Name: Divebomb
Series: Energon
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Eagle
EAGLE MODE
Height: 5cm Length: 23cm Width: 9.5cm
That's pretty much his maximum wingspan, by the way, making him reasonably big for a basic. Divebomb is a predominantly white robotic eagle with gold and darkish grey bits and some transparent green "energon" bits. While he's not as reminiscent of his G1 namesake as some Energon name reuses, he's still an eagle, and I much prefer name throwbacks like this than yet another usage of the name Snarl that's not a Stegosaurus. Anyway, white dominates this eagle, with a gold beak, gold wingtips as well as golden hooks on the front edges of the wings, while he has grey feet and green featherlike-spikes on the back of his wings. He also has two big blade like green hooks that can attach into the sides of his neck and sit underneath the wings, which look okay and are removable, which is good since they limit the wing articulation. The colour scheme, which consists of white, grey, three fairly similar golds and the green, is pretty unified, and is pretty good, working well with white as a dominant colour.
This is a very robotic and angular bird, but I don't mind since it's clearly a robotic beast - not some weird thing passed off as being "technorganic" and they've got the main bits right - the beak, headshape, wings and claws - so it's clearly an eagle. In fact the only part that's disappointing is the tail, which is narrower than a real eagle tail, since it's the robot head facing downward. This isn't that bad - some Energon toys have the _face_ visible in alt mode - so a tail that looks misshaped I can live with.
The poseability is pretty good for a basic beast mode. The wings flap, even further if you remove his green Energon blades, and the can also retract somewhat (which they do completely for robot mode). The knees are hinged, and he has ball jointed hips, so when you combine this with rear claws that fold forward, the leg poseability is quite impressive. The head doesn't move, although the mouth is moulded open, and looks pretty good there.
Adding to the play value are the transparent green Energon bits. Unlike a lot of Energon toys, these actually work on Divebomb. The green's a little off, but the blades look decent enough as attachments to the bird mode, they're not the "how can we add clear bits to this thing?" that some toys' accessories seem to be. You can attach the Energon chip to the spark crystal on his rump, also.
I really like the spark Crystals on the Energon toys, and Divebomb's is no exception. It's clear plastic with a Decepticon logo moulded into it - and is the only allegiance symbol on the entire toy. Why you'd want to cover this up with a silly transparent sunburst is beyond me, but hey, the sunburst is removable (and mine is in storage), so I'm not complaining.
Aside from the malformed tail, this is a pretty decent bird. I like the colours, and while the green isn't entirely removable, it doesn't clash with the rest of the toy as happens on some Energon toys. The articulation is pretty good and the overall aesthetic is very eagle-like, with good proportions and a well moulded head that has kept me happy.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
You can remove the blades if you like, and although while it might make this transformation a little easier, you don't have to. Lift the wings up and collapse them down. Split the head and swing the two halves back to form the robot arms, fold the robot legs and groin back and peg the groin and chest together. Swing the robot arms down, fold up the bird legs now hanging off the back of his shoulders down, and turn his head around.
This is a fairly simple transformation, but it's a good one. It's taken the "legs from wings" idea that Beast Machines Buzzsaw started and improved on it, meaning there's less kibble than he's entitled to as a basic, and the bird head into robot hand thing works well.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 12.5cm Width: 12cm
Leaving his blades attached makes Divebomb taller and wider than he would otherwise be, and since they look fairly impressive, the dimensions above are for the fully armed Divebomb.
This mode has a fairly similar colour scheme to the eagle mode. He's white with lots of gold highlights, grey shoulders and grey face with a red mouthplate. I suspect the designer was going for a bird of prey face, since it's triangular and the blood red really gives it a predatory look. With small white eyes, this face looks like that of a predator.
The green is limited to optional the giant blades hanging off his wrists and the optional sunburst over his spark crystal. The blades look really good, the sunburst looks pretty stupid, and since it only serves to cover up the Decepticon spark crystal in his chest, I recommend leaving it out for this mode, even if you attach it to his beast mode.
The blades can unclip, and attach to each other in a sort of giant S shape, so that a larger Decepticon can hold them. But this big ass slasher also fits in Divebomb's hand, and really suits him. He has giant gold kneespurs, which not only help make the giant slasher look appropriate, they also mean this is one Decepticon you don't want to charge front on! He has bird-head claws instead of hands, but they can hold the blades (or slasher) quite easily, so the lack of hands isn't a negative at all. They look clawlike, so not only are they still functional, they don't detract from his visual appeal.
Divebomb's pretty well articulated. His head turns, the shoulders are have hinges and swivels, so combined with the ball jointed elbows, they give him full arm movement. The hips are ball jointed and the knees hinged. The waist does not turn, but his feet can fold back, allowing him to stand upright in leaning back poses - which is a really nifty feature that's no doubt helped by the counterweight of the kneespurs.
There's very little wrong with this robot mode. The kneespurs and birdhead claws are nice, the weapon suits, the play value is excellent for a basic and the colours work. I suppose if I have to fault it, he has bird claws hanging off the back, but they're barely kibble, and don't get in the way of anything.
VARIATIONS
In Japan there was a blue repainted of Shadow Hawk (his Japanese name), dubbed "Cosmo Type".
OVERALL
I was somewhat sceptical of this toy at first, because the eagle mode is very robotic and angular, but despite this it's still very eagle-like. With two good modes, nice weaponry and great play value, Divebomb is a toy I recommend - 8.5/10
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