Post by Philip Ayres on Oct 15, 2008 9:12:40 GMT
Powerglide www.tfu.info/2008/Autobot/TFUPowerglide/powerglide.htm
Powerglide is back as an Ultra class A-10 Tankbuster. I don't know if the original mini Autobot version was a Tank Buster but the shape is broadly similar with 2 large engines towards the rear and a pair of small squared off air intakes under each wing. There's even a weapon poking out the front of the plane in this mode - straight out of the box it looks like a molded 6 barrelled gattling gun, but it can be removed, turned round and used as a missile launcher. There's 3 sets of fold down landing gear - under the cockpit,. and under both wings.
The main problem with the toy is the colour: it's grey, a very suitable colour for a jet, but Powerglide's predominantly red. Sure, there's some red highlighting but it's not the predominantly red toy Powerglide was. I wonder what genius at Hasbro made that colour choice ? It does of course mean they've blown a potential repaint of this toy by producing a grey version first !
There's a red button in the middle of the toy - push it and it causes the clear orange in the cockpit and the back of the engines to light up and one of three sounds to happen: an alert sound, a flying sound and a gunfire sound.
TF: Pull the cockpit up from the bottom of the jet. Pull the bottom of the front out, and then turn each half so the sides are facing up and have formed the legs. Rotate at the waist and fold the feet out (somewhere along the lien they mucked this up for the box photos causing the waist and the upper legs to be the wrong way round) Fold the tail fins so both halves are pointing straight up, and then fold the tail section over the engines so the tail fins are down the side of the jet. Fold the grey piece on the front of the waist down, and then fold the rest of the plane up onto the waist - you'll hear the TF noise. Fold the grey panel back up - it should lock in place but doesn't too well on mine. Fold the nose and the cockpit down the back. Swing the wings round at the body so that the block bits at the start of the wings fold up under the engines. Then fold the wings up at where they connect to the block bits and clip onto the engines - again these don't hold 100% well on mine. Fold the air intake fans out from under the wings to form the arms. Slide the landing gear on the sides of these forward to reveal the hands. Flip the head up and turn the right way round. Place weapon in hands. All the time you're doing these last steps the sound chip will be going off, and because it's more robot than plane just the gunfire noise will be sounding. I swear I'm having the batteries out of this.
The resulting robot is taller than Jetfire. That's not right. He's still mainly grey, but the revealed cone shaped head is red with a silver faceplate, and has a nicely molded on antennae on one side just like the minibot. His ankles move a little to the sides and bend, he bends at the knee, turns bellow the hip, folds out to the sides and moves backwards and forward at the hip, turns at the waist, neck and shoulders - where his arms also swing out to the sides, there's a bicep swivel and a bending elbow. Pressing down on the head causes the gunfire noise to go off and the ends of the engines - now on his chest - and his eyes light up. The engines on the chest look odd, the orange plastic at the end almost looks like there's a fist molded into each of them and they should be arms.
As a plane it's not bad at all, and one of the larger planes we've had for a while. The robot has some issues with staying together. The sound box is getting annoying. And the colour is all wrong. It's decent enough, but you feel it could have done with a little more work and a little more thought.
USA Edition Powerglide
All three of the Universe Ultras are getting a USA edition release in Japan. They've all been altered - and Powerglide has benefited the most. Jet mode is an inverse of what you had before - it's now red with grey trim and looks much more like it should do, as does the robot mode which retains the red on the head. Much better colour scheme for G1 fans - though maybe not as realistic ? Stability and soundbox issues still apply.
Stormcloud
Stormcloud is a mainly black Decepticon repaint of the mold, with some grey and purple highlights. Stormcloud was the name for a Micromaster jet, which was in the same patrol as Tailwind the Micromaster A-10. (as an aside Tailwind was repainted as Hot House in white and red and is very similar to the Universe Powerglide colours !) The Micromaster origins are proudly proclaimed by the MM-89 inscription on the engines. The clear plastic is now blue, and when transforming to robot mode we get a green (!) faceplate and kneepads.
Pretty decent repaint. And I'm told it holds together slightly better too !
Powerglide is back as an Ultra class A-10 Tankbuster. I don't know if the original mini Autobot version was a Tank Buster but the shape is broadly similar with 2 large engines towards the rear and a pair of small squared off air intakes under each wing. There's even a weapon poking out the front of the plane in this mode - straight out of the box it looks like a molded 6 barrelled gattling gun, but it can be removed, turned round and used as a missile launcher. There's 3 sets of fold down landing gear - under the cockpit,. and under both wings.
The main problem with the toy is the colour: it's grey, a very suitable colour for a jet, but Powerglide's predominantly red. Sure, there's some red highlighting but it's not the predominantly red toy Powerglide was. I wonder what genius at Hasbro made that colour choice ? It does of course mean they've blown a potential repaint of this toy by producing a grey version first !
There's a red button in the middle of the toy - push it and it causes the clear orange in the cockpit and the back of the engines to light up and one of three sounds to happen: an alert sound, a flying sound and a gunfire sound.
TF: Pull the cockpit up from the bottom of the jet. Pull the bottom of the front out, and then turn each half so the sides are facing up and have formed the legs. Rotate at the waist and fold the feet out (somewhere along the lien they mucked this up for the box photos causing the waist and the upper legs to be the wrong way round) Fold the tail fins so both halves are pointing straight up, and then fold the tail section over the engines so the tail fins are down the side of the jet. Fold the grey piece on the front of the waist down, and then fold the rest of the plane up onto the waist - you'll hear the TF noise. Fold the grey panel back up - it should lock in place but doesn't too well on mine. Fold the nose and the cockpit down the back. Swing the wings round at the body so that the block bits at the start of the wings fold up under the engines. Then fold the wings up at where they connect to the block bits and clip onto the engines - again these don't hold 100% well on mine. Fold the air intake fans out from under the wings to form the arms. Slide the landing gear on the sides of these forward to reveal the hands. Flip the head up and turn the right way round. Place weapon in hands. All the time you're doing these last steps the sound chip will be going off, and because it's more robot than plane just the gunfire noise will be sounding. I swear I'm having the batteries out of this.
The resulting robot is taller than Jetfire. That's not right. He's still mainly grey, but the revealed cone shaped head is red with a silver faceplate, and has a nicely molded on antennae on one side just like the minibot. His ankles move a little to the sides and bend, he bends at the knee, turns bellow the hip, folds out to the sides and moves backwards and forward at the hip, turns at the waist, neck and shoulders - where his arms also swing out to the sides, there's a bicep swivel and a bending elbow. Pressing down on the head causes the gunfire noise to go off and the ends of the engines - now on his chest - and his eyes light up. The engines on the chest look odd, the orange plastic at the end almost looks like there's a fist molded into each of them and they should be arms.
As a plane it's not bad at all, and one of the larger planes we've had for a while. The robot has some issues with staying together. The sound box is getting annoying. And the colour is all wrong. It's decent enough, but you feel it could have done with a little more work and a little more thought.
USA Edition Powerglide
All three of the Universe Ultras are getting a USA edition release in Japan. They've all been altered - and Powerglide has benefited the most. Jet mode is an inverse of what you had before - it's now red with grey trim and looks much more like it should do, as does the robot mode which retains the red on the head. Much better colour scheme for G1 fans - though maybe not as realistic ? Stability and soundbox issues still apply.
Stormcloud
Stormcloud is a mainly black Decepticon repaint of the mold, with some grey and purple highlights. Stormcloud was the name for a Micromaster jet, which was in the same patrol as Tailwind the Micromaster A-10. (as an aside Tailwind was repainted as Hot House in white and red and is very similar to the Universe Powerglide colours !) The Micromaster origins are proudly proclaimed by the MM-89 inscription on the engines. The clear plastic is now blue, and when transforming to robot mode we get a green (!) faceplate and kneepads.
Pretty decent repaint. And I'm told it holds together slightly better too !
