Gear Factory Gale & Bolt (TFP Dreadwing & Skyquake) review

Seeker Twins Skyquake and Dreadwing have already received the review spotlight 6 years ago just about; while the original molds maybe mostly fine for what they are, the problems that plagued the PRID line combined with the over reliance on rubbery parts and fragility concerns kept the two from being some of the best molds from the line. Then came the Legacy Evolution version of the mold, surprisingly giving us Skyquake first despite him dying in his debut episode; the mold had better plastic quality and was able to the weapons a bit better, the aesthetics overall were meant to homage the G1 version of Skyquake, notably with the blockier proportions and most of the jet mode. Ironically we are getting Machine Wars Starscream before Skyquake proper, and I bet King Atlas will be between their inevitable releases. So the LE mold stayed on my Prime shelf, scaling better but looking out of place clearly. Now Gear Factory has their high quality knockoff game back in the field, and it's time to see how the brothers turned out with all the improvements fans should expect by now if they remember their APC days. We'll be covering Airfighters Gale and Bolt, who'll mostly be named by their official names. If you want to know about the original versions, I recommend reading my old review here.

Here we have the Airfighter duo in their vehicle modes. This review will mostly go over the differences between these and the original Hasbro versions. Right off the bat, the plastic quality is far superior for the most part. Nothing feels like 2012 levels of scaling back, and it also helps given these are slightly upscaled to better match the show. The only issue I'd bring up is the tabs for the knee spikes; some stock photos show them untouched for transformation, while a small few show them more flush with the thigh for the undercarriage specifically; there are no instructions to mention this, and I don't feel confident in QR codes. So while trying to untab them, the pegs for the knee spikes snapped off, and while they don't otherwise ruin the figures, I would like to see some proper clarity on stuff like this. Still nothing that will affect the toy like the breakages on the Hasbro versions' eyes or the fuselages on the backs. One other improvement is that the landing gear is functional on all wheels, and the rear set can now retract; says something when some Hasbro figures that would normally feature wheels have them as molded nubs (cough BBM Megatron). At the very least, all pieces that were rubberized are replaced with hard plastic.

For a jet mode comparison, here is Gale with Legacy Evolution Dreadwing. While the jet mode was fine, and it still fit the character better than the somewhat more generic altmodes of Arcee and Knock Out (or Bulkhead being more AOE Hound), the back section clearly aimed for that G1 Skyquake route. And funny enough, we only got this jet combination gimmick with Needlenose and his retool, Windsweeper; none of the Predator jets have been made yet!

Transformation is mostly the same as the originals, but now the hands and feet can now fold away properly, and the waist halves are more flush with the undercarriage, cleaning up the altmode better when going back into jet mode. As for the robot mode, the colors are much closer to the show, with a forest green for Skyquake instead of the regular shade and a metallic blue closer to the Arms Micron version instead of the darker shade from the Hasbro version (Skyquake never got an Arms Micron release btw). While the articulation is generally the same as before, albeit with ball joints for the wrists instead of swivels, tere is a bit more included at the feet, while the hands now have hinged fingers. They both come with swords, better detailed and scaled properly than the regular versions. 

Their other weapons include the underslung cannons, with a rotating gatling gun set up for Skyquake to distinguish himself a bit more from Dreadwing. Funny how the green one has a more illin' cannon than the dude who debuted in G2. I have a theory these come from a third party set like some of the APC/Gear Factory stuff does. Because we don't have the Powerizer gimmick, the clear plastics used throughout the official versions are abolished entirely, save for the cockpits and eyes.

The weapons can be stored in the backs as always and in the case of Dreadwing, you can simulate him deploying his sword from the cannon by removing the handle and blade.

Both figures come with alternate heads, with scowling or smirking expressions. I like that Dreadwing shows a bit of teeth in his scowling face, though both have the same smirking sculpt work.

One oddity is that the neutral heads have opaque ball joints while the others are clear plastic. Not sure if this is a byproduct of the regular expressions being designed like the Hasbro versions were. I don't have the originals in hand but from what I can tell, the part holding the head had the stems for the ball joint. 

Dreadwing comes with two bombs and a totally-not-a-flip-phone that he can hold, and it's a cool callback to the times he used these against the Autobots, notably in the episode Hard Knocks. They especially go well with the smirking face.

And one more comparison with the Legacy Evolution version. While only being slightly shorter than the Leader, the KO will scale well with other TFP figures regardless. So apart from a few, minor issues, I highly recommend you get a hold of Gale and Bolt. They cost about $50 or less each, and despite being bootlegs, they have better value for money than the average current Voyager or Leader. I also like that Skyquake coming with fewer accessories means he costs less than his brother, which is always appreciative. I got mine from TFSafari (#NotSponsored), and so should you.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐