Skywarp
Review by VF5SS
The Decepticon jets are some of the most iconic characters in Transformers. Often available in multiple flavors, they represent the backbone of the bad guy brute squad. When Takara announced their Masterpiece Starscream, I was hesitated on snagging one and even missed the US release. One great thing about these guys is that they are repaint fodder. So hot on the heels of Masterpiece Megatron came Skywarp. Out of all three Masterpiece jets, Skywarp is the one with a great presense. This Jetron is back in black.
Right out of the box, Skywarp is a fantastic piece. He is packaged in jet mode with his twin whatever guns attached. Skywarp measures about a foot and a half long. He is molded in glossy black plastic and it detailed with numerous small white markings ranging from Decepticon Air Force roundels to tiny "No Step" signs. In this mode Skywarp rests atop three landing wheels. The nosewheel is properly depicted, while the main wheels have been moved from the center of the jet towards the rear. This is my only issue with jet mode since it makes Skywarp look a little squashed on the table.
From the rear, Skywarp has that classic F-15 aesthetic. Here you can see his jet nozzles are mounted on balljoints and the wing flaps are hinged.
Moving on the paperwork; Skywarp comes with a manual, a collectible card, and a decal sheet. The decals are interesting because they contain the purple stripes and Decepticon symbols which make the toy more like the Generation 1 design. Also included are tiny squadron markings such as "Kremzeek Attack" and "Decepticon Air Force." One of the decals is a name tag for the stand.
Included with Skywarp is a display stand adorned with a purple plated Decepticon symbol and some mechanical detail. The two holes are for storing the guns or the optional Sidewinder missiles. It has two slots for attaching the display arm. One slot is for robot mode while the other is for jet mode.
On the back of the stand you can store the display arm and the tiny Megatron gun mounting clip. This gun is the one that is included with the Masterpiece Optimus Prime toy. I honestly don't known why they didn't just include the gun with the jets, since they included a couple of other less interesting accessories.
Here is one of those less interesting accessories. This tiny Dr. Arkeville looks like it was made out of whatever scraps they had left. He fits loosely in the cockpit.
While on the stand, Skywarp is made to emulate a gate guard or desktop model. Skywarp fits pretty snugly on the stand and will not fall off accidentally.
Here is a video review of jet mode.
Transformation video.
In robot mode, Skywarp's most salient feature is his huge wings. He is fairly stable when just standing up, but the weight of his wings and tail binders. He's really not made for dynamic posing, but I find the toy is more playable than most give it credit for.
Skywarp is not terribly exciting from the back. Neither is the "Stabilizer mode" where you flip up all the possible panels. I'm not even sure why they bothered to mention this in the instructions, but whatever pads the manual I guess.
Skywarps arms are fairly flexible. His shoulders rotate 360 degrees, his elbows bend up to a natural position, and his arms can rotate at the bicep.
Skywarp also feature swiveling wrists and articulated fingers.
Underneath the chest panels are a bank of non-firing missiles. These were only used by Starscream in one episode. However, the engineers at Takara thought they were cool enough to include. The missiles are a little hard to see on Skywarp since they are not painted.
His head is mounted on a ball joint. Skywarp also features two different expressions. Simply flip the head up, pull the silver face portion down, and twist it around to reveal the second face. Although once you see his expression, you may wonder why anyone would want to do this.
Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngh!
Skywarp can be mounted on the stand in robot mode as well. Doing so will allow you to get a little more play out of his lower legs. His legs feature articulated hips, swiveling thighs, and double jointed knees.
While this is not in the manual, I found that by using the stand's jet mode configuration Skywarp can achieve a decent flying pose. He's a bit more unstable like this so expect at least one face plant.
Robot mode video. With all the controversy (read: fan whining) over Masterpiece Starscream, I find that Skywarp is really the first smash hit for this design. He's really a solid, playable toy that looks great. Since Skywarp is a more forgettable character, prices for this toy are beginning to drop so look out for a good deal and pick one up.
Comments
39 comments postedOh you're getting a bigger belt.
Skywarp's "high hand face"/constipated-just-kicked-in-the-nuts-face is one of the more hilarious features included in a recent toy, I think.
That said, I would never, never, never consider swapping that face onto my Skywarp. Hah!
Oh Andrew....It is you!
You took leave from DAP-DX to review robots? I hope your departure from the podcast is only temporary. I hope I'm not part of the reason...
I'm suprisingly and pleasantly pleased that you did this review of Skywarp.
You've set the record straight about this masterpiece seeker that NekroDave failed to do. You did Kawarmori justice.... You did TF justice... You did Diaclone justice... which is what I can LEAST say about......PFFT...I dare not say his/her/whatever's name!!!
You're the greatest host ever right next to Jermey and I mean BOTH of you...I respect you a lot so please don't leave us.
-R78
Excellent first review! Good detailed writing without long paragraphs (one of my faults), good pictures that show highlights, and clean video shooting.
Some suggestions:
When I shoot, if I want to highlight a particular step or feature, I move the item closer to the camera (another reason to stand behind it), point it out, and then show what is going on- not tell what is going to happen, do it, and then explain what happened; just show it and talk about it as you do it. A video review should have less talking and more showing!
Oh, BTW... are you in any way related to thee Andrew of DAPDX fame?
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CollectionDX Staff
"Oh, BTW... are you in any way related to thee Andrew of DAPDX fame?"
No.
...Jerk.
-_-;
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CollectionDX Staff
XD
Yeah, didn't you get the memo? If fact, that reminds me that I need to change my footer...
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CollectionDX Staff
CollectionDX Videography Expert
XD
Awesome point, Atom! But, that is an exception since Onell makes very durable stuff; these videos prove the rule, they don't break it.
And I, too, voice my negative feelings on something if I don't like something in one of my reviews.
"...NEVER present yourself as speaking on behalf of anyone at CDX other than yourself..."
Did I come across that way? Sorry, my bad. =) I was just passing on what I thought was the unspoken standard among us, that's all.
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CollectionDX Staff
PFFT!!!....You're trespassing 'The Ark'
Mr. Contradictator.
-R78
A nice first review, makes me want to translate my review of MP Strascream into english :)
By the way, I'm impressed with the last pic of flying Skywarp, you're basicly the second person I know on the net who thought about that in a gallery :)
http://transformery.pl/wallaformers/tf/mp_starscream/mp_starscream51.jpg
First being me, but I suppose there is a lot more people who know this little trick :)And believe, from my experience his quite stable in this pose, my Starscream was attached to the stand like that for several days and nothing happened.
I think the fan whining is a result of MP01 setting the bar so high.
"Dinobots, destroy Devestator!"-Optimus Prime TFTM
That's point one, point two is that Takara originally created realsitic-alt-mode oriented Starscream and only later adapted Hasbro's idea with G1 colors, with which fans coped a lot better.
Sigh, the problem with this mold is that while Starscream had enough screen time to develop several special weapons and accesiories, they don't apply all that well to Skywarp and Thundercracker, who simply never had a chance of using them in the show.
"Sigh, the problem with this mold is that while Starscream had enough screen time to develop several special weapons and accesiories, they don't apply all that well to Skywarp and Thundercracker, who simply never had a chance of using them in the show."
That's not totally true. Skywarp used his teleportation powers and his bouncer bombs & Thundercracker used his sonic booms but not a whole lot unless you read the comics and other shows that came afterwards. Granted, their characters weren't fully developed in their original forms as much as Starscream was in the show, but they did later on.
Keep in mind that both their characters get developed in season 3 after Unicron regenerated them into Cyclonus and Scourge respectively. Which is why I'm glad that the Second Megatron aka Galvatron finally killed Starscream in The Movie.
DISCLAIMER: Yes, I know I know, the technical word is 'Reformatting' over 'Regeneration'. Well...I can't help that because I get amazed and excited when I see Transformers get reconstructed into new robots. The same thing happens with Time Lords from the Dr. Who mythos, so I like to use the 'Regeneration' term for TF because it sounds so cool. As far as the TF mythos is concerned, Megatron has the best regeneration scenes ever.
-R78
I don't care.
I know you don't care,
so I don't care if you care and don't care.
In hindsight...dude...stalemate.
-R78
You need to stop posting stupid irrelevant rants in my toy reviews.
Negative.
You need to stop posting stupid unprovoked torts to your audience in your toy reviews.
-R78
Personally, I prefer a good robot mode over a realistic vehicle mode. I mean, they never looked like accurate vehicles in the show anyway.
"Dinobots, destroy Devestator!"-Optimus Prime TFTM
MP-01 has a terrible truck mode. That's not a high bar.
"MP-01 has a terrible truck mode. That's not a high bar. "
Not as terrible as THS-01 Convoy's truck mode that Kawamori developed which makes MP-01 Convoy as high as it's gonna get.
-R78
The original toy had a better truck mode. Even the new movie toys have better truck modes.
Dude, the original Convoy/Optimus Prime toy will always have the best truck mode ever b/c it's a classic. Always.
I'll bite that the movie toy have better truck modes, but come to think of it, it seems that BT-22 Convoy functionally owns them all post-modern wise.
-R78
THS-01 was Galaxy Convoy, from Galaxy Force/Cybertron. THS-02 was G1 Convoy. :D
"THS-01 was Galaxy Convoy, from Galaxy Force/Cybertron. THS-02 was G1 Convoy. :D"
You are correct.
-R78
I love the 3 seekers and this is my favorite color schema of all three. I'm hoping now they'll go back and give us some Conehead action! I'd love to see this retooled into Thrust.
"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this to be true." - James Branch Cabell 1926.
"I love the 3 seekers and this is my favorite color schema of all three. I'm hoping now they'll go back and give us some Conehead action! I'd love to see this retooled into Thrust."
That would be quite a dream come true my friend, personally I would love to see a Masterpiece Skyfire in this series.
-R78
My girlfriend gave me a T-shirt of the Kremzeek for my birthday. It's pretty damn cash. I've actually had someone recognise it in public,too,and he proceeded to flip out.
Lately some of the review gains more heat than before or is just me?
Anyway, maybe I missed it, but where's the diecast part goes? Is it only in joints?
"Lately some of the review gains more heat than before or is just me?
Anyway, maybe I missed it, but where's the diecast part goes? Is it only in joints?"
No, it's not you. Don't let it bother you.
Anyway, most of the diecast content on this toy is the piston strut attached to the air brake flap on the back of the toy. The bar hinge that's attached to the long back panel that's connected to the air brake flap is diecast.
the rest of the diecast goes on the back frame that symmetrically supports the torso,the neck bar attached to the nosecone, the landing gears & a hidden radar in the nosecone.
The chrome pistons are located on Skywarp's elbow joints.
There are no diecast joints on the legs.
-R78
Wow, it got metal frame? That great, like you could transform it a zillion times without the fear of breaking it down.
Not quite... I was referring to the two frame bars that supports the seeker's ABS plastic torso and wings that are articulated.
-R78
MP-1 Truck mode is great and I would considered it to be the top 2 behind the classic. However, when you factor in the size, and metal content and everything else. It would be the number 1 Optimus Prime, period.
I don't think MP-1 standard was set too high, it was set perfectly in matching with teh masterpiece title. These planes have no excuse for not including some heavy metal die-cast content. Who wants plastic in MP line?
"These planes have no excuse for not including some heavy metal die-cast content. Who wants plastic in MP line?"
Who wants plastic in the MP line? Sounds like somebody hasn't been keeping up with the current demographics in sales lately. If Yamato Toys can get away selling their Macross with a little diecast, why can't TakaraTomy?
Remember, it's not just the chogokin that sells the most, it's the quality of asthetics & engineering that makes the biggest buck.
-R78
Just to add to Rodimus78's point, I don't believe diecast is necessary in many designs. Given the current MP jet design there aren't many places you could stick diecast without compromising the toy's already strained balance. There's no room in the legs for it due to the collapsing thighs, the arms and chest pieces wouldn't really benefit from diecast, and diecast wings and tail surfaces would seriously through off its balance. Just look at my review of the GFFM Zeta Plus. The diecast in the legs is nice but it comes with the cost of the toy being unable to sit in wave rider mode without some kind of stand support.