Dave's TF Club Exclusive Rant

     Skyfall (2005 TFCC Exclusive)

     If you joined the Transformers Collectors' Club (TFCC) by April, you got
one of these as part of the $40 membership cost.  Joining later lets you buy
it for an extra $20, while supplies last.  Because of the short time in which
TFCC had to get this together, Skyfall is supposedly not representative of
the exclusives they will provide in future years.

     http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Energon/BasicA has my review of the
original mold.

CAPSULE

     Skyfall: It's a good mold, and I like the look it has, but it *is* a bit
expensive due to the limited run.  I wouldn't recommend dropping $60
(membership plus the extra $20) just to get this.

RANT

     Background: The stated plan for these exclusive toys is to put out a
limb each year for four years, then the torso in the fifth year.  So people
who are members for 5 years get a recolored (and somewhat remolded)
combiner.  I hear that all five parts will have a unified color scheme.  I'm
not sure I'll stick around long enough to assemble the toy, unless the
magazine improves.
     The name Skyfall has been used once before, for an Actionmaster that
clearly looked like it had once had a jet altmode.

     Packaging: Well, this is minimalist.  There probably wasn't time to put
together anything fancy this time out, but the bag it comes in is at least an
official Hasbro bag.  :)  It ships in a plain cardboard box, one wing folded
up to fit in the box.  Loose in the box is the bio card, which is also (at
least for those who joined in time) a membership card.  I will discuss the
card separately below.
     Inside the bag is a smaller bag with Terradive's instructions and
Skyfall's red Energon weapon.  The toy itself is in vehicle mode, held
together with two rubber bands: one around the nose, one around the tail
section.  The instructions choice is apt, since this is a remold of
Terradive, not of Sky Shadow.

     The Card: 2.25" high by 3.5" wide (56mm by 88mm).  The front is a
lenticular animated image...one of those ridged plastic dealies where if you
tilt it the image changes.  This one is mostly stable, with the membership
card stuff, but the lower right corner has a three-stage animation showing
Skyfall transforming.  It's small enough that it helps to view it with just
one eye, since looking at it with both eyes is likely to result in each eye
seeing a different image, which can be disorienting.
     The back of the card has the bio note, in small gray print on a
translucent pearl background.  I have been told by GIJoe fans that it sounds
a lot more like a GIJoe bio than a Transformers one.  I am typing it in
as-is, so any spelling or grammar errors are theirs (although I may have
missed some invisibly small commas here and there).

AUTOBOT: SKYFALL
Allegiance: Speed Planet Scout/Adventurer
Specialty: Pilot of the Flash Frenzy/Deep Space Explorer
Weapons: 30 mm Cannon, Double Barreled Laser, Twin Rocket Engines, Energon
     Plasma Weapon.
Defenses: Creates an apparently impenetrable force field from an unknown
     energy source.

     Dogged for as long as he can remember by the sense that he had lost
someting vitally important - that he's supposed to be part of something great
- Skyfall has spent most of the last few thousand years charting and
exploring barren star systems.
     All too aware of his differenec from the other natives of Speed, he has
chosen the life of a lone explorer, piloting his ship the Flash Frenzy to
deep space destinations.  He's certain he's one of the oldest Transformers on
Speed, and yet he continues to function without the quirks or stalls the
other old-timers seem to develop.  Now he has embarked on his latest solo
mission to a long forgotten planet called Cybertron where he hopes the
solution to the riddle of his past will be found.
     In battle Skyfall wields a formidable 30mm cannon, double barreled
lasers and his impressive ability to shape Energon into a plasma pulse
weapon.  When under extreme duress, Skyfall can generate an apparently
impenetrable force field made of an unidentified form of energy.  He is
largely unable to control this ability, but it has saved his life on more
than one occasion.

Motto: "If you can't help me, why am I talking to you?"

     Just to be clear, the 30mm cannon is the one on his nose/foot, the
double-barrelled laser is ths head-mount.  And yes, Skyfall is part of the
Cybertron story, although there's no guarantee any of the other exclusives
will be (they could pull a "Universe" in year 5 and have all the components
come together across realities). 

     Color Swaps: Compared to Sky Shadow, the clear blue plastic becomes
clear red, the light gray plastic becomes opaque red, and all other plastic
becomes clear blue.  Well, except for the combiner socket interior, which is
more or less black.  The blue is faintly purpled, essentially the same color
as used on Nightscream Reverse.

     Paint apps: Autobot symbols on the tops of the wings, black trim around
the cockpit and on the jet intakes.  The head is painted black and opaque
red, and the bit it's attached to is painted opaque red on top (Sky Shadow's
comparable piece is painted light gray all around). 

     Mold notes: This is the modified Terradive mold, with the head lasers
less likely to pop off.  However, the front landing gear lacks the slight
locking position of the originals.  Otherwise, the mold seems to be
identical.  

     Overall: Well, I like the new colors.  Not better than the originals,
but not worse either.  And the card was a nice touch.

     Dave Van Domelen, should probably get around to setting up a webpage for
Cybertron reviews soon....