|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 7, 2015 11:11:49 GMT
Alpha BravoAlpha Bravo is the cuckoo in the nest in the team of Generations Aerialbots replacing the missing Slingshot. The name is a bit of a play on words: Alpha Bravo is the phonetic alphabet for AB as in AerialBot. He's a major departure for this team as he transforms into a Helicopter rather than a Jet like the other original Aerialbots did. To be fair there is a precedent for this: Universe Micromaster Superion, a repaint of Operation Combination Sixwing, has a helicopter member: Rotor, a repaint of Chain Gun. Alpha Bravo's robot mode doesn't help it's cause because it's got a strong resemblance to the missing Slingshot with a red/orange chest and orange paint covering it's faceplate and the top of the head. There's lots of white, grey and black on the rest of the toy but probably the defining feature of the robot mode is the gold/orange missiles moulded round the forearms and hands. The tail and rotor blades for his vehicle mode are sitting on the robot's back. The head is on a ball joint, as are the shoulders, He's got a bicep swivel, bending elbow, turning waist, ball jointed hips, thigh swivels and bending knees. He comes with his own single barrelled hand gun, with a massive ammunition magazine, and the dual cannon which serves as his combined mode foot & hand. Transformation: rotate 90 degrees at the waist. Peg the legs together. Open the back of the lower legs and fold the upper legs into it and close. Although Alpha Bravo has the same transformation in the legs as the other Aerialbots he's the only one where the legs form the front of the vehicle mode, the others have the legs form the rear of the jets. Fold the nose halves round from the side of the legs and bring together. Fold the top of the cabin down onto the nose. Fold the tail back into place over the head. Straighten the arms so the missiles point forward alongside the side of the helicopter. Straighten the rotor blades., Alpha Bravo has decent enough helicopter with a peg hole underneath for the double cannon and either hand peg hole, facing down, can hold the gun. The rotors spin just fine. The problem is that now we see the helicopter mode it's shouting other characters at us. The missiles on the side, the shape, indeed how it transforms and what the robot looks like put us in mind of Combaticon Vortex. On the other hand a mainly white Autobot Helicopter makes us think Protectorbot Blades, and Production sketches show a red version with a new head. Then you looks closely at the shape of the nose and start thinking "Is a Combaticon Blast-off remould possible?" You almost wonder if they had to remove Slingshot, and you wonder if they did given Firefly's jet shape, why they didn't just replace him with Blades and have done with it? Alpha Bravo can also function as a limb for Superion or any other Combiner Wars combined robot: Arm mode: From robot mode fold the head back revealing the combiner peg and peg the legs together to form the lower arms. Decent arm providing the Combiner wars standard of a turning and raising shoulder, a bicep from the robot hip, double bending elbow and rotating wrist. The colours on him are a good match for Silverbolt's white & red and the large amount of red makes him a good arm for Optimus. Leg Mode: From helicopter mode fold the tail onto the back of the vehicle revealing the head. Rotate back 180 degrees to reveal the combiner peg. Pull the top of the cabin up, then fold the sides of the nose out and back into the position the occupy in robot mode. Peg the dual cannon into the foot. Slot into a Combiner Wars Voyager leg port. Solid lower leg which provides a thigh swivel, bending knee and rotating ankle. only real complaint about the limb mode is one I forgot to make for the other Aerialbots: the dual cannon is, like the rest of the Aerialbots, black, giving Superion black hands & feet. In 1986-8 all the combiners had different colours for their hands & feet: Superion's was white while black was used for Defensor. Decent helicopter and robot and limb. But it feels too much like a different character and a substitute for one that should be there. Alpha Bravo is numbered 4 in the Aerialbot set and was released with his team-mates Skydive & Firefly and the Stunticon Dragstrip in the first Combiner Wars wave that arrived in late December 2014.
BladesIt was obvious from the start that Alpha Bravo was destined for several reuses: Production sketches show a red version with a new head which was assumed to be the new version of Protectobot Blades which Wal*Mart computer listings have revealed. So it came to be: and blades is just that: Alpha Bravo in new colours with a new head. Same hand gun, same vehicle weapon. While the missiles work with his robot mode they look out of place with his vehicle mode which is missing the Landing Skids the original had. Adding landing skids that were removable and became swords for the robot, playing on his name, would have been a nice touch. If he'd have been released first I think people would be more happier but as a second version? No. But there again looking back now you'd have ignored Alpha Bravo and bought the then unannounced Quicksling instead!
Future Repaints/RemouldsAs yet no Combaticons have been announced but the helicopter and robot modes are very close to what you'd expect for Combaticon Vortex. Design sketches packed into Blades' comic reveals a remould which seemingly incorporates Vortex's chain gun into his arms. The long nose of the helicopter is also reminiscent of Combaticon Blast-off so a as that may be on the cards. A yellow repaint as Evac or Sandstorm is a distinct possibility but I think the shape of the Helicopter isn't quite angular enough to do Whirl, Springer, Spinister or Bulkhead/ Quickstrike. Finally the Combiner Wars Optimus torso brings Energon Optimus to mind and Alpha Bravo would make a good helicopter drone Op 2. |
|
|
|
Post by Toph on Jan 7, 2015 12:08:08 GMT
AB was a bit of a letdown for me. He was the limb bot I was most excited for, because it's a bit rare for a helicopter to exist, and when they do, they're usually based on the apache. And when we get them, they usually follow a standard transformation. He looked to add some much needed variety both to helicopter TFs, and the aerialbots.
Also, it was still obviously Slingshot. The colors were all right and in the right places. Just a somewhat mixed feature update, like all the others.
But... Having him in person, it just doesn't do it for me. Maybe it's changing the red to orange? I'm not a fan of orange in general. So it really is possible a subtle change like that could effect my opinion and I not even realize it.
Also, while I appreciate disguising his arms in chopper mode as missile launchers, and how GREAT those look in bot mode... It still feels really lazy in vehicle.
Sculpt wise, he is by far the best of the four limbs in the first wave.
The more I think about it, I think it IS that dull rusty burnt orange chest. It just doesn't look right with the other colors on him, or fit in with everyone else who have bright, vivid reds.
Maybe a reprolabel set will make him a bit more exciting to me? Did wonders for the dull Whirl and Roadbuster.
Also, I have a friend who keeps tellibg me to stop compairing him to Slingshot because "He's not Slingshot. Wrong altmode, wrong name, and the aerialbots met him AFTER slingshot died."
He sometimes seems to think that Hasbro follows IDW, instead of the reverse. He absolutely IS intended to be an update of Slingshot. He looks like him, VTOL alt mode, colors and stripes are him. He IS SLINGSHOT.
Sorry, guess I had a micro rant in me.
And I'm glad I'm not the only one reminded of a space shuttle!
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 7, 2015 12:54:47 GMT
Thing is I've looked at Firefly..... and I'm SURE he is Slingshot! Just make the red parts white.  (Someone else's photo, half inched) |
|
|
|
Post by Bogatan on Jan 7, 2015 14:12:42 GMT
If they do end up doing Slingshot down the line my only complaint will be that they bothered to make AB so Slingshot like in the first place. If it does wind up being used as Blades, Vortex or Blastoff it would have been nice if the mould was specifically designed to look/transform like one of them.
Having said that AB is I think my favourite of the four so I cant complain overly and if it does get used for the other three I'm sure there will be remoulding for each.
Really hope blades get new head, chest and arms with landing wheels instead of missiles. Then I think Blast Off gets wings and Vortex either gets a heavy remould because its the most different or settles for using the most suited parts from the other 3 versions.
|
|
|
|
Post by Toph on Jan 7, 2015 15:00:18 GMT
I don't think the resemblance is very strong. www.tfu.info/1986/Autobot/Fireflight/fireflight.htmReally, it's only in his wings, honestly. And I won't deny there's a resemblance there. But I don't see it anywhere else. The tailsection is exactly like fireflight, the nose is way pointier like fireflight (harriers are known for their short, stubby bulbous nosecones), and the rest is that really generic lawsuit avoiding thing. |
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 7, 2015 16:17:13 GMT
I think at this point we need to summon the expert:
Kaptain, is new Fireflight a decent Harrier representation? Indeed possibly a better one than the original Slingshot?
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 7, 2015 16:18:59 GMT
If they do end up doing Slingshot down the line my only complaint will be that they bothered to make AB so Slingshot like in the first place. If it does wind up being used as Blades, Vortex or Blastoff it would have been nice if the mould was specifically designed to look/transform like one of them. Having said that AB is I think my favourite of the four so I cant complain overly and if it does get used for the other three I'm sure there will be remoulding for each. Really hope blades get new head, chest and arms with landing wheels instead of missiles. Then I think Blast Off gets wings and Vortex either gets a heavy remould because its the most different or settles for using the most suited parts from the other 3 versions. Oddly of the three Vortex is the one I think you could get away with with a straight remould. What's needed for Blast Off is clear. Blades needs the landing gear on the arms. |
|
|
|
Post by legios on Jan 9, 2015 13:05:54 GMT
Kaptain, is new Fireflight a decent Harrier representation? Indeed possibly a better one than the original Slingshot? Is Firefly a decent Harrier... I'm inclined to say that he isn't a decent representation of any particular real aircraft. He is more the "Chop Suey" of Aerialbots - made-up in the kitchen of various ingredients that happen to be on hand. I'd agree with Mr Jetty that the nose is not really of a shape strongly associated with the Harrier Family. It is a lot more pointy than you'd find on the descendant AV-8* series or the early GR* Marks. In dim light it might pass for the nose of the FRS-1 or FRS-2 (which had a redesigned nose because they needed to cram a radar in for the first time). But even then, the point of the nose is right on the centreline of the fuselage, which is much too high. The same can be said about the cockpit, which sits on the horizontal fuselage line, when in fact the fuselage line of the Harrier family slopes downwards through the cockpit area to meet the nose which then continues to taper below the centreline (to various degrees over the years and Marks). The wing shape and angle isn't really right on either of them - and I can't determine if the rounded pods on the ends of Firefly's wings are meant to be the undercarriage outriggers (they clearly are on Slingshot though), if so they are an odd shape but in the right place for early Harrier Marks. The cockpit canopy,as well as being in the wrong place on Firefly is also the wrong design - it has the F-15, F-18 style mid-canopy frame, and the long lozenge shape typical of them. Meanwhile Slingshot has the longer canopy of the FRS*s and the AV8*s, but on a cockpit shaped more like the early GR-series (it was only with the Sea Harrier that they suddenly needed to fight other aircraft, and therefore see behind them). The tail on Slingshot is pretty close to Harrier-like, whilst the one on Firefly is an oddity. If you stick the fins straight out on the horizontal it will pass fairly well for a Harrier tail. However, if you drop them down to the 45 degree angle then it is pretty much a spit for the very distinctive F-4 Phantom II tail. Both toys have "no visible means of support" though, neither of them have the classic four steerable nozzles of the Harrier series, and Firefly has no sign of engines anywhere else either! I can only assume both stay up by the same Space Magic/String-and-Duct-Tape which keeps Sunbow Decepticons airborne. :-) In honesty I'd say that Firefly resembles a Harrier about as much as he resembles Fireflight's F-4 alt-mode. Not greatly, but more so in some places than others. In aggregate I'd say that Slingshot takes the lead in this case. (Although Slingshot himself is a bit of a Chop Suey of bits of different Harrier versions himself). So far I'd say that Fireflight is the furthest from being anything in particular that we've seen amongst the Aerialbots - and oddly, despite changing alt-mode completely it looks like Air Raid might end up being the closest one to reality (whether this is because the F-14 is no longer in production anywhere, and the only people using it are the Iranian Air Force so they aren't expecting anyone to come looking for license monies I don't know :-) ) But neither of them get as close to the Harrier as the ROFD Dirge design does in all honesty. All that needed was a new tail and it would undoubtedly have been needing to pay licensing fees. |
|
|
|
Post by Bogatan on Jan 9, 2015 17:36:37 GMT
I guess it depends who would be doing a Slingshot. If it is FP they may decide Firefly is close enough, possibly using ABs head if it can be swapped.
If Hasbro or more likely TT do it theres no reason they might not remould pats of the plane for a better match. Hasbro may already have included such bits in the first place, even though they didn't want to release 4 planes at retail they might have wanted the option later.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Feb 21, 2015 19:56:49 GMT
Hmmm. Alpha Bravo is easily my least favourite of the Superion toys so far. The other ones are nice simple fun transformations. This one just isn't fun to transform (bit too fiddly and the blades snag too easily on other parts during transformation)l The top part of the helicopter with the blades just will not tab into place rendering the alt mode a bit poo. The robot head sculpt is excellent and I like the missiles on the forearms as well as the orange on the chest. The gun is also fun. Overall though I'm just not as keen on him.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 23, 2015 15:00:08 GMT
Review updated for Blades.
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 27, 2016 9:29:41 GMT
VortexIn many ways Vortex was probably uppermost in the designers' minds when Alpha Bravo was created. This is a direct repaint of that mould, head included, into the traditional Vortex colours. The missiles, painted in yellow, feel like they fit here far more than they did on the earlier two versions of the toy. Yes it's a simple repaint but it works. Job done.
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on May 16, 2016 10:48:24 GMT
Torchbearer Skyburst & Torchbearer StormclashWhen round two of the fan built combiner poll resulted in TWO helicopter being chosen I was a little bemused. Alpha Bravo was already out there, Blades was due soon and it was good money that it would be reused as Vortex. So voting for two more near helicopters and then finding they're near identically painted? Actually there's some clever stuff going on here. Stormclash and Skyburst are actually mirror image twins, in the style of GI Joe's Tomax and Xamot. Gone are the existing gun and Hand Foot Gun. Both have new chest, with a box on the opposite side to the Autobot symbol, new forearms with open hands & wings and a new sword weapon. The colouring of the toys, a quite bizarre mismatch of orangey red and institution green, which isn't anywhere close to the orange and teal offered is also mirror imaged. So the most obvious question about the two helicopters in the Torchbearers boxset is which is which! Skyburst: Autobot symbol on our left in robot mode.
Head has eyes.
Larger red patch on right in vehicle mode.
If edge of sword blade points to our left, then the peg is underneath Stormclash: Autobot symbol on our right in robot mode.
Head has visor.
Larger red patch on left in vehicle mode.
If edge of sword blade points to our left, then the peg is underneath The observent amongst you will spot that Hasbro couldn't tell the difference and mucked up the labeling for their official photos! The extra wings cause an interesting problem in leg mode if left in their initial position: they hit each other between the legs! Fortunately each arm can be unpegged, rotated back 90 degrees and re-pegged in to give sufficient clearance. Bar the colour, the helicopters are OK. I like the mirror image trick to compensate for two of them but with we could have seen the winged forearms earlier: they'd have been great on blades, replacing the missile arrays and making him a more peaceful looking helicopter.
|
|
|
|
Post by Toph on May 16, 2016 15:17:23 GMT
I saw a digibash where someone reversed one of their colorschemes, and ended up liking that concept better.
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 29, 2016 13:27:38 GMT
Unite Warriors Vortex I thought that Combiner Wars Vortex was pretty good, given the mould they started with. The colours were right and pretty spot on for both toy and cartoon. Takara however decided that neither was quite right and altered both colours and design ..... I commented when I reviewed Blast off that some of the colouring decisions in this set were a little off: Blast Off's grey get darker and his blue/green becomes a bright, almost Energon blue reminding me of Movie Incinerator. It's nice, but it's not quite Vortex. The other change here replaces the rotor blade assembly, which has contained two rotors ever since Alpha Bravo, with a new one containing four rotors. Since this makes Vortex more accurate this should be a good thing right? Nope. Even before Vortex had come out the box I could see his rotor blades were loose and two disconnected while removing him. I broke a Randy removing it from the package once and I've been quite careful ever since so this wasn't my fault! Once the toy was combined the rotor blades still were loose and kept falling out. Things came to a head when Bruticus fell off a shelf and the rotor assembly exploded. I retrieved the bits and think it can be reassembled, when I have some more professional help, but it was an interesting lesson. The new rotor assembly is made from beige plastic which, given the colour of the rest of the contents of the set, suggest it's moulded with Blast Off. The plastic is then painted black but of the two inner faces that are in contact with each other one is painted and one is not, which doesn't help the fit. I suspect we're going to need to strip the black paint from the painted face to get a better fit and then maybe glue the piece together. Vortex has not helped the Unite Bruticus set endear itself to me.
Generations 2 VortexThe job is simple here: repaint Vortex in his Generation 2 colours and largely Hasbro have succeeded. My only real complaints are the inclusion of a G1 symbol on the toy and the gun, which is still black and should have become purple. They changed the colour for the original Vortex, why not here too? I suspect it's because the gun is co-moulded with the Hand Foot Gun but if you've put a G1 Decepticon symbol on a G2 set what's the harm in changing the boring black hands & feet for a bright purple?
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 21, 2016 13:05:44 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 1, 2017 21:26:44 GMT
Unite Warriors LunaclubOne of the big problems with the Torchbearer helicopters, Stormclash and Skyburst, is that they are very very similar toys. Yes I know there's something clever going on with mirror image colour schemes on the vehicles and robots, plus different heads, but they are basically the same underlined by Hasbro themselves not being able to tell the difference and mucking up the labelling for their official photos! Unite Warriors has hone a different route. Lunaclub is the repaint of Torchbearer Stormclash and has the head with the eyes. She swaps Stormclash's institutional green for the black used on all of Megatronia's components while her red becomes a peach/pale neon orange. The faction symbol on the right of her chest becomes a Decepticon one while the square on the left, painted red on Stormclash, becomes a pale blue which will become significant later. He bladed weapon is still transparent blue but has the blade painted pint and the edging, previously silver, turned gold. See this tweet for a comparison between the two versions of the toy. I'm not 100% keen on the peachy orange but it goes OK with the black and is a HUGE improvement over the previous colour scheme. Unite Warriors MoonheartMoonheart is the repaint of Torchbearer Skyburst and has the head with the visor. Her colours have taken a very similar approach to that used on her sister Lunaclub. Again Institutional Green becomes black but this time the red becomes pale blue producing a colour scheme that's sympathetic to the moon part of her name. All the other changes to Lunaclub apply here too but interestingly the square on her right chest, again previously red, is now blue. Their fictional biographies depict them as twins and it's nice to see that, although different, a piece of each other's colour schemes shows up on the opposing toy. Here's a tweet showing a comparison between Moonheart & Skyburst while this tweet shows the Four Guards Helicopter sisters together. The better of the two helicopter colour schemes used in the Megatronia box, but the use of the colour on the chest helps tie her in with her sister and is a nice touch.
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 13, 2017 16:21:33 GMT
Unite Warriors HepterThere's not a lot of difference between Car Robots Hepter and it's American counterpart Robots in Disguise, as TFU's comparison shows. The blue helicopter with an orange chest and red legs & weapons translates well to the Unite Warriors Vortex mould whose rotor assembly holds together much better than the one I got in the Unite Warriors Bruticus Boxset. As with the other deluxe toys in the Unite Warriors Baldigus Boxset he's lost his hand foot gun but instead has Mixmaster's gun from the Unite Warriors Devastator Boxset. A slight complaint here is it's gun metal grey, matching the other imported UW Constructicon weapons, which I assume are gang moulded, and not red like his other weapon and the weapons on the original Hepter. Even though it's a little off model, I think I'd have been tempted to paint the missiles on he helicopter/arms red too. Otherwise a decent job done.
|
|
