Review #72d: Takara Unite Warriors Superion
Part Four: Combined Mode
This is part four of a multi-part review. If you somehow got here without seeing some or all of the previous parts, please click here for part one, here for part two, and here for part three.
Also, before we continue on with part four, a bit of a correction for part three:
Also, before we continue on with part four, a bit of a correction for part three:
In that part of the review, which focused on Skydive and Air Raid, I described them as two separate molds, although I did go on to mention that they shared a few parts. Over on Seibertron.com, forum member william-james88 has been following this review, and he commented, "I thought Air Raid and Skydive were retools of one another. They aren't?" This prompted me to take a trip to the Transfomers Wiki for a bit of fact checking, and indeed, these toys are described as "major retools" of one another.
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So I guess, technically, william-james88 was correct. Which, as any good bureaucrat will tell you, is the best kind of correct!
But I dunno... I mean, yes, they share some parts. I even noted this in my review. But on the other hand, they transform quite differently (what, with the way Skydive's chest has to come together), and they have more parts different then they do similar. (Head, wings, arms, majority of the chest, nosecone, back, back of the legs... All of that is different!)
So yeah, there are a few shared parts... But, to take a more extreme example, no one considers Universe Ratchet or Generations Red Alert retools of Universe Prowl, do they? But they all share the same light bar!
But I dunno... I mean, yes, they share some parts. I even noted this in my review. But on the other hand, they transform quite differently (what, with the way Skydive's chest has to come together), and they have more parts different then they do similar. (Head, wings, arms, majority of the chest, nosecone, back, back of the legs... All of that is different!)
So yeah, there are a few shared parts... But, to take a more extreme example, no one considers Universe Ratchet or Generations Red Alert retools of Universe Prowl, do they? But they all share the same light bar!
Lazy Hasbro, pumping out retool after retool!
Sure, yes, Skydive and Air Raid have a lot more similarities and shared parts then those three. But they were designed at the same time, and as part of the same team. So the similarities seemed natural to me. So yeah, maybe officially Skydive and Air Raid are considered retools of each other. But honestly, there are enough differences in both parts and transformation, that it felt like a different mold to me.
Thanks to william-james88 for pointing this out, though! (It actually generated an interesting bit of conversation. Click here to check it out!)
In the end, though, beyond natural "behind the scenes" curiosity into the design process, does it really matter who is a retool or repaint of who? As long as a toy looks good and works for the character, I would say that that is the important thing.
There. Now that that is all out of the way, let us get down to the actual business at hand. We've seen all of the Aerialbots separately. Now let us put them all together! First, a few group shots. One in vehicle mode:
Thanks to william-james88 for pointing this out, though! (It actually generated an interesting bit of conversation. Click here to check it out!)
In the end, though, beyond natural "behind the scenes" curiosity into the design process, does it really matter who is a retool or repaint of who? As long as a toy looks good and works for the character, I would say that that is the important thing.
There. Now that that is all out of the way, let us get down to the actual business at hand. We've seen all of the Aerialbots separately. Now let us put them all together! First, a few group shots. One in vehicle mode:
And one in robot mode:
And now, before we get to combining them all together, let us talk a little about one of the accessories that each of the limb-bots came with, the larger gun that they all wield.
The toy designers actually did something quite clever here. On Generation One combiner teams of this sort, the gestalts' hands and feet were always separate pieces with no uses in other modes. The only similar combiner that has been tried in recent years tried to integrate everything needed into the figure, with mixed results. |
So, what do you do if you want to make a combiner, don't want it to have completely lame hands and feet, and don't want to have any parts that get left over? Why, you design a piece that can transform from a gun! Any of these pieces can become a left hand, a right hand, or a foot!
So, let us put everything together, and see how it looks!
Well, here he is, and damn, is that one fine looking Superion!
In addition to the hands and feet, in the G1 days combiners such as this also often had heads and chest plates that were separate pieces that often had no real use when not in the combined mode. But here, the toy designers did successfully integrate these features into the Silverbolt figure. One curious thing in this design. Usually, combiners such as this use the core robot's legs as the upper legs of the gestalt form. But on this version of Superion, Silverbolt has actually been flipped upside down! Superion's hips are actually Silverbolt's shoulders, and the connection points in Superion's shoulders are found within what were Silverbolt's knees. The limbs all attach fairly securely, but all come off easily enough when you want to take Superion back apart. Superion's gun is formed by taking Silverbolt's gun and shield and plugging them together. Skydive's and Air Raid's guns can both be plugged into the outside sides of Superion's legs. This actually helps beef up the legs a bit. However, while for the individual robots I would have prefered black guns all around, this is why in Skydive's review, I did say I almost wished his gun was white. Air Raid's white gun blends in much better with Superion's leg. Skydive's black one doesn't go so far as to ruin anything, but it does throw off Superion's look ever so slightly. |
Fireflight's and Slingshot's guns don't have anything specific to do in Superion's combined mode, and could in theory just be left aside. But if you prefer not having any leftover parts, there are plenty of places to stick them where they won't be too obtrusive. I prefer to stick them on the under-wing peg holes that Fireflight and Slingshot have facing Superion's back side.
A few minor points of contention concerning his proportions. His feet look a bit small, and his arms look a bit long. Between the long arms and his long gun, he can't even stand in a neutral pose without his gun dragging on the ground!
Superion has pretty good articulation. His head can swivel. His shoulders can rotate 360 degrees or rise outward, both on nice ratcheting joints. He has upper arm swivels, and nice double jointed elbows. Due to the fact that his hands peg onto his arms, he does have wrist swivels. Also, due to how the hands transform, he does have some thumb articulation and a bit of other wiggle-ability in his hands.
Because of how Silverbolt is engineered, alas Superion doesn't have a waist joint. Silverbolt's shoulders do make really great hips, though, pivioting forward, backwards, or outwards on nice ratcheting joints. There is a leg swivel just below the hip, really good ratcheting knees, and a ratcheting swivel below the knee. One thing a figure this large could have used is ankle tilts, as a lot of his otherwise excellent leg articulation doesn't get utilized as well as it could be. (But maybe we'll find a solution to this in the next part of this review...)
You do have to be a bit careful when posing him, as it is a bit too easy to pull apart his chest when moving his arms. This is nothing terrible, just something to keep in mind when getting ready to move the joints.
Still, even with the few limits I've mentioned, you can get some great poses out of Superion!
A few minor points of contention concerning his proportions. His feet look a bit small, and his arms look a bit long. Between the long arms and his long gun, he can't even stand in a neutral pose without his gun dragging on the ground!
Superion has pretty good articulation. His head can swivel. His shoulders can rotate 360 degrees or rise outward, both on nice ratcheting joints. He has upper arm swivels, and nice double jointed elbows. Due to the fact that his hands peg onto his arms, he does have wrist swivels. Also, due to how the hands transform, he does have some thumb articulation and a bit of other wiggle-ability in his hands.
Because of how Silverbolt is engineered, alas Superion doesn't have a waist joint. Silverbolt's shoulders do make really great hips, though, pivioting forward, backwards, or outwards on nice ratcheting joints. There is a leg swivel just below the hip, really good ratcheting knees, and a ratcheting swivel below the knee. One thing a figure this large could have used is ankle tilts, as a lot of his otherwise excellent leg articulation doesn't get utilized as well as it could be. (But maybe we'll find a solution to this in the next part of this review...)
You do have to be a bit careful when posing him, as it is a bit too easy to pull apart his chest when moving his arms. This is nothing terrible, just something to keep in mind when getting ready to move the joints.
Still, even with the few limits I've mentioned, you can get some great poses out of Superion!
Let's do some comparisons, shall we? Alas, I did have a bit of a struggle finding any decent stock photography of Hasbro's version... Things were not helped due to the fact that Hasbro released most of Superion in wave one of Combiner Wars, but held back Air Raid until wave two! Instead they included Stunticon Drag Strip in wave one, so many stock photos show Superion with one of Menasor's limbs! This was nice for showing off one of the big features of Combiner Wars -- the interchangeability between gestalts -- but it isn't so great for a Superion review! Also, a lot of the stock photos had the limbs in a different configuration. Nice for showing off another great feature -- that the limb-bot figures can be either arms or legs -- but that'd be getting ahead of ourselves a bit, as I'll be covering that a bit later in the review!
In the end, I had to take a couple images from other sources online... So thanks (and apologies) to Seibertron.com and BWTF.com for the images I've swiped!
In the end, I had to take a couple images from other sources online... So thanks (and apologies) to Seibertron.com and BWTF.com for the images I've swiped!
Now, one obvious difference between all versions of the toys and the animation model is in the legs. This brings to mind something I said way back when I reviewed the Fansproject Stunticons: "...the big difference being that in the cartoon, the cars attached to the rear of the legs, and here they'll do so on the front. But this is a change I approve of, as otherwise we'd be hiding two members of the team in the gestalt, and that would be just silly. We want to see all five Stunticons together, forming Menasor in all of his glory." Replace cars with jets, Stunticons with Aerialbots, and Menasor with Superion and my sentiments remain pretty much the same. If you really want, though, you can do a bit of mis-transformation to get a more G1 accurate look. More on that in a little bit!
Obviously another big difference between Takara's Superion and Hasbro's official modern version of the team is the presence of Alpha Bravo and the exclusion of Slingshot. (Although Hasbro did later address this with the release of "Quickslinger.") Eh, I just don't think Superion looks right with Alpha Bravo. But many people love him, so this is definitely a case of "your mileage may vary." And hey, you can choose for yourself which one you like better, or even own all six figures and mix-and-match to your heart's content, so there are no real losers here on this front!
And yet another big difference is Superion's chest. Hasbro's has a big solid chunk of red for his chest plate. On Takara's, the white comes up a bit farther on the sides of his chest, and there is also a white chunk in the middle of his red chest plate, both features that look closer to the animation model then Hasbro's version does. Superion's faction symbol is in the same place on both version's of the figure. Hasbro's has a white faction symbol, however, where as Takara's has a more traditional silver outlined red one.
The last of the big differences is in the hands and feet. Hasbro made their Superion with black hands and feet. Both the animation model and the G1 toy featured white hands and feet. (Actually, ever so slightly off white, the same color as Silverbolt.) Takara matched that with their Unite Warriors toy.
The animation model has yellow upper legs. Neither toy replicates this quite completely, probably because a Silverbolt with yellow arms would look quite odd! Takara's does have a bit of yellow on the very top of his legs, and a bit of gold paint. Then there is actually a silver patch below that. And then another hint of yellow in the combiner joint. Meanwhile, Hasbro has a whole lot of orange, and it does come a lot farther down the front of the leg but only on the leg's front.
They both have red crotch plates. On Takara, the red continues over onto the hips which matches the animation model nicely. Hasbro's, however, leaves the hips a plain black. Also, Hasbro did add a few silver patches to the crotch plate which does look nice, but isn't an aspect present on the animation model. Also, the red creeps up onto his belly a bit, a problem Takara's doesn't have.
And jumping back up to the top of the figure for one other noticeable difference specific to Superion: the antennae on his head. The animation model had them in yellow. Takara's toy has them in gold. Hasbro's toy has them in orange.
So those are all of the big differences. There are a few others perhaps here and there, but those are mostly attributable to differences in the individual figures which I already discussed in previous parts of this review.
Obviously another big difference between Takara's Superion and Hasbro's official modern version of the team is the presence of Alpha Bravo and the exclusion of Slingshot. (Although Hasbro did later address this with the release of "Quickslinger.") Eh, I just don't think Superion looks right with Alpha Bravo. But many people love him, so this is definitely a case of "your mileage may vary." And hey, you can choose for yourself which one you like better, or even own all six figures and mix-and-match to your heart's content, so there are no real losers here on this front!
And yet another big difference is Superion's chest. Hasbro's has a big solid chunk of red for his chest plate. On Takara's, the white comes up a bit farther on the sides of his chest, and there is also a white chunk in the middle of his red chest plate, both features that look closer to the animation model then Hasbro's version does. Superion's faction symbol is in the same place on both version's of the figure. Hasbro's has a white faction symbol, however, where as Takara's has a more traditional silver outlined red one.
The last of the big differences is in the hands and feet. Hasbro made their Superion with black hands and feet. Both the animation model and the G1 toy featured white hands and feet. (Actually, ever so slightly off white, the same color as Silverbolt.) Takara matched that with their Unite Warriors toy.
The animation model has yellow upper legs. Neither toy replicates this quite completely, probably because a Silverbolt with yellow arms would look quite odd! Takara's does have a bit of yellow on the very top of his legs, and a bit of gold paint. Then there is actually a silver patch below that. And then another hint of yellow in the combiner joint. Meanwhile, Hasbro has a whole lot of orange, and it does come a lot farther down the front of the leg but only on the leg's front.
They both have red crotch plates. On Takara, the red continues over onto the hips which matches the animation model nicely. Hasbro's, however, leaves the hips a plain black. Also, Hasbro did add a few silver patches to the crotch plate which does look nice, but isn't an aspect present on the animation model. Also, the red creeps up onto his belly a bit, a problem Takara's doesn't have.
And jumping back up to the top of the figure for one other noticeable difference specific to Superion: the antennae on his head. The animation model had them in yellow. Takara's toy has them in gold. Hasbro's toy has them in orange.
So those are all of the big differences. There are a few others perhaps here and there, but those are mostly attributable to differences in the individual figures which I already discussed in previous parts of this review.
The comparison between versions out of the way, there's still quite a bit to talk about! First, let us talk about those antennae a bit more. They are made of a soft plastic, and they are even a thinner piece of toy than the tail fins I discussed when reviewing Skydive and Air Raid! While so far they are fine on my example of the toy, I have seen reports from others complaining of them being bent or warped.
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A third party pair of antennae, made by Nonnef productions, is available in a hard plastic. I did pick up a pair myself, pre-ordered long before I even had Superion in hand. They certainly look good, but they are more Hasbro's orange rather then Superion's gold. So, since my Superion's antennae are in good shape, I'll leave the stock ones in for now and just hold on to the replacements as a "just in case" back up plan if the antennae happen to warp over time. (They were cheap, only about $5.00, and since I was ordering them along with something else I'll eventually talk about when I review Combiner Wars Optimus Prime, I potentially saved a bit by not needing to pay separate shipping if I ever do need the antennae in the future.)
Remember when I said if you really wanted a more G1 look, you could achieve it with a bit of mis-transformation? Well, let's take a look at that, shall we?
Remember when I said if you really wanted a more G1 look, you could achieve it with a bit of mis-transformation? Well, let's take a look at that, shall we?
He sure is a lot more G1 looking! And, as a bonus, I think the feet look better like this. Technically they are the same size, but with less jet hanging out over them, they look bigger. The arms also look a bit more proportional, but somehow the hands now seem oversized.
Articulation is effected in this configuration. You loose any thoughts of an elbow. Also, you loose what is supposed to be Superion's knees, but if you don't mind a knee that is much higher up on the leg then it should be, you can use the joints that are Silverbolt's elbows. (I suppose this makes his upper legs more accurate in color, as now they are completely yellow above the knee!) Overall, though, while a fun alternate configuration to explore just for giggles, overall his standard transformation is still much better. |
Of course, there is another type of alternate configuration to discuss... Since Combiner Wars / Unite Warriors takes a lot of inspiration from G1's "Scramble City" style of gestalts, of course Superion can swap his limbs around! The "normal" configuration is the one we've been looking at thus far, with Fireflight and Slingshot as arms and Skydive and Air Raid as legs. But any one of them can be either arm or leg! So let's take a look at him scrambled up a bit!
He still looks good, and his articulation is the same as it was with the arms and legs in their original positions.
To the right, a size comparison photo of Superion and a DVD case.
So, is Superion (and the Aerialbots who make him up) a great (series of) toy(s)? All signs point to yes! For the adult collector, he is a great piece to add to your "Classics" style collection. So which version should you go for? If, like me, you really want your Superion to be as "G1" as possible, and you don't mind spending a bit of extra cash, go for the Takara version! If you want to have all five of the original members... Well, "Quickslinger" had a rather limited release, and is already going for a bit of a premium price, so maybe at this point the price to import wouldn't be much different, so why not go Takara? (And if you want all six figures, you could always buy Alpha Bravo separately.) And finally, if you are a fan of the current comics, you'll probably prefer the Hasbro version anyway, since to you Slingshot is dead and Alpha Bravo is supposed to be there. |
So, is that it then? Are we finished reviewing the Aerialbots and Superion? Well... if you prefer to stick only with official Hasbro or Takara product, then yup! This is it! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the review!
On the other hand, if you don't mind the occasional bit of third party augmentation, stay tuned for the actual final installment of this series of reviews...
On to part five: Perfect Effect PC-05 Perfect Combiner Upgrade Set (white version)
Review added 31 July 2015 by Yotsuya. Comments are welcomed!
On the other hand, if you don't mind the occasional bit of third party augmentation, stay tuned for the actual final installment of this series of reviews...
On to part five: Perfect Effect PC-05 Perfect Combiner Upgrade Set (white version)
Review added 31 July 2015 by Yotsuya. Comments are welcomed!