Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 26, 2010 13:08:46 GMT
Skyburst & The Aerialbots
Those who read my first two Power Core reviews know how much I enjoyed Smoulder & Bombshock. So I had big expectations approaching this pack which I got from China via eBay. Skyburst is a Firefox MIG-31, a fictional Soviet Aircraft from the film Firefox. He's a Scout sized vehicle, moulded in a blue grey plastic similar to Predator Falcon equipped with three sets of fold down landing gear - one under the nose and two under the rear. These are moulded in black plastic as are many of the robot parts. Turning the jet over shows us some blue plastic concentrated round the rear of the jet. Like all Power Core Combiners he has a Minicon port, in this case one in the centre of the top of the jet mode.
TF: Turn the jet over. The arms form the middle of the rear of the jet, with each leg along the outside. Unpeg the legs and fold them and the waist forward so they're projecting out the underside of the nose. Unhook the blue forearms from the back of the jet - each arm has a little hook which is held in place by a loop of plastic. Fold each arm out to the sides. Fold the jet nose and legs down with the notch in the back of the waist fitting into the rear of the jet.
Skyburst's robot mode uses the jet's fuselage for it's chest (jet nose) and back. The upper limbs are all made from black plastic while the lower limbs are formed from the blue lump on the underside of the jet - the same blue plastic is used for his head. The look of the robot mode's nice, very much what you'd expect from a jet Transformer with the nose down the centre of the chest. Some of the fuselage pokes up over his shoulders, but it isn't undetailed panelling, there's some moulded detail on there. Moulding a missile rack into the same space might have been a better use for it though. Articulation is decent: He's got ball jointed hips, shoulders and lower elbows. The upper elbows - always like a toy with double bending elbows - and the knees bend, there's a thigh swivel on each leg and the head turns. The arms end in 5mm peg holes which is always good, but these aren't particularly deep and I don't think the elbows will provide much resistance so I wouldn't want to give him a large weapon to hold. You'll notice that I've not mentioned the Power Core Connectors yet: they're well hidden on this toy not appearing in either jet or robot mode !
So far a decent enough scout class toy. But we've not bought a scout, we've bought an Ultra so what's in the rest of the package to make it up to the price ?
To start with we've got Bombshock's combined robot mode: start by raising the back panel up so it's horizontal above the robot's head. Twist each leg out to the side at the thigh joint and bend each leg at the knee then the hip. The hips should fold upward with tabs that *should* latch inside the jet's nose. They don't. Raise the panel in the middle of the jet/robot's back up, fold up the combined robot head, fold the tail fins with the attached the Power Core connectors for the shoulders out to the sides, fold the rear of the jet down to form the combined robot's back locking into the rear of the hips again but leaving the section attached to the combined mode head in place covering the normal robot head. Fold the folded out panel on the back up. Fold the normal robot arms down to the sides and fold the forearms up over the upper arms. There's a slot on the underside of the upper arms - slide this over the edge of the chest plate. Fold the jet fins the rest of the way forward so they lock onto the elbow of the upper arms - excessive force will be required to get the lock in place but it's a strong one when it's there. Fold down the panel on the front of the chest. Fold the wings back a little way. Finally fold the Power Core connectors for the combined robot legs down from the back of the legs through the bottom of the normal robot's feet.
As with his adversary Bombshock he comes with four legends sized drones. Now I've got the instructions for this set (unlike my Bombshock) so I now know they have official labels.
The Recon Plane Drone looks a little like an A-10 Thunderbolt with a radar dish mounted on the rear. The centre of the top of the dish is a Minicon port. His limb mode is a decent one - a claw like hand with the fingers formed from the wings. Unfortunately he's resisted being attached to Skyburst - the connectors on the shoulders would rather move out the way than go into the socket to operate the auto TF - so fold the wings up and swing them forward which allows the connector to lock on without having to do the TF'ing work.
The Chopper Drone is a yellow helicopter which looks like Cybertron Evac's colours and rear half merged with Cybertron Jolt's cockpit. The look is rather spoilt by the entry port for Power Core connector being placed through the front of the cockpit. His Minicon port is found on the centre point of the rotor blades so any attached Minicon spins round with the blades.This drone will attach a bit better, but his arm mode is a claw with bits of helicopter hanging off it. The shoulder look OK, but the forearm stick out at an odd angle, with the outer half formed from the chopper's tail sticking out to the side even further. This drone has an extra problem that when reverting to vehicle mode the tail tends to catch so needs a little help.
The Combat Helicopter Drone looks a little similar to Autobot Whirl. Again his Minicon port is at the centre of the spinning rotor blades. A dual cannon under the nose tilts down but pass a certain point and it'll fold all the way down. This drone is another that's hard to attach before it's transformed partly due to the mounting of the socket at the rear of the rotor mount at a diagonal angle so pull back on the front of the rotors to activate the TF first. The leg this provides is standing on very little - the front edge of the cockpit, the chin guns as heel spurs and a bit of the guns in the middle which means balance is automatically weakened.
Fighter Jet Drone: This is
Locking these limbs onto Skyburst - who has connectors that do not want to stay pointing in the same direction - is a chore and will quite possibly lead to you popping a wing or back panel off of the core robot. The legs on the combined mode consists of two drones with minimal floor contact plus some hips that refuse to lock in place. The combination is lethal for the combined robot's stability - I swapped the Aerialbot Drone legs for the Combaticon Drone legs and he stood much better. While the recon arm is nice, the helicopter arm is a mess and has spontaneously popped off it's connector twice while I've been writing this. The core body meanwhile has a massive (5mm) gap between the upper and lower torso through which can be seen the normal robot's head. The shoulders in theory should turn and raise up & down while the knees should bend & rotate. But it's a big risk trying this and you'll end up with a toy that falls over and probably comes apart rather than one that holds a pose.
Mix & Match time: Skyburst as a Torso is considerably improved by using the Combaticon drones as limbs, while a Combaticon leg with an Aerialbot leg is an improvement in stability over two Aerialbot legs. I've *just*about* got Bombshock to balance with a Combaticon leg and the reversed Fighter Jet drone leg.
So Overall: Disappointment. He's a decent but not spectacularly good scout (beats Bombshock which is a positive point) But I'm not paying £20-£25 for a scout class plane - ROTF Skystalker's a lot better and he's only £7. The rest of the package - odd Torso with poor connectors:whoever let them bend down at the shoulder should be shot. It's a severe let down compared to the Combaticons.
Those who read my first two Power Core reviews know how much I enjoyed Smoulder & Bombshock. So I had big expectations approaching this pack which I got from China via eBay. Skyburst is a Firefox MIG-31, a fictional Soviet Aircraft from the film Firefox. He's a Scout sized vehicle, moulded in a blue grey plastic similar to Predator Falcon equipped with three sets of fold down landing gear - one under the nose and two under the rear. These are moulded in black plastic as are many of the robot parts. Turning the jet over shows us some blue plastic concentrated round the rear of the jet. Like all Power Core Combiners he has a Minicon port, in this case one in the centre of the top of the jet mode.
TF: Turn the jet over. The arms form the middle of the rear of the jet, with each leg along the outside. Unpeg the legs and fold them and the waist forward so they're projecting out the underside of the nose. Unhook the blue forearms from the back of the jet - each arm has a little hook which is held in place by a loop of plastic. Fold each arm out to the sides. Fold the jet nose and legs down with the notch in the back of the waist fitting into the rear of the jet.
Skyburst's robot mode uses the jet's fuselage for it's chest (jet nose) and back. The upper limbs are all made from black plastic while the lower limbs are formed from the blue lump on the underside of the jet - the same blue plastic is used for his head. The look of the robot mode's nice, very much what you'd expect from a jet Transformer with the nose down the centre of the chest. Some of the fuselage pokes up over his shoulders, but it isn't undetailed panelling, there's some moulded detail on there. Moulding a missile rack into the same space might have been a better use for it though. Articulation is decent: He's got ball jointed hips, shoulders and lower elbows. The upper elbows - always like a toy with double bending elbows - and the knees bend, there's a thigh swivel on each leg and the head turns. The arms end in 5mm peg holes which is always good, but these aren't particularly deep and I don't think the elbows will provide much resistance so I wouldn't want to give him a large weapon to hold. You'll notice that I've not mentioned the Power Core Connectors yet: they're well hidden on this toy not appearing in either jet or robot mode !
So far a decent enough scout class toy. But we've not bought a scout, we've bought an Ultra so what's in the rest of the package to make it up to the price ?
To start with we've got Bombshock's combined robot mode: start by raising the back panel up so it's horizontal above the robot's head. Twist each leg out to the side at the thigh joint and bend each leg at the knee then the hip. The hips should fold upward with tabs that *should* latch inside the jet's nose. They don't. Raise the panel in the middle of the jet/robot's back up, fold up the combined robot head, fold the tail fins with the attached the Power Core connectors for the shoulders out to the sides, fold the rear of the jet down to form the combined robot's back locking into the rear of the hips again but leaving the section attached to the combined mode head in place covering the normal robot head. Fold the folded out panel on the back up. Fold the normal robot arms down to the sides and fold the forearms up over the upper arms. There's a slot on the underside of the upper arms - slide this over the edge of the chest plate. Fold the jet fins the rest of the way forward so they lock onto the elbow of the upper arms - excessive force will be required to get the lock in place but it's a strong one when it's there. Fold down the panel on the front of the chest. Fold the wings back a little way. Finally fold the Power Core connectors for the combined robot legs down from the back of the legs through the bottom of the normal robot's feet.
As with his adversary Bombshock he comes with four legends sized drones. Now I've got the instructions for this set (unlike my Bombshock) so I now know they have official labels.
The Recon Plane Drone looks a little like an A-10 Thunderbolt with a radar dish mounted on the rear. The centre of the top of the dish is a Minicon port. His limb mode is a decent one - a claw like hand with the fingers formed from the wings. Unfortunately he's resisted being attached to Skyburst - the connectors on the shoulders would rather move out the way than go into the socket to operate the auto TF - so fold the wings up and swing them forward which allows the connector to lock on without having to do the TF'ing work.
The Chopper Drone is a yellow helicopter which looks like Cybertron Evac's colours and rear half merged with Cybertron Jolt's cockpit. The look is rather spoilt by the entry port for Power Core connector being placed through the front of the cockpit. His Minicon port is found on the centre point of the rotor blades so any attached Minicon spins round with the blades.This drone will attach a bit better, but his arm mode is a claw with bits of helicopter hanging off it. The shoulder look OK, but the forearm stick out at an odd angle, with the outer half formed from the chopper's tail sticking out to the side even further. This drone has an extra problem that when reverting to vehicle mode the tail tends to catch so needs a little help.
The Combat Helicopter Drone looks a little similar to Autobot Whirl. Again his Minicon port is at the centre of the spinning rotor blades. A dual cannon under the nose tilts down but pass a certain point and it'll fold all the way down. This drone is another that's hard to attach before it's transformed partly due to the mounting of the socket at the rear of the rotor mount at a diagonal angle so pull back on the front of the rotors to activate the TF first. The leg this provides is standing on very little - the front edge of the cockpit, the chin guns as heel spurs and a bit of the guns in the middle which means balance is automatically weakened.
Fighter Jet Drone: This is
Locking these limbs onto Skyburst - who has connectors that do not want to stay pointing in the same direction - is a chore and will quite possibly lead to you popping a wing or back panel off of the core robot. The legs on the combined mode consists of two drones with minimal floor contact plus some hips that refuse to lock in place. The combination is lethal for the combined robot's stability - I swapped the Aerialbot Drone legs for the Combaticon Drone legs and he stood much better. While the recon arm is nice, the helicopter arm is a mess and has spontaneously popped off it's connector twice while I've been writing this. The core body meanwhile has a massive (5mm) gap between the upper and lower torso through which can be seen the normal robot's head. The shoulders in theory should turn and raise up & down while the knees should bend & rotate. But it's a big risk trying this and you'll end up with a toy that falls over and probably comes apart rather than one that holds a pose.
Mix & Match time: Skyburst as a Torso is considerably improved by using the Combaticon drones as limbs, while a Combaticon leg with an Aerialbot leg is an improvement in stability over two Aerialbot legs. I've *just*about* got Bombshock to balance with a Combaticon leg and the reversed Fighter Jet drone leg.
So Overall: Disappointment. He's a decent but not spectacularly good scout (beats Bombshock which is a positive point) But I'm not paying £20-£25 for a scout class plane - ROTF Skystalker's a lot better and he's only £7. The rest of the package - odd Torso with poor connectors:whoever let them bend down at the shoulder should be shot. It's a severe let down compared to the Combaticons.
