than SB usually has. It almost looks like he has a rocket strapped on his back, though the wings do make him look a bit Decepticon-like. I love the designs of the shoulders, torso, and the gold paint apps on the legs and elbows. The orange on the biceps and landing gear does clash with the burgundy of said torso, but the middle silver bit with the Autobot insignia looks good. The button on the back helps in accessing the light and sound gimmick like an adapter part would. Pretty genius if you ask me. And much like how I complained about hollow parts without gap covers on modern toys, the hollow legs are bothersome for a toy made in 2008 as well.
His head sculpt looks very good, and I love the recessed mouth region as well as the gold paint on the forehead. His eyes are made of clear blue plastic yet look so lifeless without any proper light-piping, so you can only depend on the lights that are only seen if you shift the hips up or down during transformation. Green LEDs are common in Transformers, so don't expect there to be any blue LEDs despite what many would find logical. Strangely, the eyes can still light up even if the hips are shifted downwards for vehicle mode for the whooshing sounds. Why they do this is beyond me. As for the articulation, the neck, biceps, and thighs rotate on swivels while the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees are on ratchets. He doesn't have the articulation we see today on figures like waist rotation, ankle rockers, and wrist rotation, but it's not too difficult to get him in a pose.
As far as redecoes are concerned, the Takara version was a USA Edition release that did not get put in the Henkei! Henkei! toyline and was instead an import kept in minimally altered Hasbro Universe packaging. The color scheme better matches the Generation 1 cartoon this time around, with brighter red and whites rather than the darker color scheme of the Universe 2008 version.
As for other characters, this is Darkwind, aka Darkwing. No remolding was done to the toy, but the colors do look better than Silverbolt's.
And this is Skyfall. He is based on a G2 Cyberjet yet is recolored from a G1 Aerialbot. If he had orange instead of red, he'd be perfect for Halloween.
Here he is next to Ramjet from the Earthrise line. The height difference is more apparent with the figure being more in line with how much of a midway point Ultras were between Voyagers and Leaders. This height difference, I believe, is more comparable to how Voyagers and Leaders were in Age of Extinction up to most of Studio Series. But that being said, Universe 2008 Silverbolt is a decent toy in today's standards. I'd say he holds up.fome enough, but I'm sure he's the weakest of the three Ultras. If you see him for a cheap price on eBay or a vintage toy shop, get him unless you want to.wait for the 2025 version.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
No comments:
Post a Comment