Dave's Transformers Rant: Basic Air Team

     A1: Treadshot
     A2: Sky Shadow
     A3: Terradive
     A4: Windrazor

     I've decided that the way I'm going to do these combiner teams will be
to cover the Basics as one review, then the Deluxe core guy and the combined
form as another review.  This review here will also cover the generic
Neo-Combiner elements (I may have to amend it later if I forget something).  
     As of February 5, 2005, I have all four.  

CAPSULES

     Treadshot: Good jet mode, great robot mode, okay arm mode, good foot
mode.  A lot more stable than I'd have expected.  Strongly recommended.  
     Sky Shadow: Good jet mode, good robot mode, stable arm and leg modes,
some annoying bits.  Recommended.
     Terradive: Sky Shadow in white, gold and two shades of blue.  Head guns
hold on a lot better than on Sky Shadow due to a mold change.  Recommended.
$6.99 at Target. 
     Windrazor: Treadshot in colors very much like Storm Jet's, although with
more gray and less black.  My copy was somewhat defective, but otherwise
physically identical to Treadshot.  Strongly recommended.  $6.99 at Target.


PACKAGING

     Okay, making this a whole all-caps-header section is probably overkill,
but what the hey, it's just for this review.  
     The cards are standard Energon Powerlinx Battles cards, red fading up to
black with light red gridwork.  The bubbles are still basically trapezoidal
with the card following its outlines on the lower half while having vertical
sides on the top half.  Individual character art is on the upper right of the
card front.  The back shows the toy in all three modes (robot, vehicle,
"canonical" limb) as well as a half-strength image of the entire combiner,
showing where all the other members go.  Each combiner has a name with
"Maximus" in it (Superion Maximus in this case).  Ironically, the lower left
of the cardback proclaims "As seen on Cartoon Network!"  Well, not for long,
looks like, sigh.  The upper left of the card front says "Energon Class," and
I have to admit I don't really know what that's supposed to mean.
     The card inside the bubble isn't the same as with the other Energon
Basics, however.  These are all blue cog Powerlinx Combiners, with the new
blue cog on the front and both sides.  Above the character name is the name
of the team (Air Team in this case) in three languages.  The little tab
bending in near the top left (the one that says "Energon Chip Included!" on
the regular Basics) has the team code for that figure, such as A1 for
Treadshot.  The left side, which had individual art on the regular Basics
(and which I've been cutting out and saving in lieu of techspec cards)
instead has art for the combiner, the same on each figure within the team.
     At least with the ones I got online from BigBadToyStore.com, the volume
2 comic/catalog is included.  There may not BE a volume 3 at this rate.
There's also a Xevoz ad (but not a sticker) in with the catalog, and
double-sided instructions.  
     The recolors came with volume 3, instructions and the Xevoz ad (odd,
considering it's looking like Xevoz has been cancelled).


NEO-COMBINER THEORY

     For the first time since G1, we have an all-new mold combiner of the
classic "Deluxe central figure, four Basic limb figures" style, with an ever-
increasing number of remolds and recolors of the Combaticons being used to
fill that evolutionary niche lately.  We've had three-teams and four-teams
and lately a lot of two-teams, but now we finally have a classic five-team
with modern poseability and features.
     And by "classic five-team", I mean that every Basic figure can be any
one of the four limbs, and that any limb can attach to any torso, so you can
do Scramble City frankencombiners.
     But the true classic five-team has what's come to be called combiner
kibble (or kipple).  Fists and feet and so forth that are separate pieces.
They may attach somewhere to the vehicle modes, and some may be hidden inside
the figures, but they usually are detachable (LioKaiser is one of the few G1
combiners to be almost totally kibble-less, but it's also a six-team).
     I call these guys Neo-Combiners, because they use one of the premises of
Energon to deal with the combiner kibble problem.  Namely, they use Energon
weapons (which are all blue, regardless of faction, although the Energon chip
shapes are retained for the two factions) for hands and feet when they can't
gracefully get the core figure to do it.  And, like many later G1 combiners,
the gestalt head is built into the torso figure in some way (either a
headswap or a helmet).  Anyway, at times I may refer to these guys as
Neo-Aerialbots, Neo-Combaticons, Neo-Constructicons (heh, NeoCons), etc.
     Mind you, the goal isn't *always* met.  Treadshot, for instance, has a
piece of blatant kibble that just sort of sits on his Energon weapon, but
hey, at least they tried.
     Oddly, Hasbro seems to be making some trademark gyrations here, in
naming the combined modes.  I can see them losing Devastator (so sad if they
did), so Constructicon Maximus makes a certain amount of sense in that case.
But Superion Maximus is kinda doofy.  By naming the groups as "Air Team" and
"Construction Team" instead of Aerialbots or Constructicons, it seems like
they might be trying to evoke the Mini-Con combiners here.  Maybe the
in-story thing is that larger Transformers figure out how to copy the
Mini-Con combiner trick.
     Finally, while I like the rest of the ideas behind the Neo-Combiners,
there's one cost-saving trick they played that doesn't sit well with me.
Rather than have four unique molds for the four limbs, they have two molds,
each in two color schemes.  It's possible that there's slight remolds between
the two, I'll know once I have the recolors.  But it does mean that recolors
are no longer optional...if you want the Maximus, you have to buy multiple
copies of each mold, whether you go with recolors or two of the same.  
     Oh, and just to encourage buying the recolors some more, the
instructions ONLY have the robot mode and one limb mode.  You have to get the
recolor to get the instructions for the the mold's other limb mode.  Not that
it's necessarily HARD to go from one limb to the other (for instance,
Treadshot just needs to fold his Energon weapons open).
     For more on the physical details of how the Maximus works (stability,
poseability, etc), see my review of Storm Jet (A5).

RANTS

     As of February 5 2005, there are no techspecs available for these
figures.  Each figure has a limb position on the packaging, which I will
refer to as the Canonical Limb.  They can actually fill any role.

AUTOBOT: TREADSHOT
Combiner Code: A1
Altmode: Fighter Jet (vaguely resembles F-22, also resembles BMac Jetstorm)
Name previously used for: G1 Action Master
Canonical Limb: Right Arm

     I agree with some fan opinions that the names got swapped here.  This
really should be Sky Shadow, since it's black and has stealth elements in its
design, while the A-10 tank-killer plane should be Treadshot.
     Five twist-ties hold the plane in the bubble, but four of them are on
the Energon weapons and only one on the jet itself, so you can pop the
wingtips up to separate them from the weapons and then get the jet out by
undoing just one tie.

     Vehicle Mode: As mentioned above, this is kind of an F-22, but with the
wings changed to more of a delta shape instead of the more hexagonal shape
the real plane has.  4.5" (11.5cm) long, 4" (10cm) wingspan, very much a
triangular shape.  Despite depending mostly on friction instead of pegs to
hold together, it's reasonably stable.
     It's mostly black with silver and yellow paint, but the tail has robin's
egg blue paint on it, and the wingtips are baby blue, as is some of the
visible robot kibble.  The cockpit is clear blue, with silver paint on the
details insde.  An Autobot symbol is molded on the left side behind the
cockpit.  The spark crystal is at the rear of the plane between the tail
sections.
     The robot arms form undercarriage junk, but do a decent job of looking
like some sort of payload.  Landing gear fold down from the nose and under
each wing, and have just enough length to let the arms clear the table.
There are 5mm pegholes on the wingtips, one under the nose, and the robot
fists can also be used for attaching weapons.  The weapons that come with the
toy don't really attach well to the nose peghole, but you could give
Skyblast's cannon to Treadshot.
     The Energon weapons are blaster-staff things that fold over in the
middle.  One just holds onto a bit of combiner kibble, and loosely at that.
Unfolded, they're 3.25" (8.5cm) long, with baby blue center joints and
otherwise clear blue.  The center pieces are similar, but not identical, as
they attach to the combiner kibble in slightly different ways.

     Transformation to Robot Mode: Pretty simple and intuitive.  There's a
little bit of hip fiddling which counts as the only real complication in
getting back to vehicle mode.  The official instructions leave the tail
section of the jet covering the robot's butt, but it can also be folded up as
a backpack.

     Robot Mode: 4.25" (10.5cm) tall, with baby blue upper arms and upper
legs revealed.  The head is black plastic with silver paint on top, yellow
paint on the face (which appears to be smiling just a tiny bit), and blue
light-piping for the "sunglasses" eyes.  The Autobot symbol is now on the
left side of his chest, a nice effect.
     This is like an improved Cyberjet already, with ball joint shoulders,
elbows, hips and knees.  The head turns and the feet can point.  There's a
little floppiness in some of the joints, but not enough to make the figure
sag.  
     The Energon weapons don't look so good as ranged weapons, but you can
put both in one fist for a double-pronged beatdown stick that looks pretty
good.  Also, if you assemble them as they're used in limb mode, Treadshot can
stand on them as a sort of flying assault platform (it won't lock on
completely, but holds pretty well with one of the tabs flipped up onto a
foot).  Or bizarre Energon stilts.  :)
     Odd aside: the wingtip pieces can be rotated around, but I'm not exactly
sure why, since none of the modes have them in any other position than how
they are in vehicle mode.  Huh.

     Transformation to Arm Mode: The instructions are a little unclear, but
unless you have access to pictures of a lot more angles than are on the
package, you probably need the instructions.  During the process, it feels
like it's going to be insanely floppy, but once the last bit is locked into
place, it's remarkably stable.

     Transformation to Leg Mode: Stop after step 6 of the instructions for
transformation to arm mode.  Seriously.

     Limb Modes: This is essentially the jet mode with the robot legs folded
forward and linked together with the Energon weapons on the bottoms of the
feet.  There's a few other details, but it does look more like a vehicle than
a limb.  In fact, the arm mode looks like some kind of space fighter.
     As an arm, it's kinda unconvincing.  The four Energon barrels make for a
sort of claw hand, I suppose.  It's 5" (13cm) long in black, baby blue and
clear medium blue, with silver, yellow and robin's egg blue paint, pretty
much same as the robot (but more baby blue than vehicle mode).  The shoulder
joint is universal, but remarkably stiff.  There is no elbow joint.
     Foot mode works better, with a niec kneecap formed by the tail section
of the jet, and a foot base in an H shape with front to back bars being 3.25"
(8.5cm) long and the horizontal width 2" (5cm).  This mode is 4" (10cm)
tall.  The side-to-side jointing is non-existent, unfortunately, which could
cause problems for Superion Maximus (which I'll talk about in that review).  

     Overall: I paid ten bucks plus a shipping (split four ways on the
figures) for this, and I don't feel like I overpaid.  This is an excellent
toy, and while it has flaws, they are overshadowed by what was pulled off
successfully.  


AUTOBOT: SKY SHADOW
Combiner Code: A2
Altmode: Attack Jet (A-10, more or less)
Name previously used for: Beast Wars Fuzor
Canonical Limb: Right Leg

     3 twist-ties on the jet, none on the Energon weapon.

     Vehicle Mode: 5" (13cm) long, 5" (13cm) wingspan.  An even blend of dark
red, black, light gray and silver paint, with a clear blue cockpit canopy,
four little strips of yellow paint and Autobot symbols tampographed on the
wings.  The spark crystal is at the rear of the fuselage, between the
engines.  It's recognizably an A-10, although with a few tweaks here and
there.
     The biggest departures are that the engines are higher up and farther
back than on an A-10, and the A-10 doesn't have a belly turret like Sky
Shadow does.  Also, the nose cannon of the A-10, while fearsome, is not quite
as big as on Sky Shadow (of course, they had to make it big enough to act as
a 5mm peg).   Obviously, there's lots of other little differences (specific
lines, position of landing gear, A-10's don't have spark crystals), but it's
pretty clearly an A-10 and not something else.  And yes, I have a big book of
modern warplanes I use for some of these reviews.  :)
     There's a 5mm peg hole behind the cockpit, plus one each on the top and
bottom of each wing.  The wing holes are atop each other, but the holes don't
punch through like the ones on Treadshot.  Also, as mentioned, the nose
cannon is a 5mm peg, and I suppose you could drill a hole down the center to
turn it into a Mini-Con hardpoint.  The belly turret is the robot head with
its antennae flipped down to cover the face.  Unfortunately the gun piece
pops off very easily, and is frustrating enough to bring down my overall
opinion of the toy about half a notch.
     The Energon weapon looks like a shield with gunbarrels, and has a
fold-down peg intended to be held in the robot hand or attached to the hole
behind the cockpit.  The peg emerges a bit when you fold the weapon tightly
together, so you can more easily fish it out.  It can unfold into a sort of
rocket surfboard shape, which can also mount okay on the top of the plane.
There's no really good look for it on the wings.  Unfolded, it's 3.5" (9cm)
long and a little over an inch (2.7cm) wide.  On the inside, when unfolded,
there's two short hardpoints (although they're a bit narrow, by about a third
of a millimeter or so) that are really meant for pegging on in foot
configuration.

     Transformation to Robot Mode: There's a lot more twisting and folding
than I'd expect from a Basic.  It takes a bit of force to get the neck piece
to snap down onto the torso, and this is where the head guns are most likely
to pop off.  Repeatedly.  The transformation is also rare (if not unique) in
that it has the cockpit on one foot, instead of the very common chest or the
somewhat uncommon "split across both feet".  This is because the front
fuselage splits top and bottom, then rotates at the waist.  

     Robot Mode: 4.5" (11.5cm) tall at the antennae.  More of the light gray
comes out in this mode, and the four yellow strips are now on the chest and
knees in a nice pattern.  The head is mostly silver with some olive green
bits (face, stripe on top) and lightpiped blue eyes (separate eyes, not a
visor or goggles).  The guns can fold down over the face like really insanely
good enhanced vision goggles.  The overall look is a little narrow-hipped.
The proportions are actually closer to human than Treadshot's, but Treadshot
looks more "right".  Also, the cannon on his left foot looks a little awkward
(hm, maybe he's noted for his Cannon Burst Kick?).
     The forearms are extra-long because the intake turbines form fist covers
(Turbine Thrust Punch to go with his Cannon Burst Kick?).  The pegs that
attach the forearms in jet mode are too small to be used for anything,
annoyingly.  It'd have been nice to be able to attach weapons to those pegs.  
     Poseability is good.  Ball joints on shoulders, elbows, hips and knees.
The head turns, the waist turns, the toes point.  There's some restrictions
on the elbows and knees, as one might expect.
     The Energon weapon can be held in either fist, or used as a flying
surfboard (works best if you put the feet together in Leg Mode
configuration).  So all of the Air Team limbs can fly around on their Energon
weapons.

     Transformation to Arm Mode: From vehicle mode, fold the wings up, attach
the Energon weapon to the nose cannon as a sort of mitten/clamp, and rotate
the attachment joint down so it's a shoulder joint.

     Transformation to Leg Mode: A little more involved.  From vehicle mode,
fold the wings up, then split the nose apart and peg the feet together heel
to heel.  Then peg the connected feet onto the unfolded Energon weapon.

     Limb Modes: Like classic combiners, it's pretty recognizably the vehicle
mode folded a bit, with the leg mode being a tiny bit more changed.
     As an arm, it's 6.5" (16.5cm) long, with the Energon weapon pegged onto
the nose cannon and mostly folded, so it's like a giant oven mitt with two
thumbs or something.  No elbow joint, although at least the hand can open and
close, plus swivel a little.
     As a leg, it has a thick calf and a narrow ankle, with a slightly
rounded underside of the foot, so it's not as stable as Treadshot.  It's
about 4" (10cm) from the joint to the ground, which is good, because that's
how tall the Treadshot leg is too.  The narrowness of the foot makes it
better suited to angled leg poses than Treadshot.

     Overall: Looks a little weird in robot mode, and the Energon weapon is
kinda awkward.  Plus there's chasing the head guns around on the floor every
time they pop off.  But transformation is interesting, poseability is very
good, and it forms stable limbs.  Worth getting on its own.


Autobot: TERRADIVE
Combiner Code: A3
Recolor of: Sky Shadow
Altmode: Attack Jet
Name previously used for: G2 Decepticon Small Jet
Canonical Limb: Left Arm

     This is not a simple color swap, plus both versions of the mold have
extensive paint over the plastic.
     The engines and most of the fuselage are bright blue plastic.  The
wings, tail, central fuselage and nose cannon are white plastic.  There's
gold paint on the nose tip, the tops of the wings, the intake fans of the
engines and part of the central fuselage.  The underside middle is black
plastic with a lot of white paint, and there's black a few other places.
Slightly metallic sky blue paint is behind the cockpit, on the underside of
the wings, and several other places.
     The robot head is made from white plastic and almost entirely painted
gold, except for two blue stripes above the eyes.  The lightpiping is the
standard combiner blue.  The head guns are white, and have been remolded
slightly so that they can tilt all the way back rather than popping off.
     There's a little silver paint on what becomes the robot flanks.  There's
metallic orange on what becomes the robot chest, where it's yellow on Sky
Shadow.  The wings have the empty blue metallic cogs they seem to be using
for the combiners now (and which are probably on later-release Sky Shadows).
     Overall, I like the sky-color scheme, although it is a big garish.  Both
of the recolors seem to be brighter than their counterparts.

AUTOBOT: WINDRAZOR
Combiner Code: A4
Recolor of: Treadshot
Altmode: Fighter Jet
Name previously used for: G2 Decepticon Small Jet, BotCon Exclusive Fuzor
Canonical Limb: Left Leg

     A slightly more obvious color swap scheme than Terradive's.  The
fuselage and tail black plastic becomes red, while the light blue plastic and
the black on the limbs and spark housing become light gray.  However, the
forearms and feet are painted almost completely black.  Most of the paint
trim on the fuselage is white, with gold air intakes and a metallic blue
empty cog.  There's no paint in the cockpit, and my copy is missing the
cockpit cover.  The legs have red and black paint accents.
     Another defect on mine is that the blue guns don't fold all the way
together for hand mode.  But it was the only one on the shelf, and I don't
feel like messing around with replacement.  Oh, and the paint around the
fists is kinda sloppy.  Guess I hit the crap-pot on quality control here.
Still looks decent, though.
     Overall, I like the look of Treadshot a little better, but the black,
red and gray robot head on this one is quite striking.

     Dave Van Domelen, now to assemble the "canonical" Superion Maximus,
amend that review, and take it back apart to use the recolors as placeholders
on Bruticus Maximus.