For a repaint, it’s not that great. No special or unique details beyond the original Jetfire mold. But, those same molds are still awesome.

Multi-video review included!

The distant planet of Cybertron was the home to a race of intelligent, feeling alien robots who could change shape at will- the Transformers. For reasons no longer remembered by anyone living, a war broke out between the two factions of robots- the Autobots and the Decepticons- which eventually drained Cybertron of all its power sources, including all-important Energon. In the quest to get more Energon to sustain their fight, the Autobots created the Ark and some of them left Cybertron. But the power-hungry Decepticons were waiting for them in their great flagship, the Nemesis, and boarded the Ark to stop them. A battle between the two ships eventually brought them both crashing down onto Earth. With their leaders and greatest warriors lost, the war on Cybertron continued on to a stalemate. For over four million years, the Ark rested hidden inside a volcano located in what would eventually become Oregon, its occupants unconscious and helpless in stasis lock. Then in 1984, the volcano harboring the Ark erupted, reawakening the on-board computer system Teletraan-1. The computer, realizing that the ship and its crew were in danger, awoke the Transformers aboard the Ark, and reformatted them to change into disguises matching those of modern day Earth vehicles so that the giant robots could move among the population in secret. The surviving Decepticons, having lost their great ship millions of years earlier, also gained new disguise forms and hid themselves on Earth until they could rebuild their forces and gather enough Energon to destroy the Autobots, subvert the intrusive and annoying humans, and renew the war on Cybertron in their quest for total galactic domination.

Tread Bolt is a member of the Autobots’ Air Patrol; one of the few of their numbers capable of sustained flight. As such, this means he usually operates alone far from support, and thus needs to eliminate any Decepticon threat quickly or risk being overwhelmed. But he isn’t concerned about being detected, since his entire chassis is covered in radar-refractive armor, making him invisible to all but the most advanced enemy sensors. And his speed & aerial prowess make him a formidable opponent as well. His fellow Air Patrol bots often team together high in orbit around Earth with their rocket engines for high-speed air drops & interception missions behind Decepticon front lines, taking them by surprise. Unfortunately, in his off-time, Tread Bolt likes to practice his stealth techniques on fellow Autobots much to their chagrin, making him an honored-yet-less-favored member.

. . .

This Transformers Universe (aka Classics 2.0) figure is a repaint of the original 2006 Voyager-class Autobot Jetfire set- itself based on a character that appeared in the classic Generation One cartoon series in 1984. The first (and, thus far, only) version of Tread Bolt appeared as a Micromaster-sized (1½ - 2” tall) robot during the debuting Generation 1 era (1984-86). He was not a part of the original cartoon- re-colored or otherwise- as the first toy was an original design made after the series ended in 1986.

Vehicle Mode

(unarmored)

Robot Mode

(unarmored)

Tread Bolt’s original vehicle mode was a “sub-orbital craft”, and his color scheme was metallic blue and basic yellow, and highlights of silver. The gold “Air Defense” label across the Classics 2.0 version is a carryover from the Micromaster toy which had it in an identical position (but said "Air Patrol" instead). Unlike earlier toys from the Transformers Classics line in 2007, Tread Bolt lacks the temperature-sensitive decal which shows his allegiance- a gold Autobot logo has been printed behind his cockpit, which eventually ends up in front of his head on top of his chest.

Accessory armor

(details)

Vehicle Mode

(armored)

Robot Mode

(armored)

I got this specific set because I missed my chance to get Jetfire the first time around, being that he was so popular with Trans-fans. While the toy itself is still fantastic (I didn’t like the arms not transforming at all and just hanging off the sides), the color scheme just doesn’t work for me. Blue and black, with highlights of orange and yellow would have been fine, but it’s the brown which throws that off. For example, if there was no blue or even yellow, the brown would have worked. Starting out as a supped-up F-14 Tomcat in a livery reminiscent of the United States Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron is fine, but then to dump a lot of dark coloring on the robot mode spoils that.

For a repaint, it’s not that great. No special or unique details beyond the original Jetfire mold. But, those same molds are still awesome. So, if you can ignore the coloring (maybe repaint it yourself so you don’t have to damage your Jetfire), then the Voyager-class Autobot Tread Bolt set will satisfy your needs.

Be sure to read the more-detailed description of Voyager-class Autobot Jetfire, reviewed by CollectionDX’s own Atom.

And now, for some special bonus material!

The ultimate Transformers challenge.

Through the annals of Transformers toys, there has been only one toy dubbed the Ultimate Transformers Challenge. Sixshot was a legend at the playground. For a kid, a robot that turned into something was always awesome (or radical), but a robot that turned into five different vehicles was an impossible dream. To this day Sixshot has remained largely unchanged through his myriad of appearances in Transformers media. There is something about this figure that many people find prolific. Does Sixshot deliver the goods? Let's find out. One thing I must point out is I got this figure secondhand and I he did not come with his twin rifles, but the figure is perfectly fine without them.

Sixshot is a large toy. Around a foot in height, he looks and feels like a solid toy. Unlike his Autobot counterpart, Quickswitch, Sixshot is almost completely devoid on articulation. He can only rotate his arms at the shoulders, and even then you have to move his chest wings out of the way to allow his arms to rest parallel to the ground. This figures combination of colors and stoic stance make for a toy that successfully straddles the line between looking cool and being functional. That is to say the solid blocks of plastic he is comprised of work well together without the need for painted details.

The details of this figure are surprisingly good. The paper stickers are well crafted with lots of complementary colors and designs to the bare plastic.

In laser pistol mode, Sixshot is fairly sizable toy gun. The handle is more than adequate even for adult hands. This figure comes with a pair of dual flip out guns in each leg so that without the rifles, the gun mode still looks like a weapon.

Sixshot's next mode is a space fighter. Drawing heavily from what was contemporary sci-fi designs, the whole thing has a very Star Wars or Buck Rogers feel to it. Despite its blocky look, it still looks sleek enough and the small cockpit completes the effect.

As you could probably tell from his robot mode, Sixshot's familiar car-front shins allow form the front of his "armored carrier" mode. In this form, Sixshot looks right at home with the sci-fi cars that would come to dominate the late Generation 1 era of Transformers. It rolls along on a total of seven plastic wheels.

One of Sixshot's more infamous modes is the Winged wolf. Looking like one of Generation 1 Predacons, Sixshot takes the form of a mechanical beast with his robot mode limbs serving as as his wolf form's haunches. He looks somewhat fierce, but I can't shake the feeling that his big blocky feet and large form makes him kind of cuddly.

The wolf head is nicely sculpted although it doesn't appear to be very canine like. Its sort of just a generic robot animal. Still the moving jaw is a cool feature. The lower jaw forms the cockpit of Sixshot's next mode.

A shot from behind shows that Sixshot even has a small tail, which was re-purposed from the "radar dish" from armored carrier mode.

Sixshot's final mode is a tank. This is the only mode where you make use of his double jointed knees to fold his shins up and over his thighs. The wolf's jaw forms the cockpit of this mode while the dual leg guns point upward which makes the toy look like a futuristic anti-aircraft tank. I like the use of the green intakes on the front. Makes the tank look like it has a pair of nasty cowcatchers.

For the Headmasters television series, Sixshot used this extra seventh mode called "WINGWOLF" to subdue Ultra Magnus. This is one of the many examples of the Japanese series using additional transformations created by just playing around with the toy.

So is Sixshot deserving of all the love? I think so. While it is true that Sixshot ultimately does the same thing as Quickswitch in where the same limbs are used as different parts, Sixshot has just enough transformation involved with each limb and just enough extra detail that each mode feels complete and well thought out. It is true that most of his modes are cloaked heavily in that "futuristic design" mentality, but here I think it works. I am no ninja consultant, but I think Sixshot is worth a look. He was re-issued once before and he may make another appearance in the Encore line. Be vigilante, the ninja moves quickly and silently.

The penultimate Transformers challenge.

In the world of classic Transformers, some toys are legendary. One of these figures is Decepticon Sixchanger, Sixshot. Known for his classy ninja looks and impressive array of alternate modes, Sixshot has been a fan favorite for many years, has received a re-issue, and even a few retools as Greatshot from Transformers Victory and Shadowmaru from J-Decker.

This is not a review of Sixshot.

On the Autobot side, there was another Sixchanger. He wasn't as big or even as stylish as Sixshot and for the most part, he was pretty much forgotten. This toy was Quickswitch.

Like every classic Transformer, Quickswitch comes with a parent-confusing instruction manual. The best part of each manual is seeing how many names are used for a single piece of the toy.

The figure I bought was a pristine example. It had no box, but it still had the whole tech spec. This is Hasbro's trademark feature for their major toylines. Its these little insights into the characters that keep people coming back to the same toys twenty years after the fact. Check out the elaborate names for each of Quickswitch's mode. Oddly enough, these names are not used within the instruction manual which opts for simpler names. For example, "assault beast with stealth shielding" becomes "flying puma."

Taking a look at Quickswitch one can see he is rather plain. By this point in the Generation 1 toyline, the overall aesthetics had shifted completely to blocky sci-fi vehicles with equally blocky robots. Quickswitch's combination of red, white, teal, yellow, and gray is vaguely patriotic (made for a good guy) while not being particularly eye catching. He does have some sharp looking stickers chock full of mechanical detail which helps to break up the monotony of his design. From the front, you don't get any cues as to what exactly he'll transform into. The figure comes with two identical guns.

From the back, we see the only hint to Quickswitches six modes is the top side of a boat. You can also see the retractable nose wheel and two wheels on the roof of the boat's cabin.

One plus side to Quickswitch's transformations is his articulation. People worship Sixshot, but frankly he's a total brick in robot mode. Quickswitch's plethora of ratcheted joints lets him endeavor in basic poses like kneeling.

Quickswitch's first mode is a basic sci-fi jet fighter.

Practically every mode for Quickswitch is merely a repositioning of his limbs into different positions. For a sci-fi jet, Quickswitch looks alright. The combination of his arm panels and blasters make for passable wings and the two panels on his head make for okay tail fins.

The flying laser pistol mode is the toy's simplest mode and also the most bizarre. In this form, Quickswitch is practically in boat mode with two guns sticking out of the front. The weird thing for me is that Quickswitch's Japanese counterpart, Sixknight is introduced in Transformers: Masterforce using this mode. What unfolds is a dynamic sequence involving Sixknight dogfighting a few jet fighters while in gun mode.

As a toy gun, Quickswitch is sized for small hands. I could only wrap my pointer and middle finger around the "handle." The front wheel is meant to act as a gunsight.

Hydrofoil mode is Quickswitch's most complete looking form in my opinion. The boat part meshes well with the rest of the figure while the twin blasters make the vehicle look like a cool attack boat.

The only real problem with this mode is that Quickswitch has no wheels to roll around on. Despite the weird tripod skis, he is quite stable. I have not attempted to see if the toy will float like this and I'm not going to try it with those paper stickers.

Turning the hydrofoil over and flipping out a few panels converts Quickswitch into drill tank mode. There is actually quite a lot of detail under those panels. The treads are not functional but Quickswitch rolls around using his jet mode landing wheels. As you can see, the drill bit is the mounting point for the blasters in flying gun mode.

Sadly, the size of Quickswitch's drill makes him one of the least threatening looking drill tanks. Even Technobot Nosecone blows him away.

I have saved the most elaborate mode for last. As a "flying puma" Quickswitch reveals a few more hidden parts such as the paws on his haunches and the puma head. His "wings" are simply his head fins tucked under the belly of the assault beast.

Oh the majestic puma.

Quickswitch is a forgotten entry in the Transformers toyline. He has barely any media exposure outside of a commercial and one issue of the UK Marvel comics. While overshadowed by the arguably more impressive Sixshot, Quickswitch is still a fine toy in his own right. A few of his mode can feel same-y, what he does do is done well and the satisfying "click-click" of his joints make him a fun toy to mess around with. If you can find one for a reasonable price, I'd say go for it. At the very least check out the adventures of Sixknight, who really does the design justice in animated form.

The Deluxe Class Cyclonus is a fantastic update to the G! character.

The original Cyclonus, released in the 1980s is a real ugly toy. I understand that we all look back on G1 with a sense of nostalgia, and the toy line was in fact really groundbreaking. but lets face facts, most were clunky, ugly things. Where at least most of the original G1 figures had an excuse (their forms were dictated by what they transformed into). Cybertronian forms such as Cyclonus had no such limitation, and it just seems like crap design to end up with what we did.

I know there, are different origin stories for Cyclonus. You know what? I don't care.

What I do care about is good toys, and this new version of Cyclonus is a good toy. Hell, I'd say its a great toy.

Cyclonus comes from the Classics 2.0 line of Transformers - modern toy design created specifically to evoke the spirit of classic characters. In this they succeeded.

Packaging this thing in Jet mode was a mistake, because it hides the awesomeness within.

The jet is a futuristic, angular mish-mash of shapes. It's not the most elegant design in the world, and parts of it don't fit together quite right. It is almost as if it was just too ambitious of a design for the scale they made it in.

But once you transform into robot mode - all is forgiven. Cyclonus is pretty awesome. He is fearsome and menacing. He looks like he could totally kick your ass. There are some neat transformation tricks, such as the way the leg panels separate and move down the legs.

This rockin' figure has some great articulation, especially in the legs. Ball joints at the hips, then good knees, and feet are articulated. It just looks evil.

The gun that is included is actually a robot named Nightstick. The original G1 Cyclonus was also sold as a Targetmaster in the US, so the inclusion of Nightstick is a tribute to that. He on his own is a nicely detailed robot, a far cry from the old G! Targetmaster.

If you want a more detailed review than this, there are plenty on the Transformer sites. He's been covered enough in depth. I just wanted to show him to you. Even if you are not a hard-core TF fan, he is worth picking up.

This is one of the very few toys that depict G1 Ultra Magnus when he's not wearing his battle armour. And it's really nice, too.

Ultra Magnus is one of those popular robots, who often appears in the Transformers universe, but, to chagrin of many fans, as a direct redeco of Optimus Prime aka. Convoy. And so he did in the Revoltech line, being a Friendly Shop exclusive. Yes, he's just a repaint. But to do him justice, this is one of the best representations of this character I've ever seen.

Ultra Magnus is often represented as Optimus Prime's twin brother, which gives Hasbro a good excuse to exploit this albino Transformer. Thankfully, this time he is exploited by Kaiyodo, with great results.

There are many armourless toys of this character, but they just don't feel like Generation 1 Ultra Magnus, which this toy depicts. This one not only does, but also is based on his comic appeareance. In the show Magnus never took off his battle suit so that kids don't mistake him for Prime. However, Dreamwave's G1 comics were intended for older fans who had no problem in differing the two.

Ultra Magnus takes a major part in War and Piece story arc in which Earth based TFs return to Cybertron only to find it ruled by Shockwave, Magnus being one of his law enforcers. At one stage of the story, Magnus disagrees with Shockwave on how to handle the Earth Autobots, so Shockwave supposedly beats him to death and leaves to kill Prime. UM survives the encounter at the cost of his armour being destroyed and when he appears to aid Optimus later on, it is revealed that he dons a white copy of Prime's body. And exactly this form of Magnus is represented by this Revoltech.

What can I say, I'm not a great fan of Pat Lee's Transformers, but they fit in the Revoltech line perfectly. Magnus just looks fabulous, he's sharp and definitely has some character. He almost looks alive. Even if this design doesn't immediately suggest his comic persona is capable of actually transforming into a trailer cab, it has some very cool details which make it somewhat more realistic (if you can say so about Lee's way of drawing robots)

And now to show you how big he is (sorry, I didn't have Yotsuba when I took the pictures yet), my Nokia 6120c...yes, that's armoured Ultra Magnus on the screen ^^

I find it quite interesting that this is one of the very few Revoltech that have their arms designed to be bent a bit outwards without the ability to squeeze them any closer to the torso. It's not a tragedy, but this may prove a bit unhandy when trying to do some poses where our Autobot is supposed to hold his hands and arms as close to each other as possible. Also noteworthy, the head and neck are double jointed so they can imitate movements of pidgeon's head :P

Legs are shown just so you can see the nice details applied there. And, they are designed to work with the base of Revoltech stand, if you ever happen to have a spare one.

I must say, I'm quite impressed by the Revoltech joints and how hard it is to tell where the separate pieces begin.

Magnus comes with some accessories, which include an Ion Rifle with rotating handle, and 4 extra hands, which include a pointing hand, an opened one, one to hold the rifle...and some weird looking one.

With his design and accessories, Ultra Magnus can achieve various cool looking poses.

“Um, if I can propose something, let's just blow this planet to tiny little bits and forget about the whole war thing, ok?”

If I didn't knew better, I could almost swear he's trying to copy one of Sailor Moon's poses...

Ok, I think the weird hand thingie needs some explaining. Many Revoltech accessories are designed to interact with other toys from the line, and this one isn't exception. What you want to do is you plug the hand from one side to Magnus and to Prime on the other end, so that they can shake hands like brothers sometimes do. I was almost sorry I didn't have Convoy while taking these pictures (they're about a year old ^^)

Some of you could probably see this coming. They both are action figures and yet they are so different that I recently lost any reason to compare them as toys competing for your wallet's insides. Still, they look good next to each other on the shelf.

When I was preparing these pictures I wasn't interested in full-time collecting of Revoltech and so the piece you see here was borrowed from a friend collector. However, now that I actually began collecting them I wish I had this toy, I just find so much more unique and interesting then Convoy. A word of advice, should you spot this guy somewhere, don't hesitate and get him, there's no way you'll regret it.

When you gotta get your boys in to the combat zone, call Stratosphere.

The Autobots being primarily a group of robots who turn into cars and trucks sometimes need help from some high-flying, heavy lifting comrades. Stratosphere fulfills this task with gusto.

Stratosphere starts off as a military transport plane. His exact design is an amalgamation of several different real life planes include the C-17, C-5, and An-225. He's actually quite convincing in this mode.

Stratosphere rests on 11 landing wheels (although only 3 are actually functional) and features a smattering of typical military aircraft markings as well as many Autobot symbols.

Stratosphere's main gimmick is a spring loaded cargo bay where he can store the miniature Optimus Prime. Simply rotate the tailfin assembly downward to open the bay.

In robot mode, Stratosphere uses all his hidden bulk to expand into a really intimidating robots. Despite the odd choice of orange for his arms, Stratosphere manages to invoke images of a gaunt, giant of a machine.

There's something very traditional about Stratosphere's head design. The combination of canopy windows on his head and the small markings around his eyes give him the visage of a strong soldier.

The light piping gimmick works really well with this toy.

Stratosphere features plenty of articulation in his arms, legs, head, and hips. His arms feature small gears that move as you position the arms. His claws are articulated and can hold things pretty well.

The in-scale Optimus makes reinforces the "giant Autobot warrior" effect.

The miniature Optimus Prime is a grat accessory in its own right. For me, this guy is like a new version of Micromaster Overload which was one of my favorite toys.

In robot mode the Micromaster aesthetic is in full effect. He really feels like a toy right out of my youth.

Overall, Stratosphere is a great toy. From a solid jet mode to a strong robot mode you really can't go wrong with this one.

Things different from what we expect are not necessarily bad things.

Just to be brief with explanations, I'm back. In the meaning of being back in doing reviews, because otherwise, I'm here on a very regular basis. But recently I got myself some TF toys that made me want to share my feelings about them with others. So that means that basically I'm doing a review on CDX, a photo gallery at my place and a video review on Youtube of the same toy in the same time ^^ But I guess it's worth the effort.

To celebrate my return (yeah, like anyone longed for that :P ), I present you one of the more interesting toys from early Transformers Universe 2.0 line. And definitely the most controversial too. Let's give a warm welcome to our today's star, Powerglide (whom I got as a part of a bigger lot from Hasbro Poland, for which I do some work as its Transformers consultant)!

So, let's discuss the controversy first and have it out of the way later on. The main problem many fans have with this lad are his colours. Powerglide is dominantly white with red touches. And in the classic TV series, classic comic series and classic toy series, he was mostly RED with white touches. So I can easily imagine the roar of fury that accompanied the more traditional fans when they first saw this guy. Not that it stopped them from buying him. As for me, I was surprised but far from having the need to rip the colour designers to shreds ASAP. Especially that in other aspect, this project turned out rather well.

ALT MODE

After 23 years of his absence as a toy, Powerglide still transforms into his famous A-10 Thunderbolt II ground support fighter. The difference, however, is that this time it's a fully combat-capable plane with a very nice, slightly-futuristic theme that enables him to shapeshift in a completely new way. And by the way, he was considerably upscaled over the years and today he is an Ultra Class Transformer. Last time we saw him he has no bigger than the present Legends class figure.

What can I say, I really like this design. Even when redesigned, the A-10 feel is very strong and additional markings and designations on the aircraft make it more realistic Unlike other original Ultras from the line, his markings don't mean anything specific. I also find the new colour scheme quite appropriate for this plane. Yes, like or not, orthodoxes, white DOES suit this alt mode well.

Looking from the side, Powerglide looks good. Not perfect, because he centre almost touches the floor, but you can't see it as the side boosters shield them from our sight. You can probably also see the landing gear and it's not-exactly-perfect design, but I'll tackle that later.

Just a short close-up on the front. Really detailed and good-looking. You can even even see the single rivets on the hull. Not really sure if we have two sets of air intakes here, but it looks like it. Also, the first true appearance of the A-10's trademark Avenger gatling gun, which now is mounted on the left and not exactly under the cockpit. Again, this is due to the transformation.

The back is as detailed as other parts of the aircraft and also hold the main part of the toy's electronics, including the voice chip, activation button and the two AAA batteries, cleverly hidden inside the main engines, that power the light-and-sound features. Speaking of the shiny-thingies, maybe you'd like to see how the electronics turn out when activated.

By pressing the button shown on previous photos, you'll get one of three jet sounds- the jet fly-by sound, engine ignition and the gatling fire. Exactly in this order, which is funny since you hear the engine start-up AFTER you're plane is presumably airborne. I know, details, but four years of gallery making made me take notice of such things. Also, the sounds are accompanied by three blinking red LED lights installed in the cockpit and each engine unit. Would be great if they would light up continuously and stay on as long as you wish. But this is a Hasbro, kid-oriented toy, so I shouldn't complain.

One last fact worth our time is the landing gear and its belongings. Landing gear consists of three retracting wheels, two under the wing boosters and one under the cockpit. They do their job well, even if our A-10 is slightly slightly downwards to the front if we look at him from the side. The problem appears when you attach the gatling unit, which on one hand straightens the jet to perfect horizontal orientation, but on the other makes the front landing wheel useless as it barely touches the ground with the gun connected. Also, when the gatling is assembled properly, that means with the black projectile in the back present, it's impossible to point the gun directly forward- robot mode kibble seen on the picture will touch the projectile and visibly block it's range of rotation; even here the gun is slightly off the side. Of course, the easiest way of preventing this is to simply detach the projectile, but I think it's using shortcuts and avoiding the design issues.

Overall, it's a nice jet mode, with some minor issues which I can easily overlook as I tend to store him in robot mode among my other Ultras from the line. And just to show you how it looks woth other Classic/Universe 2.0 jets....

ROBOT MODE

The robot mode is achieved by means of a great collapse-and-fold-up transformation (with the classic changing sound incorporated when you pull the waist and torso sections together). And looking at the alternative mode, the humanoid form deviates from the G1 version a lot more. This could be easily a different character, but thanks to its unique head and trademark arms attached to wings sticking out of the torso, we know it's Powerglide all right. I like how they redesigned him; he looks strong and very fresh.
This toy is also quite detailed for his class and doesn't have too much kibble aside from the jet's top nose section hanging on the back.

The torso looks the best of all the robot mode, the wings incorporated in this area look great, as do the newly added engines. It looks a bit as if designers from Bayformers line had their part in creating Powerglide. I think they could go with just one colour of the plastic instead of doing a pearl and grey combo, but oh well. Also, while the part alignment looks great, it also looks a bit messy. My last true complaint about this fragment (and possibly this mode) is how the double hinges that move the wing and are attached to the sides of the waist make the torso look like a bulky rectangle that doesn't look perfect at all. If only one could do something about those parts under the engines...

Time for some nice touches. For one, if you lift the front chest panel up, you'll see a sharp looking heart. Which is a tribute to “The Girl Who Loved Powerglide” G1 episode in which Powerglide had to bodyguard a teenage girl who inherited her deceased father's large company among with a necklace of high importance to the Decepticons. At the end of the episode, when Powerglide's services are not needed anymore, the young lady gives him a goodbye kiss and as a result a blinking heart appears inside his circuitry when he opens his chest panel to reveal it to the viewers. Very nice touch. The second picture shows how his tail fins cover the electronics button and act as the light-and-sound trigger in this mode.

And let's be honest, when activated, it looks great. His engines begin to glow red, as do his eyes. While they blink again, it still looks very cool, as if Powerglide is pissed off and giving his enemy last glimpse before trashing him. By the way, entering robot mode leaves us only with the gatling sound, which is logical, but one could have hoped that they swapped them for some robot-oriented sounds.

Legs are well designed and even have movable feet (front and back and a bit to the sides). The feet also sport molded soles for better grip, which is a very nice detail in my opinion. I also like the knee pads, since they transform from air intakes, they can rotate up and down to simulate the protection of the bended knee joints while Powerglide is running . Too bad they don't allow him to kneel.

Time for the weaponry. Powerglide can use his Avenger gun, which looks really cool with the projectile now serving as an ammo clip. If someone thinks it restricts his arm movement, why not turn the gun around so that the projectile now is in the front? Now it works how it's supposed to in this mode and fires with a spring-loaded trigger. It also frees the elbow so Powerglide can do some combat-oriented poses. Speaking of which...

Powerglide is more poseable than one would have thought, with his 18 point of articulation he can do some very nice poses. Hell, while being a bit top heavy due to the electronics, he can even do high kicks, a pose that isn't always taken for granted even among lighter and more flexible Deluxe toys.

And he looks quite nice side-by-side with other toys from the line.

To conclude, Powerglide isn't perfect and has some minor glitches. Many fans might consider toy unacceptable due to his white-dominated colour scheme. But believe me, if you overlook these things (especially the colours, fanboys), you'll recognise a great and fun toy that will be a good addition to your collection.

But, if you can't overcome your disgust with Hasbro's white Powerglide, there's always the second solution. To be continued...

Changes from awesome jet to adorable robot and back.

"Breakaway is really fast and likes to bomb things."

I have a thing for robots that turn into jets. Breakaway is my recent cheap fix.

In jet mode Breakaway is a reasonable facsimile of an F-35 Lighting II. He is cast primarily in shiny tannish-brown plastic with his details provided by paint applications. One notable feature of this mode is that his head is visible inside the cockpit.

From the rear, Breakaway looks reasonably compact and complete for an tweleve dollar toy. He is light years ahead of the jets from the previous movie line.

In profile we can see how all his parts fit together quite nicely. Breakaway has one retractable main gear and two wheels on his underbelly which all him to roll about while making plastic rumbling noises.

Breakaway even looks good "in flight."

Transformation to robot mode is easy and intuitive. It feels a lot like Energon Starscream or Generation 2 Smokescreen and I like that. In robot mode Breakaway combines that classic Aerialbot look with a "frog man" motif as evident by his large feet and hunched appearance.

From the rear we can clearly see the "tribal tattoos" that dominate his wings and tailfins. I would have much preferred some old Aerialbot style stripes to these weird green markings.

Up close we can see Breakaway best feature: his adorable face. A combination of a Zaku-esque breathing mask and two large blue eyes make this badass robot look like a helpless little puppy. Won't you give him a hug?

Breakaway's articulation is pretty standard. He does have a waist joint but in order to use it you must forgo locking his tail section into his back. His one "Mech Alive" feature is a dial on his right arm that spins the Gatling gun. The gun is really tight whereas ideally it should just spin freely with a flick of the dial.

In the end I found Breakaway to be a refreshingly simple figure. The combination of a great jet mode, intuitive transformation, and charming looks makes me think Breakaway will be a sleeper hit for the new Transformers Revenge of the Fallen movie line.

Takara's near exact recreation of their lukewarm Rodimus Prime still warms my cold, cold heart.

Rodimus Prime is the Transformer everyone hates. When we were all kids we all loved Optimus Prime, so it's natural to hate the guy who replaced him. "How dare he replace Optimus Prime?!"

Well, it was kinda different for me when I was a kid. Little 5 year old me sat in the dark theatre and watched Optimus Prime die. And that little 5 year old version of me cried. But by the end of the movie, man, I was back in action. I was down with Rodimus Prime and his new brand of butt kicking. Of course I asked for Rodimus Prime for Christmas. I was the kid that Hasbro was looking for. I wasn't one of the millions who hated the way the movie cruelly massacred the kid friendly gun-wielding robots we all grew to love on the cartoon.

So I got the toy for Christmas and it was... well. It was okay. I remember getting a lot of enjoyment out of it, but six months later I was trying to trade it to some kid for Optimus Prime, so I guess I got over my love of Rodimus. I managed to lose the trailer part of Rodimus at school one day, and then I traded the robot to that kid, and he never gave me the Optimus in return. I got screwed! All I kept was Rodimus' gun.

A few years ago I succumbed to the vagaries of nostalgia and got the reissue Rodimus Prime from the local Toys "R" Us for $20 or something like that. I mean, looking at the toy now, objectively, it's... not... that... great. I guess it looks pretty good in truck mode, but can't really do much but drive around, and the robot mode is almost completely immobile. It's basically a statue. All you can do is raise its arms. Uh, what? Arm moving is an action feature? Star Wars toys have more articulation! Don't they? Well, I guess I don't have any Star Wars toys so I can't honestly say. That was a horrible analogy.

How does the reissue Rodimus Prime compare to the original? It's almost identical. Yes, the copyright is different. And the orange is slightly brighter in the reissue. That may just be because the old one is faded... I'm not totally sure. But it is a little brighter. Other than that, it's a perfect recreation.

There are no child safety issues to be concerned with, since the original Rodimus was already as child safe as possible. It doesn't fire anything, it doesn't have small pieces to swallow, and it's pretty difficult to break. It's also not that exciting, but Rodimus still has a place in my heart.

One "feature" I think is really funny about the toy is that Rodimus has bags under his eyes. They made a big deal about how Rodimus was the matured form of Hot Rod. So how do they indicate maturity? Bags under his eyes! See, not sleeping enough makes you mature. Also he's a lot taller and skinnier. Hmm... Bags under his eyes... too skinny... maybe the real truth is that Rodimus developed a drug problem due to the pressures of leadership. I'm a horrible person, and since I'm finished desecrating yet another piece of my childhood, I'll just wait for my place in Hell now.

The original G1 Blurr first appeared in the original transformers movie. He's been represented in several different toy lines since then, but next to the original, this is my favorite. All it needs is metal.

Transformers Animated continues to be a fantastic toy line with great designs, too bad the show is being supposedly canceled.

I didn't care for the show at all, but usually if there's no show, there's no toy line. But with Hasbro, who knows.

The original G1 Blurr first appeared in the original transformers movie. He's been represented in several different toy lines since then, but next to the original, this is my favorite. All it needs is metal.

In car mode, Blurr is a futuristic race car. His lines are sleek, reminiscent of the Mach 5 from Speed Racer.

The color scheme evokes a very Tron like aesthetic, which I am a sucker for.

The vehicle rolls freely and the only gimmick is an Energon saw that pops out from under the front of the vehicle.

The tips on the front of the vehicle are rubber, a nice choice, likely for safety reasons.

Transformation to vehicle mode is pretty straightforward and what you get when you are done is a fantastic looking, super articulated robot form. The Transformers design team have really found their groove with these Animated figures.

Blurr stands over 7 inches all and is pretty well articulated, especially below the waist. The large pointy shoulders hinder some of the movement of the arms, but it's not too bad. Despite the spindly appearance, Blurr has tight joints that makes posing a breeze.

The Energon saw that was stashed under the hood is now a shield in robot mode - affixed by a peg to the arm.

The head has a gladiator-style look to it, and features the standard light-pipe effect.

This guy is really fantastic, even if you are not a fan of the show. Grab one while you can.