Universe2.0/Generations Review Thread

[Prime_Wreck]

That's just another indicator of the frustration most of us get when it comes to Hasblow not releasing what we'd really like them to release.

[Onslaught Six]

You're...kinda bitter, aren't you?

[Dominic]

A bitter transfan, whoda thunkit?

Dom
-bit him too.

[onslaught86]

To be fair, no matter what they release, there will always be fans that love it, and there will always be fans that hate it. This is a given.

[Gomess]

I bit a Transfan once.

Snowstorm'd be sweet. I'm a White Seeker Supremacist since I met Ramjet as a child. There's just something about a plane the same colour as clouds (now THAT's camouflage, G2 Combaticons)!

[Dominic]

I bit a Transfan once.

Snowstorm'd be sweet. I'm a White Seeker Supremacist since I met Ramjet as a child. There's just something about a plane the same colour as clouds (now THAT's camouflage, G2 Combaticons)!

Once, at BotCon '98, I threatened to lodge a Coke-bottle in a fellow transfans tuchus, ala the (incorrect) legend of Fatty Arbuckle.

Dom
-gonna review Japanese "Henkei" soon.

[Onslaught Six]

Once, at BotCon '98, I threatened to lodge a Coke-bottle in a fellow transfans tuchus, ala the (incorrect) legend of Fatty Arbuckle.

That'd be insanely painful.

-gonna review Japanese "Henkei" soon.

As opposed to American Henkei? Oh ho ho!

[Dominic]

Henei Penkei at BotCon?

Dom

[andersonh1]

Transformers Universe Silverbolt

Continuing the trend of offering Ultra-sized revisions of G1 characters, we get a new version of Silverbolt, the Aerialbot leader. The Aerialbots were one of the early combiners in G1 of course, and Silverbolt was the central unit, while all the smaller bots were the limbs.

The original: http://www.tfu.info/1986/Autobot/Silver ... erbolt.htm

The update is a very faithful reproduction, despite being a different type of jet and dispensing with the gold chrome. The original Silverbolt was a robot with a plane stuck on its back, and so is the update, though at least the shoulders and arms tuck away better and don't stick out from under the wings on the new version.

Airplane: Looks like some type of supersonic jet. Very sleek, narrow and angular. There's a button in the back between the engines that activates the sound effects, which seem very similar to TFU Powerglide's sound effects. There's an engine swoosh, a flyby and machine gun sounds, which cause lights on either side of the cockpit to flash. The engine swoosh is accompanied by flashes in the engine. There's a button on top of the plane right between the 'guns' that does nothing in plane mode, but comes into play later in a nice extra touch for bot mode.

The plane itself is warm grey with silver trim. The plastic that makes up the cockpit windows is a teal blue, as is the clear plastic on the engines. There's a reddish orange band on the back of the engines as well. The words BOLT-25 are in a stencil-type font on either side of the center of the plane, and each wing has a silver Autobot symbol+wings type of design with 25 printed in the middle. I would assume that these are in reference to the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Transformers toyline.

In a nice extra touch, Silverbolt's rifle can be attached to the underside of the plane's nose. It's a solid and convincing airplane with a number of nice features. However, flip it over to look at the underside, and the illusion is shattered rather quickly. There's a very obvious headless robot torso there with arms and legs folded in such a way that they won't be obvious from the top or even really from the sides.

On any other figure, I'd be complaining about this. I'm not happy with the undercarriage junk that so many Transformer planes are stuck with. There has to be a way to disguise it more effectively than is usually done. I remember my brother owned the original Silverbolt, and I was disappointed at how badly the robot mode was disguised, and how obvious it was. The remake of Silverbolt hides it better than the original, but it's still right there if you look at the plane from just about any direction. But I'm inclined to cut the designers some slack in this instance. Since this is a homage to the original design, I'm inclined to actually enjoy the fact that an effort was made to keep Silverbolt true to his original appearance, even if that results in a less than hidden robot stuck on the underside of a plane. I suppose if you want a comparison, it's similar to the way Classics Starscream's jet mode has his robot torso for an underside, in a very obvious manner. Silverbolt is much like that, only much more so.

Transformation: dead simple. The plane folds in half, and that's it for the vehicle alterations. The arms swing out from where they're tabbed into the underside of the wings, and the fists rotate out. The legs unfold and rotate, and the feet fold down. Then comes the fun bit. To reveal the head, the legs have to be pushed up into the torso. Doing so causes the head to extend up out of the shoulders, the eyes to flash, and the G1 transformation sound to play. Pulling the legs back down hides the head, and the reverse transformation sound plays. I love it. That's a good use of an electronic sound effect.

Bot mode: big and stable in many poses. Dead on to G1 Silverbolt, if updated on a lot of small details. Yes, he's a robot with a plane folded in half for a backpack, but the figure looks great, has plenty of articulation, and is a very enjoyable update of a classic figure. The button on the top of the plane turns out to go all the way through the nose of the jet, and pushing it allows you to press the sound effects button, which is beneath the folded up jet nose at this point. A nice touch.

Just like the original, the decor is red, white and gold, though in this case we get gold paint instead of the gold chrome of the original. While the paint is probably longer-lasting, I loved the chrome. The face draws heavily from the animation model as well as the toy, and the look is really unique to Silverbolt.

Overall: Like I said, on any other figure I'd be complaining about the very minimal attempt to hide the robot. But as a homage, this figure is dead on the money, and I love it. I'd better, since I shelled out $28 for it. If you like your robots well-hidden in their vehicular disguise, you'll be disappointed with Silverbolt. If you want a fun and easy to transform figure, who's a great homage to his G1 counterpart, you'll really enjoy Silverbolt.

[JediTricks]

Ironhide: good ideas, poor execution. Mine is bluefaced and has a paint error too, the lower part of a side window is unpainted. Alt mode is very cracky everywhere. It's also too narrow especially on the lower half, and the back end doesn't look like something you'd see on a vehicle like this. The underside is largely empty which causes the whole thing to be a little fragile, easy to cave in. Transformation is very clever, but ends up with some big problems by not thinking through a few things. Bot mode has a lot of backpack, a sunken in neck, hollow lower legs and skinny upper legs, screw holes, and stability issues in the upper body. The articulation is decent tho. The weapon is largely a brick, but the gun at least looks cool. I'd grade it a "C" probably.