One interesting byproduct of my acquisition of some BotCon boxed sets is that,
once in a while, they introduced me to molds I'd not experienced from the main
Hasbro toylines. One such example was Revenge of the Fallen Dirge, in
the retooled and repainted form of Skywarp in the
Machine Wars: Termination
set from BotCon 2013.
While the figure from the extended movie universe didn't appeal - its
interpretation of the 'Conehead' style looked pretty ugly to me - FunPub's
idea of a Machine Wars Skywarp was very well executed, and showed that
the mold itself was actually great... and, as a result, I decided to pick up
the Thundercracker repaint. He was originally made available with
yet another repaint of the Classics Mirage mold which FunPub had
already used for the BotCon 2007 hologram figure - this time with a
colourscheme taken from the original Machine Wars toy. Having no
interest in that, I ended up buying Thundercracker separately, on the
secondary market.
So, let's see how this version compares to the toy from the boxed set...
I'd have to say that green is a very strange colour for an aircraft of
any kind, even moreso with the addition of a digital camouflage pattern that
seems most suited to jungle or grasslands,
neither of which tend to be the typical field of operations for an
aircraft. However, it is true to the original Machine Wars toy, even if the style of
jet isn't... And I have to admit that I'm glad this isn't yet another blue Thundercracker.
The green plastic is supplemented by a flat reddish-brown plastic for some of
the functional parts (most of which are hidden on the underside in this mode) along with a richer, more saturated, almost burgundy paint for the
missile launchers and the trailing edges of the four tail fins. The camouflage
pattern is printed in a flat brown, outlined in white, the cockpit
canopy frame is painted silver, and there are additional paint applications in
the form of blue and white military insignia on his wings, Decepticon insignia
on the tail and the sides of the nose, and then some black paint over
the dorsal vent and a couple of dashes on the sides of the intakes. It's a shame that some other details aren't painted - such as
the jet intakes themselves - but breaking up the jet panels with more paint would have made him look less drab... Unfortunately, the seem to have aimed for the minimalist approach of the original Machine Wars toy.
His missile launchers naturally tab in under his wings and are typically
oversized. It struck me as a little disappointing that the transformation
hinges below the wings weren't sculpted to look like more missiles, as they're
ideally placed, and that would have been the perfect disguise for necessary toy parts.
I love that it has three landing wheels - although none of them are rolling
wheels - and that they all fold away quite cleanly. These are another sign of
the toyline's regressions - you'd be lucky to find wheels represented by
semicircular nubs, these days.
Robot Mode:
I noted in my write-up of Skywarp, in the boxed set, that robot mode is a bit of a jumble, to say the least. While I admire the asymmetry, I can see where it has compromised the effectiveness of this robot mode. The upper body is particularly messy because the oversized missile launchers peg into the bicep of the left arm, but the elbow of the right arm, and both arms have jet mode kibble getting in the way of their awkward joints.
That said, I'd have to say that the bigger compromise here is to his paint job. The applications which are specific to robot mode are limited to black and burgundy paint on his shoulders, with silver across his upper chest, on the frame of the diminutive faux-cockpit canopy in the middle of his chest, and the protrusions from his shoulders. Being a mold from the extended movie toyline, robot mode is covered with surface detail, but most of it is bare. To be fair, though, much the same is true of the mainline toys, and Skywarp only got a dab of paint on the front of his pelvis... Any other painted detail visible in robot mode is from jet mode, so this figure really suffers by comparison to Skywarp.
Naturally, the mold's Mech Alive gimmick - dials on his chest which rotate while the arms are rotated around the shoulder - has been retained but, again, the absence of paintwork dulls the effect. It's actually kinda baffling, in retrospect, that the 2010 Hunt for the Decepticons Jetblade repaint of Dirge has the best paint job out of all iterations of this mold, exclusive or otherwise.
The new head sculpt is identical to that of Skywarp, but molded in black plastic, and the only paintwork is the silver visor, where Skywarp also got a dab of red on his forehead. The detail is somewhat lost except in direct light... but it's not exactly the most intricate sculpt the Club ever produced... it's basically just an exaggerated version of the original toy, albeit not quite as exaggerated as the comic that accompanied the boxed set.
The asymmetry of his transformation
reminds me a little of Nitro (Zeus) from The Last Knight, in that one arm
forms the nose of the jet, the other forms some of the back of the jet,
and the legs slot in below the wings to form the jet's intakes. It's interesting that they tied the head reveal to the extension of the G1-style shoulder protrusions, which serve no real purpose on this mold beyond offering a place of the tail section to peg into on his back, thus making it comparatively well-compressed.
For a mold that made its debut 15 years ago, there's a surprising amount of articulation that some fans seem to consider new and unique to more recent toys, specifically the range of the ankles. They can rotate and tilt as a result of the transformation engineering, which also adds another hinge, just above the ankle, which further increases the range of the feet. The knees are admittedly quite awkward, but they're double-jointed, and the wings can be moved out of the way to to give a full range of about 135°, but they can also bend forward, due to transformation, by about 90°. There's an upper thigh swivel, the hips are ball joints that can swing through a full 180° from front to back, but only about 45° out to the sides. There's no waist articulation due to transformation, and the best you can say for the arms is that both shoulders rotate a full 360°. In theory, bicep rotation is unhindered (for the left arm, at least), and they can lift out 90° to the sides due to transformation. Both elbows can bend all the way up, again, due to transformation, but that leaves his hands facing palm-up, and just about every aspect of the arms' movement is hindered while the launchers are attached, and the nosecone on the right arm further hinders its range. The head, despite being on a ball joint, can really only rotate, and can only manage about 45° in either direction.
It's been ages since I last fiddled with Timelines Skywarp, because he's in the box, stashed away... But Thundercracker, being on my Miscellaneous BotCon/TFCC Decepticons shelf, is closer to hand and easier to grab. Transforming him into jet mode reminded me what a remarkable feat of engineering this mold actually is... All things considered, it's a very tidy jet mode with comparatively little robot kibble left visible on the underside. More than that, though, compared to some of the gappy messes we get these days, some of his transformation seams are barely distinguishable from sculpted panel lines, and everything pegs together easily and securely. It's genuinely horrifying to see how much TransFormers engineering has regressed since 2009, when this mold first emerged.
On the downside, I've noticed that part of the undercarriage - which clips into the robot's pelvis to form the waist - is misaligned. Unfortunately, it's pinned in place on both sides with flat-headed pins, which are that much more difficult to remove. It doesn't affect transformation, and is barely visible in either mode unless you're looking for it, but the upper body is at a slight angle in robot mode as a result.
While robot mode might be less than optimal, this mold really is a fantastic adaptation of the Harrier, and I somewhat regret passing on RotF Dirge, or the Hunt for the Decepticons repaint, Jetblade. Off the back of this, I'd certainly recommend looking at one of the mainline releases, but the BotCon figures are almost certainly fetching insane prices these days. Thundercracker may be cheaper, being just part of an add-on set, and he may or may not come with the BotCon 2013 Mirage figure... but Skywarp is absolutely the more impressive figure.
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