Name: Powerglide
Series: Movie Tie-ins
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: A-10 Thunderbolt Bomber Plane
PLANE MODE
Height: 3.5cm Length: 10cm Width: 9.5cm
A maroon bomber plane in the spirit of G1 Powerglide, complete with grey weaponry under his wings. There are silver stripes along the front of his wings and on the sides of the engines and tailfins (like pinstripes - for those who like to decorate their bombers?). There's also a pair of backwards facing silver stamped Autobot logos - one on either wing. The canopy is painted black with unpainted maroon ribbing and there's a burgundy gun under the nose (it's actually maroon plastic with a black paint wash). I'll get right to the point here - this could easily be a Classicsverse Powerglide, despite the darker shade. It's the same size as the Minibot, the same vehicle and essentially the same colour. An attractive colour scheme and one that'll please fans of the G1 character.
There's quite a lot of detail here, especially on the weaponracks under his wings. Powerglide has the standard seams on his wings and seams along with tiny little rivets on the front of the fuselage (under the canopy). There's a buttload of these little rivets, too - making this sculpt quite impressive, even for a movie line toy. There are four missiles under the starboard wing and three under the portside wing - and these missiles are of differing types. None of the missiles detach and there's no detachable weapon here as such, but with the gun at the front and a nice rack of missiles, Powerglide has enough firepower.
There are two shortcomings here, and I'll cover them together even though they're not related. The robot feet are sort of visible on top of his engines, and this is a fairly minor flaw. The other is somewhat annoying, however. With his landing gear deployed, Powerglide will tip back rather than stand flat on the table, as the rear wheels are way too far forward (underwing). The play value here is limited to folding away the landing gear - which I'd recommend doing anyway, since then he'll lie flat. The little fold out wheels are impressive in themselves, especially how they've integrated the rear wheels into his forearms.
A good vehicle mode despite some flaws. The balance issue is quite annoying, but the detail is great and frankly, he's so close to the G1 character that he might as well be a Classics Powerglide - making this mode more compelling for G1 fans.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Stow the landing gear, fold the nose down to reveal his head. Pull back the tail section, split to form legs. Fold back the tailfins as heelspurs, which will also pull the feet out. Unclip the wings, split the fuselage & pivot the halves up to clip in either side of the canopy (his chest). Pivot the groin up & clip into his chest. Detach the missileracks, pivot the arms into position while rotating the wings to the outsides of his forearms. Fold the missileracks up as guns & place in either hand.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 9.5cm Width: 7cm
A maroon robot with grey thighs, arms & silver painted face & feet. Powerglide has some metallic blue painted detailing on his shoulders, shins & groin. The black canopy is on his chest, rounding out a simple yet effective colour scheme. Again there are cues from the G1 character - especially the location of the grey plastic. The Autobot logos are now on the outsides of his arms.
The Hasbro promo picture (which I've used) shows the wings at the front of his arms, but they're really meant to be on the outsides. This is a point of difference from G1, where they folded up as part of the torso. The visible canopy is also something different, but there are more similarities than differences. The head is shaped like that of G1 (complete with a false point on top, reminiscent of the gun on G1 Powerglide's head) and the engines protruding on his shins also matches G1. It's quite a complex layout for such a small toy, actually - even by movie standards.
The two guns formed from his missileracks are beefy looking handheld weapons. One has four missiles and the other three. The latter can't really be held in hand using what at a glance looks like the handle (one of the missile's stabiliser fins gets in the way). Instead the shaft linking the two sides of this weapon is grasped in his hand.
Powerglide has decent poseability, even if he is a little fiddly. His head and waist are fixed while the shoulders rotate _and_ feature ball joints. His elbows are hinged and his wrists hinge inwards. The hips and knees are both ball jointed while his ankles are fixed. The tailfins form outrigging heelspurs, anchoring Powerglide in a range of poses. The fuselage halves don't anchor into his torso well, and tend to move with the shoulders (but putting them back is easy enough).
A good robot mode despite some minor quibbles. The G1 tribute is again ridiculously strong and the detailing is good. The poseability is impressive for such a small, complex toy and the weapons are good.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
Well, this is going into my Classics display (it's not like I've bothered displaying the awkward Universe Powerglide, who towers over everyone he shouldn't). Powerglide has movie stylings & complexity but makes for a wonderful Classicsverse figure, thanks to a design that takes many cues from G1. Both modes look good and the transformation is clever without being annoying or difficult. The vehicle mode's tendency to tip backwards is the only serious flaw, but it's easy enough to work around. The robot mode features nice weapons & displays well. Recommended, both to fans of the movie aesthetic & fans of the Classics lines - 9.5/10
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