Cliffbee.com Energon Saber Toy Review

Individual Review




Thanks to Goktimus Prime for loaning me Energon Saber, making this review possible.



Name: Scattor
Series: Energon
Allegiance: Minicon
Alternate Mode: Modified Concorde SST

CONCORDE MODE
Height: 2.5cm Length: 7cm Width: 5cm

   A transparent yellow Concorde - naturally - with an extra set of forwards facing wings, Scattor is a repaint and retooling of Jetstorm with a very dubious name. The nose section and tail are a midnight blue plastic while there are some silver grey painted elements on his wings. His robot limbs are vaguely visible underneath the transparent wings. Thankfully the kibble is a light metallic green, so you don't really notice it. There's a little light metallic green front wheel which can swing down, providing Scattor with some play value - although he'll happily stand on his kibble if the wheel is retracted. The colours are neither realistic nor attractive - the transparent yellow reminds me of something along the same lines as his ridiculous name. Scattor has a single powerlinx port underneath. All three members of this team have them underneath, actually - although the others have two ports each.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Stow the wheel, lift the nose up on top of the plane, unclip the legs and swing forward, stand him up. Swing down the arms, unfold the forearms. Fold the tail down to form a chestplate.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 6cm Width: 4.5cm

   Again he's mainly transparent yellow, with a blue chest and light metallic green legs. The chestplate is the blue tail section - complete with a protruding tailfin. The arms and wings (behind the shoulders) are colourless, along with the head which has a low-detail green face. The colour scheme is pretty bad, what with a transparent yellow _head_. The green face is hard to discern which doesn't really matter.

   Scattor's poseability is pretty good - his shoulders lift out to the sides while the elbows bend. The hips swing and his knees are ball joints and with a little care some dynamic poses are possible - which is pretty good for a toy this size with poseability that borrows from transformation joints.

OVERALL

   You know, this was a pretty good mould once. The retooling, whilst removing the realism, provides a nifty set of extra wings. But the yellow is downright fugly and the person at Hasbro that conceived - and reused - this name deserves all the crap they can get (pun very much intended!). The robot mode looks terrible - if you're going to use transparent yellow, the head needs to be painted - 4/10.


Name: Wreckage
Series: Energon
Allegiance: Minicon
Alternate Mode: Jet Plane

JET PLANE MODE
Height: 2cm Length: 6.5cm Width: 4.5cm

   Another transparent yellow plane with some midnight blue lines down the fuselage and some silver on the wings. Wreckage's shape is actually fairly similar to Scattor's, but the fuselage is quite a bit wider than Runway and the wings have jet intakes on the front edge now. The end result is more of a space cruiser than a jet plane. Wreckage has a wheel underneath like that on Scattor, and while he'll stand without it, he'll dip forward a little if it's retracted.

   The modified sculpt has something to offer, so this is my favourite jet mode of this set. The transparent yellow blends with the solid colours better here than on the two other jet modes. The primary colour still sucks mufflers, but the mould actually makes this jet mode reasonable.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Stow the wheel, flip out the legs, stand him up, unfold the arms. Fold the tail section down to form the chestplate and lift out his head.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 6cm Width: 4.5cm

   Another disjointed yellow and light metallic green robot, Wreckage has light metallic green legs and forearms along with a green head, while the torso and wings that form his upper arms are transparent yellow. His eyes are painted a light gold which doesn't show up well with all that yellow around. The twin tailfins look better than the giant sail that Scattor has since they're a pair and they slope inwards.

   There's not a lot of poseability - he's probably the most static robot in this set. The elbows hinge and there's some wiggle in the legs, but not enough to take advantage of the tail (which would make a great third, stabilising, leg).

OVERALL

   The weakest robot mode, with a bad colour layout. There's something very disturbing about a plane toy called Wreckage. Whoever named this set should be fired, seriously. The retooled plane mode is good - aside from the stupid yellow plastic. I think he comes out better than his teammates here, simply because the retooling makes him the most different of this trio, compared to the Armada toys - 5/10


Name: Skyboom
Series: Energon
Allegiance: Minicon
Alternate Mode: Sub-orbital Plane

PLANE MODE
Height: 2.5cm Length: 5.5cm Width: 5.5cm

   A light metallic green and transparent yellow wedge shaped plane with midnight blue wings at the back which slope upwards, Skyboom has a black cockpit window and some gunmetal painted in the centre. There's not all that much yellow here - which is a good thing - although there is enough to wreck the illusion still. There are extra winglets compared to Sonar along with some fuselage resculpting. If the winglets weren't yellow I'd be a lot happier. The basic idea of this plane is a good one - he resembles a NASA concept plane - although maybe not so much in transparent yellow.. There's a transparent yellow lump underneath, which is the hilt of the Energon Saber, and Skyboom pretty much rests on this - there are no wheels like on his buddies. The added weight of those extra winglets makes balancing Skyboom more difficult than I'd like. So while we loose yellow, this jet mode is as bad those of his teammates.

   The basic idea of this mould is great but the winglets hurt his stability - there must have been a smarter way to resculpt this plane. The colours are a slight improvement since the yellow isn't as prominent as on his two buddies, but Sonar's colours are still much better than this. One plus is that Skyboom is a much better name for a sub-orbital plane than Sonar ever could be.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Slide the front out to form the legs, rotate the nose halves around to form feet. Fold the hilt onto his back, flip up the head. Fold out the forearms and you're done.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 6cm Width: 5.5cm

   Again Skyboom sports less of that transparent yellow than his teammates, which is enough to make this the best robot mode of the set. His boots are gunmetal, feet and arms green and his head silver with only his thighs having to cop transparent yellow. The silver chest is quite well detailed and the face is the most clearly defined in this team, but sadly the entire thing is painted one colour (silver).

   Skyboom's poseability is good, if not quite as good as that of Scattor. The shoulders swing and the elbows bend, while the hips can lift out to the sides - the latter isn't terribly useful. The ankles are ball joints, which allows for some relaxed leg poses.

OVERALL

   The best figure in this set, partly because it's the best mould anyway, but also because the transparent yellow isn't overwhelming either mode. Both modes look great and the giant gun option in plane mode is kinda nifty. I would have liked more poseable hips, but that's my only real complaint. While he's not as good as Sonar, Skyboom is decent and he's the only member of this set with a name that's at all appropriate for a kid's toy - 7.5/10


ENERGON SABER
Height: 13cm Width: 5.5cm

   A fairly chunky sword which manages to actually look like a sword rather than just three planes stuck together. Oaky, it's still obviously a fusion of planes, but unlike the Skyboom Shield this thing actually works. Skyboom forms the hilt, with the post at the bottom, while his legs form a handguard. Scattor and Wreckage form a transparent blade and do a fairly good job of it. There's a spine of yellow plastic running from the handle to the tip - the idea being that an LED would cause this spine to glow (such as the LED in the Japanese Hot Shot's hand), but the gaps prevent this from working. The Energon Saber looks good in hand, which is enough for me.


VARIATIONS

   None as such, although as mentioned, this set is a retooling of the Armada Air Defence Team.

TEAM OVERALL

   Okay, so it's meant to be a sword of pure Energon. But there's not enough yellow for that to wash, and too much yellow for the individual figures to work. The retooling is a nice idea, and while Wreckage in particular gets a great revision, it's wasted on such an ugly set. This would have worked better as a limited set done with a lot more transparent yellow. Despite the retooling, this set is far less compelling than most MiniCon repaints. Get the original Armada set instead - 5/10

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