War for Cybertron: Kingdom/Battle Across Time Collection Skywarp

One of the most frustrating things about being sick and tired of G1 reboots is that, when Hasbro releases a boxed set of two or more TransFormers toys, there's a good chance I'd only be interested in half the set, at most. Such was the case when the 'Battle Across Time Collection' was announced. Comprising two boxed sets - Maximal Grimlock & Autobot Mirage and Maximal Skywarp & Autobot Sideswipe - my interest was piqued by both of the Beast Wars reboot repaints, but I couldn't have cared less for the two Autobots. Upon seeing the final products, my interest in Grimlock was seriously reduced by the uninspiring (not to say incomplete-looking) paint job. Skywarp, meanwhile, was a bit of an oddity from the start. A repaint of Kingdom Airazor (which I really liked) with a head sculpt based more on the character's appearance in the Beast Wars anime than on the original toy (which was named Silverbolt in the west, but categorically not another form of the other Silverbolt)... and I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not.

Of course, that was largely a moot point, considering the somewhat ridiculous cost of either set: £58.99 for the former, £48.99 for the latter, both of which seeming somewhat over the odds for a two pack when the paintwork wasn't exactly extensive. Granted, it's still (objectively) better value than most BotCon toys, which could start at those sorts of prices for a single Deluxe class repaint, but it was more than enough to put me off buying either set, considering I'd then have to dispose of the figures I didn't want.

However, it seems there are more than enough fans who are only interested in the Autobot figures and don't mind selling off the Maximals (Skywarp being, by far, the more common on the secondary market right now). I quick look on eBay identified a handful of UK sellers offering him for around the £20 mark - well below half the cost of the set, which is always a surprise given many sellers' propensity for asking close to the full price of the complete set for just half its contents (or less). A few days later, I got a notification that one seller was willing to knock £2 off, making him about a quid cheaper than a standard, solo-release Deluxe in the Kingdom line, so I figured I might as well.

The only question being, is this semi-'exclusive' figure - rejected by its original owner - a worthwhile addition to my collection, considering it's no longer even a Femme-Bot?

Beast Mode:

The funny thing is, despite the original Skywarp being a bald eagle, with the changes to this figure's paintwork, Airazor's peregrine falcon-based beast mode looks fairly reasonable... and at least as good as the original Beast Wars toy. Of course, part of that is that this figure no longer has to worry about being a component of a Magnaboss gestalt, and part of it is that the Airazor mold was just really good, with multiple joints in the wings to make them more lifelike and dynamic. One rather strange feature of the wings is that they appear to have been molded in at least two different types of plastic, since the bird's back, the first two large sections of wing and the wing tips have a glossy finish, while the small, square hinge section and the penultimate section of each wing have a matte finish.

Colour-wise, the upper part of the beast mode is molded in a reddish, dark chocolate-y brown that is a massive improvement on the anaemic beige used for Airazor. Where it goes wrong - by following the style of the original toy rather than being an accurate representation of the real bird's colouration - is in the details. For some reason, they've painted the wingtips white, and the undersides of the rotating end section a lighter shade of brown, which would indicate Leucism rather than the natural colouration of a bald eagle's wings. Perhaps it could be argued that this is a juvenile bald eagle, but then the white should have been applied over almost the entire undersides of the wings. Similarly, in service of robot mode, the bird legs (the robot's lower legs) are molded in white plastic and the feet are a similar beige to Airazor's feathers, where the real bird has brown feathers on its legs and yellow feet. Where a real bald eagle has white feathers is on its head and tail... the former here is painted white, while the latter is itself unpainted and molded in the brown plastic, but flanked by parts molded in white plastic, which become the robot's waist and the lower part of his back. The white paint from the wings really should have been applied to the tail instead...

The bird mode head - obviously using the same sculpt as Airazor, so the beak is a bit on the small side for an eagle - could have used a darker, warmer shade of yellow for the beak, and perhaps a little dark wash around the eyes, since the beady dots of blue look quite harsh against the pure white. A closer inspection suggests that the eyes are lined with black, and that there is a black vertical-slit pupil painted in... and none of it lines up properly with the sculpted detail. It also looks exceptionally ugly that the white paint ends so abruptly at the joint, when the white feathers would normally extend slightly toward the shoulders. Then again, a bald eagle's neck is proportionally longer than that of a peregrine, so they didn't have a lot of surface area to work with. Probably the strangest paint application is the copperish yellow on the beast mode's claws, which is another error, because a bald eagle's claws tend to be black.

Naturally, the weapons are the same as Airazor's, and plug into the robot's folded-up thighs in this mode, but they're now molded in white plastic and are completely unpainted. It's aspects like this that really lower the tone of Hasbro's boxed sets, considering the - admittedly small - premium added to the cost of two Deluxe class toys.

Overall, Skywarp's beast mode is every bit as striking as Airazor, and the darker brown looks great. While the paintwork and the colouration of the tail and legs is clearly wrong for the type of bird it's intended to represent, it does look good... so I'm inclined to let it go.

Robot Mode:

Here's where using the Kingdom Airazor mold really helps, since the original BW Skywarp barely transformed, with his largely rigid, fully-extended wings left spread out behind the robot's back, and the beast mode's head ending up as a hood over the robot's entirely separate head. A lot of BW toys were underdeveloped but, being part of the Magnaboss gestalt, this was exacerbated on Skywarp.

In terms of distribution of colour, this figure attempts to emulate the original as far as possible, with the forearms and lower legs being molded in white plastic, while the upper arms, thighs and torso are molded in brown. It shakes things up a little by introducing beige for the thighs, biceps, the outer sections of the chest and the V-shaped armour panel over the pelvis and, while it's not unwelcome, it's also not as eyecatching as Airazor's orange or as attractive as the darker brown. While the white-painted eagle head becomes the focal point of the chest, the beige plastic on either side is supplemented by an application of copper paint as a reference to Skywarp's original character model. Sadly, it doesn't stand out very well against the beige background and, in any event, beige would have been more appropriately applied to the waist section... though that would then have ended up flanking the tail in beast mode.

Naturally, this version loses the spring-loaded missile launcher gimmicks, embedded in the ends of the wings of the original, but it was exceedingly clumsy in its execution, ending up being more effective for Magnaboss than Skywarp in either of his individual modes. It also loses the original's pair of 'Wingalibur' swords, but this omission is already being corrected by Third Parties. As mentioned, he carries Airazor's 'Photon Blasters', now cast in unpainted white plastic, so they blend in a bit too well with his arms.

One rather foolish aspect of his paint job is that his Maximal insignia has been applied to the front of his right bicep. While this certainly allows for a larger insignia, it ends up being partially obscured by his pauldron, even when it's fully extended.

The main point of interest on this toy is the new head sculpt... which is certainly unusual. Like the Worlds Collide Blackarachnia figure, it's heavily based on artwork rather than the original toy, with a squashed and exaggerated form of the beast mode 'hood' becoming a fixed part of the head. It's nicely designed, but it strikes me as looking like something from one of the popular 'sentai'/Power Rangers shows, or Kamen Rider, rather than a TransFormers robot head. I suppose the same could be said of Kingdom Airazor, upon reflection, but this more stylised head feels way more incongruous. The actual robot face reminds me a lot of RiD/Car Robots Prowl, with a pronounced battlemask, pointed chin and angled eyes. There are a couple of fang-like details protruding over the cheeks on either side, but there's also a pipe-like framework coming out from below them and wrapping round to meet below and in front of the chin. The whole face is painted silver, with the robot's eyes picked out in red, and beige paint applied to the sides of the head below the crown. Strangely, while the helmet's beak is painted the same yellow as the beast mode's, the 'eyes' on the hood are painted dark blue, bordering on black in some light, rather than the same cyan used on the beast mode eyes. It's a fairly cool head, and very much an improvement on the one from the original BW toy, but it really doesn't feel like the head of a TransFormers toy, let alone specifically a War for Cybertron: Kingdom toy, as its aesthetic is so very different.

I guess time will tell whether I regret buying this or not... As I write, I've only had it in my possession for a couple of days. Certainly, for the price, it feels like I got a great deal, and it was certainly refreshing to find a seller who wasn't blatantly trying to recoup the entire cost of acquiring the boxed set. In fact, what I received was Skywarp still in the box - the seller had literally just removed Sideswipe and closed the box up again, instructions and all.

The mold is great fun and, while neither mode is particularly accurate to its source, the figure looks decent enough in both forms - and arguably better than Airazor due to the darker, richer brown. That said, the weird colour distribution, the overall lack of paintwork, the use of dull beige plastic and paintwork, and the lazily reused, unpainted accessories admittedly feel like something of a downside.

Given that the boxed set is £48.99 - effectively valuing each figure at £24.49, a little below the Voyager pricepoint - it's not something I would have been inclined to buy, and I've only briefly looked into acquiring Battle Across Time Grimlock because, much as I like the concept and the new head sculpt, the paintwork really lets the mold down, and I feel that's slightly less true with Skywarp. Of course, for fans who enjoy both G1 and Beast Wars, or for those who are simply enjoying Kingdom, the set may well be worth investing in, particularly for those who don't already own one of the other variations on Sideswipe (Siege original, Siege/Netflix, G2-style Alphastrike Counterforce set).