I've not always had the best of luck with TransFormers Collectors' Club figures, and particularly BotCon figures bought via the Club shop after the event, but this figure - part of one of the souvenir sets from BotCon 2009 - would certainly fit into both categories were it not for the fact that he was packaged alongside Banzai-Tron, an excellent reimagining of a G1 Action Master using a bonkers Energon mold.
Wings of Honor didn't interest me a great deal, but it was nice to effectively get a bonus figure along with the one souvenir toy I actually wanted. Aside from these, the only figure from 2009's set that's even on my radar is Scourge, made using the Galaxy Force Noisemaze mold.
(And, yes, I know Elita-1 and Razorclaw were available at the 2009 show as well, but they were additions to Games of Deception and Dawn of Futures Past, respectively, not Wings of Honor)
Vehicle Mode:
So... here we have a very green repaint of the Superlink/Energon Nightscream/Starscream mold, itself just an update of the G2 Cyberjet mold with minor improvements. Where the original G1 toy was - supposedly - loosely based on a Blackbird, this mold is an equally relaxed interpretation of the F-22 Raptor, a jet which is has become no less popular in more recent TransFormers continuities.
The opaque green plastic features a metallic/pearlescent swirl, as does the curious butterscotch plastic (here representing the notoriously self-destructive gold plastic of the original mold), while the translucent green is clear and very 'limeade' in colour - seemingly striking a balance between the acidic translucent plastic and the slightly darker, opaque green plastic of the original toy. This is one of those toys where the Club went seriously overboard with its paint applications, with large panels of metallic green (a fair match to the plastic, but perhaps a little richer) on the wings, an almost fluorscent bright green and copper paint added to the rear fins, and myriad little spot applications all over the jet's body in black, metallic purple and blue, as well as more of the copper and bright green. The damaged portion of the left wing is highlighted with red paint... which seems like an odd choice, given that there's no red elsewhere. There are further applications of metallic green paint on the sides of the jet, below the wings, then just in front of the rear stabilisers and on the tips of the afterburners, as well as black lines on the stabilisers themselves. It's remarkably well decorated for so small a figure.
Yet, good as it looks, the years were clearly not kind to this mold - I've no way of knowing how widespread a problem this is, but the wings on mine just don't line up properly with the sides of the body. They're pegged in securely on top, and the green rear section of the jet's wings that contains their articulation joint is pretty much sitting flush and screwed tightly into place, but the front tips of the wings are a good millimetre or two higher than they should be with the detail sculpted into the sides of the jet's body.
Worse than that, though, when I first received this figure, I assumed that the missing Energon gem in the slot behind the cockpit was a deliberate omission - since this is a Timelines figure, not part of the Superlink/Energon continuity - but I've sinced learned that it's not... It's not a massive loss to me, personally, but it does leave an ugly great hole on the top of jet mode, that only becomes more prominent in robot mode.
Skyquake comes with the same two weapons as the Superlink/Energon figure, but the Energon star was not included... Another reason the absence of the gem didn't strike me as a problem to begin with.
Robot Mode:
The problem with this mold is that it was made with a particular concept in mind - that Nightscream/Starscream was a ghostly sort of character, so the use of translucent plastic was intended to indicate he was only partially formed. Here - if his bio card is anything to go by - it merely represents a 'sensor-laced' right arm and a generally high-tech body frame.
The only paint applications on robot mode that weren't already visible in jet mode are the metallic purple circles on the protrusions behind his head, the black strips on both shoulders and the metallic purple on the right shoulder highlighting the internal details. The absence of the insignia gem is felt far more keenly in this mode, as it's supposed to be literally the centrepiece of his chest. Still, the paintwork all around the gaping hole does distract from it somewhat.
Skyquake's weapons fit well into his hands individually, despite their short pegs, but their combined form isn't as snug a fit as on my Nightscream Reverse. It bugs me that there's an extra tab on the side of the sword's peg that not only prevents it slipping deeping into the figure's grip, but doesn't correspond with any slot on the back of the gun, to help it stay fixed in place. Thus, the combined sword falls apart all too easily. It's also disappointing to see that the Club didn't duplicate the silver paint on Nightscream's weapon to give the blade a metallic-looking edge.
Given that the original Skyquake - a very late G1 figure - was eventually repainted into Machine Wars Starscream, it's no surprise that this version wasn't given a unique head, even though the humanoid face isn't a good match to the original. It's been painted much the same - copper on the face and 'ears', and features very effective translucent green light-piping - but the paint applications for his crests - green outlining for the outer parts and a red blob in the central part - have been omitted, probably because the sculpted detail of the helmet isn't a great match to the original either.
The bio card included with Skyquake is, perhaps, one of the better ones... It does at least give a good indication of his character and, to me, he comes across like Davros, the creator of the Daleks from Doctor Who. The motto "Even hatred is subject to improvement" is very appropriate and, while I might argue that the phrase "He focuses his hate through single-minded rationality that drives his monstrous scientific and combative endeavors" features something of a contradiction in terms as well as being typical Club nonsense, you certainly get the impression he's a nasty piece of work... and I quite like the idea of his seemingly 'supernatural awareness' is down to the myriad sensors built into him, and his superior ability to process their input. What seems strange is that the bio implies that he's an important part of the Wings of Honor story ("...he was given his own squad to command..."), much of which seems to have been one of Kup's flashbacks, yet he and Banzai-Tron were part of supplemental sets rather than being part of the boxed set, while Scourge - who seems to be in the 'present day' portion of the story framing the flashback - was in the boxed set.
To be honest, I was perfectly happy owning just one iteration of this mold - specifically Nightscream Reverse, which looked to be the most visually interesting version of those available within the Superlink/Energon lines - but, since this was effectively a bonus figure with BotCon Banzai-Tron, I can hardly complain. It's unfortunate that the wings are somehow distorted and that his faction insignia gem is missing... that would, no doubt, affect his resale value if I ever wanted to go that route. Still, it's not a bad figure, and the paint job is excellent... it's just not a figure that interested me in and of itself.... which might explain why it's taken me about ten years to write about it...
This mold was also reused - in mainly white an pale blue - as BotCon 2009's attendee exclusive figure, Leozack. That repaint paid homage to a toy from the Japanese TransFormers Victory line, who transformed into an F-14, and formed the upper torso of the Liokaiser combiner. Despite being an attendee exclusive figure, BotCon Leozack is still suprisingly available and affordable on the secondary market - circa £50-60 ($60-75) - but not sufficiently interesting to me to justify purchasing another iteration of this mold, let alone at a premium.
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