Combiner Wars deluxe Quickslinger is the current name Hasbro has given to G1 Aerialbot Slingshot. Quickslinger/Slingshot didn’t make it out to mass-retail, instead replaced by newcomer Alpha Bravo, but Hasbro is releasing Quickslinger in the US as a shared online exclusive as part of the Transformers’ “May Mayhem†celebration next month. Read on for the full review and photos.
Packaging: Quickslinger ships with a copy of The Transformers comic book from IDW, oddly it’s a reprint of Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2012) issue #11, which doesn’t feature any Aerialbots or combiners whatsoever, but is part of a great run and has a fantastic reveal at the end; the issue is referred to in publishing details inside as “The Transformers: Combiner Wars #3”. The back of this exclusive edition of the book has an in-universe biography and character psych evaluation by Rung, inside that rear cover is the design desk genesis of this figure. All of this fits with the mass-retail figures shipping starting with wave 2. Note that the figure is referred to as 4 of 5 for Superion, the same number as Alpha Bravo, fitting perfectly in a collection.
Vehicle Mode: Quickslinger is designed to be similar to a Harrier jump-jet, just like his G1 self. He’s the only deluxe Aerialbot that has any fold-down landing gear, a single gear at the front. There’s a nice amount of vehicle sculpted detailing on the top, and even the underside has some. Like a lot of recent plane Transformers, Quickslinger’s vehicle mode turns into a boxy robot hiding under a jet the further back you look. The nosecone has a rubber tip for safety that is well-integrated. The robot kneecaps make for passable lift-fan vents. Normally I’m not a fan of Hasbro’s ultra-white plastic, but on this deco it works better than I expected. Vehicle mode is nicely solid.
Robot Mode: Transformation would be G1-simplistic if it weren’t for the way the legs transform down. Those legs are similar to a lot of the Combiner Wars deluxes with multiple hinges in the lower legs, so it’s important to make sure the angles line up properly where the back of the knee tabs into the rear of the leg. If the knees are transformed correctly, Quickslinger is a very solid robot. The wings can be folded all the way back or stopped at 45 degrees.
Quickslinger’s head sculpt is cribbing his G1 cartoon’s look nicely, although he’s got blue shades instead of the orange ones. The articulation is pretty good, the ball-jointed head can look up quite a bit, although it can only tilt a few degrees. Where the sculpt in vehicle mode was nicely detailed and worked with the white plastic, in robot mode it doesn’t fare quite as well, going for a more chunky look reminiscent of the smaller G1 toy. The chest using the exposed combiner joint isn’t ideal, but on this figure it doesn’t look too bad despite the notable gap at the bottom. Because of the angle of the feet, 1-legged poses are pretty unlikely, but poseability is otherwise quite decent. The elbows have a little bit of side-to-side wiggle in them, something that seems to be in a number of the CW deluxes so far.
Quickslinger’s accessories are the same as mold-brother Firefly, a blaster with “twin mortar cannons” made from the hand/foot accessory, and regular rifle that is lightly reminiscent of G1 Fireflight’s photon displacer gun. The rifle has nice detailing although there are a lot of cut-away segments. The twin mortar cannons can be held both as a pistol or underslung, and that’s how I think it looks best since it’s a bit large. The weapons can be stored in a 5mm peg hole on either wing.
Limb Modes: As Superion’s left arm, Quickslinger looks very classic G1, except with a pair of robot thighs in the middle to make a working elbow. The arm is basically robot mode with the robot’s arms flipped around and folded behind him, and while it doesn’t seem as if there’s an intentional place to go, if you angle it correctly Quickslinger’s fists end up on a pair of 5mm tabs on his back that have no other use, so it’s clearly meant to do this. I’m not loving the way the little robot arms look this way, but it’s not a huge drawback. Quickslinger as an arm is strong enough to hold up Powerglide as a gun, which is pretty good.
As a leg, Quickslinger is basically vehicle mode with the cockpit folded down and various wings folded out of the way, it works fine. You can’t get a G1-accurate look out of it though, with the vehicle mode on the back side of the leg, because Silverbolt’s fists are in the way and would run into the nosecone, but you’d also lose knee articulation doing that.
Comparisons: Quickslinger’s colors get somewhat replicated by mass-retail replacement and Aerialbot newcomer Alpha Bravo. The blue stripe on white vehicle mode, the orange face, they share some ideas.
Quickslinger seems to have been planned from the outset since his design calls back to the G1 Slingshot’s Harrier-inspired vehicle mode, while mass-retail Firefly uses the exact same mold except for the head, despite G1 Fireflight’s vehicle mode being an F4 Phantom that has its wings at the bottom of the fuselage instead of the top. Below compares CW Quickslinger and Firefly, note both use the Harrier-style vehicle mode. Luckily, some of the colors are vastly different from each other.
Overall: Quickslinger fills that need of having all the G1 characters together again to form Superion, and since Combiner Wars is part of Generations, a nostalgia-themed line, it makes sense that the G1 faithful would want this guy over a new one like Alpha Bravo who isn’t even a jet. I like Quickslinger as much as I do Firefly, but I also like Alpha Bravo. With the deluxe Aerialbots being all very similar except Alpha Bravo, each collector will have their own opinion about whether or not to get Quickslinger, but I can say that Quickslinger has a unique head design.
Review sample supplied by Hasbro