Name: Thundercracker
Series: Machine Wars
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Rebel Warrior
Alternate Mode: Saab Grippen Jet
How do you get assigned a function like rebel warrior? I bet there's a form to fill out..
JET MODE
Height: 5.5cm Length: 12cm Width: 8cm
Remember Thundercracker? The blue and silver F-15? Well he's now pea-soup green with brown and white camoflage on his fuselage and wings. It's something of a leap of faith to accept this is meant to be the same character. It's not a bad scheme, but it's different. He's got a grey canopy and blue and white US Air Force ensignia on his wings. The Saab Grippen is not a jet the US Military uses, incidentally. The undercarriage is brown, and all three wheels can retract (though none roll). There's a sticker on his tailfin that identifies is as number 10.
While you might question why a fighter jet would need to be painted with this sort of camouflage - I know I do - it's a colour scheme that works pretty well. It's more interesting than Machine Wars Skywarp's colour scheme, but not as realistic, either. The two are the same mould, BTW. There's a fair bit of kibble underneath, it doesn't really hurt from above, though you can clearly see his limbs from the side.
There's really no play value in this mode - it's all in the transform and the robot mode. But there's not really anything wrong with it. The colours work, the kibble isn't perfect but could be a lot worse.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Theoretically, push down on the nose and that's it. In reality, you have to fold up the landing gear first. Once you've done that he does essentially transform. The tail section actually slides up when it transforms, which is kind of cool. Position the arms and legs, and remove the two halves of his gun from inside his legs.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 10cm Width: 8cm
Ahh the head randomising of Machine Wars. Thundercracker's still pea-soup green and brown, but now he's got a black head. The chest, lower legs and forearms are green, thighs and upper arms brown. The head, as mentioned, is black, with silver eyes. The back of the head is also silver - thanks to an abandoned lightpipe gimmick. The head colours don't match the rest of the colour scheme, but don't stand out badly either. He has a mouthplate, which serves to make him look less like Thundercracker.
So he's now officially a "Rebel Warrior". The colour scheme isn't really Thundercracker, but at least it doesn't look like a paint palette threw up on him like the last release of this character, the Actionmaster. It's definitely an improvement on that, although that's not difficult. The camouflage pattern is gone, it's all on the back of his wings, which form a green cape in this mode. This mode is quite poseable. The hips, knees, elbows and shoulders are ball joints. The head is, too, but it's almost immobile since the metal rod that his chest swivels down on is pushing up behind it. Good play value and a lot of poses are possible.
The gun is a pea-soup green long shotgun rifle. It looks nice, and you can remove the silencer from the front to give him a pistol, if you like. It's actually possible for him to hold both the front and rear handles on the gun. It'll point to the side, and you can't turn his head to face that way, but I guess it's useful to hold your gun up ready to shoot when you're a rebel warrior..
Despite the random head, it's the robot mode where this toy shines. Poseable and the gun is cool.
VARIATIONS
Released concurrently with Machine Wars Skywarp who is the same mould.
OVERALL
An interesting colour scheme, although it's not really Thundercracker in that regard. Still, it's a good colour scheme in both modes. The robot mode has good play value, with good poseability and a well designed gun. Whilst Skywarp's more realistic, this toy looks a little better since his random head is a better colour 7.5/10
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