Dave's Universe Deluxe Rant

     Skywarp

     This'll be a short one...after five recolors of this mold in only a few
years, there's not much more to say.  }->  Previous reviews can be found at:

     Jetstorm: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/BMac/BMDelux1
     Sonic Attack Jet: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/BMac/BMDelux3
     Storm Jet: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RiD/StormJet
     Jhiaxus: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RiD/Jhiaxus

     I did not pick up the latest Triceradon recolor.

CAPSULE

     Skywarp: A good, solid mold, good color scheme, and a return to better
plastic for the soft parts.  Strongly recommended if you don't have any of
the other versions, recommended if you only have Storm Jet or Jhiaxus.  And
if you have more than two versions already, you're probably going for the
whole set anyway.  :)  $9.86 at Wal-Mart

RANT

     Packaging: Standard Universe Deluxe, with poster-catalog.  The catalog
is not updated to include the new wave of Skywarp, Triceradon and
(presumably) King Atlas.  The cardback shows Skywarp's vehicle mode as having
the wingtips swept back instead of forward.

     (Off-topic aside: just saw TV ad for Energon, which showed Prowl and
Rodimus very briefly.  Woot.)

     Recoloring: The dominant color is black, with purple and silver trim
reminiscent of G1 Skywarp but not aping his pattern, and an orange cockpit
(plus orange trim in various places).  Most of the purple is at the violet
end of the "Decepticon Purple" range, but a bit on the robot head and on the
part of the jet that covers the robot face is a more reddish purple.  There's
also very light gray plastic for many of the robot pieces.  The missiles are
clear orange-red, the landing gear is softer violet plastic, and the really
soft parts (wingtips, "ears", upper arms, hidden thrusters in the legs) are
back to the stiffer type of plastic used in the original Jetstorm, instead of
the gummy stuff seen in Storm Jet or Jhiaxus.  The soft plastic is violet,
with black paint in many cases and light gray on the thrusters.

     Other notes: Everything holds together very firmly, especially the chest
in robot mode (which requires excessive force in both directions).  The spark
crystal is clear orange and uses a leftover Dinobot crystal (with Triceratops
profile), with Decepticon symbol printed on it.  I had to take the body apart
to verify what kind of spark crystal was used, since the painted Decepticon
symbol covers most of the crystal.
     The cockpit is not glued on, and can be pried off.  It even has detail
molded on the inside (something someone pointed out to me after my Jhiaxus
review), but no version of this mold has ever had that detail visible via a
clear cockpit...all have been opaque to play up the lightpiping.  But I guess
no one thought it was necessary to remove the detailing either.

     Overall: It looks cooler than any version but Storm Jet, and lacks Storm
Jet's soft plastic weakness.  Best of the breed, and a refreshing turnaround
after some of the recent recolors.

     Dave Van Domelen, thinks fandom should come up with a classification
name (like Seekers) for this mold, given that there's now enough versions to
make a sentai team....