I feel the need… the need for a licensed Northrup Grumman F-14 Tomcat Transformer! Is this Walmart-exclusive worth picking up now that it’s had a Black Friday release and is appearing at Ross? Yes! …. but! Yeah, read on for more.
TF x Top Gun Maverick is a figure I’ve been tempted by since day one since I’ve always had a thing for the F-14 Tomcat, but the price tag and many, many gripes kept me away until Walmart finally got it down under $30, then under $20 for their exclusive version that comes with the motorcycle but no volleyball or alt hands. Despite being re-released for the film Top Gun Maverick, the toy is definitely representing the original film with Goose’s cockpit label. One thing to note, yellowing is being commonly reported with this figure, my first sample (below) came with a few parts severely yellowed and was returned; my second sample came with the same parts very slightly yellowed but acceptable and is the one I’ll be reviewing from here on out.
The packaging is a weird throwback to older days, a lot of window with the F-14’s wings swept back and banked sideways over the image of the deck of a carrier, suggesting he’s buzzing the tower. The tiny bike accessory is banded to the back wall out of sight.
The tiny motorcycle is surprisingly painted, though it’s inverse to Mav’s Kawasaki in the original film with red over black instead of black over red. It’s also the wrong bike entirely, something like a Suzuki B-King or Ducati Streetfighter, but it’s surprisingly well-detailed for something so tiny. It lends a fantastic scale to the set, suggesting the race Mav has with the launching F-14 when he gets to Miramar.
Maverick’s vehicle mode is an F-14 that has movable wings, a movable front landing gear, removable weapon pod with a sparrow and a sidewinder missile as one unit each (left and right), and a pair of fuel pods; there’s no rear landing gear, so the fuel pods are necessary to pose it on the front landing gear, the plane actually rests on the robot arms folded underneath but they’re so narrow that it tilts without the pods. The plane has a nice size to it, large even if it were a voyager class. Sculpted detailing is really nice for the most part, with a few screw holes on the right side of the cockpit exposed, and the underside suffering the robot arms clumsily dumped between the engines, as well as a few small hollow spots. It’s a really good looking plane toy, but one thing that drives me nuts is the cockpit doesn’t quite meet the angle it’s supposed to, there’s a small gap and it tips down a few degrees, for someone like me it drives me bonkers. Despite that, I still think they did a great job getting a real F-14’s profile out of this, even the arms don’t hamper the looks too bad when this could have been a brick like the Earthrise seekers. A 3mm port for a flight stand ends up under the center of the plane on the robot forearm, and if you transform his arms backwards it still will be there.
The mottled paint printing on the top went absolutely nuts, with every top surface (except the very front of the intake top ducts for some reason) getting a rather heavy printing job sporting some rather confusing directionality, it’s a LOT — I get what they were going for, but it’s not subtle enough, though I appreciate them printing even under the swing section of the wings so when they’re out it’s still consistent. The paint work around that is pretty good, there’s not a ton but it does the job. Unfortunately, the base paint is a milky gray and the underside is unpainted which leaves a huge mismatch, I’d almost prefer the top got less deco but it helps cover the semi-translucent plastic which looks awful when light shines through. The tails have a squadron mark that’s masked red and white which didn’t align that well, and the missiles have white tips.
Transformation has some interesting ideas, there’s a little bit of automorph, the arms can be transformed backwards, some Jetfireish folding, even the drop pods fold out to become guns, it’s interesting. There are a few parts that leave me frustrated, the final step’s chest window cover that merely hovers while the head just rests on the collar via friction is odd, but overall it’s fun. The instructions are shockingly clear and gets everything right except step 24 shows the automorphing part being manually pulled out well after it transformed on its own.
Maverick’s robot mode is largely made up of the underside of the plane, so there’s far less sculpted or painted detail here than vehicle mode. His head is Maverick’s helmet with a robot visor face, my first sample had a sloppily-molded visor while my second is sharp. The head sits over a gap which makes it look from above like it’s floating, from a few angles the core of the robot has a lot more of those little gaps, others it looks whole. I’m frustrated by the chest cover, it doesn’t sit flush over the canopy and looks like it should, instead hovering a few millimeters out of it, instructions suggest tilting it up but there’s really nothing that looks great. The biceps and forearms have pretty big hollowness, as do the short thighs.
Articulation is pretty good, tilt ankles are impressive with all that’s going on, and the elbows bend nearly 180. There’s thigh swivels, 90 degree knees, swivel biceps, hinged shoulderpads if that look is your thing, universal shoulders and hips. The head swivels and can look down a little, but up is strictly locked out. The feet use the actual tails for heels and it’s quite stable for such a narrow foot, though you aren’t getting one-foot poses out of this guy without help. Speaking of, a 3mm port is in his back for figure stands. The only joint I don’t like the look of is the high knee, it is an awkward break in the part. The only joint he’s missing is waist. He holds together well. There’s no official storage for the guns, but there is a sculpted detail slot on his back that can hold one by its sight; the only other choice is dangling off the FRONT of the thighs which is just… no.
Deco is pretty plain since it’s the plane underside, all of the paint comes at the vehicle cockpit and the robot head. Both of my samples’ helmets had masked paint elements (stripes and a pattern on each side) that were supposed to align but are quite messy, but just good enough to survive my ire. I can almost forgive the limbs’ bald gray milky plastic, but the giant wings on his back are thin enough to shine light through. The sculpted detail could really use a wash or something to bring it up, but I could see that going overboard very quickly. There is a significant issue with yellowing, I can see it coming in on my second sample already, it lends a bit of a vintage look at first but can get pretty rough over time, I’m guessing.
Overall, I’m a little biased as this works pretty darn well as a vehicle first, which I am fond of, and the transformation has charms too, so that the robot mode isn’t a total disaster already has me pretty content at this lower price. I like the accessories, even the wrong little bike. The robot looks good enough, it absolutely could have been better but I think it does what it needs to do well. At full price, I’d probably give this a B- or C+, but at $25 or less it’s a solid B.