Skydive [Age of the Primes/Deluxe Class]

In our ongoing quest to complete the Transformers Age of the Primes Aerialbot team of five buttheads, today we’re looking at Skydive! Skydive is the bookworm of the squad — well-versed in aerial tactics, strategy, and history. He's also the most visually distinct member of the team thanks to his mostly black color scheme, compared to the primarily white look the rest of the Aerialbots have going on.

This figure is a remold of the Air Raid toy we looked at a little while back. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have noticed if it hadn’t been pointed out, but side-by-side the shared engineering is clear. Still, the sculpting and new parts are handled so well that it doesn’t feel like the same toy with a new coat of paint. And really, it makes sense to stretch the tooling budget when the original characters themselves shared similar silhouettes in the first place. Skydive and Air Raid have usually been “same shape, different guy,” so this is just accurate to life.

As I’ve been saying with these current Transformers Generations figures — Skydive looks like he stepped right out of the cartoon. Which would be terrifying if he did that while I’m napping during G1 reruns on the Transformers channel. Damn.

Skydive is nicely articulated and comes with two blasters. They work well in robot mode and can also peg under his wings in jet mode. Transformation is quick and easy: legs compress, arms fold in, the backpack settles into place — your standard modern jet-transforming-guy routine. In jet mode, Skydive’s unique colors stand out even more. The darker gray body and lightning pattern on the wings look great, and now that I’m thinking about it, that kind of flashy detail seems to originate back to his G1 toy. I don't remember similar patterns before him, but plenty after. Neat!

Like his teammates, Skydive forms part of Superion — and we’ll take a full look at that combined mode once Fireflight finally joins the squad. These Age of the Primes combiners are a big improvement over the Combiner Wars versions from ten years ago (which I actually liked a lot at the time), so I’m excited to see Superion come together here on Zone Base.

Silverbolt [Age of the Primes/Commander Class]

I'm putting a solid effort to complete all the current combiner teams. Not finishing Menasaur a few years ago left a bad taste in my mouth, so it feels like an accomplishment to be so close with Superion. We'll be looking at Silverbolt today, he's the leader of the Aerialbots and the core component of Superion. While the toy is sold as a Commander Class, Silverbolt is closer to a Voyager Class toy. The price difference comes from the extra parts that are used to for Superion in conjunction with the other Aerialbots.

Fortunately these parts do serve a purpose when standing alone. They can form something of a battle station or combine with Silverbolt's jet mode to form a larger aircraft. Initially I was a little snarky over them, but grew more fond of them once I started folding them into these forms. You can combine them with Silverbolt to form a skeletal Superion, but I won't be showing that today. Instead that'll be for a completed set post after I get the other two later this year.

Silverbolt is pleasantly articulated and really feels like an evolution of his original toy. He's got a cool little blaster that matches the rest of his team. Speaking of the team, while they tend to be a bunch of buttheads, he's a lot more cool and collective. He tends to try and teach them lessons and be a positive role model. Unfortunately... he's afraid a heights. Considering he transforms into a Concord jet and leads a team of jet buttheads, that's not so great. He does get over it, but it was that initial fear that prompted Optimus to put him in charge of the team.

What the hell Optimus?

Transformation to jet mode isn't hard, but it does take a lot of extra folding. Silverbolt's arms halfway go inside of his upper torso, while his legs do a bit of a pretzel fold around them. It works well, but might take a minute to get in place. It's worth noting that Superion's head folds into that same upper torso in robot mode, and it's got to be just right or won't work. Lots of precise folding going on here. When completed, you've got a pretty decent looking Concord jet... with a giant block of robot kibble underneath.

The extra parts for Superion can connect and form a super jet that does look pretty neat. I appreciate the effort even if mine kept coming apart. It's a good use of the parts and Superion's big gun. Like I said, those same parts can form something of a battle station as well. It's not much, but an effort was made. I definitely like the super jet use better. Overall Silverbolt is a fun toy that manages to use some extra parts creatively. I'm really looking forward to completing the team. Superion is a great looking robot and so are the individual Aerialbots. Not bad.

Air Raid [Age of the Primes/Deluxe Class]

Rounding out the second new Aerialbot available as of this writing is Air Raid. Air Raid, like his team mates, is a butt head. He's fearless, reckless, and often in some sort of trouble. While that doesn't sound so fun to most folks, Air Raid couldn't be happier. I've actually got a bit of affinity towards the little shit. When I was younger Air Raid was my first Aerialbot outside of Easter Basket bootleg sets.

I had acquired him for cheap and happy to finally have an official member of the team. Those G1 toys are actually pretty small, and Air Raid found himself in my bag for a little while. I still remember a late night visit to Dunkin Donuts with friends after work with Air Raid getting passed around. Good times.

Air Raid is very faithful to his appearance in the original Transformers cartoon. He's well articulated and just overall pleasant. To be fair, the Aerialbots are pretty plane looking... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cries*.  Originally, the Scramble City Combiners and Metroplex were designed to be Diaclone toys, but were released as Transformers only. I can see that Diaclone heritage in this Air Raid toy a lot. Makes me wonder what if Transformers never happened. Imagine if Diakron and Kronoform had lived and this was a new updated toy from those series? Air Raid has two blasters that can connect under his wings for alt mode firepower. That's a small thing that's done often... but I like it.

Transformation to his black F-15 Eagle jet mode is pretty easy. Everything just goes into place easily. The only place where you've got to be careful is when folding his legs into the rear of the jet. There's nothing too hard about it, but it's another one of those exactly right or it's not working type spots. It took me a second to get the two sections to snap together out of lack of wiggle room. Not a deal breaker and or a dark spot. Just a brief moment of saying dammit. Air Raid's mix of white, red, and black looks great. It gives a fairly simple looking bot and give him some visual pop. It's funny that a team of butt heads have such simple looking figures. I guess the old mantra 'keep it simple stupid' is always true for a reason. Air Raid looks great in his simplicity and jet mode is fun. Maybe I'll take him with me to Tim Hortons and relive some old memories. My local Dunkin sucks.

Slingshot [Age of the Primes/Deluxe Class]

The other day I was at Walmart with the Mrs and my Mom. When we had walked out to my car, a Slingshot was parked next to us leading my Mom to marvel at how neat it looked. That lead to me remembering the Age of the Prime toys I've been sitting on without posting about.

For example, today we'll be looking at Slingshot the Aerialbot. The Aerialbots, like other classic combiner teams is getting updated with all new and improved toys. It feels like just yesterday that the Combiner Wars version came out... but it sure wasn't. That was 9 years ago. So hey... almost a decade later they're getting updated with new engineering and frankly, they look great!

The Aerialbots are mostly remembered for being butt heads in their initial appearances in the original cartoon. Slinghsot's claim to fame was his adventures with Prince Jumal/Hassan in the episode Aerial Assault. During this episode, the Aerialbots were damaged and got repaired with car parts, leading to Slingshot having an older cars grill for a chest. I think an aftermarket company is making a snap on version of that car grill, which I might be tempted to buy. Slinghsot is also known for his G2 toy being one of the most fragile Transformers ever. It's made of solid gold plastic, which doesn't age well.

Horror stories of fans finding theirs in piles of rubble are well spread. Allegedly newer metallic plastics don't have this problem, but time will tell. Fortunately his newest toy is pretty good. Thanks to advances in toy engineering in the more recent years, the design team is able to make toys that look as if they stepped right off the TV screen. Well, toys that actually physically transform that walked off the TV screen. Slingshot looks like the butt head I just watched the other day. Just so happened Aerial Assault was recently aired on the Transformers Channel. I watch it daily.

In robot mode Slingshot is fairly well articulated. He can be put into a variety of poses and is pretty expressive. It's like the design team made a point to engineer his attitude. He's packing twin double barrel blasted that plug under his wings in jet mode. Transformation is pretty easy and he folds into a jet pretty quickly. Jet mode is the same Sea Harrier you know from his classic appearance. It looks great and is pretty solid. I enjoy how the front landing gear unfolds from the back of Slingshot's head.

Like most jet Transformers, there's a good bit of robot folded under the plane. It's been 41 years, I'm used to it. Thankfully there's not much to really complain about. The bulk of his jet kibble in robot mode is part of his classic appearance. Like I said, transformation is pretty easy. My only gripe is the same I have with a lot of recent cad designed Transformers. There just isn't a lot of wiggle room in the design, so you'll have to get thing exactly right or it's not coming together. Fortunately that wasn't as much of a problem with Slingshot, who being a butt head, you'd expect a little fuss.

GIG Cominer gift sets commercial

I wish the store employees were this happy to sell me Transformers at Target.

Super Action Pose

The Japanese versions of G2 commercials are pretty simple, just an announcer talking over US footage with custom ending bumper. Can't argue as the G2 commercials are pretty much perfect as is. Pretty decent for the time CGI, good selling of the toys features, and those cheesy raps. They're a perfect time capsule of the early 90's.

I kind of still like the CGI.

We are going to get SO much candy

Dibs on Metroplex.