Cut to earlier this month and, while I've seen this particular Skywarp turn up on eBay quite often in the intervening years, it's either been ridiculously overpriced, or missing parts (most frequently one or both of the rear stabiliser wings). It's only been in the last couple of months that the prices of a MISB version have returned to a 'normal' price (being in the region of about £30), but one caught my eye - unboxed, but complete - for about half that... and then the seller offered an extra couple of quid off, so I felt obliged to pick it up.
But this mold is now about twelve years old... Was it really worth even the reduced price?
Vehicle Mode:
The F-22 has proven to be a problematic vehicle mode for TransFormers toys ever since the original 2007 Starscream toy from which this is derived. The new design for the Revenge of the Fallen toyline was an improvement, certainly, but where this one suffers from oversized gimmick arms as well as having both the head and feet visible at the back of the jet in lieu of afterburners, the later model had the robot's hands hanging off the back. Its main advantage was that it was a slightly truer representation of the jet because the rear fins were more accurately modelled and its body was substantially slimmer from the sides. Even the best version of this jet - the Dark of the Moon Deluxe that was developed into the Studio Series Voyager - had a bit of a chunky undercarriage.
I think that, by the time this toy came along, anyone still interested in it was basically rejoicing in the silliness of its vehicle mode. Since the missile launchers can be activated by rolling the toy along the floor thanks to a very stiff flap on the bottom, it's like one of those really silly motorised baby toys that's a chubby aircraft that rolls around on three massive wheels on the bottom, but which also transforms into a halfway decent robot. The colourscheme is typically Skywarp - virtually all black plastic for the jet (the missile launchers and a handful of visible joints are grey), with gunmetal and metallic purple paint applied in a pattern unique to this figure rather than simply duplicating Thundercracker's template. The gunmetal paint is very well applied - keeping to the sculpted details very well throughout and looking particularly effective on the wing flaps - but the metallic purple has a fuzzy 'glow' effect on the wings and fins, and rough edges on the stabiliser wings at the back.
There's also the oddity of the red paint applications, some of which are only visible in this mode due to a quirk of the figure's design - internal parts being visible through the central transformation slot running back along the top of the jet from about an inch behind the cockpit - but others, such as those on the fronts of the chunky 'intakes' below the nose, are surely intended to be visible in this mode, despite making for a less believable jet unless he's mean to be part of a display team. On the upside, with the majority of Skywarp's plastic being black, the head and feet aren't so blatantly obvious here as they were on either Starscream or Thundercracker.
One consistent feature of every iteration of this mold is the hypersensitive triggers on the missile launchers, and they're exactly the same here - as a general rule, I don't have any of these figures 'armed' at any point, because even the slightest touch will launch one of the missiles and, inevitably, send it flying into an awkward space between or below nearby furniture. I'm not even convinced that folding the trigger flap is a solution in this mode, as it hangs down below the level of the back wheels - thus disabling the geared rotation gimmick when he rolls - but brushing against any surface is as likely to activate at least one trigger.
Robot Mode:
I last wrote about this mess of misinterpreted design seven years ago, and with Skywarp in robot mode, I can still find things to appreciate in the mold. While the overall shape of it, let alone the finer details, aren't exactly a close match to the CGI, the toy's designers at least made a coherent robot.
Probably the best thing about Skywarp as a distinct character is that it's reasonably difficult to get his colourscheme completely wrong... Given the weirdly pale metallic blue used for movie Thundercracker and the crazy beige used by both the original movie Starscream and the RotF version, seeing such a broadly G1-style colourscheme was a relief. The only oddity, really, is the red paint applied to the inner workings of the chest and to the kneecaps. G1 Skywarp featured a couple of touches of red - on the stickers applied to the feet and the insides of the jet intakes - with way more silver-ish apparent on his front due to the die-cast torso. This version minimises the appearance of bare metal, with a couple of applications on the chest, a couple at the groin, a coating on each toe (front and back - surprising attention to detail, but then this was a Walmart exclusive toy) and, if one was feeling generous, the grey plastic of the leg between the knee and the foot could be taken to represent the same colour. It's also taken significant liberties with his arms, with black shoulders, purple biceps and elbows, and grey plastic coupled with black rubber on the hands. There's some purple linework on both parts of the shoulder section to liven things up but, while he turned out better than Thundercracker, it's still a strange deviation from the norm of black arms and purple mittens.
Something I really like about the paint job on this figure is the way the smallest parts of the linework from the jet mode - the metallic purple that runs down the sides of the jet and joins up with the purple on his wings - ends up broken up between the chest and the lower part of his torso. In and of themselves, these are quite subtle, but they're adjacent to larger applications of the same paint on his shoulder fins and his thighs, so they break up the black plastic without ending up entirely isolated.
One of the features of this toy that I really like is the rack on each arm for storing the missiles, and the fact that, while the missiles themselves almost look like oversized fingers, the spring catches at the back of each one looks almost like a traditional missile. Since the arms are already so damned bulky, they don't even add that much to his width in robot mode, making these racks a much safer storage point than the launchers. The geared wheel auto-launching gimmick works just as well in this mode as in jet mode, but the hair trigger on the launchers means he'll frequently end up firing at least a couple of his missles while he's being posed. Be sure to point them away from your eyes...
Skywarp has the same head sculpt as Thundercracker, and basically the same paint job on it. The only difference is the use of translucent red plastic for the light-piping on his eyes and mouth. I think the red here works better than the orange on Thundercracker... but then, to be honest, I think Skywarp's colours generally work better on this mold than those used on the repaint from the original movie's toyline. While I've no objections to the CGI design for Starscream in the movies, I think it would have been cool to see this head in action as well - it features just enough references to the G1 toy, including a slightly more humanoid face, yet retains the 'collar' effect of movie Starscream's head, making this head sculpt unique among the generally quite insectoid Decepticons.
As well as being entirely complete in terms of having all its fins and missiles, this Walmart exclusive package came with a lenticular card depicting an F-22 in Skywarp's signature black, purple and silver flying through a large explosion, and the robot pulling off an indecipherable action pose that the toy is in no way capable of reproducing. The only bio information I'm aware of appears on TFU.info (it's not impossible that it was printed on the toy's packaging, as happened with the Target exclusive Deep Space Starscream), and paints RotF Skywarp as a solitary scientist rather than the cruel prankster of G1. On the back of the lenticular card is a note supposedly "From the mind of Simmons" which supports this new characterisation, and suggests that the name 'Skywarp' might be more to do with one of the weapons developed by the robot than the traditional teleportation power: 'Sailors in south Pacific report "vortex in the sky." What is this alien doing?'. Given that Skywarp didn't appear in any of the movies, it seems strange that his character was changed so dramatically versus Generation 1. I'm not averse to it, but things like this have always worked best when the character appeared in the movie and gave some context to the changes. The card is certainly a nice addition to the set, but it's a continuation of the inconsistency of presentation that has plagued the toyline for years. Collectors' cards like this should have been available for all figures, or none of them, because owning one just makes me want more, even though it's not that great in and of itself... but I do like lenticular images generally...
Simple - and hopelessly wrong in both jet and robot modes - though this figure may be, I do still find it weirdly compelling, and I'm really pleased to have been able to add it to my collection. Taken in isolation, robot mode is still pretty interesting, and the spring-loaded missile launchers - while operating on a worrying hair trigger - are something of a nostalgic novelty these days.
As mentioned, I acquired this complete, but unboxed, for about half the current price of the fully boxed figure on eBay, and its only flaws are a bit of scuffing on the purple paint on the left thigh and extremely loose joints on the section that spreads out either side of the cockpit, at the top of the robot's chest. These can be propped open by wedging the rubber collar/tail piece in between them, but they remain pretty wobbly. Considering what good condition this figure is in, I can only assume the seller dropped the price in response to the recently lowered cost of a MISB version on the secondary market.
Ultimately, though, this is a really fun toy. I have expressed by doubts about the spring-loaded missile launchers, and I suspect it's no surprise these features have been slowly removed from the toyline in recent years. Skywarp just goes to show how far you can go with a poor interpretation of CGI, as long as it has the right paint job.
In retrospect, it's a shame the Michael Bay movies never introduced Starscream's two main cronies, as they theoretically create an interesting dynamic, what with Starscream being the Decepticons' seditious Air Commander, Skywarp's sneakiness and Thundercracker's doubts about the Decepticon cause... Had those characteristics even been carried over from G1, that is. If nothing else, Skywarp's teleporting and Thundercracker's sonic booms could have made for some awesome cinematic set-pieces.
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