Dave's Universe Classics Rant: Ultra Wave 2
Silverbolt (jet bomber)
Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/UUltra2
****ps with more of Powerglide and Onslaught.
CAPSULES
Silverbolt: Plane with a block strapped under it turns into a robot
with
a plane strapped to the back. Solid, looks like the G1 version, but
rather
disappointing from a "Transformer" standpoint. Mildly recommended.
$24.99
at Target.
RANTS
Packaging: Same as Wave 1. The co-sell on the left side shows both
Powerglide and Onslaught. As in previous Classics 2.0, I make up the
function and motto, since they're not present on the package.
AUTOBOT: SILVERBOLT
Altmode: Fighter Jet (so says the box, but see review body)
Function: Air Commander
Previous Name Use: G1, G2, BW, BMac, Universe, Go-Bots
Previous Mold Use: None
Call-Outs: "Firing 'electrostatic bolt!'" "Electronic Lights and
Conversion Sounds!" "Thruster and battle sounds!"
Motto: "Never fly so high you lose sight of your purpose."
As the leader of an elite group of AUTOBOT warriors known as the
Aerialbots, SILVERBOLT shoulders a great deal of responsibility. He is a
careful planner who never risks the lives of any of his men, unless it is
absolutely necessary. All his care, however, hides a deeply insecure
nature. OPTIMUS PRIME actually put SILVERBOLT in such a stressful
position
largely to distract him from his paralyzing fear of heights; a weakness he
hopes the other Aerialbots never discover. He is a capable leader
nonetheless, and has honed the Aerialbots into one of the finest AUTOBOT
units in the universe.
STR 6 INT 8 SPD 9 END 8 RNK 8 COUR 8 FRB 8 SKL 5 Avg 7.5
Packaging: The artwork has a snarling expression, breaking the
"zombie
face" trend. Still just instructions, no catalog. Three twist-ties hold
the
jet onto the blister, but you only have to undo the one around the nose
and
you can slide the toy out of the other two. To compensate for that part
being easy, the gun and missile are separately twist-tied to just the
blister, but both can be pulled out without undoing the ties.
Vehicle Mode: Silverbolt is mostly an XB-70 bomber (not a fighter, as
the box calls it) with visual elements of the B-2 Spirit at the rear and
F-23
stylings at the front. It's full of zigzag radar-dispersing panel lines
and
intake edges, including around the guns that flank the cockpit, and the
entire rear section looks like they took a B-2 and smooshed it to fit on
as a
skin. The canards are shaped more like F-23 wings than the wider canards
of
the XB-70. 10.25" (26cm) long with a wingspan of 6.25" (16cm), it's about
1:220 scale if he turns into a properly sized XB-70. Pegging the gun into
place under the cockpit and loading the missile increases the total length
to
11" (28cm).
Unfortunately, it's a modified XB-70 with a big robot chunk strapped
to
the bottom. Granted, this is in keeping with how G1 Silverbolt was an SST
with a robot chunk strapped to the bottom, but it's no less ugly. You
expect
this sort of thing from a Basic/Scout/Cyberjet toy, but it's kinda
disappointing from an Ultra. Granted, they used a number of tricks to
make
the robot chunk a bit more streamlined and less ugly, but it's still
pretty
obvious.
The actual airplane part is mostly made of a light ghost gray
plastic.
The cockpit windows and jet engine rear sections are made from a clear
light
blue plastic, and the sound and light button between the engines on top is
a
trio of linked hexagons (more of that stealth angling stuff) made of dark
red
plastic. A second loose hexagonal button is located between the flanking
LED
guns, also dark red plastic, but it does nothing in this mode (it's there
to
push through to the main sound and light button in robot mode). The gun
pegged to the underside of the nose is black plastic, with a little B-2
shape
molded into it as a secondary canard. The missile and the landing gear
are
bright red plastic. The sharp tip of the nose is made of rubbery light
gray
plastic, a pretty good but not exact match for the rigid light gray
plastic.
I'll discuss the robot chunk plastics when I talk about the robot mode.
There's silver paint on the leading edges of the wings, the gun's
false
canard and the plane's ailerons, extensively around the rear of the plane,
and on the "firing lane" channels ahead of the flank guns. Dark gray
paint
is on the leading edges of the jet intakes and the flank gun cowlings.
Bright red paint is on the trailing edge of the jet engines, airbrushed to
fade towards the front. The same winged "not quite Autobot symbol" seen
on
Powerglide's wings is printed in silver and dark gray on Silverbolt's
wings,
with a black 25 printed in the center. "BOLT-25" is printed on the sides
of
the fuselage around the midpoint. I presume 25 is a reference to the
upcoming 25th Anniversary.
Pressing the sound and light button cycles through the same three
sounds
as on Powerglide, but in a different order: swoosh overhead, then powerup,
then cannon. The swoosh has no accompanying lights. The powerup comes
with
four slow flashes of amber LEDs inside the clear parts of the egines. The
cannon sound has two green LEDs in cowlings flanking the fuselage where
the
wing roots meet up with the fuselage. Just tapping in the cannon part of
the
cycle gets five shots and five flashes of the green lights, but they're
not
synched up. Holding it down keeps it firing and fla****ng until after you
let
go. The last shot is followed by a faint echoing. The speaker is just
ahead
of the button, and the slits are v-shaped for radar stealth...they're
definitely sticking to concept there.
The gun, as mentioned earlier, is black plastic with a splash of
silver
paint on the fake little B-2 molded onto it. The barrel is reminiscent of
those black barrel pieces used on Exo-Force sets. A peg and a tab make
sure
that the gun stays put and doesn't turn off the centerline. The trigger
button is red plastic. There's no place to store the missile other than
in
the gun, although it can be held in the robot hand. The firing spring is
pretty weak.
Transformation: Really simple. The jet folds in half and becomes a
backpack, held together by a hook (that looks pretty good in vehicle mode,
like a secondary aileron in the event Silverbolt has to jettison the rear
three quarters of, um, himself). The undercarriage junk becomes a robot.
About the only interesting bit is that you fold the legs down and then ram
the spine up through the body, making the head pop out and triggering a
transformation sound along with four flashes of all the LEDs (the four
vehicle mode LEDs plus a green LED inside the robot head...this is the
only
way to make the eyes flash). This is a Scout-class transformation.
Robot Mode: 8" (20cm) tall at the head, 9.5" (24cm) at the cockpit
sticking up behind his head. Basically a robot with a jet folded in half
and
stuck on his back. While he has tail section details on his shoulders to
look like his G1 version, it's kinda like the fake windows molded onto the
chest of Laser Optimus Prime. The head molding is very close to the G1
animation model, although they downplay the freaky lips.
Most of the torso is made of dark red plastic, with the rear part of
the
upper torso being light gray plastic. The boots and forearms are also
light
gray plastic. The toes, collar area and fists (including a bit of the
forearm, due to the way the fists fold out) are black plastic. The
shoulders, thighs and head are medium gray plastic. The eyes are clear
light
blue plastic. The upper arms, heel spurs and panels on the chest (which
are
the landing gear) are bright red plastic.
Silver paint is used for the face, the center of the chest, most of
the
abdomen, the crotchplate and the leading edge and wingtip details of the
false shoulder wings. The helmet band is gold, as are the top halves of
the
boots, the upper part of each forearm, and some bits along the flanks.
There's gunmetal details on the gold part of the boots, and a red Autobot
symbol printed on the center of the chest.
The head turns, the waist does not. The shoulders are universal
joints
that ratchet in both dimensions. There's smooth but stiff upper arm
swivels
and ratcheting elbows. No wrist articulation, and the transformation
joint
doesn't do much good there. Fully ratcheting universal joint hips, smooth
mid-thigh swivels, ratcheting knees, no practical ankle articulation. The
lower legs are twice as long as the upper legs, making some poses awkward,
although it's not quite at Road Rocket levels. The arms do have enough
articulation to let him use his missile (which fits snugly in his hand) as
a
karaoke microphone, though.
Pu****ng the secondary button on the back of the jet-backpack only
triggers the cannon sound, same as with Powerglide. The green cannon LEDs
flash more or less invisibly, but the robot eyes do not light up. I'm not
sure if this is a bug in all toys, just a problem with mine, or
intentional.
They missed a beat on the landing gear. They should have molded some
missile heads inside the chest so that flipping up the landing gear would
look like something else in this mode. Instead there's just molded
hydraulic
lines.
Overall: Well, it's big, and looks like G1 Silverbolt. But it also
looks like him in bad ways (plane strapped to a block in vehicle mode,
robot
with a folded up plane stuck to his back in robot mode). It's solid, an
advantage over the other two Classics 2.0 Ultras so far, but also kinda
dull.
Dave Van Domelen, notes that the fact he was able to review this the
day
he got it, AFTER reviewing Powerglide and Onslaught the same night, is
further proof that there's not a lot to discuss about it.
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