Transformation in the manual is an incoherent disastrous mess from step 2 (step 1 is "fold up landing gear"), and what they suggest is patently impossible without unplugging other stuff first. In fact, it took me 15 minutes to figure out what part WAS supposed to move first since it's a well-held plane. Once I got the idea, I ignored the hell out of the instructions, they kept on being obtuse when I'd check back to make sure I was getting near the toy's basics. Transformation once you get the concept isn't too difficult, but it moves stuff around more cleverly than it even seems. Folding up the torso is confusing thanks to the worthless instructions, the figure seems like it's done when it's not. This would be a slick deluxe transformation scheme, but as a voyager it somehow seems almost simple.
Bot mode is very cool, very themed, and very clean, no slop or waste. I like how the 2 sets of wings look, the tails fold together to become a backpack of sorts, it looks "fast". Then the shoulderpads have the main wings folded around in a close, nasty way that looks right. There are 2 gimmicks in bot mode, and neither feel particularly important. The first is folding the big wings back, it folds up 2 sets of little red feather things that are of no consequence, and when this happens it bends the wingtips in which actually is kinda nifty. The second gimmick is the spring-out knife under each forearm, this is boring for 2 reasons, you have to manually set them ahead of time, they aren't positioned for the spring clip via transformation; and they have like 30 degrees of travel, which is especially meh. They're alright knives, don't get me wrongo, but the spring action is a total flop - no drama. The look has some good detail but is bettter carried by the larger shapes, the sculpted details are ok but not fine enough to carry it by themselves. The head is unusual and a little bat-like (he's honestly cooler than the original character), the face has a visor with 2 tiny silver eyes near the bottom, it is a little hypnotizing
. Colors added to the game are greenish silver, dark burnt red, and some translucent vibrant red.Articulation is pretty good, although he lacks rotation below the elbow which with underhanded knives seemed like a must to me. The legs have no rotation below the hip which is odd, but there's a sweet subtle tilt hinge in the feet, and the shins have extra hinging for chicken-legged action, but that looks way silly so I don't really get why it's there, they don't seem to use it or need it. The head is ball-jointed, the neck hinged, the shoulders rotate and hinge out, upper bicep swivels, double-hinged elbows but range limited to around 90 degrees, wrists hinged for transformation, waist rotates, ratcheting ball-hinged hips, swivel upper thighs, hinge knees that go nearly 180, mid-thigh hinged on chicken-leg joint, ankle hinged, and ankle side-hinged.
Overall, I get the feeling this figure was designed as a Deluxe and scaled up, there's just something about the proportions, transformation, sculpted details, and articulation that seems like it was meant to be a boss deluxe. That said, it's a very keen figure on its own in this scale, a cool customer and a good-looking Decepticon, it just suffers from underwhelming gimmicks and horrible instructions.
