A great wrestler once said “OH YOU DIDN'T KNOW?” and if you didn't know what was going to be the subject of this review then to quote him further, “YO' ASS BETTER CALL SOMEBODY!”
It's yet another Power Core Combiner review!
It's yet another Power Core Combiner review!
So here we are to wrap up Wave 1 of the P.C.C line with arguably one of the worst figures from the line.
Skyburst and the Aerialbots.
I'm going to start this by saying I've had two Skyburst's my original snapped his thigh joint and I couldn't fix it. This may have jaded my opinion on him but there are problems even beyond that. Lets start with the main event of this team, Skyburst.
Skyburst and the Aerialbots.
I'm going to start this by saying I've had two Skyburst's my original snapped his thigh joint and I couldn't fix it. This may have jaded my opinion on him but there are problems even beyond that. Lets start with the main event of this team, Skyburst.
Skyburst has no prior use of his name so he's one of a kind (for now) he transforms from a stealth jet, to robot, to torso (and back again!). There isn't a lot of good things to say about his robot mode. The sculpting is nice and the paint apps break up the solid colours nicely at least. Skyburst has a decently detailed face with a good dash of silver paint for it. Up until recently I didn't even know his head could turn!
He has no visible PCC pegs! With the way he transforms all of the pegs are stashed away in his plane backpack or in his legs. I tend to use the leg PCC pegs to help keep him stable. Without them he's a little difficult to balance with all that jet on his back. He's got some decent articulation more because of how he transforms into a torso than anything else.
He does have fist holes to hold weapons/Mini-cons but because he needs his hands not to have holes all the way through (if he did his torso mode would have weird nipple holes...) this doesn't cause a problem with most of the Mini-cons, more on this when we talk about his repaint Darkstream.
He has no visible PCC pegs! With the way he transforms all of the pegs are stashed away in his plane backpack or in his legs. I tend to use the leg PCC pegs to help keep him stable. Without them he's a little difficult to balance with all that jet on his back. He's got some decent articulation more because of how he transforms into a torso than anything else.
He does have fist holes to hold weapons/Mini-cons but because he needs his hands not to have holes all the way through (if he did his torso mode would have weird nipple holes...) this doesn't cause a problem with most of the Mini-cons, more on this when we talk about his repaint Darkstream.
Jet mode really isn't much to talk about it has all of the usual transformer jet problems, while he doesn't have it as bad as say Generations Silverbolt (the pre Combiner Wars one, (saying that- even the CW one has a good dose of it)he does have both of his legs and his arms in plain view under the jet. I want to mention how the jet doesn't look (to my knowledge) like any pre-existing jet, I like that.
Torso mode does some interesting things to remove a lot of the back pack bulk he had as a robot. The top part swings over the head, you swing up his torso mode head, his arms click into place and the tail fins swing forward to peg onto the arms. His legs twist 90 degrees and you tilt them into posistion. Nothing fancy here.
The torso is a nice change from his robot mode. I especilly like how the shoulders are formed.
His head is a nice sculpt though I feel it could've benefited from some light piping, he's even sculpted to be light piped! Just taunting me now Hasbro!
The torso is a nice change from his robot mode. I especilly like how the shoulders are formed.
His head is a nice sculpt though I feel it could've benefited from some light piping, he's even sculpted to be light piped! Just taunting me now Hasbro!
Lets talk third party shall we?
The Mobine armour has a similar problem to Smolder. The pegs from the shoulders block some of the articulation. In every other way it suits him fine. Makes me wish I had the blue/grey set to go on him, I think it'd look good. I've not much else to say about him with Mobine, he bulks out with it and he looks ok with it.
The Mobine armour has a similar problem to Smolder. The pegs from the shoulders block some of the articulation. In every other way it suits him fine. Makes me wish I had the blue/grey set to go on him, I think it'd look good. I've not much else to say about him with Mobine, he bulks out with it and he looks ok with it.
Iron army as always looks good, the extra height the tank legs bring is countered by the fact the thin legs suddenly end at the knees before becoming super wide and bulky tank legs. You could try turning the tanks 90 degrees but that makes him look weirder, trust me, I just tried it for the first time and I feel like I've got a slender man covered in tanks and planes staring at me! GAH!
Skybusrst was never going to be posed with the third party limbs for any real amount of time, I'm pretty sure he's never had these sets attached on to him until such time as the writing of this review. Once the photos are done (spoiler! I write the article weeks in advance and then I panic last minute and bash the photos out, as I'm highly professional with my reviews!) I doubt I'll ever pair them up again.
So shall we talk about the Aerialbots?
So shall we talk about the Aerialbots?
Oh boy, these limbs... A few to many problems exist within this set. But lets not get into that just yet.
The Aerialbots consist of a yellow chopper drone (usually the left arm), a blue combat helicopter drone (usually the right leg), a grey and black fighter jet drone (usually the left leg) and a white recon plane drone (usually the right arm). Informative blurb all done with on to the rant!
Oh lord two of the limbs in this set are awful. They aren't the worst set, the two good limbs drag the team up.
Oh lord two of the limbs in this set are awful. They aren't the worst set, the two good limbs drag the team up.
The recon drone is a great arm, it's the right length for an arm and it looks the part.
The blue helicopter is a good leg, the front guns are weighted so they flick back as a heel and the main engine/rotor pushes up to form a good knee cap.
The yellow chopper is, to put it politely, ass. The panels for the chopper break up nicely but it looks to long top that off with how the tail piece forms the “Hand”. Urgh.
Our next offender is the grey fighter jet. Where to start? How about how it posistions for it's leg mode. It doesn't sit straight down like the majority of the legs it pegs on at a weird angle. The wings fold in and the tail fins fold up to form part of the foot. The nose cone and the central fuselage folds down to clip into the tail fin. Now on my first set of these limbs it did not click into each other at all. He would fall over a lot because of it. Now on my second set it clicks in improving it but I still don't like it.
One thing I have to mention is the nose cone. It has a hinge and it also has a spring.
I have no idea why on Earth, Cybertron and it's moons why it's like that! It has enough clearance, it's not for the look of it, as the spring pulls it back to it's normal posistion. Why? WHY?!
Right that's enough of a rant about limbs!
This set in't good. It's by no means the worst set out there but he's pretty bad. A lot of people first experiences were with this set and I understand why some fans didn't go any further with PCC.
Well that's the last of Wave 1 done. Where do we go next?
Wave 2 of course! Onwards for sure, upwards? Well that remains to be seen.
One thing I have to mention is the nose cone. It has a hinge and it also has a spring.
I have no idea why on Earth, Cybertron and it's moons why it's like that! It has enough clearance, it's not for the look of it, as the spring pulls it back to it's normal posistion. Why? WHY?!
Right that's enough of a rant about limbs!
This set in't good. It's by no means the worst set out there but he's pretty bad. A lot of people first experiences were with this set and I understand why some fans didn't go any further with PCC.
Well that's the last of Wave 1 done. Where do we go next?
Wave 2 of course! Onwards for sure, upwards? Well that remains to be seen.
Stu "Darkageis" Murray is a founding member of The Old Oilhouse, a lifelong transformers nut and collector of Sentai and Kamen rider in all it's forms.
He sometimes takes epic trips to Newcastle, and tells tales of these sagas often.
When not watching people in spandex fight each other he paints miniatures, go HERE to take a look.
He sometimes takes epic trips to Newcastle, and tells tales of these sagas often.
When not watching people in spandex fight each other he paints miniatures, go HERE to take a look.